is, when Curoi had made no sign of giving judgment,
it happened that all the Ulster heroes were in their places in the Red
Branch House, except Cuchulain and his cousin Conall. As they sat in
order of rank in the hall they saw a terrible stranger coming into the
room. He was gigantic in stature, hideous of aspect, with ravening
yellow eyes. He wore a skin roughly sewn together, and a grey cloak
over it, and he sheltered himself from the light with a spreading tree
torn up by the roots. In his hand he bore an enormous axe, with keen
and shining edge. This hideous apparition strode up the hall and leant
against a carved pillar beside the fire.

"Who are you?" asked one chieftain in sport. "Are you come to be our
candlestick, or would you burn the house down? Is this the place for
such as you? Go farther down the hall!"

"My name is Uath, the Stranger, and for neither of those things am I
come. I seek that which I cannot find in the whole world, and that is
a man to keep the agreement he makes with me."

The Agreement

"What is the agreement?" asked King Conor.

"Behold my axe!" quoth the stranger. "The man who will grasp it
to-day may cut my head off with it, provided that I may, in like
manner, cut off his head to-morrow. Now you men of Ulster, heroes of
the Red Branch, have won the palm through the wide world for courage,
honour, strength, truth, and generosity; do you, therefore, find me a
man to keep this agreement. King Conor is excepted, because of his
royal dignity, but no other. And if you have no champion who dare face
me, I will say that Ulster has lost her courage and is dishonoured."

"It is not right for a whole province to be disgraced for lack of a
man to keep his word," said King Conor, "but I fear we have no such
champions here."

Laegaire Accepts the Challenge

"By my word," said Laegaire, who had listened attentively to the whole
conversation, "there will be a champion this very moment. Stoop down,
fellow, and let me cut off your head, that you may take mine
to-morrow."

Then Uath chanted magic spells over the axe as he stroked the edge,
and laid his neck on a block, and Laegaire hewed so hard that the axe
severed the head from the body and struck deep into the block. Then
the body of Uath arose, took up the head and the axe, and strode away
down the hall, all people shrinking out of its way, and so it passed
out into the night.

[Illustration: "The body of Uath arose"]

"If this terr