before them, the blood trickling from his breast.

"I have outwitted you now," cried he, "for if ye had killed a pig ye
would have paid a pig's eric,[16] but now ye shall pay the eric of a
man. Never was greater eric in the land of Erinn than that which ye
shall pay; and I swear that the very weapons with which ye slay me
shall tell the tale to the avenger of blood."

[16] Blood-fine.

"Then you shall be slain with no weapons at all," said Brian; and they
picked up the stones on the Plain of Murthemny and rained them upon
him till he was all one wound, and he died. So they buried him as
deep as the height of a man, and went their way to join the host of
Lugh.

When the host was assembled, Lugh led them into Connacht and smote the
Fomorians and drove them to their ships, but of this the tale tells
not here. But when the fight was done, Lugh asked of his comrades if
they had seen his father in the fight and how it fared with him. They
said they had not seen him. Then Lugh made search among the dead, and
they found not Kian there. "Were Kian alive he would be here," said
Lugh, "and I swear by the Wind and the Sun that I will not eat or
drink till I know what has befallen him."

On their return the Danaan host passed by the Plain of Murthemny, and
when they came near the place of the murder the stones cried aloud to
Lugh. And Lugh listened, and they told him of the deed of the sons of
Turenn. Then Lugh searched for the place of a new grave, and when he
had found it he caused it to be dug, and the body of his father was
raised up, and Lugh saw that it was but a litter of wounds. And he
cried out: "O wicked and horrible deed!" and he kissed his father and
said, "I am sick from this sight, my eyes are blind from it, my ears
are deaf from it, my heart stands still from it. Ye gods that I adore,
why was I not here when this crime was done? a man of the children of
Dana slain by his fellows." And he lamented long and bitterly. Then
Kian was again laid in his grave, and a mound was heaped over it and a
pillar-stone set thereon and his name written in Ogham, and a dirge
was sung for him.

After that Lugh departed to Tara, to the Court of the High King, and
he charged his people to say nothing of what had happened until he
himself had made it known.

When he reached Tara with his victorious host the King placed Lugh at
his own right hand before all the princes and lords of the Danaan
folk. Lugh looked round about him, an