DETHCAEN’S NURSLING
“Very small and beautiful like a star.”
--HOMER.
“I love all that thou lovest,
Spirit of delight;
The fresh earth in new leaves drest,
And the blessed night;
Starry evening and the morn,
When the golden mists are born.”
SHELLEY.
Sualtam of Dun Dalgan on the Eastern Sea, took to wife Dectera, daughter
of Factna the Righteous. She was sister of Concobar Mac Nessa. Sualtam
was the King of Cooalney [Footnote: Now the barony of Cooley, a
mountainous promontory which the County of Louth projects into the Irish
Sea.] a land of woods and mountains, an unproductive headland reaching
out into the Ictian Sea.
Dectera bare a son to Sualtam, and they called him Setanta, That was his
first name. His nurse was Dethcaen, the druidess, daughter of Cathvah
the druid, the mighty wizard and prophet of the Crave Rue. His
breast-plate [Footnote: A poetic spell or incantation. So even the
Christian hymn of St. Patrick was called the lorica or breastplate of
Patrick.] of power, woven of druidic verse, was upon Ulla [Footnote:
Ulla is the Gaelic root of Ulster.] in his time, upon all the children
of Rury in their going out and their coming in, in war and in peace.
Dethcaen [Footnote: Dethcaen is compounded of two words which mean
respectively, colour, and slender.] sang her own songs of protection
for the child. His mother gave the child suck, but the rosy-cheeked,
beautiful, sweetly-speaking daughter of Cathvah nursed him. On her
breast and knee she bare him with great love. Light of foot and
slender was Dethcaen; through the wide dun of Sualtam she went with
her nursling, singing songs. She it was that discovered his first ges,
[Footnote: Ges was the Irish equivalent of the tabu.] namely, that no
one should awake him while he slept. He had others, sacred prohibitions
which it was unlawful to transgress, but this was discovered by
Dethcaen. She discovered it while he was yet a babe. With her own hands
Dethcaen washed his garments and bathed his tiny limbs; lightly and
cheerfully she sprang from her couch at night when she heard his voice,
and raised him from the cradle and wrapped him tenderly, and put him
into the hands of his mother. She watched him when he slumbered; there
was great stillness in the palace of Sualtam when the child slept. She
repeated for him many tales and taught him nothing base. When he was
three years old, men came with hounds to hunt the stream which ran past
Dun Dalgan. [Footnote: Now Dundalk, capital of the County of Louth.]
Early in the morning Setanta heard the baying of the hounds and the
shouting of the men. They were hunting a great water-dog which had
his abode in this stream. Setanta leaped from his couch and ran to the
river. Well he knew that stream and all its pools and shallows; he knew
where the water-dog had his den. Thither by circuit he ran and stood
before the month of the same, having a stone in either hand. The hunted
water-dog drew nigh. Maddened with fear and rage he gnashed his teeth
and growled, and then charged at the child. There, O Setanta, with the
stroke of one stone thou didst slay the water-dog! The dog was carried
in procession with songs to the dun of Sualtam, who that night gave a
great feast and called many to rejoice with him, because his only son
had done bravely. A prophet who was there said, “Thou shalt do many
feats in thy time, O Setanta, and the last will resemble the first.”
Setanta played along the sand and by the frothing waves of the sea-shore
under the dun. He had a ball and an ashen hurle shod with bronze;
joyfully he used to drive his ball along the hard sand, shouting among
his small playmates. The captain of the guard gave him a sheaf of toy
javelins and taught him how to cast, and made for him a sword of lath
and a painted shield. They made for him a high chair. In the great hall
of the dun, when supper was served, he used to sit beside the champion
of that small realm, at the south end of the table over against
the king. Ever as evening drew on and the candles were lit, and the
instruments of festivity and the armour and trophies on the walls and
pillars shone in the cheerful light, and the people of Sualtam sat down
rejoicing, there too duly appeared Setanta over against his father by
the side of the champion, very fair and pure, yellow-haired, in his
scarlet bratta fastened with a little brooch of silver, serene and grave
beyond his years, shining there like a very bright star on the edge of a
thunder-cloud, so that men often smiled to see them together.
While Sualtam and his people feasted, the harper harped and trained
singers sang. Every day the floor was strewn with fresh rushes or dried
moss or leaves. Every night at a certain hour the bed-makers went round
spreading couches for the people of Sualtam. Sometimes the king slept
with his people in the great hall. Then one warrior sat awake through
the night at his pillow having his sword drawn, and another warrior sat
at his feet having his sword drawn. The fire-place was in the midst of
the hall. In winter a slave appointed for that purpose from time to time
during the night laid on fresh logs. Rude plenty never failed in the dun
of Sualtam. In such wise were royal households ordered in the age of
the heroes. For the palace, it was of timber staunched with clay and was
roofed with rushes. Without it was white with lime, conspicuous afar
to mariners sailing in the Muirnict. [Footnote: The Irish Sea or St.
George’s Channel. Muirnict means the Ictian Sea.] There was a rampart
round the dun and a moat spanned by a drawbridge. Before it there was
a spacious lawn. Down that lawn there ever ran a stream of sparkling
water. Setanta sailed his boats in the stream and taught it here to be
silent, and there to hum in rapids, or to apparel itself in silver and
sing liquid notes, or to blow its little trumpet from small cataracts.