vil word for us."
Then the head said from outside: "It is in many pieces you will be; it
is great fires will be lighted by Finn in Luigne."

And as it said that, Finn came in, and he made an end of Coirpre, and of
his men.

CHAPTER VII. ILBREC OF ESS RUADH

One time Caoilte was hunting on Beinn Gulbain, and he went on to Ess
Ruadh. And when he came near the hill of the Sidhe that is there, he saw
a young man waiting for him, having a crimson fringed cloak about him,
and on his breast a silver brooch, and a white shield, ornamented with
linked beasts of red gold, and his hair rolled in a ball at the back,
and covered with a golden cup. And he had heavy green weapons, and he
was holding two hounds in a silver chain.

And when Caoilte came up to him he gave him three loving kisses, and sat
down beside him on the grass. "Who are you, young champion?" said
Caoilte. "I am Derg, son of Eoghan of the people of Usnach," he said,
"and foster-brother of your own." Caoilte knew him then, and he said:
"And what is your life with your mother's people, the Tuatha de Danaan
in Sidhe Aedha?" "There is nothing wanting to us there of food or of
clothing," said the young man. "But for all that," he said, "I would
sooner live the life of the worst treated of the serving-boys of the
Fianna than the life I am living in the hill of the Sidhe." "Lonely as
you are at your hunting to-day," said Caoilte, "it is often I saw you
coming to the Valley of the Three Waters in the south, where the Siuir
and the Beoir and the Berba come together, with a great company about
you; fifteen hundred young men, fifteen hundred serving-boys, and
fifteen hundred women." "That was so," said Derg; "and although myself
and my gentle hound are living in the hill of the Sidhe, my mind is
always on the Fianna. And I remember well the time," he said, "when you
yourself won the race against Finn's lasting black horse. And come now
into the hill," he said, "for the darkness of the night is coming on."

So he brought Caoilte into the hill with him, and they were set down in
their right places.

It was at that time, now, there was great war between Lir of Sidhe
Fionnachaidh and Ilbrec of Ess Ruadh. There used a bird with an iron
beak and a tail of fire to come every evening to a golden window of
Ilbrec's house, and there he would shake himself till he would not leave
sword on pillow, or shield on peg, or spear in rack, but they would come
down on the heads of th