er, and I
am recovered as if from an evil dream." Then Etain knew that powers
not of earth were mingling in her fate, and she pondered much of these
things, and grew less lighthearted than of old. And when the King came
back, he rejoiced to find his brother whole and sound and merry, as
Ailill had ever been, and he praised Etain for her gentleness and
care.

Now after a time as Etain was by herself in her sunny bower she was
aware of a man standing by her, whom she had never seen before. Young
he was, and grey-eyed, with curling golden hair, and in his hand he
bore two spears. His mantle was of crimson silk, his tunic of saffron,
and a golden helmet was on his head. And as she gazed upon him,
"Etain," he said, "the time is come for thee to return; we have missed
thee and sorrowed for thee long enough in the Land of Youth." Etain
said, "Of what land dost thou speak?" Then he chanted to her a song:--

"Come with me, Etain, O come away,
To that oversea land of mine!
Where music haunts the happy day,
And rivers run with wine;
Where folk are careless, and young, and gay,
And none saith 'mine' or 'thine.'

"Golden curls on the proud young head,
And pearls in the tender mouth;
Manhood, womanhood, white and red,
And love that grows not loth
When all the world's desires are dead,
And all the dreams of youth.

"Away from the cloud of Adam's sin!
Away from grief and care!
This flowery land thou dwellest in
Seems rude to us, and bare;
For the naked strand of the Happy Land
Is twenty times as fair."

When Etain heard this she stood motionless and as one that dreams
awake, for it seemed to her as if she must follow that music
whithersoever it went on earth or beyond the earth. But at last
remembrance came upon her and she said to the stranger, "Who art thou,
that I, the High King's wife, should follow a nameless man and betray
my troth?" And he said, "Thy troth was due to me before it was due to
him, and, moreover, were it not for me thou hadst broken it already. I
am Midir the Proud, a prince among the people of Dana, and thy
husband, Etain. Thus it was, that when I took thee to wife in the Land
of Youth, the jealousy of thy rival, Fuamnach, was awakened; and
having decoyed me from home by a false report, she changed thee by
magical arts into a butterfly, and then contrived a mighty tempest
that drove thee abroad. Seven years wast thou borne hither a