Diarmuid rose up early, and he bade Grania keep watch for Muadhan, and that he himself would go and take a walk around the country.  He went out then, and he went up on a hill that was near, and he was looking about him, east and west, north and south.  He was not long there till he saw a great fleet of ships coming from the west, straight to the bottom of the hill where he was.  And when they were come to land, nine times nine of the chief men of the ships came on shore, and Diarmuid went down and greeted them, and asked news of them, and to what country they belonged.

“Three kings we are of the Green Champions of Muir-na-locht,” said they; “and Finn, son of Cumhal, sent looking for us by cause of a thief of the woods, and an enemy of his own that has gone hiding from him; and it is to hinder him we are come.  And we are twenty hundred good fighting men, and every one of us is a match for a hundred, and besides that,” he said, “we have three deadly hounds with us; fire will not burn them, and water will not drown them, and arms will not redden on them, and we will lay them on his track, and it will be short till we get news of him.  And tell us who you are yourself?” they said, “and have you any word of the grandson of Duibhne?” “I saw him yesterday,” said Diarmuid; “and I myself,” he said, “am but a fighting man, walking the world by the strength of my hand and by the hardness of my sword.  And by my word,” he said, “you will know Diarmuid’s hand when you will meet it.”  “Well, we found no one up to this,” said they.  “What are your own names?” said Diarmuid.  “Dubh-chosach, the Black-footed, Fionn-chosach, the Fair-footed, and Treun-chosach, the Strong-footed,” they said.

“Is there wine in your ships?” said Diarmuid.  “There is,” said they.  “If you have a mind to bring out a tun of wine,” said Diarmuid, “I will do a trick for you.”  They sent men to get the tun, and when it came Diarmuid took it between his two hands and drank a drink out of it, and the others drank what was left of it.  Diarmuid took up the tun after that, and brought it to the top of the hill, and he went up himself on the tun, and let it go down the steep of the hill till it was at the bottom.  And then he brought the tun up the hill again, and he himself on it coming and going, and he did that trick three times before the strangers.  But they said he was a man had never seen a good trick when he called that a trick; and with that a man of them went up on the tun, but Diarmuid gave a stroke of his foot at it and the young man fell from it before it began to move, and it rolled over him and crushed him, that he died.  And another man went on it, and another after him again, till fifty of them were killed trying to do Diarmuid’s trick, and as many of them as were not killed went back to their ships that night.

Diarmuid went back then to where he left Grania; and Muadhan put the hair and the hook on the rod till he killed three salmon; and they ate their meal that night, and he kept watch for them the same way he did before.