she had spent with her husband Manannán mac Lir in her bower at Dún Inbir, or the Fort of the Estuary. Nay, Fand's position in the unequal conflict with the ladies of Ulster became known to Manannán, the shape-shifting Son of the Sea, and he hastened over the plain to her rescue. 'What is that there?' inquired Cúchulainn. 'That,' said Loeg, 'is Fand going away with Manannán mac Lir, because she was not pleasing to thee.' At those words Cúchulainn went out of his mind, and leaped the three high leaps and the three southern leaps of Luachair.[1] He remained a long time without food and without drink, wandering on the mountains and sleeping nightly on the road of Midluachair. Emer went to consult the king about him, and it was resolved to send the poets, the professional men and the druids of Ulster, to seek him and bring him home to Emain. He would have slain them, but they chanted spells of druidism against him, whereby they were enabled to lay hold of his arms and legs. When he had recovered his senses a little, he asked for drink, and they gave him a drink of forgetfulness, which made him forget Fand and all his adventures: as Emer was not in a much better state of mind, the same drink was also administered to her; and Manannán had shaken his cloak between Fand and Cúchulainn that they might never meet again.
This story of Cúchulainn's Sick-bed calls for one
- ↑ The leaps referred to were places called Léim Conculainn, which were not uncommon in Ireland: so was Luachair, 'a place where rushes grow,' frequent enough, and is, in fact, so still. The one here in question is placed by O'Curry south of Emain, with the road of Midluachair from Emain to Tara passing through it: see the Atlantis, ij. p. 122.
