Now when Conor pursued hard upon King Ailill, Ferloga, the charioteer
of Ailill, lighted down and hid himself in the heather; and as Conor
drove past, Ferloga leaped up behind him in the chariot and gripped
him by the throat.
"What will thou have of me?" said Conor.
"Give over the pursuit," said Ferloga, "and take me with thee to
Emania,[19] and let the maidens of Emania so long as I am there sing
a serenade before my dwelling every night."
[19] The ancient royal residence of Ulster, near to the present
town of Armagh.
"Granted," said Conor. So he took Ferloga with him to Emania, and at
the end of a year sent him back to Connacht, escorting him as far as
to Athlone; and Ferloga had from the King of Ulster two noble horses
with golden bridles, but the serenade from the maidens of Ulster he
did not get, though he got the horses instead. And thus ends the tale
of the contention between Ulster and Connacht over the Carving of mac
Datho's Boar.
CHAPTER VI
The Vengeance of Mesgedra
Atharna the Bard, surnamed the Extortionate, was the chief poet and
satirist of Ulster in the reign of Conor mac Nessa. Greed and
arrogance were in his heart and poison on his tongue, and the kings
and lords of whom he asked rewards for his poems dared not refuse him
aught, partly because of the poisonous satires and lampoons which he
would otherwise make upon them for their niggardliness, and partly for
that in Ireland at that day it was deemed shameful to refuse to a bard
whatsoever he might ask.
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