Now Ecca had two daughters, Ariu and Liban, of whom Ariu was the wife of
Curnan the Simpleton. And Curnan went about among the people,
foretelling that a lake would flow over them from the well, and urging
them earnestly to make ready their boats.
Come forth, come forth, ye valiant men; build boats, and build ye fast!
I see the water surging out, a torrent deep and vast;
I see our chief and all his host o'erwhelmed beneath the wave;
And Ariu, too, my best beloved, alas! I cannot save.
But Liban east and west shall swim
Long ages on the ocean's rim,
By mystic shores and islets dim,
And down in the deep sea cave!
And he ceased not to warn all he met, repeating this verse continually;
but the people gave no heed to the words of the Simpleton.
Now the woman who had charge of the well, on a certain occasion forgot
to close the door, so that the spell was free to work evil. And
immediately the water burst forth over the plain, and formed a great
lake, namely the Lake of the Copse. And Ecca and all his family and all
his folk were drowned, save only his daughter Liban, and Conang, and
Curnan the Simpleton. And they buried Ariu, and raised a mound over her,
which is called from her Carn-Arenn.
Of Conang nothing more is told. But as to Curnan, he died of grief after
his wife Ariu; and he was buried in a mound, which is called Carn-Curnan
to this day in memory of him.
And thus the great Lake of the Copse was formed, which is now called
Lough Necca,[LXIII.] in memory of Ecca, the son of Marid. And it was the
overflow of this lake which, more than all other causes, scattered the
Ultonians over Erin.
Now as to Liban. She also was swept away like the others; but she was
not drowned. She lived for a whole year with her lap-dog, in her chamber
beneath the lake, and God protected her from the water. At the end of
the year she was weary; and when she saw the speckled salmon swimming
and playing all round her, she prayed and said--
"O my Lord, I wish I were a salmon, that I might swim with the others
through the clear green sea!"
And at the words she took the shape of a salmon, except her face and
breast, which did not change. And her lap-dog was changed to an otter,
and attended her afterwards whithersoever she went, as long as she lived
in the sea.
And so she remained swimming about from sea to sea for three hundred
years; that is to say, from the time of Ecca, the son of Marid, to the
time of Comgall of Bangor.[16]
Now on one occasion, Comgall sent Beoc, the son of Indli, from Bangor
to Rome, to talk with Gregory[LXIV.] concerning some matters of order
and rule. And when Beoc's curragh[17] was sailing over the sea, he and
his crew heard sweet singing in the waters beneath them, as it were the
chanting of angels.
And Beoc, having listened for a while, looked down into the water, and
asked what the chant was for, and who it was that sang.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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