‘Good, my lad,’ said Fergus; ’get our horses for us and yoke the chariot.’

The lad arose and got the horses and yoked the chariot.  They came forth to the ford of combat where Cuchulainn was.

‘One chariot coming hither towards us, O Cuchulainn!’ said Loeg.  For it is thus the lad was, with his back towards his lord.  He used to win every other game of brandub [Brandub, the name of a game; probably, like fidchill and buanfach, of the nature of chess or draughts.] and of chess-playing from his master:  the sentinel and watchman on the four quarters of Ireland over and above that.

‘What kind of chariot then?’ said Cuchulainn.

’A chariot like a huge royal fort, with its yolcs strong golden, with its great panel(?) of copper, with its shafts of bronze, with its body thin-framed (?), dry-framed (?), feat-high, scythed, sword-fair (?), of a champion, on two horses, swift, stout(?), well-yoked (?), ——­ (?).  One royal warrior, wide-eyed, was the combatant of the chariot.  A beard curly, forked, on him, so that it reached over the soft lower part of his soft shirt, so that it would shelter (?) fifty warriors to be under the heavy ——­ of the warrior’s beard, on a day of storm and rain.  A round shield, white, variegated, many-coloured on him, with three chains ——­, so that there would be room from front to back for four troops of ten men behind the leather of the shield which is upon the ——­ of the warrior.  A sword, long, hard-edged, red-broad in the sheath, woven and twisted of white silver, over the skin of the bold-in-battle.  A spear, strong, three-ridged, with a winding and with bands of white silver all white by him across the chariot.’

‘Not hard the recognition,’ said Cuchulainn; ’my friend Fergus comes there, with a warning and with compassion to me before all the four provinces.’

Fergus reached them and sprang from his chariot and Cuchulainn greeted him.

‘Welcome your coming, O my friend, O Fergus,’ said Cuchulainn.

‘I believe your welcome,’ said Fergus.

‘You may believe it,’ said Cuchulainn; ’if a flock of birds come to the plain, you shall have a duck with half of another; if fish come to the estuaries, you shall have a salmon with half of another; a sprig of watercress, and a sprig of marshwort, and a sprig of seaweed, and a drink of cold sandy water after it.’

‘That portion is that of an outlaw,’ said Fergus.

‘That is true, it is an outlaw’s portion that I have,’ said Cuchulainn, ’for I have been from the Monday after Samain to this time, and I have not gone for a night’s entertainment, through strongly obstructing the men of Ireland on the Cattle-Foray of Cualnge at this time.’

‘If it were for this we came,’ said Fergus, ’we should have thought it the better to leave it; and it is not for this that we have come.’

‘Why else have you come to me?’ said Cuchulainn.