A year passed, and one day as he was sitting at judgement there came
a great noise from without, and this noise was so persistent that the
people and suitors were scandalised, and Fiachna at last ordered that
the noisy person should be brought before him to be judged.
It was done, and to his surprise the person turned out to be the Black
Hag.
She blamed him in the court before his people, and complained that he
had taken away her cow, and that she had not been paid the four cows he
had gone bail for, and she demanded judgement from him and justice.
“If you will consider it to be justice, I will give you twenty cows
myself,” said Fiachna.
“I would not take all the cows in Ulster,” she screamed.
“Pronounce judgement yourself,” said the king, “and if I can do what you
demand I will do it.” For he did not like to be in the wrong, and he did
not wish that any person should have an unsatisfied claim upon him.
The Black Hag then pronounced judgement, and the king had to fulfil it.
“I have come,” said she, “from the east to the west; you must come from
the west to the east and make war for me, and revenge me on the King of
Lochlann.”
Fiachna had to do as she demanded, and, although it was with a heavy
heart, he set out in three days’ time for Lochlann, and he brought with
him ten battalions.
He sent messengers before him to Big Eolgarg warning him of his coming,
of his intention, and of the number of troops he was bringing; and when
he landed Eolgarg met him with an equal force, and they fought together.
In the first battle three hundred of the men of Lochlann were killed,
but in the next battle Eolgarg Mor did not fight fair, for he let some
venomous sheep out of a tent, and these attacked the men of Ulster and
killed nine hundred of them.
So vast was the slaughter made by these sheep and so great the terror
they caused, that no one could stand before them, but by great good luck
there was a wood at hand, and the men of Ulster, warriors and princes
and charioteers, were forced to climb up the trees, and they roosted
among the branches like great birds, while the venomous sheep ranged
below bleating terribly and tearing up the ground.
Fiachna Fim was also sitting in a tree, very high up, and he was
disconsolate.
“We are disgraced,” said he.
“It is very lucky,” said the man in the branch below, “that a sheep
cannot climb a tree.”
“We are disgraced for ever,” said the King of Ulster.
“If those sheep learn how to climb, we are undone surely,” said the man
below.
“I will go down and fight the sheep,” said Fiachna. But the others would
not let the king go.
“It is not right,” they said, “that you should fight sheep.”
“Some one must fight them,” said Fiachna Finn, “but no more of my men
shall die until I fight myself; for if I am fated to die, I will die and
I cannot escape it, and if it is the sheep’s fate to die, then die they
will; for there is no man can avoid destiny, and there is no sheep can
dodge it either.”
“Praise be to god!” said the warrior that was higher up.
“Amen!” said the man who was higher than he, and the rest of the
warriors wished good luck to the king.
He started then to climb down the tree with a heavy heart, but while
he hung from the last branch and was about to let go, he noticed a tall
warrior walking towards him. The king pulled himself up on the branch
again and sat dangle-legged on it to see what the warrior would do.
The stranger was a very tall man, dressed in a green cloak with a silver
brooch at the shoulder. He had a golden band about his hair and golden
sandals on his feet, and he was laughing heartily at the plight of the
men of Ireland.