or the
Destruction, for the first head that will reach the Hostel will
be mine!"

"'Tis harder for _me_," says Ingcel: "'tis _my_ destruction that has
been ... there."

"Truly then," says Ingcel, "maybe I shall be the corpse that is frailest
there," etc.

"And afterwards whom sawest thou there?"

THE ROOM OF CONAIRE'S THREE SONS, OBALL AND OBLIN AND CORPRE

"There I beheld a room with a trio in it, to wit, three tender
striplings, wearing three silken mantles. In their mantles were three
golden brooches. Three golden-yellow manes were on them. When they
undergo head-cleansing their golden-yellow mane reaches the edge of
their haunches. When they raise their eye it raises the hair so that it
is not lower than the tips of their ears, and it is as curly as a ram's
head. A ... of gold and a palace-flambeau above each of them. Every one
who is in the house spares them, voice and deed and word. Liken thou
that, O Fer rogain," says Ingcel.

Fer rogain wept, so that his mantle in front of him became moist. And no
voice was gotten out of his head till a third of the night had passed.

"O little ones," says Fer rogain, "I have good reason for what I do!
Those are three sons of the king of Erin: Oball and Obline and
Corpre Findmor."

"It grieves us if the tale be true," say the sons of Donn Desa. "Good is
the trio in that room. Manners of ripe maidens have they, and hearts of
brothers, and valours of bears, and furies of lions. Whosoever is in
their company and in their couch, and parts from them, he sleeps not and
eats not at ease till the end of nine days, from lack of their
companionship. Good are the youths for their age! Thrice ten will fall
by each of them in their first encounter, and a man for each weapon, and
three men for themselves. And one of the three will fall there. Because
of that trio, woe to him that shall wreak the Destruction!"

"Ye cannot," says Ingcel: "clouds of weakness are coming to you, etc.
And whom sawest thou afterwards?"

THE ROOM OF THE FOMORIANS

I beheld there a room with a trio in it, to wit, a trio horrible,
unheard-of, a triad of champions, etc.

* * * * *

Liken thou that, O Fer rogain?

"'Tis hard for me to liken that trio. Neither of the men of Erin nor of
the men of the world do I know it, unless it be the trio that Mac cecht
brought out of the land of the Fomorians by dint of duels. Not one of
the Fomorians was found to fight him, so he brou