n the way as he went with his play-things. [1]He threw his ball and
threw his club after it, so that it hit the ball. The one throw was no
greater than the other. Then he threw his staff after them both, so that it
reached the ball and the club before ever they fell.[1] [2]Soon the lad
came up.[2] When he was nigh to the green of the fort wherein were Culann
and Conchobar, he threw all his play-things before him except only the
ball. The watch-dog descried the lad and bayed at him, so that in all the
countryside was heard the howl of the watch-hound. And not a division of
feasting was what he was inclined to make of him, but to swallow him down
at one gulp past the cavity [LL.fo.64a.] of his chest and the width of his
throat and the pipe of his breast. [3]And it interfered not with the lad's
play, although the hound made for him.[3] And the lad had not with him any
means of defence, but he hurled an unerring cast of the ball, so that it
passed through the gullet of the watch-dog's neck and carried the guts
within him out through his back door, and he laid hold of the hound by the
two legs and dashed him against a pillar-stone [4]that was near him, so
that every limb of him sprang apart,[4] so that he broke into bits all over
the ground.[a] Conchobar heard the yelp of the ban-dog. [5]Conchobar and
his people could not move; they weened they would not find the lad alive
before them.[5] "Alas, O warriors," cried Conchobar; "in no good luck
[W.1029.] have we come to enjoy this feast." "How so?" asked all. "The
little lad who has come to meet me, my sister's son, Setanta son of
Sualtaim, is undone through the hound." As one man, arose all the renowned
men of Ulster. Though a door of the hostel was thrown wide open, they all
rushed in the other direction out over the palings of the fortress. But
fast as they all got there, faster than all arrived Fergus, and he lifted
the little lad from the ground on the slope of his shoulder and bore him
into the presence of Conchobar. [1]They put him on Conchobar's knee. A
great alarm arose amongst them that the king's sister's son should have
been all but killed.[1] And Culann came out, and he saw his slaughter-hound
in many pieces. He felt his heart beating against his breast. Whereupon he
went into the dun. "Welcome thy coming, little lad," said Culann, "because
of thy mother and father, but not welcome is thy coming for thine own
sake. [2]Yet would that I had not made a feast."[2] "What