Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER V: TALES OF THE ULTONIAN CYCLE 187message as it lay, and at last Conor bade put it on a pillar that itmight be at rest. But it still went on crying and exhorting, andat length into the clouded mind of the king the truth began topenetrate, and the glazed eyes of the warriors began to glow, andslowly the spell of Macha's curse was lifted from their minds andbodies. Then Conor arose and swore a mighty oath, saying: “Theheavens are above us and the earth beneath us, and the sea isround about us; and surely, unless the heavens fall on us and theearth gape to swallow us up, and the sea overwhelm the earth,I will restore every woman to her hearth, and every cow to itsbyre.” 154 His Druid proclaimed that the hour was propitious, andthe king bade his messengers go forth on every side and summonUlster to arms, and he named to them warriors long dead as wellas the living, for the cloud of the curse still lingered in his brain.With the curse now departed from them the men of Ulsterflocked joyfully to the summons, and on every hand there wasgrinding of spears and swords, and buckling on of armour andharnessing of war-chariots for the rising-out of the province. 155One host came under Conor the King and Keltchar, son ofUthecar Hornskin, from Emania southwards, and another fromthe west along the very track of the host of Maev. And Conor'shost fell upon eight score of the men of Erin in Meath, who [223]were carrying away a great booty of women-captives, and theyslew every man of the eight score and rescued the women. Maevand her host then fell back toward Connacht, but when theyreached Slemon Midi, the Hill of Slane, in Meath, the Ulsterbands joined each other there and prepared to give battle. Maevsent her messenger mac Roth to view the Ulster host on thePlain of Garach and report upon it. Mac Roth came back withan awe-striking description of what he beheld. When he first154 Another instance of the survival of the oath formula recited by the Celticenvoys to Alexander the Great. See p. 23.155“Rising-out” is the vivid expression used by Irish writers for a clan orterritory going on the war-path. “Hosting” is also used in a similar sense.