thereupon much of earth and of gravel and of stones was poured into it.
Now it had, before that time, always been the custom of the men of
Ireland to harness their oxen with a strap over their foreheads, so
that the pull might be against the foreheads of the oxen; and this
custom lasted up to that very night, when it was seen that the
fairy-folk had placed the yoke upon the shoulders of the oxen, so that
the pull might be there; and in this way were the yokes of the oxen
afterwards placed by Eochaid, and thence cometh the name by which he is
known; even Eochaid Airemm, or Eochaid the Ploughman, for he was the
first of all the men of Ireland to put the yokes on the necks of the
oxen, and thus it became the custom for all the land of Ireland. And
this is the song that the host of the fairies sang, as they laboured at
the making of the road:


Thrust it in hand! force it in hand!
Nobles this night, as an ox-troop, stand:
Hard is the task that is asked, and who
From the bridging of Lamrach shall gain, or rue?


Not in all the world could a road have been found that should be better
than the road that they made, had it not been that the fairy folk were
observed as they worked upon it; but for that cause a breach hath been
made in that causeway. And the steward of Eochaid thereafter came to
him; and he described to him that great labouring band that had come
before his eyes, and he said that there was not over the chariot-pole
of life a power that could withstand its might. And, as they spake
thus with each other, they saw Mider standing before them; high was he
girt, and ill-favoured was the face that he showed; and Eochaid arose,