spleased that he should
come to him.

'Though he were slain, I should not have strength to avenge him. Go
to the Ulstermen,' says Cuchulainn, 'and let them give battle to
the warriors at once; if they do not give it, they will not be
avenged for ever.'

When his father saw him, there was not in his chariot as much as
the point of a rush would cover that was not pierced. His left hand
which the shield protected, twenty wounds were in it.

Sualtaim came over to Emain and shouted to the Ulstermen:

'Men are being slain, women carried off, cows driven away!'

His first shout was from the side of the court; his second from the
side of the fortress; the third shout was on the mound of the
hostages in Emain. No one answered; it was the practice of the
Ulstermen that none of them should speak except to Conchobar; and
Conchobar did not speak before the three druids.

'Who takes them, who steals them, who carries them off?' said the
druid.

Ailill Mac Mata carries them off and steals them and takes them,
through the guidance of Fergus Mac Roich,' said Sualtaim. 'Your
people have been enslaved as far as Dun Sobairce; their cows and
their women and their cattle have been taken. Cuchulainn did not
let them into Mag Murthemne and into Crich Rois; three months of
winter then, bent branches of hazel held together his dress upon
him. Dry wisps are on his wounds. He has been wounded so that he
has been parted joint from joint.'

'Fitting,' said the druid, 'were the death of the man who has
spurred on the king.'

'It is fitting for him,' said Conchobar.

'It is fitting for him,' said the Ulstermen.

'True is what Sualtaim says,' said Conchobar; 'from the Monday
night of Samain to the Monday night of Candlemas he has been in
this foray.'

Sualtaim gave a leap out thereupon. He did not think sufficient
the answer that he had. He falls on his shield, so that the
engraved edge of the shield cut his head off. His head is brought
back into Emain into the house on the shield, and the head says the
same word (though some say that he was asleep on the stone, and
that he fell thence on to his shield in awaking).

'Too great was this shout,' said Conchobar. 'The sea before them,
the heaven over their tops, the earth under their feet. I will
bring every cow into its milking-yard, and every woman and every
boy from their house, after the victory in battle.'

Then Conchobar struck his hand on his son, Findchad Fer m-Bend.
Hence he