over this." They waited awhile on the
beach, and ere long they saw it coming toward them skimming over the
surface of the waves. "Save and protect us!" cried AEda at that sight;
and Eisirt asked him what he saw. "A red-maned hare," answered AEda.
"Nay, but that is Iubdan's horse," said Eisirt, and with that the
creature came prancing to land with flashing eyes and waving tail and
a long russet-coloured mane; a bridle beset with gold it had. Eisirt
mounted and bade AEda come up behind him. "Thy boat is little enough
for thee alone," said AEda. "Cease fault-finding and grumbling," then
said Eisirt, "for the weight of wisdom that is in thee will not bear
him down."

So AEda and Eisirt mounted on the fairy horse and away they sped over
the tops of the waves and the deeps of the ocean till at last they
reached the Kingdom of Faylinn, and there were a great concourse of
the Wee Folk awaiting them. "Eisirt is coming! Eisirt is coming!"
cried they all, "and a Fomorian giant along with him."

Then Iubdan went forth to meet Eisirt, and he kissed him, and said,
"Why hast thou brought this Fomorian with thee to slay us?" "He is no
Fomor," said Eisirt, "but a learned man and a poet from Ulster. He is
moreover the King of Ulster's dwarf, and in all that realm he is the
smallest man. He can lie in their great men's bosoms and stand upon
their hands as though he were a child; yet for all that you would do
well to be careful how you behave to him." "What is his name?" said
they then. "He is the poet AEda," said Eisirt. "Uch," said they, "what
a giant thou hast brought us!"

"And now, O King," said Eisirt to Iubdan, "I challenge thee to go and
see for thyself the region from which we have come, and make trial of
the royal porridge which is made for Fergus King of Ulster this very
night."

At this Iubdan was much dismayed, and he betook himself to Bebo his
wife and told her how he was laid under bonds of chivalry by Eisirt to
go to the land of the giants; and he bade her prepare to accompany
him. "I will go," said she, "but you did an ill deed when you
condemned Eisirt to prison."

So they mounted, both of them, on the fairy steed, and in no long time
they reached Emania, and it was now past midnight. And they were
greatly afraid, and said Bebo, "Let us search for that porridge and
taste it, as we were bound, and make off again ere the folk awake."

They made their way into the palace of Fergus, and soon they found a
great porridg