Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER V: TALES OF THE ULTONIAN CYCLE 171sky-deity, Indra, represented in Hindu myth as a mighty bull,whose roaring is the thunder and who lets loose the rains “likecows streaming forth to pasture.” The advance of the Western(Connacht) host for the capture of this bull is emblematic of theonset of Night. The bull is defended by the solar hero Cuchulain,who, however, is ultimately overthrown and the bull is capturedfor a season. The two animals in the Celtic legend probablytypify the sky in different aspects. They are described with apomp and circumstance which shows that they are no commonbeasts. Once, we are told, they were swineherds of the peopleof Dana. “They had been successively transformed into tworavens, two sea-monsters, two warriors, two demons, two wormsor animalculae, and finally into two kine.” 141 The Brown Bull isdescribed as having a back broad enough for fifty children to playon; when he is angry with his keeper he stamps the man thirty feet [204]into the ground; he is likened to a sea wave, to a bear, to a dragon,a lion, the writer heaping up images of strength and savagery.We are therefore concerned with no ordinary cattle-raid, but witha myth, the features of which are discernible under the dressinggiven it by the fervid imagination of the unknown Celtic bardwho composed the “Tain,” although the exact meaning of everydetail may be difficult to ascertain.The first attempt of Maev to get possession of the bull was tosend an embassy to Dara to ask for the loan of him for a year, therecompense offered being fifty heifers, besides the bull himselfback, and if Dara chose to settle in Connacht he should have asmuch land there as he now possessed in Ulster, and a chariotworth thrice seven cumals, 142 with the patronage and friendshipof Maev.Dara was at first delighted with the prospect, but tales were141 Miss Hull, “The Cuchullin Saga,” p. lxxii, where the solar theory of theBrown Bull is dealt with at length.142 A cumal was the unit of value in Celtic Ireland. It is mentioned as such bySt. Patrick. It meant the price of a woman-slave.