that ferried passengers across to Labraid's Isle. Further, the allusion to Cúchulainn's finding his rations served as usual at the court, seems to mean that his seat had been occupied during the days of his absence in quest of the Sons of Dóel Dermait; and the story of Pwyỻ suggests the explanation that it had been all the while filled by the son of the king of Alban as Cúchulainn's substitute, bearing the personal semblance of Cúchulainn so completely that the absence of the real Cúchulainn was not discovered by his comrades: this was probably the virtue of the ogam which Cúchulainn wrote on the little spear the prince was to carry with him to Conchobar's court at Emain. That the tale was at one time more explicit with regard to Cúchulainn's substitute, is rendered certain by the terms in which he ordered the prince from Alban to go to the court: they are to the effect that he was to go and occupy Cúchulainn's seat at Emain Macha till he returned.[1] Finally, as to the geography of Cúchulainn's voyage, the two first islands he reaches are not exactly Hades, but they are near it, especially the one occupied by C. C. Corrbacc and Achtlann his wife; for not only does this latter name betray itself by its likeness to Taliessin's Ochren and the Achren[2] with which the latter has
- ↑ Windisch gives them thus: Erich co ro bi im shuidhi-se ind Emain Macha corris, and translates, Mach dich auf, bis dass es an meinem Sitze in Emain Macha ist, dass da ankommst (pp. 178, 196). But I take them literally to mean, 'Arise, so that thou be in my seat at Emain Macha until I come.'
- ↑ This would require us to correct the spelling Achtlann to Acclann; possibly, however, the Irish name is to be treated as correct and as the equivalent of what appears in the story of Kulhwch and Olwen as Acthlem (for Aethlen?), said to have followed Twrch Trwyth into the sea to be never heard of afterwards: see the R. B. Mab. pp. 125, 141.
