_Barach._ There was a young man with a pale face and red hair standing beside it. Some of our people came up whose turn it was to guard the shore. I heard them ask the young man his name. He said he was under bonds not to tell it. Then words came between them, and they fought, and the young man killed half of them, and the others ran away. _Fintain._ It matters nothing to us, but he has come at last. _Barach._ Who has come? _Fintain._ I know who that young man is. There is not another like him in the world. I saw him when I had my eyesight. _Barach._ You saw him? _Fintain._ I used to be in Aoife’s country when I had my eyesight. _Barach._ That was before you went on shipboard and were blinded for putting a curse on the wind? _Fintain._ Queen Aoife had a son that was red haired and pale faced like herself, and everyone said that he would kill Cuchullain some day, but I would not have that spoken of. _Barach._ Nobody could do that. Who was his father? _Fintain._ Nobody but Aoife knew that, not even he himself. _Barach._ Not even he himself! Was Aoife a goddess and lecherous? _Fintain._ I overheard her telling that she never had but one lover, and that he was the only man who overcame her in battle. There were some who thought him one of the Riders of the Sidhe, because the child was great of limb and strong beyond others. The child was begotten over the mountains; but come nearer and I will tell you something. _Barach._ You have thought something? _Fintain._ When I hear the young girls talking about the colour of Cuchullain’s eyes, and how they have seven colours, I have thought about it. That young man has Aoife’s face and hair, but he has Cuchullain’s eyes. _Barach._ How can he have Cuchullain’s eyes? _Fintain._ He is Cuchullain’s son. _Barach._ And his mother has sent him hither to fight his father. _Fintain._ It is all quite plain. Cuchullain went into Aoife’s country when he was a young man that he might learn skill in arms, and there he became Aoife’s lover. _Barach._ And now she hates him because he went away, and has sent the son to kill the father. I knew she was a goddess. _Fintain._ And she never told him who his father was, that he might do it. I have thought it all out, fool. I know a great many things because I listen when nobody is noticing and I keep my wits awake. What ails you now? _Barach._ I have remembered that I am hungry.