Free Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs Page A

ever heard?" "It is anything else but
the wail of the wave-swans of Connachar," said his brothers. "No!
yonder is a woman's cry of distress," said Naois, and he swore he
would not go further until he saw from whom the cry came, and Naois
turned back. Naois and Deirdre met, and Deirdre kissed Naois three
times, and a kiss each to his brothers. With the confusion that she
was in, Deirdre went into a crimson blaze of fire, and her colour
came and went as rapidly as the movement of the aspen by the stream
side. Naois thought he never saw a fairer creature, and Naois gave
Deirdre the love that he never gave to thing, to vision, or to
creature but to herself.
    Then Naois placed Deirdre on the topmost height of his shoulder, and
told his brothers to keep up their pace, and they kept up their
pace. Naois thought that it would not be well for him to remain in
Erin on account of the way in which Connachar, King of Ulster, his
uncle's son, had gone against him because of the woman, though he
had not married her; and he turned back to Alba, that is, Scotland.
He reached the side of Loch-Ness and made his habitation there. He
could kill the salmon of the torrent from out his own door, and the
deer of the grey gorge from out his window. Naois and Deirdre and
Allen and Arden dwelt in a tower, and they were happy so long a time
as they were there.
    By this time the end of the period came at which Deirdre had to
marry Connachar, King of Ulster. Connachar made up his mind to take
Deirdre away by the sword whether she was married to Naois or not.
So he prepared a great and gleeful feast. He sent word far and wide
through Erin all to his kinspeople to come to the feast. Connachar
thought to himself that Naois would not come though he should bid
him; and the scheme that arose in his mind was to send for his
father's brother, Ferchar Mac Ro, and to send him on an embassy to
Naois. He did so; and Connachar said to Ferchar, "Tell Naois, son of
Uisnech, that I am setting forth a great and gleeful feast to my
friends and kinspeople throughout the wide extent of Erin all, and
that I shall not have rest by day nor sleep by night if he and Allen
and Arden be not partakers of the feast."
    Ferchar Mac Ro and his three sons went on their journey, and reached
the tower where Naois was dwelling by the side of Loch Etive. The
sons of Uisnech gave a cordial kindly welcome to Ferchar Mac Ro and
his three sons, and asked of him the news of Erin. "The best news
that I have for you," said the hardy hero, "is that Connachar, King
of Ulster, is setting forth a great sumptuous feast to his friends
and kinspeople throughout the wide extent of Erin all, and he has
vowed by the earth beneath him, by the high heaven above him, and by
the sun that wends to the west, that he will have no rest by day nor
sleep by night if the sons of Uisnech, the sons of his own father's
brother, will not come back to the land of their home and the soil
of their nativity, and to the feast likewise, and he has sent us on
embassy to invite you."
    "We will go with you," said Naois.
    "We will," said his brothers.
    But Deirdre did not wish to go with Ferchar Mac Ro, and she tried
every prayer to turn Naois from going with him—she said:
    "I saw a vision, Naois, and do you interpret it to me," said
Deirdre—then she sang:
    O Naois, son of Uisnech, hear
What was shown in a dream to me.
    There came three white doves out of the South
Flying over the sea,
And drops of honey were in their mouth
From the hive of the honey-bee.
    O Naois, son of Uisnech, hear,
What was shown in a dream to me.
    I saw three grey hawks out of the south
Come flying over the sea,
And the red red drops they bare in their mouth
They were dearer than life to me.
    Said Naois:—
    It is nought but the fear of woman's heart,
And a dream of the night, Deirdre.
    "The day that Connachar sent the invitation to his feast will be
unlucky for us if we don't go, O Deirdre."
    "You will go there," said Ferchar Mac Ro; "and if Connachar