"Woe,áinBóCú what us befel therefrom, Us, dear Scathach's fosterlings, Me sore wounded, red with blood, Thee no more to drive thy car!
"Woe, what us befel therefrom, Us, dear Scathach's fosterlings, Me sore wounded, stiff with gore, Thee to die the death for aye!
"Woe, what us befel therefrom, Us, dear Scathach's fosterlings, Thee in death, me, strong, alive. Valour is an angry strife!"
[a] Referring to the Celtic custom of binding an alliance by each of the parties thereto drinking the blood of the other.
"Good, O Cucuc," spake Laeg, "let us leave this ford now; too long are we here!" "Aye, let us leave it, O my master Laeg," replied Cuchulain. "But every combat and battle I have fought seems a game and a sport to me compared with the combat and battle of Ferdiad." Thus he spake, and he uttered these words:--
[W.4164.] "All was play, all was sport, Till came Ferdiad to the ford! One task for both of us, Equal our reward. Our kind, gentle nurse Chose him over all!
"All was play, all was sport, Till came Ferdiad to the ford! One our life, one our fear, One our skill in arms. Shields gave Scathach twain To Ferdiad and me!
"All was play, all was sport, Till came Ferdiad to the ford! Dear the shaft of gold[a] I smote on the ford. Bull-chief of the tribes, Braver he than all!
"Only games and only sport, Till came Ferdiad to the ford! Lion, furious, flaming, fierce; Swollen wave that wrecks like doom!
"Only games and only sport, Till came Ferdiad to the ford! Lovèd Ferdiad seemed to me After me would live for aye! Yesterday, a mountain's size-- He is but a shade to-day!
"Three things countless on the Táin Which have fallen by my hand: Hosts of cattle, men and steeds, I have slaughtered on all sides!
"Though the hosts were e'er so great, That came out of Cruachan wild, More than third and less than half, Slew I in my direful sport!
"Never trod in battle's ring; Banba[b] nursed not on her breast; Never sprang from sea or land, King's son that had larger fame!"
Thus far [1]the Combat of Ferdiad with Cuchulain[1] and the Tragical Death of Ferdiad.
[2]Now while the hosts proceeded from Ath Firdead ('Ferdiad's Ford') southwards, Cuchulain lay in his sickbed in that place.[2] [LL.fo.89a.] Then came certain men of the Ulstermen thither to help and succour Cuchulain. [W.4205.] [3]Before all,[3] Senoll Uathach and the two sons of Gegè: Muridach and Cotreb, to wit. And they bore him to the streams and rivers of Conalle Murthemni, to rub and to wash his stabs and his cuts, his sores and his many wounds in the face of these streams and rivers. For the Tuatha De Danann ('the Tribes divine of Danu') were wont to put herbs and plants of healing and a curing charm in the waters and rivers of the territory of Conalle Murthemni, to help and to succour Cuchulain, so that the streams were speckled and green-topped therewith.