Before setting out, Faolan saw a brass ball on the window, and, taking it, said to himself, “I may kill some game with this on the road.”
Away he went then, and walked on till he came to where the road lay through a wood; near the road was a forester’s cabin. Out came the forester with a hundred thousand welcomes.
“Glad am I to see you; gladder still would I be if your comrade, Dyeermud, were with you,” said the forester.
“Can you tell me where the Dun Ox is?” asked Faolan.
“In this wood,” said the forester; “but do you bring your comrade to help you against the Dun Ox; by no chance can you slay him alone. The Dun Ox has only one eye, and that in the middle of his forehead; over that eye is a shield of white metal; from that shield two bars of iron run back to the tail of the ox. Behind him, two champions are on guard always; and when any one nears him, the ox sniffs the stranger, and roars; the champions lean on the bars then, and raise up the shield. When the one eye of the ox sees the person approaching, that moment the person falls dead. What are your chances of slaying that ox? Go back for your comrade.”
“I will not,” said Faolan; “the ox will fall by me, or I by the ox.”
“It is you that will fall,” said the forester.
Faolan entered the cabin, where the forester treated him well. Next morning the forester showed the path that lay toward the place where the ox was. Faolan had not gone far when the ox roared, and, looking in the direction of the roar, he saw the two champions just seizing the bars to raise up the shield, so, failing other means, he sent the ball, with a well-aimed cast, and crushed in the forehead of the ox through the shield. The ox fell dead, but, before falling, his eye turned on Faolan, who dropped dead also.
Dyeermud slept a hero’s sleep of seven days and seven nights. When he woke, and found no tidings of Faolan, he was furious; but the four champions calmed him; and the young woman said, “The wild hag may have killed him; but if as much as one bone of his body can be found, I will bring him to life again.”
Dyeermud, Faolan’s betrothed, and her four brothers set out, and, coming to the battle-field, found the army of the wild hag slain, but no trace of Faolan. They went to the well then, and saw the split head there.