Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/245

Rh advance until they had done the same; and meanwhile he kept tryst with Conchobar's daughter Fedelm or with her handmaid. Again entering a wood, he cut down the fork of a tree, placed on it four heads of the enemy slain by him, and set it in a ford to prevent the chariots from passing until it was drawn out. Now he slew hundreds of the host, but a treaty was made that every day a warrior should meet him in single combat, while he allowed the army to proceed. These combats, described with great spirit, as well as other daring deeds of Cúchulainn's, occupy the greater part of the Táin, but none of them is so full of interest and pathos as the long episode of the fight with Ferdia, his former fellow-pupil with Scáthach, whom at last to his sorrow he slew.

One incident tells of the warning given by the goddess Morrígan, in the form of a bird, to the bull to beware of Medb's men, so that with fifty heifers he fled to the Heifer's Glen, but was ultimately taken and brought to Medb's host; and another passage describes Cúchulainn's rejection of Morrígan's advances, and her wounding and later healing by him.$37$ There is also the incident of Medb's sending her women to bid him smear a false beard on himself when her warrior, Loch, refused to fight this beardless youth, whereupon he said a spell over some grass and clapped it to his chin, so that all thought he had a beard. The help given to Cúchulainn by Lug has already been described;$38$ and the Tuatha Dé Danann likewise aided him by throwing healing herbs and plants into the streams in which his wounds were washed. Interesting is the long account of his riastrad, or "distortion," before wreaking his fury on the men of Connaught for slaying the "boy corps" of Emain. He grew to an immense size and quivered in every limb, while his feet, shins, and knees were reversed in his body. This was the permanent condition of Levarcham and Dornolla, already mentioned, and implied swiftness and strength, since Levarcham traversed all Ireland every day. Of Cúchulainn's eyes, one sank in his head so that a heron