It is not long afterwards that they met in the middle of the ford,
and Fer Diad said to Cuchulainn:
'Whence come you, O Cua?' said he (for [Note: An interpolation.]
_cua_ was the name of squinting in old Gaelic; and there were seven
pupils in Cuchulainn's royal eye, and two of these pupils were
squinting, and the ugliness of it is no greater than its beauty on
him; and if there had been a greater blemish on Cuchulainn, it is
that with which he reproached him; and he was proclaiming it); and
he made a song, and Cuchulainn answered:
'Whence art thou come, O Hound,' etc.
Then Cuchulainn said to his charioteer that he was to taunt him
when he was overcome, and that he was to praise him when he was
victorious, in the combat against Fer Diad. Then the charioteer
said to him:
'The man goes over thee as the tail over a cat; he washes thee as
foam is washed in water, he squeezes (?) thee as a loving mother
her son.'
Then they took to the ford-play. Scathach's ---- (?)came to them
both. Fer Diad and Cuchulainn performed marvellous feats.
Cuchulainn went and leapt into Fer Diad's shield; Fer Diad hurled
him from him thrice into the ford; so that the charioteer taunted
him again ---- and he swelled like breath in a bag.
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