'That is true, it is an outlaw's portion that I have,' said Cuchulainn, 'for I have been from the Monday after Samain to this time, and I have not gone for a night's entertainment, through strongly obstructing the men of Ireland on the Cattle-Foray of Cualnge at this time.'
'If it were for this we came,' said Fergus, 'we should have thought it the better to leave it; and it is not for this that we have come.'
'Why else have you come to me?' said Cuchulainn.
'To tell you the warrior who comes against you in battle and combat to-morrow morning,' said he.
'Let us find it out and let us hear it from you then,' said
Cuchulainn.
'Your own foster-brother, Fer Diad Mac Damain.'
'On our word, we think it not best that it should be he we come to meet,'said Cuchulainn, 'and it is not for fear of him but for the greatness of our love for him.'
'It is fitting to fear him,' said Fergus, 'for he has a skin of horn in battle against a man, so that neither weapon nor edge will pierce it.'
'Do not say that at all,' said Cuchulainn, 'for I swear the oath that my people swear, that every joint and every limb of him will be as pliant as a pliant rush in the midst of a stream under the point of my sword, if he shows himself once to me on the ford.'
It is thus they were speaking, and they made a song: