“Have you tidings of Fin and the Fenians?” asked Conn.
“I have. They are at the River Lee,” said Teastalach.
“Go to them quickly,” said Conn, “and tell how we are here. Let them come hither to save us.”
“It would ill become me to go till I had moistened my sword in the blood of the enemy,” said Teastalach; and he sent a challenge for single combat to the High King.
“I am the man to meet that warrior,” said Colahan MacDochar, the king’s champion; and he went on shore without waiting.
Colahan was thirty feet in height, and fifteen around the waist. When he landed, he went at Teastalach. They fought one hour, and fought with such fury, the two of them, that their swords and spears went to pieces. The sword of Colahan was broken at the hilt; but of Teastalach’s blade there remained a piece as long as the breadth of a man’s palm.
Colahan, who was enraged that any champion could stand against him for the space of even one hour, seized Teastalach in his arms, to carry him living to the ship of the High King, twist off his head there, and raise it on a stake before the forces of the world. When he came to deep water, he raised Teastalach on his shoulder; but Teastalach, the swift courier of Fin MacCool, turned quickly, cut the head off his enemy, brought that head to the strand, and made boast of his deed.
Now Teastalach went to where Fin and his forces were, and told him of all that happened. Fin marched straightway, and never stopped nor rested till he came to Maminch, within twenty miles of Ventry. Fin rested there for the night; but Oscar, son of Oisin, with Conn Ceadach and one other, went forward. Before going, Oscar turned to Fin, and said, “Chew your thumb, and tell us what will be the end of our struggle.”
Fin chewed his thumb from the skin to the flesh, from the flesh to the bone, from the bone to the marrow, from the marrow to the juice, and said, “The victory will be on our side, but little else will be with us. The battle will last for a day and a year, and every day will be a day of fierce struggle. No man of the foreigners will escape; and on our side few will be left living, and none without wounds.”