moment, and all through the length of the feast he was
not content unless he could be looking at her. And a woman, the daughter
of Luchta Lamdearg, of the Red Hand, took notice of it, and she said:
"What far thing are you looking at, Ailell? It is what I think, that to
be looking the way you are doing is a sign of love." Then Ailell checked
himself, and did not look towards Etain any more.

But when the feast was at an end, and the gathering broken up, great
desire and envy came on Ailell, so that he fell sick, and they brought
him to a house in Teffia. And he stopped there through the length of a
year, and he was wasting away, but he told no one the cause of his
sickness. And at the end of the year, Eochaid came to visit his brother,
and he passed his hand over his breast, and Ailell let a groan. "What
way are you?" said Eochaid then. "Are you getting any easier, for you
must not let this illness come to a bad end." "By my word," said Ailell,
"it is not easier I am, but worse and worse every day and every night."
"What is it ails you?" said Eochaid. "And what is it that is coming
against you." "By my word, I cannot tell you that," said Ailell. "I will
bring one here that will know the cause of your sickness," said the
king.

With that he sent Fachtna, his own physician, to Ailell; and when he
came he passed his hand over Ailell's heart, and at that he groaned
again. "This sickness will not be your death," said Fachtna then; "and I
know well what it comes from. It is either from the pains of jealousy,
or from love you have given, and that you have not found a way out of."
But there was shame on Ailell, and he would not confess to the physician
that what he said was right. So Fachtna went away then and left him.

As to King Eochaid, he went away to visit all the provinces of Ireland
that were under his kingship, and he left Etain after him, and it is
what he said: "Good Etain," he said, "take tender care of Ailell so long
as he is living; and if he should die from us, make a sodded grave for
him, and raise a pillar stone over it, and write his name on it in
Ogham." And with that he went away on his journey.

One day, now, Etain went into the house where Ailell was lying in his
sickness, and they talked together, and then she made a little song for
him, and it is what she said:

"What is it ails you, young man, for it is a long time you are wasted
with this sickness, and it is not the hardness of the weather has
sto