beings of the air screamed from the rims of
their shields and from the guards of their swords and from the tips of
their spears.

Such was the closeness of the combat they made, that they forced the river
out of its bed and out of its course, so that there might have been a
reclining place [LL.fo.87a.] for a king or a queen in the middle of the
ford, and not a drop of water was in it but what fell there with the
trampling and slipping which the two heroes and the two battle-warriors
made in the middle of the ford.

Such was the closeness of the combat they made, that the steeds of the Gael
broke loose affrighted and plunging with madness and fury, so that their
chains and their shackles, their traces and tethers snapped, and the women
and children and pygmy-folk, the weak and the madmen among the men of Erin
brake out through the camp south-westward.

At that time they were at the edge-feat of swords. It was then Ferdiad
caught Cuchulain in an unguarded moment, and he gave him a thrust with his
tusk-hilted blade, so that he buried it in his breast, and his blood fell
into his belt, [W.3831.] till the ford became crimsoned with the clotted
blood from the battle-warrior's body. Cuchulain endured it not, under
Ferdiad's attack, with his death-bringing, heavy blows, and his long
strokes and his mighty, middle slashes at him.

[1]Then Cuchulain bethought him of his friends from Faery and of his mighty
folk who would come to defend him and of his scholars to protect him, what
time he would be hard pressed in the combat. It was then that Dolb and
Indolb arrived to help and to succour their friend, namely Cuchulain,
[2]and one of them went on either side of him and they smote Ferdiad, the
three of them, and Ferdiad did not perceive the men from Sid ('the Faery
Dwelling')[2]. Then it was that Ferdiad felt the onset of the three
together smiting his shield against him, and he gave all his care and
attention thereto, and thence he called to mind that, when they were with
Scathach and with Uathach [3]learning together, Dolb and Indolb used to
come to help Cuchulain out of every stress wherein he was.[3] Ferdiad
spake: "Not alike are our foster-brothership and our comradeship, O
Cuchulain," quoth he. "How so, then?" asked Cuchulain. "Thy friends of the
Fairy-folk have succoured thee, and thou didst not disclose them to me
before," said Ferdiad. "Not easy for me were that," answered Cuchulain;
"for if the magic veil be once revea