To any other man but
himself this armour would have been an encumbrance, for it was
good and sufficient loading for a car drawn by one yoke of oxen;
but so clad, this man was aware of no unusual weight. When they
had clasped him and braced him to his satisfaction, and, indeed,
that was not easy, they put upon him his tunic of dusky grey, and
over that his mantle of dark crimson, and fastened it on his
breast with a brooch whose wheel alone would task one man's full
strength to lift from the ground.
Then Tuatha went forth out of the dun, and when his people saw him
they shouted mightily, for before that they had been greatly
dismayed, and cast down on account of the slaying of Foil, whom
till then they had deemed invincible. They were all males dwelling
here together in sorcery and common lust for blood. No woman
brightened their dark assemblies and the voice of a child was
never heard within the dun or around it. So they rejoiced greatly
when they beheld Tuatha and saw him how wrathfully he came forth,
breathing slaughter, and heard his voice; for terribly he shouted
as he strode down from the dun, and he banned and cursed Cuculain
and Laeg, and devoted them to his gloomy gods.
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