Pagan Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

The Romance of the Early Kings.

THE ROMANCE OF LABRAID THE VOYAGER, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF DIND RICH.

Authorities : " Keatins;'s History," "Annals of the Four Mas ers," " Annals of Clonmacnoise," &c. The Romance entitled " The Destruction of Dind Righ," Edited by Dr. Whitley Stokes, (Zcitschrijt fur Celt. Phil, Band III.)

The first story I have to tell is not a pleasant one. There was in the year of the world 4567 (633 B.C.) a king of Tara who reigned forty years and who was the ancestor of nearly all the chief families of Ulster, Leinster and Connaught. His name was Ugaine M6r or Ugaine " The Great," and after his death he was succeeded as king of Erin by his son Laegaire (Leary) Lore. Laegaire had a brother who lived at the Hill of the Kings (Dind Righ) in the present Co. Carlow, and ruled over a part of Leinster called Breagh or Bregia. His name was Cobthach (Cova, now Coffey), and he so wasted away with envy at the better fortune of his brother that he was called Cobthach Caol or Coffey the Lean. He at last made up his mind to murder his brother, and gave out that he was dead in order to induce Laegaire to come and see him. He had himself laid out in his chariot like a dead man prepared for the funeral, and caused messengers to be sent to Laegaire to bid him come to perform the burial rites.

When Laegaire, suspecting nothing and full of sympathy, came and leaned over his brother, bewailing his death, the unnatural Cobthach raised himself up, and plunged a knife into Laegaire's side, killing him on the spot. He followed up this act of treachery by poisoning Laegaire's son Ailill, and then he seized on the kingdom. Now Ailill left one son named Maen, a mere child, who was found to be dumb, and who therefore, according to the old Irish law that no prince with a bodily defect could reign at Tarn, was incapable of becoming a danger to Cobthach. For this reason his life was spared, and he was placed under the charge of two tutors, Crafline, a harpist, and Ferceirtne, a poet.

Under their care he grew up to youthfulness, and it was noticed by everybody that he was a princely looking young man, but without the gift of speech. One day he was exercising with other lads on the playing ground when one of them struck him. In his effort to retaliate and express his disapproval, the spell that was on his tongue gave way, and the young man spoke. "Maen speaks! Maen speaks!" (" Labhraidh Maen ") cried all the lads, gathering about him and, in the excitement of the moment, quite forgetting the quarrel ; and Craftine exclaimed, " The Prince shall henceforth bear the name of Labraid (Lowra) which means ' he speaks ' Maen, in remembrance of this day."

The news of the wonderful event came to the ears of the King, and he laid a plan by which he might entrap Labraid and get rid of him out of the kingdom. He summoned Labraid and his tutors to the Feast of Tara. When the feasting was over, the poets and singers began praising the virtues of the monarch of Erin, as was their custom. While this was going on, the King asked of all present, " Who is the most hospitable man in Erin?" "Yourself," replied all the courtiers in turn : but Craftine the harper said, "It is Labraid Maen who is the most hospitable man; for when I went to him in spring for a gift, he killed his only ox for me"; and Ferceirtne said, " It is without doubt Labraid who is the most generous man; for when I went to him in winter, being in distress, he had but one cow and that he killed for me." When Cobthach heard that, he was furious. " If Labraid is so much better than I am," he said, " you both may go with him, for in Erin be shall not remain," and he drove them from his presence. " The loss will be greater to you than to us," they replied. This turned out to be so ; for they took refuge with the King of West Munster, where Labraid married Moriath, the beautiful daughter of the King, who promised him the aid of all his forces to recover the kingdom of Leinster. They were at first unsuccessful, for the forces of Cobthach were too strong, and Labraid was forced to withdraw for a time from his native land and take refuge in Britain and France.

