Then Conn looked to his son Connla to see what he would say, and Connla said:  “My own people are dearer to me than any other thing, yet sorrow has taken hold of me because of this woman.”  Then the woman spoke to him again, and it is what she said:  “Come now into my shining ship, if you will come to the Plain of Victory.  There is another country it would not be worse for you to look for; though the bright sun is going down, we shall reach to that country before night.  That is the country that delights the mind of every one that turns to me.  There is no living race in it but women and girls only.”

And when the woman had ended her song, Connla made a leap from his people into the shining boat, and they saw him sailing away from them far off and as if in a mist, as far as their eyes could see.  It is away across the sea they went, and they have never come back again, and only the gods know where was it they went.

CHAPTER XIV.  TADG IN MANANNAN’S ISLANDS

And another that went to the Land of the Ever-Living Ones, but that came back again, was Tadg, son of Cian, son of Olioll; and this is the way that happened.

It was one time Tadg was going his next heir’s round, into the west of Munster, and his two brothers, Airnelach and Eoghan, along with him.  And Cathmann, son of Tabarn, that was king of the beautiful country of Fresen that lay to the south-east of the Great Plain, was searching the sea for what he could find just at that time, and nine of his ships with him.  And they landed at Beire do Bhunadas, to the west of Munster, and the country had no stir in it, and so they slipped ashore, and no one took notice of them till all were surrounded, both men and cattle.  And Tadg’s wife Liban, daughter of Conchubar Abratrudh of the Red Brows, and his two brothers, and a great many of the people of Munster, were taken by the foreigners and brought away to the coasts of Fresen.  And Cathmann took Liban to be his own wife, and he put hardship on Tadg’s two brothers:  Eoghan he put to work a common ferry across a channel of the coast, and Airnelach to cut firing and to keep up fires for all the people; and all the food they got was barley seed and muddy water.

And as to Tadg himself, it was only by his courage and the use of his sword he made his escape, but there was great grief and discouragement on him, his wife and his brothers to have been brought away.  But he had forty of his fighting men left that had each killed a man of the foreigners, and they had brought one in alive.  And this man told them news of the country he came from.  And when Tadg heard that, he made a plan in his own head, and he gave orders for a curragh to be built that would be fit for a long voyage.  Very strong it was, and forty ox-hides on it of hard red leather, that was after being soaked in bark.  And it was well fitted with masts, and oars, and pitch, and everything that was wanting.  And they put every sort of meat, and drink, and of clothes in it, that would last them through the length of a year.