hope that it would perish in the flames. It was, however, all in vain, for it made its way out of the fire and flew westwards, till it reached the dark cave of Ferna, in the district of Coreaguiny, the most western part of Kerry. There it abode, making the country a desert, so that Finn and his men durst not hunt there.[1]
Now the meaning of this hideous tale is perfectly clear: Cian represents the light of the sun, and the worm born with him is a personification of darkness and winter. The ever-repeated sequence of light and darkness, of summer and winter, is here typified in even a more remarkable manner than by the birth of Llew and Dylan from the same mother; and it is curious to notice that the story locates the dark cave inhabited by the all-devouring worm, in the country with which the name of Diarmait is also associated. Had the story reached us in a complete and consistent form, we should perhaps have been told that Cian was killed by the worm; but, as it happens, we have only another account of his death, which brings that event into a sort of connection with the story of Cúchulainn. For one evening, as Cian was traversing the Plain of Murthemne, with which Cúchulainn is associated in other stories, he espied the three sons of Tuirenn, his determined foes, Brian, Iuchair and Iucharba. So he changed himself into the form of one of the swine that he saw not far off, and joined them in rooting the ground; but Brian suspecting this, immediately changed his brothers into two fleet hounds, who soon found out the druidic pig. Brian then wounded the beast: the latter asked to be spared, which was declined; but he
- ↑ Pursuit of Diarmuid, ij. §§ 3—8.
