Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/211

Rh all of one age, shape, and loveliness, coming for Fraoch, the darling of the síde. They bore him off, bringing him back on the morrow recovered of his wound, and Findabair was now betrothed to Fraoch on his promising to assist in the raid of Cualnge. Thus Fraoch, a demi-god, overcame the péist.$25$ In the ballad version from the Dean of Lismore's Book, Medb sent him for the berries because he scorned her love. The tree grew on an island In a loch, with the peist coiled round its roots. Every month it bore sweetest fruit, and one berry-satisfied hunger for a long time, while its juice prolonged life for a year and healed sickness. Fraoch killed the péist, but died of his wounds.$26$ The tree was the tree of the gods and resembles the quicken-tree of Dubhros, guarded by a one-eyed giant whom Diarmaid slew.$27$ These stories recall the Greek myth of Herakles slaying the dragon guardian of the apples of the Hesperides,$28$ which has a certain parallel in Babylonia. A marvellous tree with jewelled fruit was seen by Gilgamesh in a region on this side of the Waters of Death; and in the Fields of the Blessed beyond these waters he found a magic plant, the twigs of which renewed man's youth. He gathered it, but a serpent seized it and carried it off. The stories of Fraoch and Diarmaid point to myths showing that gods were jealous of men sharing their divine food; and their tree of life was guarded against mortals, though perhaps semi-divine heroes might gain access to it and obtain its benefits for human beings. The guardian péist recalls the dragons entwined round oaks in the grove described by Lucan.$29$

Such Celtic péists were slain by Fionn, and in one poem Fionn or, in another, his son, Daire, was swallowed by the monster, but hacked his way out, liberating others besides himself.$30$ They also defended duns in Celtic story, and in the sequel to the tale of Fraoch he and Conall reached a dún where his stolen cattle were. A serpent sprang into Conall's belt, but was later released by him, and "neither did harm to the other." In Cúchulainn's account of his journey to Scáth,