[Many games were played between Eochaid and Mider; and, since Mider did
not put forth his whole strength, the victory on all occasions rested
with Eochaid. But instead of the gifts which Mider had offered,
Eochaid demanded that Mider and his folk should perform for him
services which should be of benefit to his realm; that he should clear
away the rocks and stones from the plains of Meath, should remove the
rushes which made the land barren around his favourite fort of Tethba,
should cut down the forest of Breg, and finally should build a causeway
across the moor or bog of Lamrach that men might pass freely across it.
All these things Mider agreed to do, and Eochaid sent his steward to
see how that work was done. And when it came to the time after sunset,
the steward looked, and he saw that Mider and his fairy host, together
with fairy oxen, were labouring at the causeway over the bog;] and
thereupon much of earth and of gravel and of stones was poured into it.
Now it had, before that time, always been the custom of the men of
Ireland to harness their oxen with a strap over their foreheads, so
that the pull might be against the foreheads of the oxen; and this
custom lasted up to that very night, when it was seen that the
fairy-folk had placed the yoke upon the shoulders of the oxen, so that
the pull might be there; and in this way were the yokes of the oxen
afterwards placed by Eochaid, and thence cometh the name by which he is
known; even Eochaid Airemm, or Eochaid the Ploughman, for he was the
first of all the men of Ireland to put the yokes on the necks of the
oxen, and thus it became the custom for all the land of Ireland. And
this is the song that the host of the fairies sang, as they laboured at
the making of the road:
Thrust it in hand! force it in hand!
Nobles this night, as an ox-troop, stand:
Hard is the task that is asked, and who
From the bridging of Lamrach shall gain, or rue?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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