Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/141

Rh by Caoilte. Allién, of the Tuatha De Danann, became enamoured of Manannan's wife, while his sister Aine, daughter of Eogabal, loved Manannan and was dearer to him than all mankind. Aine asked the cause of her brother's sadness, and he told her that he loved the goddess Uchtdelbh ("Shapely Bosom"). Aine accordingly bade him come with her where the divine pair were, and taking her seat by Manannan, she gave him passionate kisses. Meanwhile Uchtdelbh, seeing Allien, loved him; and Manannan gave her to him, himself taking Aine.$16$ On another occasion Manannan desired Tuag, a maiden guarded by hosts of the King of Erin's daughters; and since no man might see her, Manannan sent a divine Druid, Fer Fídail, son of Eogabal, in the form of a woman to gain access to Tuag. He remained with her three nights and then, singing a sleep-strain over her, he carried her to the shore and left her slumbering while he looked for a boat wherein to carry her asleep to the Land of Ever-Living Women, or, in another version, to go to take counsel of Manannan. But a wave came and drowned her, the wave in one version being Manannan the sea-god himself—a primitive piece of personalization of nature. For his misdeed Fer Fídail was slain by Manannan, and probably the cause of offence was that he had loved Tuag,$17$ this explaining why she was drowned by the disappointed god.

A parallel myth, connected with other personages, tells how Clidna the Shapely went from the Hill of the Two Wheels, in the Pleasant Plain of the Land of Promise, with luchna CurlyLocks to go to Oengus Mac Ind Oc. But luchna practised guile upon her so that she slept in the boat of bronze through his music; and then he turned the boat's head, altering its course till it reached the place called Clidna. At that time occurred one of the three great seabursts which spread through all the world. It caught up the boat, and Clidna was drowned; whence this seaburst was called Clidna's Wave.$18$ The others were Tuag's and Rudraige's, or Ladru's and Baile's.