ts and high-up women to make
pleasure for you than at the time we are in the straits of battle the
way we are now." "It is not for playing I am come," said the young man,
"but to give you my service in battle." "I never brought a lad new to
the work into the breast of battle," said Finn, "for it is often a lad
coming like that finds his death, and I would not wish him to fall
through me." "I give my word," said the young man, "I will do battle
with them on my own account if I may not do it on yours." Then Fergus of
the Fair Lips went out to give a challenge of battle from the son of the
High King of Ireland to the King of the World.

"Who will answer the King of Ireland's son for me?" said the King of the
World. "I will go against him," said Sligech, King of the Men of Cepda;
and he went on shore, and his three red battalions with him. And the
High King's son went against them, and his comrades were near him, and
they were saying to him: "Take a good heart now into the fight, for the
Fianna will be no better pleased if it goes well with you than if it
goes well with the foreigner." And when the High King's son heard that,
he made a rush through the army of the foreigners, and began killing and
overthrowing them, till their chief men were all made an end of. Then
Sligech their king came to meet him, very angry and destroying, and
they struck at one another and made a great fight, but at the last the
King of Ireland's son got the upper hand, and he killed the King of the
Men of Cepda and struck off his head.

CHAPTER X. THE KING OF LOCHLANN AND HIS SONS

And the fighting went on from day to day, and at last Finn said to
Fergus of the Sweet Lips: "Go out, Fergus, and see how many of the
Fianna are left for the fight to-day." And Fergus counted them, and he
said: "There is one battalion only of the Fianna left in good order; but
there are some of the men of it," he said, "are able to fight against
three, and some that are able to fight against nine or thirty or a
hundred." "If that is so," said Finn, "rise up and go to where the King
of the World is, and bid him to come out to the great battle."

So Fergus went to the King of the World, and it is the way he was, on
his bed listening to the music of harps and pipes. "King of the World,"
said Fergus, "it is long you are in that sleep; and that is no shame for
you," he said, "for it will be your last sleep. And the whole of the
Fianna are gone out to their place of