At last the Wee Folk determined to go in search of their king, and seven battalions of them marched upon Emania and encamped upon the lawn over against the King’s Dun.  Fergus and his nobles went out to confer with them.  “Give us back our king,” said the Wee Folk, “and we shall redeem him with a great ransom.”  “What ransom, then?” asked Fergus.  “We shall,” said they, “cause this great plain to stand thick with corn for you every year, and that without ploughing or sowing.”  “I will not give up Iubdan for that,” said Fergus.  “Then we shall do you a mischief,” said the Wee Folk.

That night every calf in the Province of Ulster got access to its dam, and in the morn there was no milk to be had for man or child, for the cows were sucked dry.

Then said the Wee Folk to Fergus, “This night, unless we get Iubdan, we shall defile every well and lake and river in Ulster.”  “That is a trifle,” said Fergus, “and ye shall not get Iubdan.”

The Wee Folk carried out this threat, and once more they came and demanded Iubdan, saying, “To-night we shall burn with fire the shaft of every mill in Ulster.”  “Yet not so shall ye get Iubdan,” said Fergus.

This being done, they came again, saying, “We shall have vengeance unless Iubdan be delivered to us.”  “What vengeance?” said Fergus.  “We shall snip off every ear of corn in thy kingdom,” said they.  “Even so,” replied Fergus, “I shall not deliver Iubdan.”

So the Wee Folk snipped off every ear of standing corn in Ulster, and once more they returned and demanded Iubdan.  “What will ye do next?” asked Fergus.  “We shall shave the hair of every man and every woman in Ulster,” said they, “so that ye shall be shamed and disgraced for ever among the people of Erinn.”  “By my word,” said Fergus, “if ye do that I shall slay Iubdan.”

Then Iubdan said, “I have a better counsel than that, O King; let me have liberty to go and speak with them, and I shall bid them make good what mischief they have done, and they shall return home forthwith.”

Fergus granted that; and when the Wee Folk saw Iubdan approaching them, they set up a shout of triumph that a man might have heard a bowshot off, for they believed they had prevailed and that Iubdan was released to them.  But Iubdan said, “My faithful people, you must now begone, and I may not go with you; make good also all the mischief that ye have done, and know that if ye do any more I must die.”

Then the Wee Folk departed, very downcast and sorrowful, but they did as Iubdan had bidden them.

Iubdan, however, went to Fergus and said, “Take, O King, the choicest of my treasures, and let me go.”

“What is thy choicest treasure?” said Fergus.

Iubdan then began to recite to Fergus the list of his possessions, such as druidic weapons, and love-charms, and instruments of music that played without touch of human hand, and vats of ale that could never be emptied; and he named among other noble treasures a pair of shoes, wearing which a man could go over or under the sea as readily as on dry land.