“The pig’s-skin that I have demanded is the pig’s-skin of Tuis, King of Greece. It has two virtues: its touch perfectly cures all wounded or sick persons if only there is any life still left in them; and every stream of water through which it passes is turned into wine for nine days. I do not think that you will get it from the King of Greece, either with his consent or without it.
“And can you guess what spear it is that I have demanded?” asked Lugh. “We cannot,” they said. “It is the poisoned spear of Pisear[[119]], King of Persia; it is irresistible in battle; it is so fiery that its blade must always be held under water, lest it destroy the city in which it is kept. You will find it very difficult to obtain.
“And the two horses and the chariot are the two wonderful horses of Dobhar[[120]], King of Sicily, which run equally well over land and sea; there are no other horses in the world like them, and no other vehicle equal to the chariot.
“And the seven pigs are the pigs of Easal[[121]], King of the Golden Pillars; though they may be killed every night, they are found alive again the next day, and every person that eats part of them can never be afflicted with any disease.
“And the hound-whelp I claim is the hound-whelp of the King of Ioruaidhe[[122]]; her name is Failinis; every wild beast she sees she catches at once. It will not be easy for you to secure her.
“The cooking-spit which you must get for me is one of the cooking-spits of the women of the Island of Fianchuivé[[123]], which is at the bottom of the sea, between Erin and Alba.
“You have also pledged yourselves to give three shouts upon a hill. The hill upon which they must be given is the hill called Cnoc Miodhchaoin[[124]], in the north of Lochlann[[125]]. Miodhchaoin and his sons do not allow shouts to be given on that hill; besides this, it was they who gave my father his military education, and, even if I were to forgive you, they would not; so that, though you achieve all the other adventures, I think that you will fail in this one.
“Now you know what sort of a fine it is that you have bargained to pay me,” said Lugh.
And fear and astonishment fell upon the sons of Tuirenn.
This tale is evidently the work of some ancient Irish story-teller who wished to compile from various sources a more or less complete account of how the Gaelic gods obtained their legendary possessions. The spear of Pisear, King of Persia, is obviously the same weapon as the lance of Lugh, which another tradition describes as having been brought by the Tuatha Dé Danann from their original home in the city of Gorias;[[126]] Failinis, the whelp of the King of Ioruaidhe, is Lugh’s “hound of mightiest deeds”, which was irresistible in battle, and which turned any running water it bathed in into wine,[[127]] a property here transferred to the magic pig’s-skin of King Tuis: the seven swine of the King of the Golden Pillars must be the same undying porkers from whose flesh Manannán mac Lir made the “Feast of Age” which preserved the eternal youth of the gods;[[128]] it was with horses and chariot that ran along the surface of the sea that Manannán used to journey to and fro between Erin and the Celtic Elysium in the West;[[129]] the apples that grew in the Garden of the Hesperides were surely of the same celestial growth as those that fed the inhabitants of that immortal country;[[130]] while the cooking-spit reminds us of three such implements at Tara, made by Goibniu and associated with the names of the Dagda and the Morrígú.[[131]]