will be noble, and this shall be thy restriction,
i.e. thy tabu.

"Thou shalt not go righthandwise round Tara and lefthandwise round
Bregia.

"The evil-beasts of Cerna must not be hunted by thee.

"And thou shalt not go out every ninth night beyond Tara.

"Thou shalt not sleep in a house from which firelight is manifest
outside, after sunset, and in which light is manifest from without.

"And three Reds shall not go before thee to Red's house.

"And no rapine shall be wrought in thy reign.

"And after sunset a company of one woman or one man shall not enter the
house in which thou art.

"And thou shalt not settle the quarrel of thy two thralls.

Now there were in his reign great bounties, to wit, seven ships in every
June in every year arriving at Inver Colptha[5], and oakmast up to the
knees in every autumn, and plenty of fish in the rivers Bush and Boyne
in the June of each year, and such abundance of good will that no one
slew another in Erin during his reign. And to every one in Erin his
fellow's voice seemed as sweet as the strings of lutes. From mid-spring
to mid-autumn no wind disturbed a cow's tail. His reign was neither
thunderous nor stormy.

[Footnote 5: The mouth of the river Boyne.--W.S.]

Now his fosterbrothers murmured at the taking from them of their
father's and their grandsire's gifts, namely Theft and Robbery and
Slaughter of men and Rapine. They thieved the three thefts from the same
man, to wit, a swine and an ox and a cow, every year, that they might
see what punishment therefor the king would inflict upon them, and what
damage the theft in his reign would cause to the king.

Now every year the farmer would come to the king to complain, and the
king would say to him. "Go thou and address Donn Desa's three
great-grandsons, for 'tis they that have taken the beasts." Whenever he
went to speak to Donn Desa's descendants they would almost kill him, and
he would not return to the king lest Conaire should attend his hurt.

Since, then, pride and wilfulness possessed them, they took to
marauding, surrounded by the sons of the lords of the men of Erin.
Thrice fifty men had they as pupils when they (the pupils) were
were-wolfing in the province of Connaught, until Maine Milscothach's
swineherd saw them, and he had never seen that before. He went in
flight. When they heard him they pursued him. The swineherd shouted, and
the people of the two Maines came to him, and the thrice fifty men were