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By Root 650 0

three times and extinguished three times, and it was conceded that the destruction would not be carried out until Conare had performed some feat of arms. After that, Conare obtained his weapons, and six hundred fell at the first onslaught, and the plunderers were routed. ‘I told you,’ said Fer Rogain, ‘that if the fíana of Ériu and Albu were about the house, the destruction would nonetheless not be carried out until Conare’s heat and ardour were quenched.’ ‘He has only a short time,’ said the druids who had accompanied the plunderers, and they caused a weakness for drink to overcome him. Conare entered the house and said ‘Drink, popa Macc Cécht!’ ‘Indeed, I have never taken an order to bring you drink before,’ said Mace Cécht. ‘You have servers and cupbearers to bring you drink. The order I have taken up to now has been to guard you from the fíana of Ériu and Albu who have encircled the hostel – I will protect you from them, and not a single spear will pierce your body. Seek drink from your servers and your cupbearers.’

After that, Conare sought drink from his servers and cupbearers. ‘There is none,’ they said. ‘All the liquid in the house was spent extinguishing the fire.’ The river Dothra flowed through the house, but they found no drink for him there. Conare sought drink once more, saying ‘Drink for me, Mace Cécht, my foster-son. I do not care if death follows, for I will die anyway.’ Conare sought drink a third time, and at that, Mace Cécht went to the chieftains of Ériu, and he offered the warriors in the house the choice of protecting the king or fetching drink for him. Conall Cernach answered from within the house: ‘We will protect the king. You go to fetch drink, since it is you he asked.’

Macc Cécht went to fetch drink, then; he put Lé Fer Flaith son of Conare under one arm, and under the other he put Conare’s gilt cup, which was large enough for an ox to boil over the fire, and he took his sword and his shield and his two spears and a bar of iron that was under the king’s cauldron. At the entrance to the hostel he dealt nine blows with the iron bar, and each blow felled nine men. He did the edge feat with his sword about his head and so cut a path out of the house. Mace Cécht went on to Tipra Cuirp, which was nearby, in Crích Chúaland; he had Conare’s cup in his hand, but he could not fill it there. Before morning he had gone round the major rivers of Ériu: Búas, Bóand, Bandai, Berbai, Nem, Laí, Laígdai, Sinand, Síuir, Slicech, Samuir, Findi and Ruirthech. But he could not fill the cup. He went on until he reached Úarán Garaid in Mag Ai, having first gone round the waters and the chief lakes of Ériu – Dergderc, Luimnech, Loch Ríb, Loch Febail, Loch Mesca, Loch nOrbsen, Loch Laíg, Loch Cúan, Loch nEchach, Márloch – and still failing to fill the cup. Úarán Garaid did not hide from him, so he filled the cup and put the lad under his arm. He returned, then, and reached the hostel before morning.

When Macc Cécht reached the third ridge from the house, he saw two men striking Conare’s head off. He struck the head from one of the two men, but the second made to escape with Conare’s head. On the floor of the hostel, near the entrance, there happened to be a pillar stone at Mace Cécht’s feet. He cast this stone at the second man; it struck the man in the small of the back, and his back broke. Macc Cécht struck off the man’s head. Then he poured the cup of water into Conare’s throat, and Conare’s head recited this poem:

A good man Mace Cécht!

Welcome, Macc Cécht!

He brings drink to a king.

He does well.

After that, Mace Cécht went after the rout. Only a very few – nine – had fallen round Conare, and scarcely a single messenger had escaped to bear the news to the plunderers who were about the house. Where there had been five thousand, and ten hundred in every thousand, there escaped no more than one fifth, apart from Ingcél and his brothers, Éccell and Dartaid.

At the end of the third day, Mace Cécht was among the wounded on the field of slaughter, and he saw a woman going by. ‘Stay awhile, woman,’ he said.