s of toy-spears at him, and they all
remained standing in his shield of lath. Then they throw all the
balls at him; and he takes them, each single ball, in his bosom.
Then they throw their three fifties of hurling-clubs at him; he
warded them off so that they did not touch him, and he took a
bundle of them on his back. Then contortion seized him. You would
have thought that it was a hammering wherewith each little hair had
been driven into his head, with the arising with which he arose.
You would have thought there was a spark of fire on every single
hair. He shut one of his eyes so that it was not wider than the eye
of a needle. He opened the other so that it was as large as the
mouth of a meadcup. He laid bare from his jawbone to his ear; he
opened his mouth to his jaw [Note: Conjectured from the later
description of Cuchulainn's distortion.] so that his gullet was
visible. The hero's light rose from his head. Then he strikes at
the boys. He overthrows fifty of them before they reached the door
of Emain. Nine of them came over me and Conchobar as we were
playing chess. Then he springs over the chessboard after the nine.
Conchobar caught his elbow.

'"The boys are not well treated," said Conchobar.

'"Lawful for me, O friend Conchobar," said he. "I came to them from
my home to play, from my mother and father; and they have not been
good to me."

'"What is your name?" said Conchobar.

'"Setanta Mac Sualtaim am I," said he, "and the son of Dechtere,
your sister. It was not fitting to hurt me here."

'"Why were the boys not bound to protect you?" said Conchobar.

'"I did not know this," said Cuchulainn. "Undertake my protection
against them then."

'"I recognise it," said Conchobar.

'Then he turned aside on [Note: i.e. to attack them.] the boys
throughout the house.

'"What ails you at them now?" said Conchobar.

'"That I may be bound to protect them," said Cuchulainn.

'"Undertake it," said Conchobar.

'"I recognise it," said Cuchulainn.

'Then they all went into the play-field, and those boys who had
been struck down there arose. Their foster-mothers and foster-fathers
helped them.

'Once,' said Fergus, 'when he was a youth, he used not to sleep in
Emain Macha till morning.

'"Tell me," said Conchobar to him, "why you do not sleep?"

'"I do not do it," said Cuchulainn, "unless it is equally high at
my head and my feet."

'Then a stone pillar was put by Conchobar at his head, and another
at