Conall replied in the same wild strain and bade Cét leave the carver's place, which the latter did, sullenly remarking that Conall would not carve had his brother Anluan been present. 'But he is present,' rejoined the impetuous Conall, pulling Anluan's head from his girdle and hurling it at Cét. After this, Conall began to divide the swine among his friends, and by the time he had finished he had himself eaten the nine men's burden. As to the warriors of Connaught, there was left for them only the two fore feet of the animal, which they did not consider quite enough. Then followed a promiscuous fight, in which Mesroida let his fierce Cerberus take a part: on the whole, the men of the West got the worst of it, and the pursuit of them began, in the course of which the Ferloga incident happened (p. 142). This story is clearly another version of the victory of the Sun-god, and the remarkable feature of it is, that Conall Cernach, that is to say in terms borrowed from other stories, Cúchulainn's avenger, slayer of Ailill[1] of Cruachan, and beheader of Mesroida's brother Mesgegra (p. 329), is the one permitted to divide the carcase of Mesroida's swine, and also, more than all others, to devour it: he is par excellence the avenging Sun-hero.[2]
The porcine representation of darkness was not peculiar to the ancient Irish; traces of the same sort of nature myth are to be found also in Wales; for to return to
- ↑ O'Curry, ij. 291.
- ↑ As a picture of manners, I leave the story to tell its own tale: it is in this respect one of the most striking within the whole range of Irish literature; and the incident has been treated by Prof. Zimmer in his Kelt. Studien, ij. 189—193; also by M Duvau in the Rev. Arch. viij. 336.
