could understand, that the seers and poets should no longer arrogate to themselves the right to administer justice. Conchobar's time was one of great prosperity for his people, and he is himself styled Cathbuadach, or victorious in war,[1] though he is more than once found overcome by his enemies, like Zeus by Typho. Thus on one occasion a battle took place between the Ultonians and a prince called Eogan mac Durthacht,[2] who more than once in Conchobar's history appears as the representative of darkness and treachery: the Ultonians were beaten, Conchobar was left on the field, and night supervened. The king's life was only saved by the coming of Cúchulainn, who found him exhausted and almost wholly covered over with earth. He dug him out, procured food for him and took him home to the court.[3] On another occasion the Ultonians were pursuing Ailill and Medb with their forces, when Ailill's charioteer, called Ferloga, concealed himself in the heather, whence he sprang on Conchobar's chariot and seized hold of the king's neck from behind; nor did he loosen his grasp until the latter had promised to ransom himself. When Ferloga specified his demand, it proved to be merely that Conchobar should take him to his capital and bid the un-
- ↑ Bk. of the Dun, 128b; also 124a, where the Irish word occurs abbreviated in the MS. to each, first explained by Zimrner in his Keltische Studien (Berlin, 1881), i. 38-9.
- ↑ Durthacht, for which Dairthechta also occurs (see Windisch, s. v.), is probably of the same origin as the reduplicate doruthethaig, 'deperdidit,' Gram. Celt. p. 448 (incorrectly rendered celebravit at p. 351), and Stokes' Goidelica, pp. 4, 14; so that Mac Durthacht would seem to have had much the same meaning as the name of another character of the same class: I mean Mac Cuill, 'Son of Perdition or Destruction.'
- ↑ Bk. of the Dun, 59b, 60a.
