pped a year in hiding with Derbrenn.
And then they shook the Tree of Tarbga, and they went on towards Inver
Umaill. But Maeve gathered the men of Connacht to hunt them, and they
all fell but one, and their heads were put in a mound, and it got the
name of Duma Selga, the Mound of the Hunting.

And it was in the time of Maeve of Cruachan that Angus set his love on
Caer Ormaith, of the Province of Connacht, and brought her away to Brugh
na Boinn.

CHAPTER IV. THE MORRIGU

As to the Morrigu, the Great Queen, the Crow of Battle, where she lived
after the coming of the Gael is not known, but before that time it was
in Teamhair she lived. And she had a great cooking-spit there, that held
three sorts of food on it at the one time: a piece of raw meat, and a
piece of dressed meat, and a piece of butter. And the raw was dressed,
and the dressed was not burned, and the butter did not melt, and the
three together on the spit.

Nine men that were outlaws went to her one time and asked for a spit to
be made for themselves. And they brought it away with them, and it had
nine ribs in it, and every one of the outlaws would carry a rib in his
hand wherever he would go, till they would all meet together at the
close of day. And if they wanted the spit to be high, it could be raised
to a man's height, and at another time it would not be more than the
height of a fist over the fire, without breaking and without lessening.

And Mechi, the son the Morrigu had, was killed by Mac Cecht on Magh
Mechi, that till that time had been called Magh Fertaige. Three hearts
he had, and it is the way they were, they had the shapes of three
serpents through them. And if Mechi had not met with his death, those
serpents in him would have grown, and what they left alive in Ireland
would have wasted away. And Mac Cecht burned the three hearts on Magh
Luathad, the Plain of Ashes, and he threw the ashes into the stream; and
the rushing water of the stream stopped and boiled up, and every
creature in it died.

And the Morrigu used often to be meddling in Ireland in Cuchulain's
time, stirring up wars and quarrels. It was she came and roused up
Cuchulain one time when he was but a lad, and was near giving in to some
enchantment that was used against him. "There is not the making of a
hero in you," she said to him, "and you lying there under the feet of
shadows." And with that Cuchulain rose up and struck off the head of a
shadow that was standing ove