The servant was shocked when Amergin uttered a precocious, cryptic poem, and ran home to tell his master what he had heard.
Athirne resolved to kill the boy, for fear that he might take his job, but Eccet had replaced him with a lifelike clay replica.
Athirne showed up to take delivery of his new axe, brought it down on the replica's head, and fled, thinking he had killed Amergin.
[3] [4] During the Táin Bó Cúailnge ("cattle raid of Cooley"), Amergin held up the advance of the Connachta army by pelting them with enormous stones for three days and nights.
Eventually he agreed to withdraw until the final battle[5] (a variant version of this episode appears in the first recension of Táin Bó Cúailnge, where the combatants are Cú Roí and Munremar mac Gerrcind).