'
"'Oh, I see,' said the man, 'a great flock of birds coming toward us,
and every one of them is many times as large as the largest eagle that
I have ever seen. I fear that we cannot escape them and that they will
kill us. The dog is nearly dead with terror and he is trying to break
his chain.'
"'Give him a piece of the bog butter,' said Oisin, 'and let him go.
Then tell me what he does.'
"'He is running straight toward the birds,' the man answered, 'and
they are coming straight toward him and toward us, along the ground.
Ah! he has caught one of them, and all the rest have flown away! He
has killed the bird! He is rushing back to us, with madness in his
eyes and his mouth covered with blood and foam! I fear that he will be
worse for us than the birds would have been.'
"'Hold the spear straight in front of you as he comes,' said Oisin,
'and let him run upon the point of it and kill him.'
[Illustration: "HOLD THE SPEAR STRAIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU."]
"The man held the spear as Oisin told him, and when the dog came on he
was caught upon the point of it, and it went through his heart and
he fell dead.
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