there then; when they heard Cormac Condlongas again (or it
is Ailill Mac Matae in the camp who sang this):

'The time of Ailill. Great his truce, the truce of Cuillend,' etc.
[Note: Rhetoric.]

THE MARCH OF THE COMPANIES

While these things were being done, the Connaughtman determined to
send messengers by the counsel of Ailill and Medb and Fergus, to
look at the Ulstermen, to see whether they had reached the plain.
It is there that Ailill said:

'Go, O Mac Roth,' said Ailill, 'and look for us whether the men are
all(?) in the plain of Meath in which we are. If they have not
come, I have carried off their spoil and their cows; let them give
battle to me, if it suits them. I will not await them here any
longer.'

Then Mac Roth went to look at and to watch the plain. He came back
to Ailill and Medb and Fergus The first time then that Mac Roth
looked from the circuit of Sliab Fuait, he saw that all the wild
beast came out of the wood, so that they were all in the plain.

'The second time,' said Mac Roth, 'that I surveyed the plain, I saw
a heavy mist that filled the glens and the valleys, so that it made
the hills between them like islands in lakes. Then there appeared
to me sparks of fire out of this great mist: there appeared to me a
variegation of every different colour in the world. I saw then
lightning and din and thunder and a great wind that almost took my
hair from my head, and threw me on my back; and yet the wind of the
day was not great.'

'What is it yonder, O Fergus?' said Ailill. 'Say what it means.'
[Note: Literally, 'is like.']

'That is not hard; this is what it means,' said Fergus: 'This is
the Ulstermen after coming out of their sickness. It is they who
have come into the wood. The throng and the greatness and the
violence of the heroes, it is that which has shaken the wood; it is
before them that the wild beasts have fled into the plain. The
heavy mist that you saw, which filled the valleys, was the breath
of those warriors, which filled the glens so that it made the hills
between them like islands in lakes. The lightning and the sparks of
fire and the many colours that you saw, O Mac Roth,' said Fergus,
'are the eyes of the warriors from their heads which have shone to
you like sparks of fire. The thunder and the din and the noise(?)
that you heard, was the whistling of the swords and of the
ivory-hilted weapons, the clatter of arms, the creaking of the
chariots, the beating of the hoofs