<> Conary Linen Hall Library 1880 Linen Hall Library Saturday, March 12, 2016 TIFF Ferg014 Manuscript Ailill, Shadow, Flesh English https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/ferg014 Linen Hall Library Linen Hall Library Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Ferg014_2.jpg LHL Archive When strife fell out in Tara Luachra's hall Around Cuchullin and the butchering bands Of treacherous Maeve and Ailill, they were there." " To-night their pipes shall play us to our ships With strains of triumph ; or their fingers' ends Shall never close the stops of music more," So Ingcel ; but again said Ferragon, " Men of the Sidhs they are : to strike at them Is striking at a shadow. If 'tis they, Shun this assault ; for I have also heard At the first tuning of these elvish pipes Nor crow nor cormorant round all the coasts But hastens to partake the flesh of men." " Flesh ye shall have, of Ingcel's enemies, All fowl that hither flap the wing to-night 1 And music too at table, as it seems. What further sawest thou ? " " On a broader bench Three vast-proportioned warriors, by whose side The slender pipers showed as small as wrens. In their first greyness they ; grey-dark their robes, Grey-dark their swords enormous, of an edge To slice the hair on water. He who sits The midmost of the three grasps with both hands A spear of fifty rivets, and so sways Text