'I see a man coming towards us,' said Loeg to Cuchulainn. 'He has a yellow head of hair, and a linen emblem round it; a club of fury(?) in his hand, an ivory-hilted sword at his waist; a hooded tunic with red ornamentation on him.' 'Which of the warriors of the king is that?' said Cuchulainn. Mac Roth asked Loeg whose man he was. 'Vassal to the man down yonder,' said Loeg. Cuchulainn was there in the snow up to his two thighs, without anything at all on him, examining his shirt. Then Mac Roth asked Cuchulainn whose man he was. 'Vassal of Conchobar Mac Nessa,' said Cuchulainn. 'Is there no clearer description?' 'That is enough,' said Cuchulainn. 'Where then is Cuchulainn?' said Mac Roth. 'What would you say to him?' said Cuchulainn. Mac Roth tells him then all the message, as we have told it. 'Though Cuchulainn were near, he would not do this; he will not barter the brother of his mother for another king.' He came to him again, and it was said to Cuchulainn that there should be given over to him the noblest of the women and the cows that were without milk, on condition that he should not ply his sling on them at night, even if he should kill them by day. 'I will not do it,' said Cuchulainn; 'if our slavewomen are taken from us, our noble women will be at the querns; and we shall be without milk if our milch-cows are taken from us.' He came to him again, and he was told that he should have the slave-women and the milch-cows. 'I will not do it,' said Cuchulainn; 'the Ulstermen will take their slave-women to their beds, and there will be born to them a servile offspring, and they will use their milch-cows for meat in the winter.' 'Is there anything else then?' said the messenger. 'There is,' said Cuchulainn; 'and I will not tell it you. It shall be agreed to, if any one tell it you.' 'I know it,' said Fergus; 'I know what the man tried to suggest; and it is no advantage to you. And this is the agreement,' said Fergus: 'that the ford on which takes place (?) his battle and combat with one man, the cattle shall not be taken thence a day and a night; if perchance there come to him the help of the Ulstermen. And it is a marvel to me,' said Fergus, 'that it is so long till they come out of their sufferings.' 'It is indeed easier for us,' said Ailill, 'a man every day than a hundred every night.' _The Death of Etarcomol_ Then Fergus went on this errand; Etarcomol, son of Edan [Note: Name uncertain. YBL has Eda, LL Feda.] and Lethrinne, foster-son of Ailill and Medb, followed. 'I do not want you to go,' said Fergus, 'and it is not for hatred of you; but I do not like combat between you and Cuchulainn. Your pride and insolence, and the fierceness and hatred, pride and madness of the other, Cuchulainn: there will be no good from your meeting.' 'Are you not able to protect me from him?' said Etarcomol. 'I can,' said Fergus, 'provided only that you do not treat his, sayings with disrespect.'