t came there to display his form to the hosts,
Cuchulain, to wit son of Sualtaim [4]son of Boefoltach ('Of little
possessions') son of Morfoltach ('Of great possessions') son of Red Neil
macRudhraidi.[4] Three heads of hair he wore; brown at the skin, blood-red
in the middle, a golden-yellow crown what thatched it. Beautiful was the
arrangement of the hair, with three coils of hair wound round the nape of
his neck, so that like to a strand of thread of gold was each thread-like,
loose-flowing, deep-golden, magnificent, long-tressed, splendid,
beauteous-hued hair as it fell down over his shoulders. A hundred
bright-purple windings of gold-flaming red gold at his neck. A hundred
salmon-coloured (?) cords strung with carbuncles as a covering round his
head. Four spots on either of his two cheeks, even a yellow spot, and a
green spot, and a blue spot, [W.2722.] and a purple spot. Seven jewels of
the eye's brilliance was either of his kingly eyes. Seven toes to either of
his two feet. Seven fingers to either of his two hands, with the clutch of
hawk's claw, with the grip of hedgehog's talon in every separate one of
them.

[4-4] H. 2. 17.

He also put on him that day his fair-day dress. To this apparel about him
belonged, namely, a beautiful, well-fitting, purple, fringed, five-folded
mantle. A white brooch of [1]silvered bronze or of[1] white silver
incrusted with burnished gold over his fair white breast, as if it were a
full-fulgent lantern that eyes of men could not behold [LL.fo.79a.] for its
resplendence and crystal shining. A [2]striped[2] chest-jacket of silk on
his skin, fairly adorned with borders and braidings and trimmings of gold
and silver and silvered bronze; it reached to the upper hem of his dark,
brown-red warlike breeches of royal silk. A magnificent, brown-purple
buckler he bore, [3]with five wheels of gold on it,[3] with a rim of pure
white silver around it. A gold-hilted hammered sword [4]with ivory guards,
raised high at his girdle[4] at his left side. A long grey-edged spear
together with a trenchant bye-spear for defence, with thongs for throwing
and with rivets of whitened bronze, alongside him in the chariot. Nine
heads he bore in one of his hands and ten in the other, and these he
brandished before the hosts in token of his prowess and cunning. [5]This
then was a night's attack for Cuchulain on the hosts of four of the five
provinces of Erin.[5] Medb hid her face beneath a shelter of shields le