Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/140

88 quelled the enemies of the god. Fand and Liban now sang In praise of him, and he remained for a month with Fand, after which he bade her farewell. She appointed a tryst with him in Erin, but Emer heard of it and with fifty women came to attack Fand. Cúchulainn, however, bade Fand have no fear, and addressing Emer he told her how the goddess was more worthy of his love. Emer reproached him, and when she added, "If only I could find favour in thy sight," Cúchulainn's love for her returned: "Thou shalt find favour so long as I am in life."

Then began a noble contest between Fand and Emer as to which of them should sacrifice herself for the other, and Fand sang a beautiful lament. At this moment Manannan became aware of Fand's predicament and arrived to rescue her, unseen by all save her and Loeg. Fand again sang, describing the coming of "the horseman of the crested sea-waves," and told of her former love for the god and the splendour of their espousals. Now, deserted by Cúchulainn, she would return to Manannan; but still her heart yearned for the hero, as she told Manannan when he asked her whether she would depart with him or no. Yet one thing weighed with her: Alanannan had no consort worthy of him, while Cúchulainn already had Emer. So she departed; and when the hero knew it, he bounded thrice in air and gave three leaps southward, and abode for a long time fasting in the mountains. Emer went to Conchobar, who sent his Druids to bind Cúchulainn; and when the hero would have slain them, they chanted spells and fettered him, giving him a draught of oblivion so that he remembered Fand no more. Emer also shared In this potion and forgot her jealousy; "and Manannan shook his mantle between Cúchulainn and Fand, so that they should never meet again."$15$ In this story Emer addresses Loeg as one who often searches the síd, while he speaks of the divine land as well-known to him and seems to see Manannan when he is invisible to the others,

Manannan himself was an ardent lover, and what St. Patrick called "a complicated bit of romance," was told to him