The death of Cuchulainn in the "Book of Leinster" is one of the finest things in ancient literature. It has not yet been fully translated, but a partial translation of it by Mr Whitley Stokes appeared in the _Revue Celtique_ in 1876. An epitome of it here can hardly be out of place: When Cuchulainn's foes came against him for the last time, signs and portents showed that he was near his end. One of his horses would not allow himself to be yoked to the war chariot, and shed tears of blood. But Cuchulainn goes to the battle, performs prodigies of valour; but at last he receives his death wound. Though dying, his foes are afraid to approach him. He asks to be allowed to go to a lake that was close by to get a drink. He is allowed to go, but he does not want a drink, he merely wants to die like a hero, standing up; for there is a pillar-stone close by, and he throws his breast-girdle round it, so that he might die standing up, and not lying down. His friend Conall determines to avenge his death. Here the literal translation is so fine that it must be given: "Now there was a comrades' covenant between Cuchulainn and Conall--namely, that whichever of them was first killed, should be avenged by the other. 'And if I be first killed,' said Cuchulainn, 'how soon wilt thou avenge me?' 'The day on which thou shalt be slain,' says Conall; 'I will avenge thee before that evening.' 'And if I be slain,' says Conall, 'how soon wilt thou avenge me?' 'Thy blood will not be cold on earth,' says Cuchulainn, 'when I shall avenge thee.'" Lugaid, the slayer of Cuchulainn, had lost his right hand in the fight. He goes south in his chariot to a river to rest and drink. His charioteer says, "One horseman is coming to us, and great are the speed and swiftness with which he comes. Thou wouldst deem that all the ravens of Erin were above him, and that flakes of snow were specking the plain before him." "Unbeloved is the horseman that comes there," says Lugaid. "It is Conall mounted on [his steed] the Dewy-Red. The birds thou sawest above him are sods from that horse's hoofs. The snowflakes thou sawest specking the plain before him are foam from that horse's lips and nostrils." Conall and Lugaid fight, of course; but as Lugaid has but one hand, Conall has one of his hands bound to his side with ropes, so that he should have no advantage over his foe. They fight for hours, until at last Lugaid falls by Conall, and Cuchulainn is avenged. The tale winds up thus: "And Conall and the Ulstermen returned to Emain Macha (Emania). That week they entered it not in triumph. But the soul of Cuchulainn appeared there to the fifty queens who had loved him; and they saw him floating in his spirit-chariot over Emain Macha, and they heard him chaunt a mystic song of the coming of Christ and the Day of Doom."