and cast its shafts of golden
light across the lake, Enda rose and got into his curragh.

He rowed all round the shores, beating the sedges with his oar, in
pursuit of the swan; but all in vain; he could not catch a glimpse of
her white plumage anywhere. Day after day he rowed about the lake in
search of her, and every evening he lay outside the hut watching the
waters. At long last, one night, when the full moon, rising above the
mountains, flooded the whole lake with light, he saw the swan coming
swiftly towards him, shining brighter than the moonbeams. The swan came
on until it was almost within a boat's length of the hut; and what
should Enda hear but the swan speaking to him in his own language:

"Get into your curragh, Enda, and follow me," said she, and, saying
this, she turned round and sailed away.

Enda jumped into the curragh, and soon the water, dripping from his oar,
was flashing like diamonds in the moonlight. And he rowed after the
swan, who glided on before him, until she came to where the shadows of
the mountains lay deepest on the lake. Then the swan rested, and when
Enda came up to her:

"Enda," said she, "I have brought you where none may hear what I wish to
say to you. I am Mave, the daughter of the king of Erin. By the magic
arts of my cruel stepmother I was changed into a trout, and cast into
this lake a year and a day before the evening when you restored me to
the waters the second time. If you had not done so the first night the
otter brought me to you I should have been changed into a hooting owl;
if you had not done so the second night, I should have been changed into
a croaking raven. But, thanks to you, Enda, I am now a snow-white swan,
and for one hour on the first night of every full moon the power of
speech is and will be given to me as long as I remain a swan. And a swan
I must always remain, unless you are willing to break the spell of
enchantment that is over me; and you alone can break it."

"I'll do anything I can for you, O princess!" said Enda. "But how can
I break the spell?"

"You can do so," said the swan, "only by pouring upon my plumage the
perfumed water that fills the golden bowl that is in the inmost room of
the palace of the fairy queen, beneath the lake."

"And how can I get that?" said Enda.

"Well," said the swan, "you must dive beneath the lake, and walk along
its bed, until you come to where the lake dragon guards the entrance of
the fairy queen's dominions.