me,' said Mand.

Then they begin to wrestle for a long time, and Mand overthrows
Cuchulainn thrice, so that the charioteer urged him.

'If you had a strife for the hero's portion in Emain,' said he,
'you would be mighty over the warriors of Emain!'

His hero's rage comes, and his warrior's fury rises, so that he
overthrew Mand against the pillar, so that he falls in pieces.
Hence is Mag Mand Achta, that is, Mand Echta, that is, Mand's death
there.

[From the Yellow Book of Lecan]

On the morrow Medb sent twenty-seven men to Cuchulainn's bog.
Fuilcarnn is the name of the bog, on this side of Fer Diad's Ford.
They threw their twenty-nine spears at him at once; i.e.
Gaile-dana with his twenty-seven sons and his sister's son, Glas
Mac Delgna. When then they all stretched out their hands to
their swords, Fiacha Mac Fir-Febe came after them out of the
camp. He gave a leap from his chariot when he saw all their
hands against Cuchulainn, and he strikes off the arms of the
twenty-nine of them.

Then Cuchulainn said: 'What you have done I deem help at the
nick of time (?).'

'This little,' said Fiacha, 'is a breach of compact for us
Ulstermen. If any of them reaches the camp, we will go with our
cantred under the point of the sword.'

'I swear, etc., since I have emitted my breath,' said Cuchulainn,
'not a man of them shall reach it alive.'

Cuchulainn slew then the twenty-nine men and the two sons of Ficce
with them, two bold warriors of Ulster who came to ply their might
on the host. This is that deed on the Foray, when they went to the
battle with Cuchulainn.

_This is the Combat of Fer Diad and Cuchulainn_

Then they considered what man among them would be fit to ward off
Cuchulainn. The four provinces of Ireland spoke, and confirmed, and
discussed, whom it would be fitting to send to the ford against
Cuchulainn. All said that it was the Horn-skin from Irrus Domnand,
the weight that is not supported, the battle-stone of doom, his own
dear and ardent foster-brother. For Cuchulainn had not a feat that
he did not possess, except it were the Gae Bolga alone; and they
thought he could avoid it, and defend himself against it, because
of the horn about him, so that neither arms nor many edges pierced
it.

Medb sent messengers to bring Fer Diad. Fer Diad did not come with
those messengers. Medb sent poets and bards and satirists [Note:
Ir. _aes glantha gemaidi_, the folk who brought blotches on the
cheeks (i.