breaks up in a hand-to-hand contest, in which ‘they so buffeted each other that the dead bodies on either side of the house rose almost as high as the side-walls, and streams of blood flowed under the doors.’ The contest for the ‘champion’s portion,’ the hospitality shown before unpleasant matters were referred to, the carrying of the heads of the slain enemies in the belt, the barbarian pride which counts its dignity by the number of the foes that have been slain, the hasty springing to arms, all these points, which attracted the attention of the Roman observer, come out in this story.
Before leaving this part of the subject, we must further illustrate the observation of Diodorus that the bards exercised their authority by stepping in between combatants and quelling these frequent and bloody feuds by their authority.
In the Feast of Bricriu, where a terrible contest arose out of the apportionment of the champion’s portion, it is said:—‘The guests sprang upon the floor and seized their swords. They hewed at each other till the flashing of swords and spear-edges seemed to set the room aflame on one side, while on the other side the glittering of their checked shields made a white sheet of light. Great fear fell on the palace: the valiant heroes trembled. None among the men of Ulster dared separate them till Sencha, the bard, said to the king, “Let the men be parted.”
‘Then Conor and Fergus went between them. “Obey my behest,” said the bard. “It shall be obeyed,” they said. Their arms drop instantly to their sides, and the feast is renewed with as much joviality as though it had never been broken up’ (Fled Bricrend, p. 17).
Again, in the tale called Mesca Ulad, there seems to be no cause whatever for the sudden attack made upon each other by the men who go security for Fintan and Cuchulain (p. 9), and who suddenly, while arrangements are being made for a friendly banquet, ‘advance savagely and with such fierceness, that nine were covered with wounds, and nine with blood, and nine others were in the agonies of death on the one side or the other.’ Sencha has to rise and ‘wave the
