Next day Etain went to see Ailill and to hear how he did.  And Ailill entreated her forgiveness that he had not kept his tryst, “for,” said he, “a druid slumber descended upon me, and I lay as one dead from morn till eve.  And morever,” he added, “it seems as if the strange passion that has befallen me were washed away in that slumber, for now, Etain, I love thee no more but as my Queen and my sister, and I am recovered as if from an evil dream.”  Then Etain knew that powers not of earth were mingling in her fate, and she pondered much of these things, and grew less lighthearted than of old.  And when the King came back, he rejoiced to find his brother whole and sound and merry, as Ailill had ever been, and he praised Etain for her gentleness and care.

Now after a time as Etain was by herself in her sunny bower she was aware of a man standing by her, whom she had never seen before.  Young he was, and grey-eyed, with curling golden hair, and in his hand he bore two spears.  His mantle was of crimson silk, his tunic of saffron, and a golden helmet was on his head.  And as she gazed upon him, “Etain,” he said, “the time is come for thee to return; we have missed thee and sorrowed for thee long enough in the Land of Youth.”  Etain said, “Of what land dost thou speak?” Then he chanted to her a song:—­

  “Come with me, Etain, O come away,
     To that oversea land of mine! 
   Where music haunts the happy day,
     And rivers run with wine;
   Where folk are careless, and young, and gay,
     And none saith ‘mine’ or ‘thine.’

   “Golden curls on the proud young head,
     And pearls in the tender mouth;
   Manhood, womanhood, white and red,
     And love that grows not loth
   When all the world’s desires are dead,
     And all the dreams of youth.

   “Away from the cloud of Adam’s sin! 
     Away from grief and care! 
   This flowery land thou dwellest in
     Seems rude to us, and bare;
   For the naked strand of the Happy Land
     Is twenty times as fair.”

When Etain heard this she stood motionless and as one that dreams awake, for it seemed to her as if she must follow that music whithersoever it went on earth or beyond the earth.  But at last remembrance came upon her and she said to the stranger, “Who art thou, that I, the High King’s wife, should follow a nameless man and betray my troth?” And he said, “Thy troth was due to me before it was due to him, and, moreover, were it not for me thou hadst broken it already.  I am Midir the Proud, a prince among the people of Dana, and thy husband, Etain.  Thus it was, that when I took thee to wife in the Land of Youth, the jealousy of thy rival, Fuamnach, was awakened; and having decoyed me from home by a false report, she changed thee by magical arts into a butterfly, and then contrived a mighty tempest that drove thee abroad.  Seven years wast thou borne hither and thither on the blast