When they had come on their first journey from Cruachan as far as
Cul Sibrinne, Medb told her charioteer to get ready her nine
chariots for her, that she might make a circuit in the camp, to see
who disliked and who liked the expedition.
Now his tent was pitched for Ailill, and the furniture was
arranged, both beds and coverings. Fergus Mac Roich in his tent was
next to Ailill; Cormac Condlongas Mac Conchobair beside him; Conall
Cernach by him; Fiacha Mac Fir-Febe, the son of Conchobar's
daughter, by him. Medb, daughter of Eochaid Fedlech, was on
Ailill's other side; next to her, Findabair, daughter of Ailill and
Medb. That was besides servants and attendants.
Medb came, after looking at the host, and she said it were folly
for the rest to go on the hosting, if the cantred of the
Leinstermen went.
'Why do you blame the men?' said Ailill.
'We do not blame them,' said Medb; 'splendid are the warriors. When
the rest were making their huts, they had finished thatching their
huts and cooking their food; when the rest were at dinner, they had
finished dinner, and their harpers were playing to them. It is
folly for them to go,' said Medb; 'it is to their credit the
victory of the hosts will be.'
'It is for us they fight,' said Ailill.
'They shall not come with us,' said Medb.
'Let them stay then,' said Ailill.
'They shall not stay,' said Medb. 'They will come on us after we
have gone,' said she, 'and seize our land against us.'
'What is to be done to them?' said Ailill; 'will you have them
neither stay nor go?'
'To kill them,' said Medb.
'We will not hide that this is a woman's plan,' said Ailill; 'what
you say is not good!'
'With this folk,' said Fergus, 'it shall not happen thus (for it is
a folk bound by ties to us Ulstermen), unless we are all killed.'
'Even that we could do,' said Medb; 'for I am here with my retinue
of two cantreds,' said she, 'and there are the seven Manes, that
is, my seven sons, with seven cantreds; their luck can protect
them,' (?) said she; 'that is Mane-Mathramail, and Mane-Athramail,
and Mane-Morgor, and Mane-Mingor, and Mane-Moepert (and he is
Mane-Milscothach), Mane-Andoe, and Mane-who-got-everything: he got
the form of his mother and of his father, and the dignity of both.'
'It would not be so,' said Fergus. 'There are seven kings of
Munster here, and a cantred with each of them, in friendship with
us Ulstermen. I will give battle to you,' said Fergus, 'in the
middle of the host in which we are, with these seven cantreds, and
with my own cantred, and with the cantred of the Leinstermen. But I
will not urge that,' said Fergus, 'we will provide for the warriors
otherwise, so that they shall not prevail over the host. Seventeen
cantreds for us,' said Fergus, 'that is the number of our army,
besides our rabble, and our women (for with each king there is his
queen, in Medb's company), and besides our striplings. This is the
eighteenth cantred, the cantred of the Leinstermen. Let them be
distributed among the rest of the host.'
'I do not care,' said Medb, 'provided they are not gathered as they
are.'
Then this was done; the Leinstermen were distributed among the host.
They set out next morning to Moin Choiltrae, where eight score deer
fell in with them in one herd. They surrounded them and killed them
then; wherever there was a man of the Leinstermen, it was he who
got them, except five deer that all the rest of the host got. Then
they came to Mag Trego, and stopped there and prepared their food.
They say that it is there that Dubthach sang this song:
'Grant what you have not heard hitherto,
Listening to the fight of Dubthach.
A hosting very black is before you,
Against Findbend of the wife of Ailill.
[Note: Findbennach, the Whitehorned; i.e. the other of the two
bulls in whom the rival swineherds were reincarnated.]
'The man of expeditions will come
Who will defend (?) Murthemne.
Ravens will drink milk of ---- [Note: Some kenning for blood?]
From the friendship of the swineherds.
'The turfy Cronn will resist them;
[Note: i.e. the river Cronn. This line is a corruption of a
reference which occurs later, in the account of the flooding of the
Cronn, as Professor Strachan first pointed out to me.]
He will not let them into Murthemne
Until the work of warriors is over
In Sliab Tuad Ochaine.
'"Quickly," said Ailill to Cormac,
"Go that you may ---- your son.
The cattle do not come from the fields
That the din of the host may not terrify them(?).
'"This will be a battle in its time
For Medb with a third of the host.
There will be flesh of men therefrom
If the Riastartha comes to you."'
Then the Nemain attacked them, and that was not the quietest of
nights for them, with the uproar of the churl (i.e. Dubthach)
through their sleep. The host started up at once, and a great
number of the host were in confusion, till Medb came to reprove
him.
Then they went and spent the night in Granard Tethba Tuascirt,
after the host had been led astray over bogs and over streams. A
warning was sent from Fergus to the Ulstermen here, for friendship.
They were now in the weakness, except Cuchulainn and his father
Sualtaim.
Cuchulainn and his father went, after the coming of the warning
from Fergus, till they were in Iraird Cuillend, watching the host
there.
'I think of the host to-night,' said Cuchulainn to his father. 'Go
from us with a warning to the Ulstermen. I am forced to go to a
tryst with Fedelm Noichride, [Note: Gloss incorporated in the text:
that is, with her servant,' etc.] from my own pledge that went out
to her.'
He made a spancel-withe [This was a twig twisted in the form of two
rings, joined by one straight piece, as used for hobbling horses
and cattle.] then before he went, and wrote an ogam on its ----,
and threw it on the top of the pillar.
The leadership of the way before the army was given to Fergus. Then
Fergus went far astray to the south, till Ulster should have
completed the collection of an army; he did this for friendship.
Ailill and Medb perceived it; it was then Medb said:
'O Fergus, this is strange,
What kind of way do we go?
Straying south or north
We go over every other folk.
'Ailill of Ai with his hosting
Fears that you will betray them.
You have not given your mind hitherto
To the leading of the way.
'If it is in friendship that you do it,
Do not lead the horses
Peradventure another may be found
To lead the way.'
Fergus replied:
'O Medb, what troubles you?
This is not like treachery.
It belongs to the Ulstermen, O woman,
The land across which I am leading you.
'It is not for the disadvantage of the host
That I go on each wandering in its turn;
It is to avoid the great man
Who protects Mag Murthemne.
'Not that my mind is not distressed
On account of the straying on which I go,
But if perchance I may avoid even afterwards
Cuchulainn Mac Sualtaim.'
Then they went till they were in Iraird Cuillend. Eirr and Indell,
Foich and Foclam (their two charioteers), the four sons of Iraird
Mac Anchinne, [Marginal gloss: 'or the four sons of Nera Mac Nuado
Mac Taccain, as it is found in other books.'] it is they who were
before the host, to protect their brooches and their cushions and
their cloaks, that the dust of the host might not soil them. They
found the withe that Cuchulainn threw, and perceived the grazing
that the horses had grazed. For Sualtaim's two horses had eaten the
grass with its roots from the earth; Cuchulainn's two horses had
licked the earth as far as the stones beneath the grass. They sit
down then, until the host came, and the musicians play to them.
They give the withe into the hands of Fergus Mac Roich; he read the
ogam that was on it.