med and apparelled as
beseemed the lord of a great clan of the Gael. Eochy bade him welcome
courteously, and asked him of the cause of his coming. "I am come," he
said, "to play a game of chess with thee, O King, for thou art
renowned for thy skill in that game, and to test that skill am I come.
And my name is Midir, of the People of Dana, whom they have called The
Proud."

"Willingly," said the King; "but I have here no chessboard, and mine
is in the chamber where the Queen is sleeping."

"That is easily remedied," said Midir, and he drew from his cloak a
folding chessboard whose squares were alternate gold and silver. From
a men-bag made of brazen chainwork he drew out a set of men adorned
with flashing jewels, and he set them in array.

"I will not play," then said Eochy, "unless we play for a stake."

"For what stake shall we play, then?" said Midir.

"I care not," said Eochy; "but do thou perform tasks for me if I win
and I shall bestow of my treasures upon thee if I lose."

So they played a game, and Eochy won. Then Eochy bade Midir clear the
plains of Meath about Tara from rocks and stones, and Midir brought at
night a great host of the Fairy Folk, and it was done. And again he
played with Eochy, and again he lost, and this time he cut down the
forest of Breg. The third time Midir lost again, and his task was to
build a causeway across the moor of Lamrach. Now at night, while Midir
and the fairy host were labouring at the causeway and their oxen
drawing to it innumerable loads of earth and gravel, the steward of
Eochy stole out and hid himself to watch them, for it was a
prohibition to see them at work. And he observed that the fairy oxen
were not harnessed with a thong across their foreheads, that the pull
might be upon their brows and necks, as was the manner with the Gael,
but with yokes upon their shoulders. This he reported to Eochy, who
found it good; and he ordered that henceforth the children of the Gael
should harness their plough-oxen with the yoke upon their shoulders;
and so it was done from that day forth. Hence Eochy got his name of
_Airem_, or "The Ploughman," for he was the first of the Gael to put
the yoke upon the shoulder of the ox.

But it was said that because the Fairy Folk were watched as they made
that noble causeway, there came a breach in it at one place which none
could ever rightly mend.

When all their works were accomplished, Midir came again to Eochy, and
this time he bore