but that they betake themselves to the woods and wastes and steep glens of the province, if so they may keep out of the way of the men of Erin.”  “And thou, lad, what wilt thou do?” “I must go southwards to Temair to keep tryst with the [W.556.] maid[a] of Fedlimid Nocruthach (’of the Nine Forms’) [1]Conchobar’s daughter,[1] according to my own agreement, till morning.”  “Alas, that one should go [2]on such a journey,"[2] said Sualtaim, “and leave the Ulstermen under the feet of their foes and their enemies for the sake of a tryst with a woman!” “For all that, I needs must go.  For, an I go not, the troth of men will be held for false and the promises of women held for true.”

    [3-3] LU. 218

    [4-4] Eg. 1782.

    [5-5] Sualtach, in LL.

    [6-6] Eg. 1782.

    [7-7] Eg. 1782.

    [8-8] LU. and YBL. 220.

    [a] “Who was secretly as a concubine with Cuchulain”; gloss in LU. and
    YBL. 222 and Eg. 1782.

    [1-1] Eg. 1782.

    [2-2] Stowe and Add.

Sualtaim departed with warnings to the men of Ulster.  Cuchulain strode into the wood, and there, with a single blow, he lopped the prime sapling of an oak, root and top, and with only one foot and one hand and one eye he exerted himself; and he made a twig-ring thereof and set an ogam[b] script on the plug of the ring, and set the ring round the narrow part of the pillar-stone on Ard (’the Height’) of Cuillenn.  He forced the ring till it reached the thick of the pillar-stone.  Thereafter Cuchulain went his way to his tryst with the woman.

    [b] The old kind of writing of the Irish.

Touching the men of Erin, the account follows here:  They came up to the pillar-stone at Ard Cuillenn, [3]which is called Crossa Coil to-day,[3] and they began looking out upon the province that was unknown to them, the province of Ulster.  And two of Medb’s people went always before them in the van of the host, at every camp and on every march, at every ford and every river [LL.fo.58b.] and every gap.  They were wont to do so [4]that they might save the brooches and cushions and cloaks of the host, so that the dust of the multitude might not soil them[4] and that no stain might come on the princes’ raiment in the crowd or the crush of the hosts or the throng;—­these were the two sons of Nera, who was the son of Nuathar, [W.575.] son of Tacan, two sons of the house-stewards of Cruachan, Err and Innell, to wit.  Fraech and Fochnam were the names of their charioteers.

    [3-3] Eg. 1782.

    [4-4] LU. and YBL. 245-246.