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had struck my eye out I had been looking on her still."
Then Conor arose and called for his guards and bade them bring the sons of Usna before him for maiming his
messenger. And the guards went; but first Buino,son of Fergus, with his retinue, met them, and at the sword's
point drove them back; but Naisi and Deirdre continued quietly to play chess, "For," said Naisi, "it is not
seemly that we should seek to defend ourselves while we are under the protection of the sons of Fergus." But
Conor went to Buino, and with a great gift of lands he bought him over to desert his charge. Then Illan took
up the defence of the Red Branch Hostel, but the two sons of Conor slew him. And then at last Naisi and his
brothers seized their weapons and rushed amid the foe, and many were they who fell before the onset. Then
Conor entreated Cathbad the Druid to cast spells upon them lest they should get away and become the
enemies of the province, and he vowed to do them no hurt if they were taken alive. So Cathbad conjured up,
as it were, a lake of slime that seemed to be about
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the feet of the sons of Usna, and they could not tear their feet from it, and Naisi caught up Deirdre and put her
on his shoulder, for they seemed to be sinking in the slime. Then the guards and servants of Conor seized and
bound them and brought them before the king. And the king called upon man after man to come forward and
slay the sons of Usna, but none would obey him, till at last Owen son of Duracht and Prince of Ferney came
and took the sword of Naisi, and with one sweep he shore off the heads of all three, and so they died.
Then Conor took Deirdre perforce, and for a year she abode with him in the palace in Emain Macha, but
during all that time she never smiled. At length Conor said: "What is it that you hate most of all on earth,
Deirdre ?" And she said : "Thou thyself and Owen son of Duracht," and Owen was standing by. "Then thou
shalt go to Owen for a year," said Conor. But when Deirdre mounted the chariot behind Owen she kept her
eyes on the ground, for she would not look on those who thus tormented her; and Conor said, taunting her :
"Deirdre, the glance of thee between me and Owen is the glance of a ewe between two rams." Then Deirdre
started up, and, flinging herself head foremost from the chariot, she dashed her head against a rock and fell
dead.
And when they buried her it is said there grew from her grave and from Naisi's two yew-trees, whose tops,
when they were full-grown, met each other over the roof of the great church of Armagh, and intertwined
together, and none could part them.
Chapter V: Tales of the Ultonian Cycle 95
Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race
The Rebellion of Fergus
When Fergus mac Roy came home to Emain Macha after the feast to which Baruch bade him and found
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the sons of Usna slain and one of his own sons dead and the other a traitor, he broke out against Conor in a
storm of wrath and cursing, and vowed to be avenged on him with fire and sword. And he went off
straightway to Connacht to take service of arms with Ailell and Maev, who were king and queen of that
country.
Queen Maev
But though Ailell was king, Maev was the ruler in truth, and ordered all things as she wished, and took what
husbands she wished, and dismissed them at pleasure; for she was as fierce and strong as a goddess of war,
and knew no law but her own wild will. She was tall, it is said, with a long, pale face and masses of hair
yellow as ripe corn. When Fergus came to her in her palace at Rathcroghan in Roscommon she gave him her
love, as she had given it to many before, and they plotted together how to attack and devastate the Province
of Ulster.
The Brown Bull of Quelgny
Now it happened that Maev possessed a famous red bull with white front and horns named Finnbenach, and
one day when she and Ailell were counting up their respective possessions and matching them against each
other he taunted her because the Finnbenach would not stay in the hands of a woman, but had attached
himself to Ailell's herd. So Maev in vexation went to her steward, mac Roth, and asked of him if there were
anywhere in Erin a bull as fine as the Finnbenach. "Truly," said the steward, "there is - for the Brown Bull of
Quelgny, that belongs to Dara son of Fachtna, is the mightiest beast that is in Ireland." And after that Maev
felt as if she had no flocks and
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herds that were worth anything at all unless she possessed the Brown Bull of Quelgny. But this was in Ulster,
and the Ulstermen knew the treasure they possessed, and Maev knew that they would not give up the hull
without fighting for it. So she and Fergus and Ailell agreed to make a foray against Ulster for the Brown Bull,
and thus to enter into war with the province, for Fergus longed for vengeance, and Maev for fighting, for
glory, and for the bull, and Audi to satisfy Maev.
Here let us note that this contest for the bull, which is the ostensible theme of the greatest of Celtic legendary
tales, the "Tam Bo Cuailgn ," has a deeper meaning than appears on the surface. An ancient piece of Aryan
mythology is embedded in it. The Brown Bull is the Celtic counterpart of the Hindu sky-deity, Indra,
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