were in health, he would be a good protection to all of Ulster; in the weakness and the sickness in which he now is, so much the more great is the protection that they have from him.  I have no fear of any of you,” he said, “for it is to give to this man a greeting that I come.”  “Welcome to thee, then, and fear nothing,” said the men of Ulster; and the man rose to his feet, and he sang them these staves: 

Ah!  Cuchulain, who art under sickness still,
Not long thou its cure shouldst need;
Soon would Aed Abra’s daughters, to heal thine ill,
To thee, at thy bidding, speed.

Liban, she at swift Labra’s right hand who sits,
Stood up on Cruach’s[FN#25] Plain, and cried: 
“’Tis the wish of Fand’s heart, she the tale permits,
To sleep at Cuchulain’s side.

[FN#25] Pronounced something like Croogh.

“‘If Cuchulain would come to me,’ Fand thus told,
’How goodly that day would shine! 
Then on high would our silver be heaped, and gold,
Our revellers pour the wine.

“’And if now in my land, as my friend, had been
Cuchulain, of Sualtam[FN#26] son,
The things that in visions he late hath seen
In peace would he safe have won.

“’In the Plains of Murthemne, to south that spread,
Shall Liban my word fulfil: 
She shall seek him on Samhain, he naught need dread,
By her shall be cured his ill.’”

[FN#26] Pronounced Sooltam.

“Who art thou, then, thyself?” said the men of Ulster.  “I am Angus, the son of Aed Abra,” he answered; and the man then left them, nor did any of them know whence it was he had come, nor whither he went.  Then Cuchulain sat up, and he spoke to them.  “Fortunate indeed is this!” said the men of Ulster; “tell us what it is that hath happened to thee.”  “Upon Samhain night last year,” he said, “I indeed saw a vision;” and he told them of all he had seen.  “What should now be done, Father Conor?” said Cuchulain.  “This hast thou to do,” answered Conor, “rise, and go until thou comest to the pillar where thou wert before.”

Then Cuchulain went forth until he came to the pillar, and then saw he the woman in the green mantle come to him.  “This is good, O Cuchulain!” said she. “’Tis no good thing in my thought,” said Cuchulain.  “Wherefore camest thou to me last year?” he said.  “It was indeed to do no injury to thee that we came,” said the woman, “but to seek for thy friendship.  I have come to greet thee,” she said, “from Fand, the daughter of Aed Abra; her husband, Manannan the Son of the Sea, hath released her, and she hath thereon set her love on thee.  My own name is Liban, and I have brought to thee a message from my spouse, Labraid the Swift, the Sword-Wielder, that he will give thee the woman in exchange for one day’s service to him in battle against Senach the Unearthly, and against Eochaid Juil,[FN#27] and against Yeogan the Stream.”  “I am in no fit state,” he said, “to contend with men to-day.”  “That will last but a little while,” she said; “thou shalt be whole, and all that thou hast lost of thy strength shall be increased to thee.  Labraid shall bestow on thee that boon, for he is the best of all warriors that are in the world.”