urrence, and Sir Walter Scott has made us
familiar with similar expeditions on the part of the Scottish
Highlanders in the 18th century. Hence it is not a matter for surprise
that the theme of the greatest Irish epic is a cattle-raid. At the time
there were two wonderful bulls in Ireland, the Bond or Brown Bull of
Cualnge, and the Findbennach or White-horn, belonging to Medb. These two
animals are of no ordinary nature. Other stories represent them as
having existed under many different forms before they were reborn as
bulls. First they appear as swineherds belonging to the supernatural
people of the _sid_ of fairy mounds; then they are metamorphosed
successively as ravens, warriors, sea-monsters and insects. It was Queen
Medb's ambition to gain possession of the Brown Bull of Cualnge, and for
this purpose she collected the united hosts of Ireland to raid the
province of Ulster and carry him off. Medb chooses the season when she
knows the Ulstermen are all incapacitated as the result of a curse laid
upon them by a fairy woman. Cuchulinn alone is exempt from this
debility.

The story is divided into a number of sections, and has been summarized
by Miss Hull as follows:--(1) the prologue, relating, in the form of a
night dialogue between Ailill and Medb, the dispute between them which
brought about the raid; (2) the collecting of Medb's hosts and the
preliminary movements of the army, during which period she first became
aware of the presence and powers of Cuchulinn. Her inquiry of Fergus as
to who this formidable foe is leads to a long section called (3)
Cuchulinn's boy-deeds, in which Fergus relates the remarkable prodigies
of Cuchulinn's youth, and warns Medb that, though the hero is but a
beardless youth of seventeen, he will be more than a match for all her
forces. (4) A long series of single combats, of which the first part of
the tale is made up; they are at first gay and bombastic in character,
but become more grave as they proceed, and culminate in the combat of
Cuchulinn with his old companion, Fer Diad. This section contains the
account of Cuchulinn's "distortion" or frenzy, which always occurred
before any great output of the hero's energy, and of the rout of the
hosts of Medb which followed it. (5) The general awakening of the
warriors of Ulster from their lethargy, and their gathering by septs
upon the Hill of Slane, clan by clan being described as it comes up in
order. (6) The final Battle of Gairech and Il