Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/276

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260
III. THE CULTURE HERO.

land of Scáth: the term Scáth means shadow or shade, and is of the same origin as the English word. His story runs thus:[1]

"A journey I made, Loegaire,
     When I went to the land of Scath;
There was the fort of Scath with its lock of iron—
     I laid hands upon it.
Seven walls there were around this city;
     Hateful was its stronghold:
An iron palisade there was on each wall,
     On which seven heads were biding;
Doors of iron there were on every side;
     No serious defences against women.
I struck them with my foot,
     So that they fell into fragments.
A pit there was in the fort,
     That belonged to the king, as they say;
Ten serpents burst forth
     Over its brim[2]—it was a deed!
Thereupon I ran at them,
     Though the throng was huge,
And reduced them to bits
     Between my two fists.
There was a house full of toads,
     That were let loose upon us,
Sharp and beaked beasts
     That clave to my snout.
Ugly dragon-like monsters
     Were sent against us;

  1. The text occupies folios 113—115 in the Book of the Dun, and it has been published, with a translation and notes, by Mr. O'Beirne Crow, in the Journal of the Kilkenny Arch. Society for 1870-1, pp. 371—448. Important corrections will be found in Stokes' Remarks on the Celtic Additions to Curtius' Greek Etymology, &c. (Calcutta, 1875), pp. 55-7.
  2. Somewhat similar adventures are related of Connall Cernach in the story called Táin Bó Fráich: see the Bk. of Leinster, 252a, and the whole story as published with a translation by O'Beirne Crow in the R. Ir. Academy's Irish MS. Series, i. 136—171.