“To see Fin MacCool, or get battle.”
“How many men do you wish for?”
“One thousand of your best armed men on my right hand, as many on my left, as many behind me, and twice three thousand in front of my eyesight.”
The champions were sent out to Dyeermud. They went at him, and he at them; they were that way all day, and when the sun was setting there was not a man of the nine thousand that had his head on him.
In the evening he made piles of the bodies and heaps of the heads.
Then he went back to the long house, and it was better there than the first night; the small chief had food and drink ready in plenty.
The combats continued for seven days in succession as on this day. On the eighth morning, when Dyeermud appeared, the king asked for a truce.
“I will grant it,” said Dyeermud, “if you give me a sight of Fin MacCool.”
“A sight of Fin MacCool you are not to have,” said the king, “till you bring the hound-whelp with the golden chain.”