," said Carpre. "I will make a satire on them at
sunrise, and the wind from the north, and I on a hill-top and my back to
a thorn-tree, and a stone and a thorn in my hand. And with that satire,"
he said, "I will put shame on them and enchantment, the way they will
not be able to stand against fighting men."

Then he asked Goibniu the Smith what would he be able to do. "I will do
this," he said. "If the men of Ireland stop in the battle to the end of
seven years, for every sword that is broken and for every spear that is
lost from its shaft, I will put a new one in its place. And no
spear-point that will be made by my hand," he said, "will ever miss its
mark; and no man it touches will ever taste life again. And that is more
than Dolb, the smith of the Fomor, can do," he said.

"And you, Credne," Lugh said then to his worker in brass, "what help can
you give to our men in the battle?" "It is not hard to tell that," said
Credne, "rivets for their spears and hilts for their swords and bosses
and rims for their shields, I will supply them all."

"And you, Luchta," he said then to his carpenter, "what will you do?" "I
will give them all they want of shields and of spear shafts," said
Luchta.

Then he asked Diancecht, the physician, what would he do, and it is what
he said: "Every man that will be wounded there, unless his head is
struck off, or his brain or his marrow cut through, I will make him
whole and sound again for the battle of the morrow."

Then the Dagda said: "Those great things you are boasting you will do,
I will do them all with only myself." "It is you are the good god!" said
they, and they all gave a great shout of laughter.

Then Lugh spoke to the whole army and put strength in them, so that each
one had the spirit in him of a king or a great lord.

Then when the delay was at an end, the Fomor and the men of Ireland came
on towards one another till they came to the plain of Magh Tuireadh.
That now was not the same Magh Tuireadh where the first battle was
fought, but it was to the north, near Ess Dara.

And then the two armies threatened one another. "The men of Ireland are
daring enough to offer battle to us," said Bres to Indech, son of De
Domnann. "I give my word," said Indech, "it is in small pieces their
bones will be, if they do not give in to us and pay their tribute."

Now the Men of Dea had determined not to let Lugh go into the battle,
because of the loss his death would be to them; and the