Pages 8 through 11"'Twas no deed of friendship,No doom o'er the brink! The Champion of Cualnge, Thou seest 'midst proud feats, For that it's for guerdon, Shall quickly be slain!" The Henchman: "I see Cualnge's hero, With feats overweening, Not fleeing he flees us, But towards us he comes. He runneth-- not slowly-- Though cunning-- not sparing-- Like water down high cliff Or thunderbolt quick!" Ferdiad: "'Tis cause of a quarrel, So much thou hast praised him; And why hast thou chose him, Since I am from home? And now they extol him, They fall to proclaim him; None come to attack him, But soft simple men!" Here followeth the Description of Cuchulain's chariot, one of the three chief Chariots of the Tale of the Foray of Cualnge. It was not long that Ferdiad's charioteer remained there when he saw something: a beautiful, five-pointed chariot, approaching with swiftness, with speed, with perfect skill; with a green shade, with a thin-framed, dry-bodied box surmounted with feats of cunning, straight-poled, as long as a warrior's sword. On this was room for a hero's seven arms, the fair seat for its lord; behind two fleet steeds, large-eared, gaily prancing, with inflated nostrils, broad-chested, quick-hearted, high-flanked, broad-hoofed, slender-limbed, overpowering and resolute. A grey, broad-hipped, small-stepping, long-maned horse was under one of the yokes of the chariot; a black, crisped-maned, swift-moving, broad-backed horse was under the other. Like unto a hawk after its prey on a sharp tempestuous day, or to a tearing blast of wind of Spring on a March day over the back of a plain, or unto a startled stag when first roused by the hounds in the first of the chase, were Cuchulain's two horses before the chariot, as if they were on glowing, fiery flags, so that they shook the earth and made it tremble with the fleetness of their course. And Cuchulain reached the ford. Ferdiad waited on the south side of the ford; Cuchulain stood on the north side. Ferdiad bade welcome to Cuchulain. "Welcome is thy coming, O Cuchulain!" said Ferdiad. "Truly spoken meseemed thy welcome until now," answered Cuchulain; "but to-day I put no more trust in it. And, O Ferdiad," said Cuchulain, "it were fitter for me to bid thee welcome than that thou should'st welcome me; for it is thou that art come to the land and province wherein I dwell, and it is not fitting for thee to come to contend and do battle with me but it were fitter for me to go to contend and do battle with thee. For before thee in flight are my women and my boys and my youths, my steeds and my troops of horses, my droves, my flocks and my herds of cattle." (End Page 8) Ferdiad:"The sight will distress them That through them will pass!" Cuchulain: "In danger's gap fallen, At hand is thy life's term; On thee plied be weapons, Not gentle the skill! One champion will slay thee; We both will encounter; No more shalt lead forays, From this day till Doom!" Ferdiad: "Avaunt with thy warnings, Thou world's greatest braggart; Nor guerdon nor pardon, Low warrior for thee! 'Tis I that well know thee, Thou heart of a cageling-- This lad merely tickles-- Without skill or force!" Cuchulain: "When we were with Scathach, for wonted arms' training, Together we'd fare forth, To seek every fight. Thou wast my heart's comrade, My clan and my kinsman; Ne'er found I one dearer; Thy loss would be sad!" Ferdiad: "Thou wager'st thine honour Unless we do battle; Before the cock croweth, Thy head on a spit! Cuchulain of Cualnge, Mad frenzy hath seized thee All ill we'll wreck on thee, For thine is the sin!" "Come now, O Ferdiad," cried Cuchulain, "not meet was it for thee to come to contend and do battle with me, because of the instigation and intermeddling of Ailill and Medb. And all that came because of those promises of deceit, neither profit nor success did it bring them, and they have fallen by me. And none the more, Ferdiad, shall it win victory or increase of fame for thee; and, shalt thou too fall by my hand!" Thus he spake, and he uttered these words and Ferdiad hearkened to him:-- "Come not nigh me, noble chief, Ferdiad, comrade, Daman's son. Worse for thee than 'tis for me; Thou'lt bring sorrow to a host! "Come not nigh me 'gainst all right; Thy last bed is made by me. (End Page 9) Ferdiad: "O Cuchulain, rich in feats, Hard the trade we both have learned; Treason hath o'ercome our love; Thy first wounding hath been bought; Think not of our friendship more, Cua, it avails thee not!" "Too long are we now in this way," quoth Ferdiad; "and what arms shall we resort to to-day, O Cuchulain?" "With thee is thy choice of weapons this day," answered Cuchulain, "for thou art he that first didst reach the ford." "Rememberest thou at all," asked Ferdiad "the choice deeds of arms we were wont to practise with Scathach and with Uathach and with Aife'?" "Indeed, and I do remember," answered Cuchulain. "If thou rememberest, let us begin with them." They betook them to their choicest deeds of arms. They took upon them two equally-matched shields for their feats, and their eight-edged targes for feats, and their eight small darts, and their eight straightswords with ornaments of walrus-tooth and their eight lesser, ivories spears which flew from them and to them like bees on a day of fine weather. They cast no weapon that struck not. Each of them was busy casting at the other with those missiles from morning's early twilight till noon at mid-day, the while they overcame their various feats with the bosses and the hollows of their feat-shields. However great the excellence of the throwing on either side, equally great was the excellence of the defence, so that during all that time neither of them bled or reddened the other. "Let us cease now from this bout of arms, O Cuchulain," said Ferdiad; "for it is not by such our decision will come." "Yes, let us surely cease, if the time hath come," answered Cuchulain. Then they ceased. They threw their feat-tackle from them into the hands of their charioteers. "To what weapons should we resort next, O Cuchulain?" asked Ferdiad. "Thine is the choice of weapons till nightfall," replied Cuchulain; "for thou art he that didst first reach the ford." "Let us begin, then," said Ferdiad, "with our straight-cut, smooth-hardened throwing-spears, with cords of full-hard flax on them." "Aye, let us begin then," assented Cuchulain. Then they took on them two hard shields, equally strong. They fell to their straight-cut, smooth-hardened spears with cords of full-hard flax on them. Each of them was engaged in casting at the other with the spears from the middle of noon till the hour of evening's sundown. However great the excellence of the defence, equally great was the excellence of the throwing on the other side, so that each of them bled and reddened and wounded the other during that time. "Let us leave off this now, O Cuchulain," said Ferdiad. "Aye, let us leave off, if the time hath come," answered Cuchulain. So they ceased. They threw their arms from them into the hands of their charioteers. Thereupon each of them went toward the other in the middle of the ford, and each of them put his hand on the other's neck and gave him three kisses. Their horses were in one and the same paddock that night, and their charioteers at one and the same fire; and their charioteers made ready a litter-bed of fresh rushes for them with pillows for wounded men on them. Then came healing and curing folk to heal and to cure them, and they laid healing herbs and grasses and a curing charm on their cuts and stabs, their gashes and many wounds. Of every healing herb and grass and curing charm that was brought and was applied to the cuts and stabs, to the gashes and many wounds of Cuchulain, a like portion thereof he sent across the ford westard to Ferdiad, so that the men of Erin should not have it to say, should Ferdiad fall at his hands, it was more than his share of care had been given to him. (End Page 10) (still working, piece will be slow - I) |
Created by Janna Oakfellow-Pushee
at 08-01-11 08:01 PM
Last Modified by Janna Oakfellow-Pushee at 09-02-11 08:01 PM
Last Modified by Janna Oakfellow-Pushee at 09-02-11 08:01 PM