Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/111

Rh glamour of an elfin host (sluag siabhra), but that It would happen, unless he warned his friends. When he returned, he would find them as he left them—a clear proof that he was in a timeless region. They must watch next Samhain Eve, unless they first destroyed the síd, and as proof of his statement he must take from the síd fruits of summer—wild garlic, primrose, and golden fern. Before his people came to destroy the síd, he must warn her so that she with his cattle and the child she would bear him might not lose their lives. Nera returned and obtained the reward, and Ailill resolved to destroy the síd. Meanwhile the woman carried the firewood, pretending that Nera was ill; and when he came to warn her, she bade him watch the cattle, one of which was to be his son's after his birth. The goddess Morrígan stole this cow while Nera slept and took it to the bull of Cúalnge, by whom it had a calf. Cúchulainn Is now Introduced pursuing Morrígan and restoring the cow; and on its return the woman sent Nera back to his people—a reduplication of the first sending back. The síd-flok could not destroy Ailill's fort until next Samhain Eve when the síd would be open, and Nera now told his people of the wonderful síd and how its dwellers were coming to attack the fort. Ailill bade him bring anything of his own out of the síd, and from it he fetched the cattle. Including his child's bullcalf which now fought the famous Findbennach, or whitehorned bull. Warned to beware of its sire, the bull of Cualnge, Medb swore by her gods that she would not rest until her bull fought it. Meanwhile Ailill's men destroyed the síd, taking from it the crown, Loegaire's mantle, and Dunlaing's shirt; but Nera was left in the síd and will not come thence till doom —like other mortals, he has become an inhabitant of the gods' land.$1$ Here also, as in the story of Etain, mortals wage successful war with hostile divinities. Nevertheless the deities survive, and only the outer works of their síd are destroyed.

The hostility of Morrígan to the hero Cúchulainn is seen in the Táin Bó Regamna, or Cattle-Raid of Regamon. In his sleep