referred to the days of the week respectively, as the three colours of his hair possibly did to the three parts of the day. And a reference to the appearance of the sun shorn of his rays may have been originally involved in the fancy which made Cúchulainn's hair get absorbed into his body, leaving a blood-red drop marking the place of each individual hair, when he was engaged in any great physical effort.[1] This was, however, only a small part of the distortion which he underwent when he was hard pressed in battle: he prepared himself for action after sleep or illness by drawing his hand over his face, which had the effect of making him red all over, and of driving his lethargy from him;[2] but when he got thoroughly angry with his antagonists, the calves of his legs would twist round till they were where his shins should have been; his mouth became large enough to contain a man's head; his liver and his lungs could be seen swinging in his throat and mouth; every hair on his body became as sharp as a thorn, and a drop of blood or a spark of fire stood on each; one of his eyes became as small as a needle's, or else it sank back into his head further than a heron could have reached with its beak, while the other protruded itself to a corresponding length. These contortions won for him the nickname of the Riastartha, or the Distorted One; but it was given him by the men of
- ↑ Windisch, p. 265; also Bk. of the Dun, 59a, 72a.
- ↑ Windisch, pp. 212, 216; Bk. of the Dun, 78b.
disch, p. 279), was probably the original number, corresponding to the eight days of the pagan week. It would not, perhaps, be refining too much to regard the four dimples as referring to the four days of the noinden or half-week.
