developed them into an odious triad of murder, disgrace and treachery.[1] All this was doubtless based on the character ascribed to Lugaid; and a similar conclusion is to be drawn from the story of Conall Cernach avenging the death of his friend Cúchulainn on Lugaid by slaying him and carrying away his head as a trophy. On his return homewards, Conall, meeting his comrades, laid the head down on the top of a stone, where it was forgotten by him; and when one was despatched to bring it away, it was found to have corroded its way through the stone: such appears to have been the virulence of its nature.
Other accounts make Erc the slayer of Cúchulainn: his name has its explanation in its Welsh equivalent erch, 'dun, horrible,' Gr. πέρκος, which seems to indicate that he belonged to the same class of dark beings as Lugaid. As the slayer of Cúchulainn, he also is described having his head cut off by Conall, and the tragedy is much deepened by the account given of the grief of Acall, Erc's wife, or, according to another version, his sister, who dies of a broken heart.[2] But such a story would have many forms, and one other of those extant makes Conall slay a king of Leinster under circumstances which might be not inaccurately described as those of the deaths of Lugaid and of Erc taken together to make one tragedy. There had been a great battle at the end of Aitherne's unspeakable progress, and in the battle the king of Leinster had slain two brothers of Conall. It should be explained that the king's name was Mesgegra mac Dáthó, who was a decidedly dark personage (p. 330), and that Conall, arriving after the battle had been fought,
