g a name for myself? And let you help me now," he said, "and I
will be a friend to you for ever." And he went on talking to them and
persuading them till he got round them all, and they agreed to go with
him to join Finn and the Fianna. And when the king was asleep, they went
into the house where the arms were kept, and every lad of them brought
away with him a shield and a sword and a helmet and two spears and two
greyhound whelps. And they went across Ess Ruadh in the north, and
through Connacht of many tribes, and through Caille an Chosanma, the
Woods of Defence, that were called the choice of every king and the true
honour of every poet, and into Ciarraighe, and so on to the White
Strand.

And when they came there Dolar Durba was on the strand, boasting before
the men of Ireland. And Oisin was rising up to go against him, for he
said he would sooner die fighting with him than see the destruction he
was doing every day on his people. And all the wise men and the fighting
men and the poets and the musicians of the Fianna gave a great cry of
sorrow when they heard Oisin saying that.

And the King of Ulster's son went to Finn and stood before him and
saluted him, and Finn asked who was he, and where did he come from. "I
am the son of the King of Ulster," he said; "and I am come here, myself
and my twelve foster-brothers, to give you what help we can." "I give
you a welcome," said Finn.

Just then they heard the voice of Dolar Durba, very loud and boastful.
"Who is that I hear?" said the king's son. "It is a man of the
foreigners asking for a hundred of my men to go and meet him," said
Finn.

Now, when the twelve foster-brothers heard that, they said no word but
went down to the strand, unknown to the king's son and to Finn.

"You are not a grown man," said Conan; "and neither yourself or your
comrades are fit to face any fighting man at all." "I never saw the
Fianna of Ireland till this day," said the young lad; "but I know well
that you are Conan Maol, that never says a good word of any man. And you
will see now," he said, "if I am in dread of that man on the strand, or
of any man in the world, for I will go out against him by myself."

But Finn kept him back and was talking with him; but then Conan began
again, and he said: "It is many men Dolar Durba has made an end of, and
there was not a man of all those that could not have killed a hundred of
the like of you every day."

When the king's son heard that, the