Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/99

Rh bat," is combined with the Celtic idea of rebirth in Welsh and Irish tales; and the Welsh story, Hanes Taliesin, a sixteenth century tale, is based on earlier poems in which this formula is already prefixed to the rebirth incident. Shape-shifting is so commonly ascribed to Taliesin that it is no wonder that the formula was attached to his story, as it also was to the Greek myth of Proteus and the Hindu story of Vikramāditya: In the poem Taliesin describes his transformations and adds,

The Hanes Taliesin represents earlier myths about the hero and Cerridwen, the latter being a Brythonic goddess. Cerridwen, who dwelt below a lake, became hostile to Gwion Bach because he obtained the inspiration which she had intended for her son. The goddess pursued him, but he changed himself to a hare, and she took the form of a greyhound, after which the pair successively became fish and otter, bird and hawk, grain of wheat and hen. Cerridwen as a hen swallowed the grain, and gave birth to a beautiful child, whom she cast into the sea, but he was rescued by Elphin and obtained the name of Taliesin.$7$

In most versions of the Transformation Combat the opponents are males, and therefore one cannot give birth to the other; but by an ingenious device the compiler of the Irish myth of The Two Szvine-Herds (Cophur in dá muccida), an introductory story to the Táin Bó Cúalnge, surmounted this difficulty. The swine-herds were subordinate divinities—Friuch, herd of the god Bodb, king of the síd of Munster, and Rucht, herd of Ochall Oichni, king of the síd of Connaught. They could take any shape, and there was friendship between them. When there was mast in Munster, Rucht fed his swine there; and Friuch brought his herd to Connaught in the same way.