O Mac
cecht! 'Tis equal to me what death I shall go to, for anyhow I
shall perish."

Then Mac cecht gave a choice to the champions of valour of the men of
Erin who were in the house, whether they cared to protect the King or to
seek a drink for him.

Conall Cernach answered this in the house--and cruel he deemed the
contention, and afterwards he had always a feud with Mac cecht.--"Leave
the defence of the King to _us_," says Conall, "and go thou to seek the
drink, for of thee it is demanded."

So then Mac cecht fared forth to seek the drink, and he took Conaire's
son, Le fri flaith, under his armpit, and Conaire's golden cup, in which
an ox with a bacon-pig would be boiled; and he bore his shield and his
two spears and his sword, and he carried the caldron-spit, a spit
of iron.

He burst forth upon them, and in front of the Hostel he dealt nine blows
of the iron spit, and at every blow nine reavers fell. Then he makes a
sloping feat of the shield and an edge-feat of the sword about his head,
and he delivered a hostile attack upon them. Six hundred fell in his
first encounter, and after cutting down hundreds he goes through the
band outside.

The doings of the folk of the Hostel, this is what is here examined,
presently.

Conall Cernach arises, and takes his weapons, and wends over the door of
the Hostel, and goes round the house. Three hundred fell by him, and he
hurls back the reavers over three ridges out from the Hostel, and boasts
of triumph over a king, and returns, wounded, into the Hostel.

Cormac Condlongas sallies out, and his nine comrades with him, and they
deliver their onsets on the reavers. Nine enneads fall by Cormac and
nine enneads by his people, and a man for each weapon and a man for each
man. And Cormac boasts of the death of a chief of the reavers. They
succeed in escaping though they be wounded.

The trio of Picts sally forth from the Hostel, and take to plying their
weapons on the reavers. And nine enneads fall by them, and they chance
to escape though they be wounded.

The nine pipers sally forth and dash their warlike work on the reavers;
and then they succeed in escaping.

Howbeit then, but it is long to relate, 'tis weariness of mind, 'tis
confusion of the senses, 'tis tediousness to hearers, 'tis superfluity
of narration to go over the same things twice. But the folk of the
Hostel came forth in order, and fought their combats with the reavers,
and fell by them, as Fer rogain an