THE RED BRANCH


"There were giants in the earth in those days, the same
were mighty men which were of yore men of renown."


The Red Branch feasted one night in their great hall at Emain
Macha. So vast was the hall that a man, such as men are now,
standing in the centre and shouting his loudest, would not be
heard at the circumference, yet the low laughter of the King
sitting at one end was clearly audible to those who sat around the
Champion at the other. The sons of Dithorba made it, giants of the
elder time, labouring there under the brazen shoutings of Macha
and the roar of her sounding thongs. Its length was a mile and
nine furlongs and a cubit. With her brooch pin she ploughed its
outline upon the plain, and its breadth was not much less. Trees
such as the earth nourished then upheld the massy roof beneath
which feasted that heroic brood, the great-hearted children of
Rury, huge offspring of the gods and giants of the dawn of time.
For mighty exceedingly were these men. At the noise of them
running to battle all Ireland shook, and the illimitable Lir
[Footnote: Lir was the sea-god, the Oceanns of the Celt; no doubt
the same as the British Lear, the wild, white-headed old king, who
had such singular daughters; two, monsters of cruelty, and one,
exquisitely sweet, kind, and serene, viz.: Storm, Hurricane, and
Calm.] trembled in his watery halls; the roar of their brazen
chariots reverberated from the solid canopy of heaven, and their
war-steeds drank rivers dry.