Beloved is Dunfidgha and Dun Fin;
Beloved the Dun above them;
Beloved is Innisdraighende;[18]
And beloved Dun Suibhne.[19]

Coillchuan! O Coillchuan!
Where Ainnle would, alas! resort;
Too short, I deem, was then my stay
With Ainnle in Oirir Alban.

Glenlaidhe![20] O Glenlaidhe!
I used to sleep by its soothing murmur;
Fish, and flesh of wild boar and badger,
Was my repast in Glenlaidhe.

Glenmasan! O Glenmasan![21]
High its herbs, fair its boughs.
Solitary was the place of our repose
On grassy Invermasan.

Gleneitche![22] O Gleneitche!
There was raised my earliest home.
Beautiful its woods on rising,
When the sun struck on Gleneitche.

Glen Urchain![23] O Glen Urchain!
It was the straight glen of smooth ridges,
Not more joyful was a man of his age
Than Naoise in Glen Urchain.

Glendaruadh![24] O Glendaruadh!
My love each man of its inheritance.
Sweet the voice of the cuckoo, on bending bough,
On the hill above Glendaruadh.

Beloved is Draighen and its sounding shore;
Beloved is the water o'er the pure sand.
O that I might not depart from the east,
But that I go with my beloved!"

_Translated by W. F. Skene, LL.D._

Thus they fared across the grey-green sea betwixt Alba and Erin, and
when Ardan and Ainle and Naoise heard the words of the song of
Deirdre, on their hearts also descended the strange sorrow of an evil
thing from which no courage could save them.

At Ballycastle, opposite Rathlin Island, where a rock on the shore
("Carraig Uisneach") still bears the name of the Sons of Usna, Fergus
and the returned exiles landed. And scarcely were they out of sight of
the shore when a messenger came to Fergus, bidding him to a feast of
ale at the dun of Borrach. Then Fergus, knowing well that in this was
the hand of Conor and that treachery was meant, reddened all over with
anger and with shame. But yet he dared not break his _geasa_, even
although by holding to it the honour he had pledged to the three
brothers for their safe-conduct and that of Deirdre was dragged
through the mire. He therefore gave them his sons for escort and went
to the feast at the dun of Borrach, full well knowing that Deirdre
spoke truth when she told him sadly that he had sold his honour. The
gloomy forebodings that had assailed the heart of Deirdre ere they had
left Loch Etive grew ever the