Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

180 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[214][215]Lerga; sleep and slumber deeply for three days, and for thattime I will take thy place and defend the Ford against the hostof Maev.” Then Cuchulain sank into a profound slumber andtrance, and the stranger laid healing balms of magical power tohis wounds so that he awoke whole and refreshed, and for thetime that Cuchulain slept the stranger held the Ford against thehost. And Cuchulain knew that this was Lugh his father, who hadcome from among the People of Dana to help his son through hishour of gloom and despair.The Sacrifice of the Boy CorpsBut still the men of Ulster lay helpless. Now there was atEmain Macha a band of thrice fifty boys, the sons of all thechieftains of the provinces, who were there being bred up inarms and in noble ways, and these suffered not from the curse ofMacha, for it fell only on grown men. But when they heard of thesore straits in which Cuchulain, their playmate not long ago, waslying they put on their light armour and took their weapons andwent forth for the honour of Ulster, under Conor's young son,Follaman, to aid him. And Follaman vowed that he would neverreturn to Emania without the diadem of Ailell as a trophy. Threetimes they drove against the host of Maev, and thrice their ownnumber fell before them, but in the end they were overwhelmedand slain, not one escaping alive.The Carnage of MurthemneyThis was done as Cuchulain lay in his trance, and when heawoke, refreshed and well, and heard what had been done, hisfrenzy came upon him and he leaped into his war-chariot anddrove furiously round and round the host of Maev. And thechariot ploughed the earth till the ruts were like the ramparts ofa fortress, and the scythes upon its wheels caught and mangledthe bodies of the crowded host till they were piled like a wallaround the camp, and as Cuchulain shouted in his wrath thedemons and goblins and wild things in Erin yelled in answer, sothat with the terror and the uproar the host of men heaved and