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Truly since the beginning of the world there was not, and to the end of the world there will not be, a better leaper than thy nursling, daughter of Cathvah; and behind him all the lawn was as it were sown thick with spears, and these so buried in the earth that two-thirds of their length was concealed and a third only projected slantwise from the green and glittering sward.
'No, father, replied the boy. 'It will then be difficult to persuade the king to knight thee and enrol thee among his knights, said Cathvah. 'Yet this must be done to-morrow, for it has been revealed to me that he whom Concobar MacNessa shall present with arms to-morrow, will be renowned to the most distant ages, and to the ends of the earth.
Orders being immediately given for the marriage to proceed, they were made one with all speed; and it is said, that before another year came round, the fair princess was one of the most beautiful objects in the creation. One night in the month of the fires of Bel, Cathvah, the Druid and star-gazer, was observing the heavens through his astrological instruments.
He was now a man's full height, but his face was a boy's face, and his strength and agility amazed all who observed him in his exercises. "Has thou heard what Cathvah has predicted concerning the youth who is knighted on that day?" said the King. "Yes," answered the lad. "That he will be famous and short-lived and unhappy?" "Truly," he replied. "And doth thy purpose still hold?"
Then said Concobar: "Many are the prophecies which came wandering down upon the mouths of men, but they are not all to be trusted alike. Of those which have passed thy lips, O Cathvah, we utterly reject the last, and think the less of thee for having reported it.
Then Cathvah, the Ard-Druid, put on his divining apparel and took his divining instruments in his hands, and made his symbols of power upon the air. And at first he was silent, and, being in a trance, stared out before him with wide eyes full of wonder and amazement, directing his gaze to the east. In the end he cried out with a loud voice, and prophesying, sang this lay: "Yea, he is coming.
"He is colder than ice, his eyes shine terribly, and his teeth clatter, but he says that he is hotter than fire." The Leech went to Cuculain. "This is not a work for me," he said, "but for a seer. Bring hither Cathvah and his Druids." Cathvah and and his seers came. They made their symbols of power over the youth and chanted their incantations and Druid songs. After that Cuculain slept.
Dectera bare a son to Sualtam, and they called him Setanta, That was his first name. His nurse was Dethcaen, the druidess, daughter of Cathvah the druid, the mighty wizard and prophet of the Crave Rue. So even the Christian hymn of St. His mother gave the child suck, but the rosy-cheeked, beautiful, sweetly-speaking daughter of Cathvah nursed him.
But now I say, ere we consider what province or territory shall first see the embattled Red Branch cross her borders, let us enquire of Cathvah the Ard-Druid, whether the omens be propitious, and whether through his art he is able to reveal to us some rite to be performed or prohibition to be observed."
When Cathvah had made an end of speaking there was a great silence in the hall. "And dear the school-boy spot We ne'er forget though there we are forgot." "There were his young barbarians all at play." In the morning Fergus Mac Roy said to the young king, "What shall we do this day, O Concobar?
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