Finn raised his hand over his head then, and asked news of him, and if he was of the noble or of the mean blood of the great world.  He answered that he had no knowledge who he came from, but only that he was a man of the Fomor, travelling in search of wages to the kings of the earth, “and I heard,” he said, “that Finn never refused wages to any man.”  “I never did indeed,” said Finn, “and I will not refuse you.  But why is it,” he said, “you are without a boy to mind your horse?” “I have a good reason for that,” said the big man; “there is nothing in the world is worse to me than a boy to be with me; for it is a hundred men’s share of food,” he said, “that serves me for one day, and it is little enough I think it, and I would begrudge a boy to be sharing it with me.”  “What is the name you have?” said Finn.  “The name I have is the Gilla Decair, the Hard Servant,” said he.  “Why did you get that name?” said Finn.  “There is a good reason for that,” said the big man, “for there is nothing in the world is harder to me than to do anything at all for my master, or whatever person I am with.  And tell me this, Conan, son of Morna,” he said, “who gets the best wages, a horseman or a man afoot?” “A horseman gets twice as much,” said Conan.  “Then I call you to witness, Conan,” he said, “that I am a horseman, and that it was as a horseman I came to the Fianna.  And give me your guarantee now, Finn, son of Cumhal, and the guarantee of the Fianna, and I will turn out my horse with your horses.”  “Let him out then,” said Finn.

The big man pulled off the iron halter then from his horse, and it made off as hard as it could go, till it came where the horses of the Fianna were; and it began to tear and to kick and to bite at them, killing and maiming.  “Take your horse out of that, big man,” said Conan; “and by the earth and the sky,” he said, “only it was on the guarantee of Finn and the Fianna you took the halter off him, I would let out his brains through the windows of his head; and many as is the bad prize Finn has found in Ireland,” he said, “he never got one as bad as yourself.”  “And I swear by earth and sky as well as yourself,” said the big man, “I will never bring him out of that; for I have no serving-boy to do it for me, and it is not work for me to be leading my horse by the hand.”

Conan, son of Morna, rose up then and took the halter and put it on the horse, and led it back to where Finn was, and held it with his hand.  “You would never have done a horse-boy’s service, Conan,” said Finn, “to any one of the Fianna, however far he might be beyond this Fomor.  And if you will do what I advise,” he said, “you will get up on the horse now, and search out with him all the hills and hollows and flowery plains of Ireland, till his heart is broken in his body in payment for the way he destroyed the horses of the Fianna.”

Conan made a leap then on to the horse, and struck his heels hard into him, but with all that the horse would not stir.  “I know what ails him,” said Finn, “he will not stir till he has the same weight of horsemen on him as the weight of the big man.”