so, Ailill; so do
men look who are smitten with love?" Ailill was wroth with himself and
turned his eyes away, but he said nothing, for that on which he gazed
was the face of Etain.

After that Assembly was over Ailill knew that the torment of love had
seized him for his brother's wife, and he was sorely shamed and
wrathful, and the secret strife in his mind between his honour and the
fierce and pitiless love that possessed him brought him into a sore
sickness. And he went home to his Dun in Tethba and there lay ill for
a year. Then Eochy the King went to see him, and came near him and
laid his hand on his breast, and Ailill heaved a bitter sigh. Eochy
asked, "Why art thou not better of this sickness, how goes it with
thee now?" "By my word," said Ailill, "no better, but worse each day
and night." "What ails thee, then?" asked Eochy. Ailill said, "Verily,
I know not." Then Eochy bade summon his chief physician, who might
discover the cause of his brother's malady, for Ailill was wasting to
death.

So Fachtna the chief physician came and he laid his hand upon Ailill,
and Ailill sighed. Then Fachtna said, "This is no bodily disease, but
either Ailill suffers from the pangs of envy or from the torment of
love." But Ailill was full of shame and he would not tell what ailed
him, and Fachtna went away.

After this the time came that Eochy the High King should make a royal
progress throughout his realm of Ireland, but Etain he left behind at
Tara. Before he departed he charged her saying, "Do thou be gentle and
kind to my brother Ailill while he lives, and should he die, let his
burial mound be heaped over him, and a pillar stone set up above it,
and his name written thereon in letters of Ogham." Then the King took
leave of Ailill and looked to see him again on earth no more.

After a while Etain bethought her and said, "Let us go to see how it
fares with Ailill." So she went to where he lay in his Dun at Tethba.
And seeing him wasted and pale she was moved with pity and distress
and said,

"What ails thee, young man? Long thou hast lain prostrate, in fair
weather and in foul, thou who wert wont to be so swift and strong?"

And Ailill said,

"Truly, I have a cause for my suffering; and I cannot eat, nor listen
to the music makers; my affliction is very sore."

Then said Etain,

"Though I am a woman I am wise in many a thing; tell me what ails thee
and thy healing shall be done."

Ailill replied,

"Blessing be