all men welcomed and honoured the Queen.  Nor had she dwelt long in Tara before the enchantment of her beauty and her grace had worked upon the hearts of all about her, so that the man to whom she spoke grew pale at the womanly sweetness of her voice, and felt himself a king for that day.  All fair things and bright she loved, such as racing steeds and shining raiment, and the sight of Eochy’s warriors with their silken banners and shields decorated with rich ornament in red and blue.  And she would have all about her happy and joyous, and she gave freely of her treasure, and of her smiles and loving words, if she might see the light of joy on the faces of men, but from pain or sadness that might not be cured she would turn away.  In one thing only was sadness endurable to her and that was in her music, for when she sang or touched the harp all hearts were pierced with longing for they knew not what, and all eyes shed tears save hers alone, who looked as though she beheld, far from earth, some land more fair than words of man can tell; and all the wonder of that land and all its immeasurable distance were in her song.

Now Eochy the King had a brother whose name was Ailill Anglounach, or Ailill of the Single Stain, for one dark spot only was on his life, and it is of this that the story now shall tell.  One day, when he had come from his own Dun to the yearly Assembly in the great Hall of Tara, he ate not at the banquet but gazed as it were at something afar off, and his wife said to him, “Why dost thou gaze so, Ailill; so do men look who are smitten with love?” Ailill was wroth with himself and turned his eyes away, but he said nothing, for that on which he gazed was the face of Etain.

After that Assembly was over Ailill knew that the torment of love had seized him for his brother’s wife, and he was sorely shamed and wrathful, and the secret strife in his mind between his honour and the fierce and pitiless love that possessed him brought him into a sore sickness.  And he went home to his Dun in Tethba and there lay ill for a year.  Then Eochy the King went to see him, and came near him and laid his hand on his breast, and Ailill heaved a bitter sigh.  Eochy asked, “Why art thou not better of this sickness, how goes it with thee now?” “By my word,” said Ailill, “no better, but worse each day and night.”  “What ails thee, then?” asked Eochy.  Ailill said, “Verily, I know not.”  Then Eochy bade summon his chief physician, who might discover the cause of his brother’s malady, for Ailill was wasting to death.

So Fachtna the chief physician came and he laid his hand upon Ailill, and Ailill sighed.  Then Fachtna said, “This is no bodily disease, but either Ailill suffers from the pangs of envy or from the torment of love.”  But Ailill was full of shame and he would not tell what ailed him, and Fachtna went away.

After this the time came that Eochy the High King should make a royal progress throughout his realm of Ireland, but Etain he left behind at Tara.  Before he departed he charged her saying, “Do thou be gentle and kind to my brother Ailill while he lives, and should he die, let his burial mound be heaped over him, and a pillar stone set up above it, and his name written thereon in letters of Ogham.”  Then the King took leave of Ailill and looked to see him again on earth no more.