Page:Irish Fairy Tales (Stephens).djvu/351

VII "That dog can't climb a tree," said the man in the branch above the king warningly.

"Praise be to the gods!" said the man who was above him.

"Amen!" said the warrior who was higher up than that.

And the man in the next tree said:

"Don't move a hand or a foot until the dog chokes himself to death on the dead meat."

The dog, however, did not eat a bit of the meat. He trotted to his master, and Manannán took him up and wrapped him in his cloak.

"Now you can come down," said he.

"I wish that dog was dead!" said the king.

But he swung himself out of the tree all the same, for he did not wish to seem frightened before Manannán.

"You can go now and beat the men of Lochlann," said Manannán. "You will be King of Lochlann before nightfall."

"I wouldn't mind that," said the king.

"It's no threat," said Manannán.

The son of Lir turned then and went away in the direction of Ireland to take up his one-day rights, and Fiachna continued his battle with the Lochlannachs.

He beat them before nightfall, and by that victory he became King of Lochlann and King of the Saxons and the Britons.

He gave the Black Hag seven castles with their territories, and he gave her one hundred of every sort of cattle that he had captured. She was satisfied.

Then he went back to Ireland, and after he had been there for some time his wife gave birth to a son.