and _The Fair Maid of Perth_, but also from the "cattle-drives" which have
been resorted to in our own day in Ireland, though these latter had a
different motive than plunder. As has been observed by Sir Henry Sumner
Maine, Lord Macaulay was mistaken in ascribing this custom to "some native
vice of Irish character," for, as every student of ancient Ireland may
perceive, it is rather to be regarded as "a survival, an ancient and
inveterate habit" of the race.

One of these many Cattle-preys was the Táin Bó Cúalnge,[4] which, there can
be little doubt, had behind it no mere myth but some kernel of actual
fact. Its historical basis is that a Connacht chieftain and his lady went
to war with Ulster about a drove of cattle. The importance of a racial
struggle between the north-east province and the remaining four grand
provinces of Ireland cannot be ascribed to it. There is, it is true, strong
evidence to show that two chief centres, political, if not cultural and
national, existed at the time of the Táin in Ireland, Cruachan Ai, near the
present Rathcroghan in Connacht, and Emain Macha, the Navan Fort, two miles
west of Armagh in Ulster, and it is with the friendly or hostile relations
of these two that the Ultonian cycle of tales deals. Ulster, or, more
precisely, the eastern portion of the Province, was the scene of all the
Cattle-raids, and there is a degree of truth in the couplet,--

"Leinster for breeding, And Ulster for reaving;
Munster for reading, And Connacht for thieving."

But there are no indications of a racial clash or war of tribes. With the
exception of the Oghamic writings inscribed on the pillar-stones by
Cuchulain, which seem to require interpretation to the men of Connacht by
Ulstermen, the description of the warriors mustered by the Connacht warrior
queen and those gathered round King Conchobar of Ulster accord quite