Where would he be but for me? I must be always thinking—thinking to get food for the two of us, and when we’ve got it, if the moon is at the full or the tide on the turn, he’ll leave the rabbit in the snare till it is full of maggots, or let the trout slip back through his hands into the stream. [_The FOOL has begun singing while the BLIND MAN is speaking._ FOOL [_singing_]. When you were an acorn on the tree-top, Then was I an eagle cock; Now that you are a withered old block, Still am I an eagle cock. BLIND MAN. Listen to him, now. That’s the sort of talk I have to put up with day out, day in. [_The FOOL is putting the feathers into his hair. CUCHULAIN takes a handful of feathers out of a heap the FOOL has on the bench beside him, and out of the FOOL’S hair, and begins to wipe the blood from his sword with them._ FOOL. He has taken my feathers to wipe his sword. It is blood that he is wiping from his sword. CUCHULAIN. [_Goes up to door at back and throws away feathers._] They are standing about his body. They will not awaken him, for all his witchcraft. BLIND MAN. It is that young champion that he has killed. He that came out of Aoife’s country. CUCHULAIN. He thought to have saved himself with witchcraft. FOOL. That blind man there said he would kill you. He came from Aoife’s country to kill you. That blind man said they had taught him every kind of weapon that he might do it. But I always knew that you would kill him. CUCHULAIN [_to the BLIND MAN_]. You knew him, then? BLIND MAN. I saw him, when I had my eyes, in Aoife’s country. CUCHULAIN. You were in Aoife’s country? BLIND MAN. I knew him and his mother there. CUCHULAIN. He was about to speak of her when he died. BLIND MAN. He was a queen’s son. CUCHULAIN. What queen? what queen? [_Seizes BLIND MAN, who is now sitting upon the bench._] Was it Scathach? There were many queens. All the rulers there were queens. BLIND MAN. No, not Scathach. CUCHULAIN. It was Uathach, then? Speak! speak! BLIND MAN. I cannot speak; you are clutching me too tightly. [_CUCHULAIN lets him go._] I cannot remember who it was. I am not certain. It was some queen. FOOL. He said a while ago that the young man was Aoife’s son. CUCHULAIN. She? No, no! She had no son when I was there. FOOL. That blind man there said that she owned him for her son. CUCHULAIN. I had rather he had been some other woman’s son. What father had he? A soldier out of Alba? She was an amorous woman—a proud, pale, amorous woman. BLIND MAN. None knew whose son he was. CUCHULAIN. None knew! Did you know, old listener at doors? BLIND MAN. No, no; I knew nothing. FOOL. He said awhile ago that he heard Aoife boast that she’d never but the one lover, and he the only man that had overcome her in battle. [_Pause._ BLIND MAN.