Connaught in the west,[1] whereas the courtesans of Ulster, looking at it in a different light, inflicted on themselves, by way of love for him, one of the so-called Three Blemishes of the Women of Ulster, which were as follows. Every Ultonian lady who loved Cúchulainn made herself blind of one eye when conversing with him; every one who loved Conall Cernach, who was cross-eyed, appeared to squint; and every one who loved the stuttering Ultonian hero, Coscraid Menn Macha, laid her speech under an impediment[2]—all three instances of very earnest flattery, which one can, however, easily understand by studying cases of acute loyalty in this country. Now when Cúchulainn was distorted with anger and battle-fury, he became gigantic in size,[3] and made no distinction between friends and foes, but felled all before and behind equally; so it was highly dangerous to stop him from fighting till he felt that he had enough, and when he stopped it was requisite to have three baths ready for him of cold water: the first he plunged into would instantly boil over, and the second would be too hot for anybody else to bear, while the third alone would be of congenial temperature.[4] Whether this has any reference to solar heat or not, the same peculiarity of Cúchulainn's is described in another way: during hard weather he would sit down with the snow reaching to his girdle and
- ↑ Bk. of the Dun, 59a, 72a, and 79b, where a remarkable passage occurs about 'his lights' (scoim, Welsh ysgyfaint) and 'his heavies' (tromma, Welsh afu, 'liver'):—Táncatár ascoim ⁊ a tromma combátár ar etelaig inabél ⁊ inabrágit.
- ↑ Windisch, pp. 206-7; also Stokes, Rev. Celt. viij. 61.
- ↑ Bk. of Leinster, 86b; O'Curry, iij. 448-9.
- ↑ Windisch, p. 220; Bk. of the Dun, 63a, 72a.
