for Diarmid and Grania to lie on, and
as soon as they were asleep he stole into the next wood, and broke a
long straight rod from a tree, and put a hair line and a hook upon
it, and a holly berry on the rod, and fished in the stream. In three
casts he had taken three fish. That night they ate a good supper, and
while Diarmid and Grania slept, Muadan kept watch for them.

At dawn Diarmid woke Grania and told her to watch while Muadan slept,
as he was going to climb a hill near by, and see where they had best
go.

He soon stood on the top and looked round about him. In front of him
was a great company of ships bearing towards him out of the west. They
landed at the foot of the hill where Diarmid stood, and he swiftly ran
down to meet them and to ask of what country they were.

'We are three royal chiefs,' said they, 'and are sent by Fionn to take
an enemy of his whom he has outlawed, called Diarmid O'Dowd. And with
us are three fierce hounds whom we will loose upon his track. Fire
burns them not, nor water drowns them, nor weapons wound them, and of
us there are two thousand men. Moreover, tell us who you yourself are,
and if you have any tidings of the son of O'Dowd.'

'I am but a warrior walking the world with the strength of my arm and
the blade of my sword. But I warn you, you will have no common man to
deal with if you meet Diarmid, whom but yesterday I saw.'

'Well, no one has been found yet,' said they.

'Is there wine in your ships?' asked Diarmid.

'There is,' answered they.

'If you would bring a tun of it here, I would do a trick for you.' So
the wine was sent for, and Diarmid raised the cask up and drank from
it, and took it up to the top of the hill and stood on it, and it
glided with him to the bottom. And that trick he did thrice, standing
on the tun as it came and went. But the strangers only scoffed, and
they told him they could do a much better trick than that, and one of
them jumped on the tun. Then, before it could move, Diarmid gave the
tun a kick, and the young man fell, and the tun rolled over and
crushed him. And in like manner he did to many more, and the rest fled
back to their ships.

The next morning they came to Diarmid where he stood on the hill, and
he asked if they would like him to show them any more tricks, but they
said they would rather hear some news of Diarmid first. 'I have seen a
man who met him to-day,' answered Diarmid, and thereupon he laid his
weapons on the ground an