nd here
in Emain Macha their bards will praise them. Then in the halls of our
dead shall we say to our sires, 'All that you got for us by your blood
and your sweat, that we have lost, and the glory of the Red Branch is
at an end.'"

That speech was pleasing to the Red Branch, and they cried out that
Fergus Mac Roy had spoken well. Then all at once, on a sudden
impulse, they sang the battle song of the Ultonians, and shouted for
the war so that the building quaked and rocked, and in the hall of the
weapons there was a clangor of falling shields, and men died that
night for extreme dread, so mightily shouted the Ultonians around
their king and around Fergus.

II

On the morrow there was a great hasting of the Red Branch on the plain
of the assemblies. It was May-day morning and the sun shone brightly,
but at first through radiant showers. The trees were putting forth
young buds; the wet grass sparkled. All the martial pomp and glory of
the Ultonians were exhibited that day. Their chariots and war-horses
ringed the plain. All the horses' heads were turned towards the centre
where were Concobar Mac Nessa and the chiefs of the Red Branch. The
plain flashed with gold, bronze, and steel, and glowed with the bright
mantles of the innumerable heroes, crimson and scarlet, blue, green,
or purple. The huge brooches on their breasts, of gold and silver or
gold-like bronze, were like resplendent wheels. Their long hair,
yellow for the most part, was bound with ornaments of gold. Great
truly were those men; their like has not come since upon the earth.
They were the heroes and demigods of the heroic age of Erin, champions
who feared naught beneath the sun; mightiest among the mighty, huge,
proud, and unconquerable, and loyal and affectionate beyond all
others; all of the blood of Ir, son of Milesius, the Clanna Rury of
great renown, rejoicing in their valor, their splendor, their peerless
king. Concobar had no crown. A plain circle of beaten gold girt his
broad temples. In the naked glory of his regal manhood he stood there
before them all, but even so a stranger would have swiftly discovered
the captain of the Red Branch; such was his stature, his bearing, such
his slow-turning, steady-gazing eyes and the majesty of his bearded
countenance. His countenance was long, broad above and narrow below,
his nose eminent, his beard bipartite, curling and auburn in hue, his
form without any blemish or imperfection....

"Let the tameless