horses of Macha be harnessed to the chariot," cried
Concobar, "and let Laeg, son of the King of Gabra, drive them hither,
for those are the horses and that the chariot which shall be given
this day to Cuculain."

Then, son of Sualtam, how in thy guileless breast thy heart leaped
when thou heardest the thundering of the great war-car and the wild
neighing of the immortal steeds, as they broke from the dark stable
into the clear-shining light of day, and heard behind them the ancient
roaring of the brazen wheels, as in the days when they bore forth
Macha and her martial groom against the giants of old, and mightily
established in Eiria the Red Branch of the Ultonians! Soon they rushed
to view from the rear of Emain, speeding forth impetuously out of the
hollow-sounding ways of the city and the echoing palaces into the
open, and behind them in the great car green and gold, above the
many-twinkling wheels, the charioteer, with floating mantle, girt
round the temples with the gold fillet of his office, leaning
backwards and sideways as he labored to restrain their fury
unrestrainable: a gray long-maned steed, whale-bellied, broad-chested,
with mane like flying foam, under one silver yoke, and a black
lustrous tufty-maned steed under the other; such steeds as in power,
size, and beauty the earth never produced before and never will
produce again.

Like a hawk swooping along the face of a cliff when the wind is high;
or like the rush of March wind over the smooth plain; or like the
fleetness of the stag roused from his lair by the hounds and covering
his first field, was the rush of those steeds when they had broken
through the restraint of the charioteer, as though they galloped over
fiery flags; so that the earth shook and trembled with the velocity of
their motion, and all the time the great car brayed and shrieked as
the wheels of solid and glittering bronze went round, and strange
cries and exclamations were heard, for they were demons that had their
abode in that car.

The charioteer restrained the steeds before the assembly, but
nay-the-less a deep purr like the purr of a tiger proceeded from the
axle. Then the whole assembly lifted up their voices and shouted for
Cuculain, and he himself, Cuculain the son of Sualtam, sprang into his
chariot all armed, with a cry as of a warrior springing into his
chariot in the battle, and he stood erect and brandished his spears,
and the war sprites of the Gael shouted along with