It had a good smell, but I hope that the wild dogs have not smelt it. (Voices are heard outside the door at the side.) Here is our master. Let us stay and talk with him. Perhaps Cuchullain will give you a new cap with a feather. He told me that he would give you a new cap with a feather, a feather with an eye that looks at you, a peacock's feather. BARACH. No, no. (He begins pulling Fintain towards the door.) FINTAIN. If you do not get it now, you may never get it, for the young man may kill him. BARACH. No, no, I am hungry. What a head you have, blind man. Who but you would have remembered that the hen-wife slept for a little at noon every day. FINTAIN. (Who is being led along very slowly and unwillingly.) Yes, I have a good head. The fowl should be done just right, but one never knows when a wild dog may come out of the woods. (They go out through the big door at the back. As they go out Cuchullain & certain young Kings come in at the side door. Cuchullain though still young is a good deal older than the others. They are all very gaily dressed, and have their hair fastened with balls of gold. The young men crowd about Cuchullain with wondering attention.) FIRST YOUNG KING. You have hurled that stone beyond our utmost mark Time after time, but yet you are not weary. SECOND YOUNG KING. He has slept on the bare ground of Fuad's Hill This week past, waiting for the bulls and the deer. CUCHULLAIN. Well, why should I be weary? FIRST YOUNG KING. It is certain His father was the god who wheels the sun, And not king Sualtam. THIRD YOUNG KING. (To a young King who is beside him.) He came in the dawn, And folded Dectara in a sudden fire. FOURTH YOUNG KING. And yet the mother's half might well grow weary, And it new come from labours over sea. THIRD YOUNG KING. He has been on islands walled about with silver, And fought with giants. (They gather about the ale vat and begin to drink.) CUCHULLAIN. Who was it that went out? THIRD YOUNG KING. As we came in? CUCHULLAIN. Yes. THIRD YOUNG KING. Barach and blind Fintain. CUCHULLAIN. They always flock together; the blind man Has need of the fool's eyesight and strong body, While the poor fool has need of the other's wit, And night and day is up to his ears in mischief That the blind man imagines. There's no hen-yard But clucks and cackles when he passes by As if he'd been a fox. If I'd that ball That's in your hair and the big stone again, I'd keep them tossing, though the one is heavy And the other light in the hand. A trick I learnt When I was learning arms in Aoife's country. FIRST YOUNG KING. What kind of woman was that Aoife? CUCHULLAIN. Comely. FIRST YOUNG KING.