dwelt there perpetually; and Lu the Long-Handed, the slayer of Balor, the destroyer of the Fomoroh, the immortal, the invisible, the maker and decorator of the Firmament, whose hound was the sun and whose son the viewless wind, thundered from heaven and bent his sling five-hued against the clouds; and the son of the illimitable Lir [Footnote:  Mananan mac Lir, the sea-god.] in his mantle blue and green, foam-fringed passed through the assembly with a roar of far-off innumerable waters, and the Mor Reega stood in the midst with a foot on either side of the plain, and shouted with the shout of a host, so that the Ultonians fell down like reaped grass with their faces to the earth, on account of the presence of the Mor Reega, and on account of the omens and great signs.

Cuculain bade Laeg let the steeds go.  They went like a storm and three times encircled Emain Macha.  It was the custom of the Ultonians to march thrice round Emain ere they went forth to war.

Then said Cuculain—­“Whither leads the great road yonder?”

“To Ath-na-Forairey and the borders of the Crave Rue.”

“And wherefore is it called the Ford of the Watchings?” said Cuculain.

“Because,” answered Laeg, “there is always one of the King’s knights there, keeping watch and ward over the gate of the province.”

“Guide thither the horses,” said Cuculain, “for I will not lay aside my arms till I have first reddened them in the blood of the enemies of my nation.  Who is it that is over the ward there this day?”

“It is Conall Carnach,” said Laeg.

As they drew nigh to the ford, the watchman from his high watch-tower on the west side of the dun sent forth a loud and clear voice—­

“There is a chariot coming to us from Emain Macha,” he said.  “The chariot is of great size; I have not seen its like in all Eiriu.  In front of it are two horses, one black and one white.  Great is their trampling and their glory and the shaking of their heads and necks.  I liken their progress to the fall of water from a high cliff or the sweeping of dust and beech-tree leaves over a plain, when the March wind blows hard, or to the rapidity of thunder rattling over the firmament.  A man would say that there were eight legs under each horse, so rapid and indistinguishable is the motion of their limbs and hoofs.  Identify those horses, O Conall, and that chariot, for to me they are unknown.”

“And to me likewise,” said Conall.  “Who are in the chariot?  Moderate, O man, the extravagance of thy language, for thou art not a prophet but a watchman.”

“There are two beardless youths in the chariot,” answered the watchman, “but I am unable to identify them on account of the dust and the rapid motion and the steam of the horses.  I think the charioteer is Laeg, the son of the King of Gabra, for I know his manner of driving.  The boy who sits in front of him and below him on the champion’s seat I do not know, but he shines like a star in the cloud of dust and steam.”  Then a young man who stood near to Conall Carna, wearing a short, red cloak with a blue hood to it, and a tassel at the point of the hood, said to Conall—­