"Is it possible that such claim as this should be made upon me?" said
Cuchulain. "Place a stone in my sling, O Laeg!" Laeg thereon took a
stone, and he placed it in the sling, and Cuchulain launched the stone
at the birds, but the cast missed. "Alas!" said he. He took another
stone, and he launched this also at the birds, but the stone flew past
them. "Wretched that I am," he cried, "since the very first day that I
assumed arms, I have never missed a cast until this day!" And he cast
his spear at them, and the spear went through the shield of the wing of
one of the birds, and the birds flew away, and went beneath the lake.

After this Cuchulain departed, and he rested his back against a stone
pillar, and his soul was angry within him, and a sleep fell upon him.
Then saw he two women come to him; the one of them had a green mantle
upon her, and upon the other was a purple mantle folded in five folds.
And the woman in the green mantle approached him, and she laughed a
laugh at him, and she gave him a stroke with a horsewhip. And then the
other approached him, and she also laughed at him, and she struck him
in the like manner; and for a long time were they thus, each of them in
turn coming to him and striking him until he was all but dead; and then
they departed from him.

Now the men of Ulster perceived the state in which Cuchulain was in;
and they cried out that he should be awakened; but "Nay," said Fergus,
"ye shall not move him, for he seeth a vision;" and a little after that
Cuchulain came from his sleep. "What hath happened to thee?" said the
men of Ulster; but he had no power to bid greeting to them. "Let me be
carried," he said, "to the sick-bed that is in Tete Brecc; neither to
Dun Imrith, nor yet to Dun Delga." "Wilt thou not be carried to Dun
Delga to seek for Emer?" said Laeg. "Nay," said he, "my word is for
Tete Brecc;" and thereon they bore him from that place, and he was in