that would hold them all.”  Finn looked towards the sea then, and he saw two strong armed men coming towards him.  The first one had on his back a shield ribbed and of many colours, having shapes of strange, wonderful beasts engraved on it, and a heavy sword at his side, and two thick spears on his shoulders; a cloak of lasting crimson about him, with a gold brooch on the breast; a band of white bronze on his head, gold under each of his feet; and the other was dressed in the same way.  They made no delay till they came to where Finn was, and they bowed their heads and bent their knees before him, and Finn raised his hand over their heads, and bade them to give an account of themselves.  “We are sons of the King of the Eastern World,” they said, “and we are come to Ireland asking to be taken into the service of Finn; for we heard there was not a man in all Ireland,” they said, “would be better than yourself to judge of the skill we have.”  “What is your name, and what skill is that?” said Finn.  “My name is Feradach, the Very Brave,” he said; “and I have a carpenter’s axe and a sling, and if there were so many as thirty hundred of the men of Ireland along with me in one spot, with three blows of the axe on the sling-stick I could get a ship that would hold them all.  And I would ask no more help of them,” he said, “than to bow down their heads while I was striking those three blows.”  “That is a good art,” said Finn.  “And tell me now,” he said, “what can the other man do?” “I can do this,” he said, “I can follow the track of the teal over nine ridges and nine furrows until I come on her in her bed; and it is the same to me to do it on sea as on land,” he said.  “That is a good art,” said Finn; “and it would be a good help to us if you would come following a track with us now.”  “What is gone from you?” said one of the men.  Finn told them then the whole story of the Hard Servant.

Then Feradach, the Very Brave, struck three blows on his sling-stick with the axe that he had, and the whole of the Fianna bowed their heads, and on the moment the whole of the bay and of the harbour was filled with ships and with fast boats.  “What will we do with that many ships?” said Finn.  “We will do away with all you make no use of,” he said.

Caoilte rose up then and let out three great shouts, and all the Fianna of Ireland, in whatever places they were, heard them, and they thought Finn and his people to be in some kind of danger from men from beyond the sea.

They came then in small companies as they chanced to be, till they came to the stepping-stones of the Cat’s Head in the western part of Corca Duibhne.  And they asked news of Finn, what had happened that he called them away from their hunting, and Finn told them all that had happened.  Then Finn and Oisin went into council together, and it is what they agreed; that as but fifteen of his people were brought away from Finn, he himself with fifteen others would go on their track; Oisin to be left at the head of the Fianna to guard Ireland.