before she had already captured the
bull and sent it into her own land. There it was fought by the
Findbennach and slew it, rushing back to Ulster with the mangled body on
its horns. But in its frenzy a rock seemed to be another bull, which it
charged; its brains were dashed out, and it fell dead.

The Morrigan had warned the bull of the approach of Medb's army, and she
had also appeared in the form of a beautiful woman to Cuchulainn
offering him her love, only to be repulsed. Hence she turned against
him, and described how she would oppose him as an eel, a wolf, and a red
heifer--an incident which is probably a variant of that already
described.[460] In each of these shapes she was conquered and wounded by
the hero, and knowing that none whom he hurt could be healed save by
himself, she appeared to him as an old crone milking a cow. At each
draught of the milk which he received from her he blessed her with "the
blessing of gods and not-gods," and so her wounds were healed.[461] For
this, at a later time, she tried to ward off his death, but
unsuccessfully. During the progress of the _Tain_, one of Cuchulainn's
"fairy kinsmen," namely, Lug, who announced himself as his father,
appeared to aid him, while others of the Tuatha Dea threw "herbs of
healing" into the streams in which his wounds were washed.[462]

During the _Tain_, Cuchulainn slaughtered the wizard Calatin and his
daughters. But Calatin's wife bore three posthumous sons and three
daughters, and through their means the hero was at last slain.
Everything was done to keep him back from the host which now advanced
against Ulster, but finally one of Calatin's daughters took the form of
Niamh and bade him go forth. As he passed to the fight, Calatin's
daughters persuaded him to eat the flesh of a dog--a fatal deed, for it
was one of his _geasa_ never to eat dog's flesh. So it was that in the
fight he was slain by Lugaid,[463] and his soul appeared to the thrice
fifty queens who had loved him, chanting a mystic song of the coming of
Christ and the day of doom--an interesting example of a phantasm
coincidental with death.[464] This and other Christian touches show that
the Christian redactors of the saga felt tenderly towards the old pagan
hero. This is even more marked in the story in which he appears to King
Loegaire and S. Patrick, begging the former to believe in God and the
saint, and praying Patrick to "bring me with thy faithful ones unto the
land of the livi