ld deer will spring
upon you."

'"It is not easy for me to go to them," said the charioteer. "The
horses have become wild so that I cannot go past them. I cannot go
past the two iron tyres [Interlinear gloss, _fonnod_. The _fonnod_
was some part of the rim of the wheel apparently.] of the chariot,
because of their sharpness; and I cannot go past the deer, for his
horn has filled all the space between the two poles of the chariot."

'"Step from its horn," said Cuchulainn. "I swear by the god by whom
the Ulstermen swear, the bending with which I will bend my head on
him, and the eye that I will make at him, he will not turn his head
on you, and he will not dare to move."

'That was done then. Cuchulainn made fast the reins, and the
charioteer collects the birds. Then Cuchulainn bound the birds from
the strings and thongs of the chariot; so that it was thus he went
to Emain Macha: the wild deer behind his chariot, and the flock of
swans flying over it, and the three heads in his chariot. Then they
come to Emain.

"A man in a chariot is coming to you," said the watchman in Emain
Macha; "he will shed the blood of every man who is in the court,
unless heed is taken, and unless naked women go to him."

'Then he turned the left side of his chariot towards Emain, and
that was a _geis_ [Note: i.e. it was an insult.] to it; and
Cuchulainn said: "I swear by the god by whom the Ulstermen swear,
unless a man is found to fight with me, I will shed the blood of
every one who is in the fort."

'"Naked women to meet him!" said Conchobar.

'Then the women of Emain go to meet him with Mugain, the wife of
Conchobar Mac Nessa, and bare their breasts before him. "These are
the warriors who will meet you to-day," said Mugain.

'He covers his face; then the heroes of Emain seize him and throw
him into a vessel of cold water. That vessel bursts round him. The
second vessel into which he was thrown boiled with bubbles as big
as the fist therefrom. The third vessel into which he went, he
warmed it so that its heat and its cold were rightly tempered. Then
he comes out; and the queen, Mugain, puts a blue mantle on him, and
a silver brooch therein, and a hooded tunic; and he sits at
Conchobar's knee, and that was his couch always after that. The man
who did this in his seventh year,' said Fiacha Mac Fir-Febe, 'it
were not wonderful though he should rout an overwhelming force, and
though he should exhaust (?) an equal force, when his seve