THE SACRED CHARIOT
“He dwelt a while among the neat-herds
Of King Admetus, veiling his godhood.”
Greek Mythology.
“At Tailteen I raced my steeds against a woman,
Though great with child she came first to the goal,
Alas, I knew not the auburn-haired Macha,
Thence came affliction upon the Ultonians.”
CONCOBAR MAC NESSA.
Concobar Mac Nessa on a solemn day called Cuculain forth from the ranks
of the boys where they stood in the rear of the assembly and said--
“O Setanta, there is a duty which falls to me by virtue of my kingly
office, and therein I need an assistant. For it is my province to keep
bright and in good running order the chariot of Macha wherein she used
to go forth to war from Emain, and to clean out the corn-troughs of
her two steeds and put there fresh barley perpetually, and fresh hay
in their mangers. Illan the Fair [Footnote: He was one of the sons of
Fergus Mac Roy slain in the great civil war.] was my last helper in this
office, till the recent great rebellion. That ministry is thine now, if
it is pleasing to thee to accept it.”
The boy said that it was pleasing, and the King gave him the key of the
chamber in which were the vessels and implements used in discharging
that sacred function.
Afterwards, on the same day, the King said to him, “Wash thyself now in
pure water and put on new clean raiment and come again to me.”
The boy washed himself and put on new clean raiment. The King himself
did the same.
Concobar said: “Go now to the chamber of which I have given thee the key
and fill with oil the silver oil-can and take a towel of the towels of
fawn-skin which are there and return.” He did so; and Concobar and his
nephew, armed youths following, went to the house of the chariot.
Ere Concobar turned the wards of the lock he heard voices within in the
chariot-house. There, one said to another, “This is he. Our long watch
and ward are near the end.” And the other said, “It is well. Too long
have we been here waiting.”
“Hast thou heard anything, my nephew?” said Concobar.
“I have heard nothing,” said the lad.
Concobar opened the great folding-doors. There was a sound there like
glad voices mingled with a roar of revolving wheels, and then silence.
Setanta drew back in dismay, and even Concobar stood still. “I have not
observed such portents before in the chariot-house,” he said. The King
and his nephew entered the hollow chamber. The chariot was motionless
but very bright. One would have said that the bronze burned. It was of
great size and beauty. By its side were two horse-stalls with racks
and mangers, the bars of the rack were of gold bronze which was called
findruiney, and the mangers of yellow brass. The floor was paved with
cut marble, the walls lined with smooth boards of ash. There were no
windows, but there were nine lamps in the room. “It will be thy duty to
feed those lamps,” said Concobar.
Concobar took the fawn-skin towel from the boy and polished the chariot,
and the wheels, tyres, and boxes, and the wheel-spokes. He oiled the
wheels too, and mightily lifting the great chariot seized the spokes
with his right hand and made the wheels spin.
“Go now to the chamber of which I have given thee the keys,” he said,
“and bring the buckets, and clear out the mangers to the last grain,
and empty the stale barley into the place of the burning, and afterwards
take fresh barley from the bin which is in the chamber and fill the
mangers. Empty the racks also and bring fresh hay. Thou wilt find it
stored there too; clean straw also and litter the horse-stalls.”
The boy did that. In the meantime Concobar polished the pole, and the
yoke, and the chains. From the wall he took the head-gear of the horses
and the long shining reins of interwoven brass and did the same very
carefully till there was not a speck of rust or discolouration to be
seen.
“Where are the horses, my Uncle Concobar?” said the boy.
“That I cannot rightly tell,” said Concobar, “but verily they are
somewhere.”
“What are those horses?” said the boy. “How are they called? What their
attributes, and why do I fill their racks and mangers?”
“They are the Liath Macha and Black Shanglan,” said Concobar. “They have
not been seen in Erin for three hundred years, not since Macha dwelt
visibly in Emain as the bride of Kimbaoth, son of Fiontann. In this
chariot she went forth to war, charioteering her warlike groom. But they
are to come again for the promised one and bear him to battle and to
conflict in this chariot, and the time is not known but the King of
Emain is under gesa [Footnote: Terrible druidic obligations.] to keep
the chariot bright and the racks and mangers furnished with fresh hay,
and barley two years old. He is to wait, and watch, and stand prepared
under gesa most terrible.”
“Maybe Kimbaoth will return to us again,” said the boy.
“Nay, it hath not been so prophesied,” answered the King. “He was great,
and stern, and formidable. But our promised one is gentle exceedingly.
He will not know his own greatness, and his nearest comrades will not
know it, and there will be more of love in his heart than war.” So
saying Concobar looked steadfastly upon the boy.
“Conall Carnach is as famous for love as for war,” said Setanta. “He
is peerless in beauty, and his strength and courage are equal to his
comeliness, and his chivalry and battle-splendour to his strength.”
“Nay, lad, it is not Conall Carnach, though the women of Ulla sicken and
droop for the love of him. Verily, it is not Conall Carnach.”
Setanta examined curiously the great war-car.
“Was Kimbaoth assisting his wife,” he asked, “when she took captive the
sons of Dithorba?”
“Nay,” said the King, “she went forth alone and crossed the Shannon
with one step into the land of the Fir-bolgs, and there, one by one, she
bound those builder-giants the sons of Dithorba, and bore them hither in
her might, and truly those five brethren were no small load for the back
of one woman.”
“Has anyone seen her in our time?” asked the lad.
“I have,” said Concobar. “I saw her at the great fair of Tailteen. There
she pronounced a curse upon me and upon the Red Branch. [Footnote: At
Tailteen a man boasted that his wife could outrun Concobar’s victorious
chariot-steeds. Concobar compelled the woman to run against his horses.
She won the race, but died at the goal leaving her curse upon the Red
Branch.] The curse hath not yet fallen, but it will fall in my time,
and the promised one will come in my time and he will redeem us from its
power. Great tribulation will be his. Question me no more, dear Setanta,
I have said more than enough.”
They went forth from the sacred chamber and Concobar locked the doors.
As they crossed the vacant space going to the palace, Concobar said--
“Why art thou sad, dear Setanta?”
“I am not sad,” answered the boy.
“Truly there is no sadness in thy face, or thy lips, in thy voice or thy
behaviour, but it is deep down in thine eyes,” said the King. “I see it
there always.”
Setanta laughed lightly. “I know it not,” he said.
Concobar went his way after that, musing, and Setanta, having replaced
the sacred vessels in their chamber and having locked the door, strode
away into the boys’ hall. There was a great fire in the midst, and the
boys sat round it, for it was cold. Cuculain broke their circle, pushing
the boys asunder, and sat down. They tried to drag him away, but
he laughed and kept his place like a rock. Then they called him “a
Fomorian, and no man,” and perforce made their circle wider.