438 



Murchadh, son of Brian, have each his "bird of valour" flying over 

 him in the thick of the fight. In the account of the battle of Magh- 

 Eath, we are told that Congal Claen, excited to fury and madness by 

 the exhortations of one of his servants, in the banqueting hall at Tara, 

 " stood up, assumed his bravery, his heroic fury rose, and his 'bird of 

 valour ' fluttered over him, and he distinguished not friend from foe at 

 the time." (Magh-Eath, p. 33.) So, when Murchadh, son of Brian, 

 after the repulse of the Dal-Cais by the Danes at the battle of Clon- 

 tarf, prepares to assail the enemy, it is said that "he was seized with a 

 boiling terrible anger, an excessive elevation and greatness of spirit and 

 mind. A bird of valour and championship rose in him and fluttered 

 over his head and on his breath." But this Ion laith, en gaile, or bird 

 of valour, which hovered about Cuchullain, not only excited his mind 

 to fury, as is represented, but also produced a strange bodily transfor- 

 mation, from which he obtained the sobriquet of the Eiastartha or trans- 

 formed. Thus, in a passage in the tale from which I have so often 

 quoted already, where King Ailill deems it advisable to beg Cuchullain's 

 permission for the Connacht army to retire from a position of danger, 

 the following account of the effects of this paroxysm of fury is given: 



" Denaid comarli for Ailill. Gudid Concullain im for lecud asind 

 inudsa ar ni ragaid ar ecin tairis uair rodleblaing a Ion laith, ar ba bes 

 dosom intan no linged a Ion laith ind imreditis a traigthi iarma ocus a 

 escada remi ocus muil a or can for a lurgnib, ocus in dala suil inachend, 

 ocus araili fria chend anechtair ; do coised fer chend for a beolu. Nach 

 findae bid fair ba hathithir delca sciach, ocus banna fola for each finnu. 

 Ni aithgnead coemu na cairdiu, ciimma no slaided riam ocus iarma. Is 

 desin dober fir nOlnecmacht in risartarthu do animm doCoinculainny Labor 

 na h'Uidhre, fol. 34, b. 1. 



" ' Take counsel together,' said Ailill; ' entreat Cuchullain that he 

 may permit you to leave this place, since you cannot pass by him for- 

 cibly, because his Ion laith has sprung. For it was usually the case 

 with him when his Ion laith started in him, that his feet turned back- 

 wards and his hands forwards, and the calves of his legs were transferred 

 to his shins, and one of his eyes sank deep into his head, whilst the 

 other was protruded, and a man's head would fit in his mouth. Every 

 hair on his head was sharper than the thorns of whitethorn, and a drop 

 of blood stood on each hair. He would know neither friends nor 

 relations, and he slew equally backwards and forwards. Hence it 

 was that the Feara-Olnegmacht (men of Connacht) applied the name 

 of ' Riastartha ' to Cuchullain." 



In the Irish mythological tracts a well-marked distinction is ob- 

 servable between the attributes of the scald-crow and those of the 

 raven ; the scald-crow, or cornix, being represented in the written as in 

 the spoken traditions of the country, not alone as a bird of omen, but 

 as an agent in the fulfilment of what is in dono (in dan), or decreed for 

 a person, whilst the raven is simply regarded as a bird of prey, winch 



