After these words the son of Datho rose up, and he shook himself, and May this fall out well for us,” said he, “and well for our guests who come here to seek for him.”  His guests abode three days and three nights in his house, and when that time was ended, he bade that the heralds from Connaught be called to confer with him apart, and he spoke thus:  “I have been,” he said, “in great vexation of spirit, and for long have I hesitated before I made a decision what to do.  But now have I decided to give the hound to Ailill and Maev, let them come with splendour to bear it away.  They shall have plenty both to eat and to drink, and they shall have the hound to hold, and welcome shall they be.”  And the messengers from Connaught were well pleased with this answer that they had.

Then he went to where the heralds from Ulster were, and thus he addressed them:  “After long hesitation,” said he, “I have awarded the hound to Conor, and a proud man should he be.  Let the armies of the nobles of Ulster come to bear him away; they shall have presents, and I will make them welcome;” and with this the messengers from Ulster were content.

Now Mac Datho had so planned it that both those armies, that from the East and that from the West, should arrive at his palace upon the selfsame day.  Nor did they fail to keep their tryst; upon the same day those two provinces of Ireland came to Mac Datho’s palace, and Mac Datho himself went outside and greeted them:  “For two armies at the same time we were not prepared; yet I bid welcome to you, ye men.  Enter into the court of the house.”

Then they went all of them into the palace; one half of the house received the Ulstermen, and the other half received the men of Connaught.  For the house was no small one:  it had seven doors and fifty couches between each two doors; and it was no meeting of friends that was then seen in that house, but the hosts that filled it were enemies to each other, for during the whole time of the three hundred years that preceded the birth of Christ there was war between Ulster and Connaught.

Then they slaughtered for them Mac Datho’s Boar; for seven years had that boar been nurtured upon the milk of fifty cows, but surely venom must have entered into its nourishment, so many of the men of Ireland did it cause to die.  They brought in the boar, and forty oxen as side-dishes to it, besides other kind of food; the son of Datho himself was steward to their feast:  “Be ye welcome!” said he; “this beast before you hath not its match; and a goodly store of beeves and of swine may be found with the men of Leinster!  And, if there be aught lacking to you, more shall be slain for you in the morning.”

“It is a mighty Boar,” said Conor.

“’Tis a mighty one indeed,” said Ailill.  “How shall it be divided, O Conor?” said he.

“How?” cried down Bricriu,[FN#11] the son of Carbad, from above; “in the place where the warriors of Ireland are gathered together, there can be but the one test for the division of it, even the part that each man hath taken in warlike deeds and strife:  surely each man of you hath struck the other a buffet on the nose ere now!”