“Quick they were,” said Fergus, interrupting, “yet did I outstrip them, and at the rampart’s outer door I found the child, and the great hound dead beside him. Without a pause I picked up the boy and hoisted him on my shoulder, and thus, with all the heroes following, we came to Conor, and I placed him between the monarch’s knees.”
“Yes, so it was,” said Cormac, taking up the story again where he had left it; “but let me tell of Culain. The smith went out to find his dog, and when he saw him lying there, knocked almost to pieces and quite dead, his heart was vexed within him. He went back to the house, and said, ‘’Twas no good luck that urged me to make this feast for thee, O King; would I had not prepared a banquet. My life is a life lost, and my substance is but substance wasted without my dog. He was a defence and protection to our property and our cattle, to every beast we had and to our house. Little boy,’ said he, ‘you are welcome for your people’s sake, you are not welcome for your own; that was a good member of my family thou didst take from me, a safeguard of raiment, of flocks and herds.’ ‘Be not vexed thereat,’ replied the child, ‘for I myself will fix on my own punishment. This shall it be. If in all Ireland a whelp of that dog’s breed is to be found, ’tis I myself will rear him up for thee till he be fit to take the watch-dog’s place. In the meantime, O Culain, I myself will be your hound for defence of your cattle and for your own defence, until the dog be grown and capable of action; I will defend the territory, and no cattle or beast or store of thine shall be taken from thee, without my knowing it.’
“‘Well hast thou made the award,’ said they all, ‘and henceforward shall your name be changed; you shall no longer be called Setanta; Cu-Chulain, or the “Hound of Culain,” shall your name be.’
“‘I like my own name best,’ the child objected. ‘Ah, say not so,’ replied the magician, ‘for one day will the name of Cuchulain ring in all men’s mouths; among the brave ones of the whole wide world Cuchulain’s name shall find a place. Renowned and famous shall he be, beloved and feared by all.’ ‘If that is so, then am I well content,’ replied the boy.
“So from that day forth the name Cuchulain clung to him, until the time came when he was no longer remembered as the Hound of Culain’s Fort, but as the guardian and watch-dog of defence to the Province against her foes; and then men loved best to call him ‘The Hound of Ulster.’
“Now,” continued Cormac, “it would be reasonable to expect that the little boy, who, at the age of six or seven years slew a dog whom a whole company would not dare to touch when he was at large, would, at the age of a grown youth, be formidable to Ulster’s foes.”
And Meave was forced to admit that it was likely that he would.