The hound of ballad was huge by day (able to "overcome fifty men"), but was a "thunderbolt, ball of fire" () by night. translates as "ball of fire", Stern as "". Cf. also "cáer", eDIL which gives 'meteor, thunderbolt' and 'fireballs'. Similarly, Fer Mac was normally huge, of greater size than any hound, but when dispensing liquor from its mouth it dwindled to the size of a "pine marten on a queen's lap".Rendered "ferret" in and a "lapdog" in , but the original text is (Acall. 5573 , ), and under "crann" in the DIL the term is glossed as 'pine marten'. Fer Mac also vomited quantities of gold and silver as needed.
