“Well, you may keep him,” said Fin, rising from the table; and all the men followed. Conan Maol, who was with them, thought it hard to leave the dinner untasted, so he took a joint of meat with him.
When Fin and the Fenians had gone, Ceadach said to his wife, “It is a great shame to us that Fin and the Fenians have left our house without tasting food, and this their first visit. Never can I face a man of the Fenians after what has happened this day.” And he talked till the wife consented to let him go with them.
Ceadach then whistled after Fin, who came back with his men; and they raised three shouts of joy when they heard that Ceadach would go with them. They entered the house then; all sat down to dinner, and they needed it badly.
After dinner, all set out together, and went to Ceadach’s father, the King of Sorach, who was very powerful, and had many ships (Fin and the Fenians had no ships at that time). Ceadach’s father had received no account of his son from the time that he left him at first, and was rejoiced at his coming.
Said Fin to the King of Sorach, “I need a ship to bear me to the land where the Red Ox is kept.”
“You may take the best ship I have,” said the king.
Fin chose the best ship, and was going on board with his men when Ceadach’s wife said to him, “When coming back, you are to raise black sails if Ceadach is killed, but white sails if he is living.”
Fin commanded, and the men turned the prow to the sea, and the stern to land; they raised the great sweeping sails, and took their smoothly-polished ship past harbors with gently-sloping shores, and there the ship left behind it pale-green wavelets. Then a mighty wind swept through great flashing waves with such force that not a nail in the ship was left unheated, nor the finger of a man inactive; and the ship raised with its sailing a proud, haughty ridge in the sea. When the wind failed, they sat down with their oars of fragrant beech or white ash, and with every stroke they sent the ship forward three leagues through the water, where fishes, seals, and monsters rose around them, making music and sport, and giving courage to the men; and they never stopped nor cooled till they entered the chief port of the land where the Red Ox was kept.
When all had landed; Ceadach said, “I need the fleetest man of the Fenians to help me against the Red Ox; and now tell me what each of you can do, and how fast he can run.”