It was not long after that they reached to the Land of Women.  And they saw the chief one of the women at the landing-place, and it is what she said:  “Come hither to land, Bran, son of Febal, it is welcome your coming is.”  But Bran did not dare to go on shore.  Then the woman threw a ball of thread straight to him, and he caught it in his hand, and it held fast to his palm, and the woman kept the thread in her own hand, and she pulled the curragh to the landing-place.

On that they went into a grand house, where there was a bed for every couple, three times nine beds.  And the food that was put on every dish never came to an end, and they had every sort of food and of drink they wished for.

And it seemed to them they were only a year there when the desire of home took hold on one of them, Nechtan, son of Collbrain, and his kinsmen were begging and praying Bran to go back with him to Ireland.  The woman said there would be repentance on them if they went; but in spite of that they set out in the end.  And the woman said to them not to touch the land when they would come to Ireland, and she bade them to visit and to bring with them the man they left in the Island of Joy.

So they went on towards Ireland till they came to a place called Srub Bruin.  And there were people on the strand that asked them who they were that were coming over the sea.  And Bran said:  “I am Bran, son of Febal.”  But the people said:  “We know of no such man, though the voyage of Bran is in our very old stories.”

Then Nechtan, son of Collbrain, made a leap out of the curragh, and no sooner did he touch the shore of Ireland than he was a heap of ashes, the same as if he had been in the earth through hundreds of years.

And then Bran told the whole story of his wanderings to the people, from the beginning.  And after that he bade them farewell, and his wanderings from that time are not known.

CHAPTER XI.  HIS THREE CALLS TO CORMAC

And another that went to Manannan’s country was Cormac, grandson of Conn, King of Teamhair, and this is the way it happened.  He was by himself in Teamhair one time, and he saw an armed man coming towards him, quiet, with high looks, and having grey hair; a shirt ribbed with gold thread next his skin, broad shoes of white bronze between his feet and the ground, a shining branch, having nine apples of red gold, on his shoulder.  And it is delightful the sound of that branch was, and no one on earth would keep in mind any want, or trouble, or tiredness, when that branch was shaken for him; and whatever trouble there might be on him, he would forget it at the sound.