CUBITT, SIR WILLIAM (1785-1861), English engineer, was born in 1785 at Dilham in Norfolk, where his father was a miller. Among his works were a number of canals, including drain age sluices, besides docks and coal drops, and the S.E. railway, of which he was chief engineer. He was consulted by foreign gov ernments and municipalities, and reported on the construction of the Paris and Lyons railway. He was knighted for his services in connection with the `buildings erected in Hyde Park for the ex hibition of 185 r. He died on Oct. 13, 1861.
CU CHULAINN, the chief hero of the second of the three cycles of ancient Irish mythology. He is closely associated with the warriors who centre in Conchobar mac Nessa, the Ultonian king; but although he is represented as being a son of Dechtire, the king's sister, he is racially distinct from them, for he is usually represented as short in stature and of dark complexion. Accord ing to one.story, he was son of Sualtam, a minor warrior o; the Conchobar cycle; according to another, he was a son and in carnation of the sun-god Lug. His first name, Setanta, can hardly be dissociated from that of the Setantii, a Brythonic people situated at the mouth of the Mersey. He joined the court of Conchobar at the age of six, and even then distinguished him self in deeds of prowess; he killed the watch-dog of the smith Culann, and acted as guard in its stead; whence his most familiar name, Cu Chulainn, "the Hound of Culann." He studied the art of the warrior with Scathach, a she-warrior in Alba ; married Emer, daughter of Forgall, and settled in Dun Delgan (Dundalk). The earthwork there called "Cu Chulainn's for ." is, however, merely a Norman motte. He was the foremost champion of Ulster in the great raid described in the tale Thin B6 Ciialnge ("The Cow-reiving of Cualnge"), in which he single-handed held back the advancing hosts of Connacht. He was slain at the age of 27 by Lugaid, son of Cu-Roi mac Daire, warrior of Munster. But whatever may be the historical basis of the legend, practi cally all the details about Cu Chulainn transmitted to us must be regarded as mythical.
The chief tales about Cu Chulainn which have been preserved have been collected in translations by various hands by E. Hull, The Cuchullin Saga (1898). See also Windisch's edition (Leipzig, 1905) and Dunne's translation (1914) of Tain Bd Cidalnge; as well as the relevant sections of Thurneysen's Die irische Helden and Konigsage (Halle, 1920. (R. A. S. M.)