[FN#27] Pronounced, nearly, Yeo-hay Yool.

“Where is it that Labraid dwelleth?” asked Cuchulain.

“In Mag Mell,[FN#28] the Plain of Delight,” said Liban; “and now I desire to go to another land,” said she.

[FN#28] Pronounced Maw Mel.

“Let Laeg go with thee,” said Cuchulain, “that he may learn of the land from which thou hast come.”  “Let him come, then,” said Liban.

They departed after that, and they went forward until they came to a place where Fand was.  And Liban turned to seek for Laeg, and she set him upon her shoulder.  “Thou wouldest never go hence, O Laeg!” said Liban, “wert thou not under a woman’s protection.” “’Tis not a thing that I have most been accustomed to up to this time,” said Laeg, “to be under a woman’s guard.”  “Shame, and everlasting shame,” said Liban, “that Cuchulain is not where thou art.”  “It were well for me,” answered Laeg, “if it were indeed he who is here.”

They passed on then, and went forward until they came opposite to the shore of an island, and there they saw a skiff of bronze lying upon the lake before them.  They entered into the skiff, and they crossed over to the island, and came to the palace door, and there they saw the man, and he came towards them.  And thus spoke Liban to the man whom they saw there: 

Say where He, the Hand-on-Sword,
Labra swift, abideth? 
He who, of the triumphs lord,
In strong chariot rideth. 
When victorious troops are led,
Labra hath the leading;
He it is, when spears are red,
Sets the points a-bleeding.

And the man replied to her, and spoke thus: 

Labra, who of speed is son,
Comes, and comes not slowly;
Crowded hosts together run,
Bent on warfare wholly. 
Soon upon the Forest Plain
Shall be set the killing;
For the hour when men are slain
Fidga’s[FN#29] Fields are filling![FN#30]

[FN#29] Pronounced, nearly, Feega.

[FN#30] Irish metre approximately imitated in these stanzas.

They entered then into the palace, and they saw there thrice fifty couches within the palace, and three times fifty women upon the couches, and the women all bade Laeg welcome, and it was in these words that they addressed him: 

Hail! for the guide,
Laeg! of thy quest: 
Laeg we beside
Hail, as our guest!

“What wilt thou do now?” said Liban; “wilt thou go on without a delay, and hold speech with Fand?”

“I will go,” he answered, “if I may know the place where she is.”

“That is no hard matter to tell thee,” she answered; “she is in her chamber apart.”  They went therein, and they greeted Fand, and she welcomed Laeg in the same fashion as the others had done.

Fand is the daughter of Aed Abra; Aed means fire, and he is the fire of the eye:  that is, of the eye’s pupil:  Fand moreover is the name of the tear that runs from the eye; it was on account of the clearness of her beauty that she was so named, for there is nothing else in the world except a tear to which her beauty could be likened.