“My stake is forfeit to thee,” said Eochaid.

“Had I wished it, it had been forfeit long ago,” said Mider.

“What is it that thou desirest me to grant?” said Eochaid.

“That I may hold Etain in my arms, and obtain a kiss from her!” answered Mider.

Eochaid was silent for a while and then he said:  “One month from this day thou shalt come, and the very thing that thou hast asked for shall be given to thee.”  Now for a year before that Mider first came to Eochaid for the chess-play, had he been at the wooing of Etain, and he obtained her not; and the name which he gave to Etain was Befind, or Fair-haired Woman, so it was that he said: 

Wilt thou come to my home, fair-haired lady?

as has before been recited.  And it was at that time that Etain said:  “If thou obtainest me from him who is the master of my house, I will go; but if thou art not able to obtain me from him, then I will not go.”  And thereon Mider came to Eochaid, and allowed him at the first to win the victory over him, in order that Eochaid should stand in his debt; and therefore it was that he paid the great stakes to which he had agreed; and therefore also was it that he had demanded of him that he should play that game in ignorance of what was staked.  And when Mider and his folk were paying those agreed-on stakes, which were paid upon that night; to wit, the making of the road, and the clearing of the stones from Meath, the rushes from around Tethba, and of the forest that is over Breg, it was thus that he spoke, as it is written in the Book of Drom Snechta: 

Pile on the soil; thrust on the soil: 
Red are the oxen around who toil: 
Heavy the troops that my words obey;
Heavy they seem, and yet men are they. 
Strongly, as piles, are the tree-trunks placed
Red are the wattles above them laced: 
Tired are your hands, and your glances slant;
One woman’s winning this toil may grant! 
Oxen ye are, but revenge shall see;
Men who are white shall your servants be: 
Rushes from Teffa are cleared away: 
Grief is the price that the man shall pay: 
Stones have been cleared from the rough Meath ground;
Whose shall the gain or the harm be found?

Now Mider appointed a day at the end of the month when he was to meet Eochaid, and Eochaid called the armies of the heroes of Ireland together, so that they came to Tara; and all the best of the champions of Ireland, ring within ring, were about Tara, and they were in the midst of Tara itself, and they guarded it, both without and within; and the king and the queen were in the midst of the palace, and the outer court thereof was shut and locked, for they knew that the great might of men would come upon them.  And upon the appointed night Etain was dispensing the banquet to the kings, for it was her duty to pour out the wine, when in the midst of their talk they saw Mider standing before them in the centre of the palace.  He was always fair, yet fairer than he ever was seemed Mider to be upon that night.  And he brought to amazement all the hosts on which he gazed, and all thereon were silent, and the king gave a welcome to him.