But though the guard was good on either side,
The shooting was so perfect that the blood
Ran from the wounds of each, by each made red. 
“Let us now, O Cuchullin,” interposed
Ferdiah, “for the present time desist.” 
“Let us indeed desist,” Cuchullin said
“If, O Ferdiah, the fit time hath come.” 
They ceased, and laid their gory weapons down,
Their faithful charioteers’ attendant care. 
Each to the other gently then approached,
Each round the other’s neck his hands entwined,
And gave him three fond kisses on the cheek. 
Their horses fed in the same field that night,
Their charioteers were warmed at the same fire,
Their charioteers beneath their bodies spread
Green rushes, and beneath the heads the down
Of wounded men’s soft pillows.  Then the skilled
Professors of the art of healing came
With herbs, which to the scars of all their wounds
They put.  Of every herb and healing plant
That to Cuchullin’s wound they did apply,
He would an equal portion westward send
Over the Ford, Ferdiah’s wounds to heal. 
So that the men of Erin could not say,
If it should chance Ferdiah fell by him,
That it was through superior skill and care
Cuchullin was enabled him to slay.

Of each kind, too, of palatable food
And sweet, intoxicating, pleasant drink,
The men of Erin to Ferdiah sent,
He a fair moiety across the Ford
Sent northward to Cuchullin, where he lay;
Because his own purveyors far surpassed
In numbers those the Ulster chief retained: 
For all the federate hosts of Erin were
Purveyors to Ferdiah, with the hope
That he would beat Cuchullin from the Ford. 
The Bregians[51] only were Cuchullin’s friends,
His sole purveyors, and their wont it was
To come to him and talk to him at night.

That night they rested there.  Next morn they rose
And to the Ford of battle early came. 
“What weapons shall we use to-day?” inquired
Cuchullin.  “Until night the choice is thine,”
Replied Ferdiah; “for the choice of arms
Has hitherto been mine.”  “Then let us take
Our great broad spears to-day,” Cuchullin said,
“And may the thrusting bring us to an end
Sooner than yesterday’s less powerful darts. 
Let then our charioteers our horses yoke
Beneath our chariots, so that we to-day
May from our horses and our chariots fight.” 
Ferdiah answered:  “Let it so be done.” 
And then they braced their two broad, full-firm shields
Upon their arms that day, and in their hands
That day they took their great broad-bladed spears. 
  And thus from early morn to evening’s close
They smote each other with such dread effect
That both were pierced, and both made red with gore,—­
Such wounds, such hideous clefts in either breast
Lay open to the back, that if the birds
Cared ever through men’s wounded frames to pass,
They might have passed that day, and with them borne