And Fermaise went looking for the king's brother, Eolus,
that was the comeliest of all the men of the world; and he knew him by
the band of gold around his head, and his green armour, and his red
shield, and he killed him with a cast of a five-pronged spear. And when
the men of Lochlann saw their three leaders were gone, they went into
their ships and back to their own country. And there was great joy
through the whole country, both among the men of Ireland and the Tuatha
de Danaan, the men of Lochlann to have been driven away by the deeds of
Caoilte and Fermaise and Cascorach.
And that was not all they did, for it was at that time there came three
flocks of beautiful red birds from Slieve Fuad in the north, and began
eating the green grass before the hill of the Sidhe. "What birds are
those?" said Caoilte. "Three flocks they are that come and destroy the
green every year, eating it down to the bare flag-stones, till they
leave us no place for our races," said Ilbrec. Then Caoilte and his
comrades took up three stones and threw them at the flocks and drove
them away. "Power and blessings to you," said the people of the Sidhe
then, "that is a good work you have done. And there is another thing you
can do for us," they said, "for there are three ravens come to us every
year out of the north, and the time the young lads of the hill are
playing their hurling, each one of the ravens carries off a boy of them.
And it is to-morrow the hurling will be," they said.
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