ANOTHER YOUNG KING.
Fill me a horn too, Daire.
ANOTHER YOUNG KING.
If I'd drunk half that you have drunk to-day
I'd be upon all fours.
DAIRE.
That would be natural
When Mother Earth had given you this good milk
From her great breasts.
CUCHULLAIN.
(to one of the young Kings beside him)
One is content awhile
With a soft warm woman who folds up our lives
In silky network. Then, one knows not why,
But one's away after a flinty heart.
THE YOUNG KING.
How long can the net keep us?
CUCHULLAIN.
All our lives
If there are children, and a dozen moons
If there are none, because a growing child
Has so much need of watching it can make
A passion that's as changeable as the sea
Change till it holds the wide earth to its heart.
At least I have heard a father say it, but I
Being childless do not know it. Come nearer yet;
Though he is ringing that old silver rod
41
