o
this, using only one hand and made of a single branch, and I except my
master Fergus.' Truly," Fergus added, "it was Cuchulain threw it, and it
was his steeds that grazed this plain." And he placed the hoop in the hands
of the druids,[2] and it is thus he began to recite and he pronounced a
lay:--

"What bespeaks this withe to us,
What purports its secret rede?
And what number cast it here,
Was it one man or a host?

"If ye go past here this night,
And bide not [3]one night[3] in camp.
On ye'll come the tear-flesh Hound;
Yours the blame, if ye it scorn!

"[4]Evil on the host he'll bring,[4]
If ye go your way past this.
[W.596.] Find, ye druids, find out here,
For what cause this withe was made!"

[1]A druid speaks[1]:

"Cut by hero, cast by chief,
As a perfect trap for foes.
Stayer of lords--with hosts of men--
One man cast it with one hand!

"With fierce rage the battle 'gins
Of the Smith's Hound of Red Branch.[a]
Bound to meet this madman's rage;
This the name that's on the withe!

[2]"Would the king's host have its will--
Else they break the law of war--
Let some one man of ye cast,
As one man this withe did cast![2]

"Woes to bring with hundred fights
On four realms of Erin's land;
Naught I know 'less it be this
For what cause the withe was made!"

[1-1] LU. and YBL. 250.

[2-2] LU. and YBL. 252-258.

[3-3] Reading with Stowe, Add. and H. 1. 13.

[4-4] Reading with LU. and YBL. 261.

[1-1] LU., marginal note.

[a] The name of the festal hall of the kings of Ulster.

[2-2] Eg. 1782.

After that lay: "I pledge you my word," said Fergus, "if so ye set at
naught yon withy and the royal hero that made it, [3]and if ye go beyond[3]
without passing a night's camp and quarterage here, or until a man of you
make a withy of like kind, using but one foot and one eye and one hand,
even as he made it, [4]certain it is, whether ye be[4] under the ground or
in a tight-shut house, [5]the man that wrote the ogam hereon[5] will bring
slaughter and bloodshed upon ye before the hour of rising on the morrow, if
ye make light of him!" "That, surely, would not be pleasing to us," quoth
Medb, "that any one should [6]straightway[6] spill our blood or besmirch us
red, now that we are come to this unknown province, even to the province of
Ulster. More pleasing would it be