“’Tis true indeed,” said Ket, “thou art a better warrior than I. Were but Anluan here, he could battle with thee in another fashion; shame upon us that he is not in this house!”

“Aye, but Anluan is here! “cried Conall, and therewith he plucked Anluan’s head from his belt.  And he threw the head towards Ket, so that it smote him upon the chest, and a gulp of the blood was dashed over his lips.  And Ket came away from the Boar, and Conall placed himself beside it.

“Now let men come to contend for renown with me!” cried Conall.  But among the men of Connaught there was none who would challenge him, and they raised a wall of shields, like a great vat around him, for in that house was evil wrangling, and men in their malice would make cowardly casts at him.  And Conall turned to divide the Boar, and he took the end of the tail in his mouth.  And although the tail was so great that it was a full load for nine men, yet he sucked it all into his mouth so that nothing of it was left; and of this hath been said: 

Strong hands on a cart thrust him forward;
His great tail, though for nine men a load,
Was devoured by the brave Conall Cernach,
As the joints he so gaily bestowed.

Now to the men of Connaught Conall gave nothing except the two fore-legs of the Boar, and this share seemed to be but small to the men of Connaught, and thereon they sprang up, and the men of Ulster also sprang up, and they rushed at each other.  They buffeted each other so that the heap of bodies inside the house rose as high as the side-walls of it; and streams of blood flowed under the doors.

The hosts brake out through the doors into the outer court, and great was the din that uprose; the blood upon the floor of the house might have driven a mill, so mightily did each man strike out at his fellow.  And at that time Fergus plucked up by the roots a great oak-tree that stood in the outer court in the midst of it; and they all burst out of the court, and the battle went on outside.

Then came out Mac Datho, leading the hound by a leash in his hand, that he might let him loose between the two armies, to see to which side the sense of the hound would turn.  And the hound joined himself with the men of Ulster, and he rushed on the defeated Connaughtmen, for these were in flight.  And it is told that in the plain of Ailbe, the hound seized hold of the poles of the chariot in which Ailill and Maev rode:  and there Fer-loga, charioteer to Ailill and Maev, fell upon him, so that he cast his body to one side, and his head was left upon the poles of the chariot.  And they say that it is for that reason that the plain of Ailbe is so named, for from the hound Ailbe the name hath come.

The rout went on northwards, over Ballaghmoon, past Rurin Hill, over the Midbine Ford near to Mullaghmast, over Drum Criach Ridge which is opposite to what is Kildare to-day, over Rath Ingan which is in the forest of Gabla, then by Mac Lugna’s Ford over the ridge of the two plains till they came to the Bridge of Carpre that is over the Boyne.  And at the ford which is known as the Ford of the Hound’s Head, which standeth in the west of Meath, the hound’s head fell from the chariot.