“Depart then from me!” said she:  “I am a female satirist in truth,” she said, “and he is Daire mac Fiachna from Cualnge:  I have brought the cow as fee for a master-poem.”  “Let me hear the poem then,” said Cuchulain.  “Only remove thyself from me,” said the woman; “it is none[FN#124] the better for thee that thou shakest it over my head.”  Thereon he left her until he was between the two poles (ferta) of her chariot, and she sang to him[FN#125] . . . . . .  Cuchulain threw a spring at her chariot, and he saw not the horse, nor the woman, nor the chariot, nor the man, nor the cow.

[FN#122] Y.B.L. corrupt; Egerton version adopted here.

[FN#123] Little-mouthed-edge-equally-small-hair-short-spl
inter-much-clamour.

[FN#124] Not is it better for thee that” is in Egerton alone.

[FN#125] See the introduction for the omission of the poem.

Then he saw that she had become a black bird upon a branch near to him.  “A dangerous[FN#126] (or magical) woman thou art,” said Cuchulain:  “Henceforward,” said the woman, “this clay-land shall be called dolluid (of evil,)” and it has been the Grellach Dolluid ever since.  “If only I had known it was you,” said Cuchulain, “not thus should we have separated.”  “What thou hast done,” said she, “shall be evil to thee from it.”  “Thou hast no power against me,” said Cuchulain.  “I have power indeed,” said the woman; “it is at the guarding of thy death that I am; and I shall be,” said she.  “I brought this cow out of the fairy-mound of Cruachan, that she might breed by the Black Bull[FN#127] of Cualnge, that is the Bull of Daire Mae Fiachna.  It is up to that time that thou art in life, so long as the calf which is in this cow’s body is a yearling; and it is this that shall lead to the Tain bo Cualnge.”  “I shall myself be all the more glorious for that Tain,” said Cuchulain:  “I shall slay their warriors:  I shall break their great hosts:  I shall be survivor of the Tain.”

[FN#126] Windisch is doubtful about the meaning of this word.  He gives it as “dangerous” in his translation; it may also mean “magical,” though he thinks not.  In a note he says that the meaning “dangerous” is not certain.

[FN#127] In Egerton “the Dun of Cualnge.”

“In what way canst thou do this?” said the woman, “for when thou art in combat against a man of equal strength (to thee), equally rich in victories, thine equal in feats, equally fierce, equally untiring, equally noble, equally brave, equally great with thee, I will be an eel, and I will draw a noose about thy feet in the ford, so that it will be a great unequal war for thee.”  “I swear to the god that the Ulstermen swear by,” said Cuchulain, “I will break thee against a green stone of the ford; and thou shalt have no healing from me, if thou leavest me not.”  “I will in truth be a grey wolf against thee,” said she, “and I will strip a stripe[FN#128] from thee, from thy right (hand) till it extends to thy left.”