The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge, page 289 by Unknown
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throng of champions and battle-heroes cutting down with their swords the woods in the way of their chariots. This it was that hath put the wild animals to flight on the plain, so that the grassy forelocks of the field of Meath are hidden beneath them!"
[1-1] YBL. 46a, 2.
[2-2] YBL. 46a, 1-2.
[3-3] Stowe and H. 1. 13.
[4-4] YBL. 46a, 3-4.
Another time macRoth surveyed the plain and he saw something: A heavy, grey mist that filled [5]the glens and the slopes,[5] [6]the upper void and veil,[6] the space between the heavens and earth. It seemed to him that [7]the hills[7] were islands in lakes that he saw rising up out of the sloping [W.5044.] valleys of mist. It seemed to him they were wide-yawning caverns that he saw there leading into that mist. It seemed to him it was all-white, flaxy sheets of linen, or sifted snow a-falling that he saw there through a rift in the mist. It seemed to him it was a flight of many, varied, wonderful, numerous birds [1]that he[a] saw in the same mist,[1] or the constant sparkling of shining stars [LL.fo.96a.] on a bright, clear night of hoar-frost, or sparks of red-flaming fire. He heard something: A rush and a din and a hurtling sound, a noise and a thunder, a tumult and a turmoil, [2]and a great wind that all but took the hair from his[b] head and threw him[c] on his[b] back, and yet the wind of the day was not great.[2] He hastened on to impart these tidings at the place where were Ailill and Medb and Fergus and the nobles of the men of Erin. He reported the matter to them.
[5-5] YBL. 45b, 40-41.
[6-6] Stowe.
[7-7] YBL. 45b, 41.
[a] MS.: 'I.'
[1-1] Stowe and H. 1. 13.
[2-2] YBL. 45b, 46-46a, 1.
[b] MS. 'my.'
[c] MS. 'me.'
"But what was that, O Fergus?" asked Ailill. "Not hard to say," Fergus made answer. "This was the great, grey mist that he saw which filled the space between the heavens and earth, namely, the streaming breath both of horses and men, the smoke of the earth and the d