"Fair is the young heifer that springs past me!" he cried.
"Well may the young heifers be great," she said, "in a place where none may find a bull."
"Thou hast, as thy bull," said he, "the bull of the whole province of
Ulster, even Conor the king of Ulster."
"I would choose between you two," she said, "and I would take for myself a younger bull, even such as thou art."
"Not so indeed," said Naisi, "for I fear the prophecy of Cathbad."
"Sayest thou this, as meaning to refuse me?" said she.
"Yea indeed," he said; and she sprang upon him, and she seized him by his two ears. "Two ears of shame and of mockery shalt thou have," she cried, "if thou take me not with thee." "Release me, O my wife!" said he.
"That will I."
Then Naisi raised his musical warrior-cry, and the men of Ulster heard it, and each of them one after another sprang up: and the sons of Usnach hurried out in order to hold back their brother.
"What is it," they said, "that thou dost? let it not be by any fault of thine that war is stirred up between us and the men of Ulster."