driving away nor tell her true name—­an instance of the well-known name tabu.  Morrigan took the form of a bird, and was then recognised by Cuchulainn, who poured scorn upon her, while she promised to oppose him during the fight of the Tain in the forms of an eel, a wolf, and a cow, all of which he vowed to destroy.[459] Like many others in the saga, this story is introductory to the main episode of the Tain.  To this we now turn.

Medb had been wife of Conchobar, but, leaving him, had married in succession two chiefs called Ailill, the second of whom had a bull, Findbennach, the White-horned, which she resolved to match by one in every way its equal.  Having been refused the Brown Bull of Cuailgne, she summoned all her forces to invade Ulster.  The moment was inauspicious for Ulster, for all its men were suffering from their “debility.”  Cuchulainn, therefore, went out to encounter the host, and forced Medb to agree that a succession of her warriors should engage him in single combat.  Among these was his old friend Ferdia, and nothing is so touching as his reluctance to fight him or so pathetic as his grief when Ferdia falls.  The reluctance is primarily due to the tie of blood-brotherhood existing between them.  Finally, the Ulstermen rose in force and defeated Medb, but not before she had already captured the bull and sent it into her own land.  There it was fought by the Findbennach and slew it, rushing back to Ulster with the mangled body on its horns.  But in its frenzy a rock seemed to be another bull, which it charged; its brains were dashed out, and it fell dead.

The Morrigan had warned the bull of the approach of Medb’s army, and she had also appeared in the form of a beautiful woman to Cuchulainn offering him her love, only to be repulsed.  Hence she turned against him, and described how she would oppose him as an eel, a wolf, and a red heifer—­an incident which is probably a variant of that already described.[460] In each of these shapes she was conquered and wounded by the hero, and knowing that none whom he hurt could be healed save by himself, she appeared to him as an old crone milking a cow.  At each draught of the milk which he received from her he blessed her with “the blessing of gods and not-gods,” and so her wounds were healed.[461] For this, at a later time, she tried to ward off his death, but unsuccessfully.  During the progress of the Tain, one of Cuchulainn’s “fairy kinsmen,” namely, Lug, who announced himself as his father, appeared to aid him, while others of the Tuatha Dea threw “herbs of healing” into the streams in which his wounds were washed.[462]