When he broke the ninth the horses of Macha
neighed from their stable. Great fear fell upon the host when they
heard that unusual noise and the reverberation of it in the woods
and hills.
"Let those horses be harnessed to the Chariot of Macha," cried
Concobar, "and let Laeg, son of the King of Gabra, drive them
hither, for those are the horses and that the chariot which shall
be given this day to Cuculain."
Then, son of Sualtam, how in thy guileless breast thy heart
leaped, when thou heardest the thundering of the great war-car and
the wild neighing of the immortal steeds, as they broke from the
dark stable into the clear-shining light of day, and heard behind
them the ancient roaring of the brazen wheels as in the days when
they bore forth Macha and her martial groom against the giants of
old, and mightily established in Eiriu the Red Branch of the
Ultonians! Soon they rushed to view from the rear of Emain,
speeding forth impetuously out of the hollow-sounding ways of the
city and the echoing palaces into the open, and behind them in the
great car green and gold, above the many-twinkling wheels, the
charioteer, with floating mantle, girt round the temples with the
gold fillet of his office, leaning backwards and sideways as he
laboured to restrain their fury unrestrainable; a grey long-maned
steed, whale-bellied, broad-chested, with mane like flying foam,
under one silver yoke, and a black lustrous, tufty-maned steed
under the other, such steeds as in power, size, and beauty the
earth never produced before and never will produce again.
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