Next morning the deer shouted, “Here is the deer; but where are the hunters to follow?” and made away swiftly.
Dyeermud, the small chief, the gruagach, and the knight hurried on in pursuit. Coming evening, the knight saw the cave, and called out to Dyeermud, “Have a care of that place; for ’tis there she will enter.”
When the deer reached the cave, Dyeermud gave a kick with his right foot, and struck off one half her hind-quarter.
Barely was this done, when out rushed a dreadful and ugly old hag, with every tooth in her upper jaw a yard long, and she screaming, “You hungry, scorched scoundrel from Erin, how dared you ruin the sport of the small men?”
The words were hardly out of her mouth, when Dyeermud made at her with his fist, and sent jaws and teeth down her throat. What the old hag did not swallow, went half a mile into the country behind her.
The hag raced on through the land of the small men, and Dyeermud with his forces made after her. When they came to the castle, the king let a loud laugh out of him.
“Why do you give such a laugh?” inquired Dyeermud.
“I thought that the knight had enough the first time he came to this castle.”
“This proves to you that he had not,” said Dyeermud; “or he would not be in it the second time.”