He, however, kept up a correspondence with his friends at home, and having distinguished himself in the military service of the King of France, he at last disclosed his name and birth and asked the king for help in regaining his rightful inheritance. The king at once consented, and the host landed at the mouth of the River Slaney, in Wexford, and being joined by the men of Munster, they marched to Dind Righ, the palace of the kings of Leinster, now occupied by a strong garrison of Cobthach 's troops. They tried in vain to scale the ramparts and were beginning to despair of taking the fortress, when Craftine took out his harp and, walking round the walls, he played on it the slumberstrain, an air so sweet and soothing that all the garrison were lulled by it into deep and delicious slumber. Outside, the hosts of Labraid lay prone on the ground with their fingers in their ears that they might not hear the melody, all except the Princess Moriath who, after the custom of those days, had marched to battle beside her husband. She was too proud to shut out the sound of the music of their own harper, and she fell asleep, lying motionless for three days before the walls of Bind Righ, while the host marched up and took the fort, slaughtering the garrison and sacking the palace. Then Labraid possessed Leinster and he and Cobthach were at peace.

But Labraid never forgave the monarch of Erin for the injuries he had inflicted on him and for the slaughter of his father and grandfather. He bided his time and slowly and with cunning cruelty he took his revenge. He built a strong house of iron, enclosed in wood. It took a whole year to build and was constructed with the greatest secrecy, so that from the curiosity that men felt about this house a proverb arose, " The secrets of the men of Leinster are as many as themselves." When it was finished, Cobthach and thirty of his chiefs were invited to feast in the marvellous new house at Bind Righ. Apparently the king was suspicious, and, in order to allay his fears, Labraid 's mother and his jester were sent within the mansion to welcome him. The jester was bribed to sacrifice himself by the promise of the blessing of the men of Leinster for ever and the freedom of all his descendants from slavery ; but the woman needed no bribe, for it was she who had urged her son to avenge the death of her husband and his own wrongs, and she gloried in the deed.

Next day, when the monarch of Erin and his courtiers were resting in the house, Labraid, apparently afraid to begin his horrid work, was found playing with the young men of his court in the meadow. There his tutor found him, and he chastised the prince with a thorn stick, telling him that he ought to be in the house looking after his guests. " Apparently the murder thou hadst in hand was only a boy's freak after all," he said; " away and set about your task."

Then the prince felt that the time had come, and he put on his royal mantle and entered the house, and ordered meat and ale and fire to be brought in. When they were all feasting inside he slipped out, and nine appointed men dragged to the heavy iron door with a chain and flung the chain over a pillar stone to fix it. Between the iron and the wooden walls they lighted great fires and blew them up with thrice fifty bellows of the forge. As the iron walls grew hot, the men outside reminded Labraid that his mother was in the house, and he called to her to escape. " Nay, nay ; my darling son," she cried, " secure thy honour through my death ; for I am old, and in any case I soon must die." So the iron walls grew red hot, and all within, Cobthach and his chiefs and all his followers, perished on the eve of Great Christmas three hundred years before the birth of Christ. This is the Destruction of Dind Righ in Leinster.

Some stories say that after this Labraid went into foreign lands and gained a realm as far as the Ictian Sea (the English Channel). They say that he brought two thousand and more followers with him to Ireland and settled them in Leinster and from the broad lances that they carried in their hands they called the district Laighen, from whom the Leinstermen are named. And it is from Laegaire the grandfather of Labraid, whom Cobthach slew, that the chief families of Leinster are descended.

It is related of Labraid Loingseach that his ears resembled those of a horse he was so ashamed of this that once a year, when his hair was cut, the barber was immediately put to death in case the secret became known. Lots were drawn to determine who should exercise the fatal office. The lot fell once on the only son of a widow woman, whose distress was so great that the king promised to spare her son if he took an oath of secrecy. The youth was, however, so horrified with what he saw and so oppressed with the secret, that he felt he must divulge it to someone or die. A Druid bid him go to four cross roads and impart the secret to the first tree he came across. This the youth did and instantly felt relieved. Years after, the tree, a willow, was cut down and a harp made from its wood for Craftine, the harper. But when they strung it, it seemed to everyone to say "Two ears of a horse has Labraid Loingseach," and this it went on crying until the king, regretting that he had put to death so many of his subjects, himself revealed the secret to everybody.