that
we use for food." And Tadg was well pleased to be listening to her talk,
but after a while he said: "It is best for us to go on now to look for
our people." "We will be well pleased if you stop longer with us," said
the woman.

And while she was saying those words they saw three beautiful birds
coming to them, one of them blue and his head crimson, and one was
crimson and his head green, and the third was speckled and his head the
colour of gold, and they lit on the great apple-tree, and every bird of
them ate an apple, and they sang sweet music then, that would put sick
men into their sleep.

"Those birds will go with you," Cliodna said then; "they will give you
guidance on your way, and they will make music for you, and there will
be neither sorrow or sadness on you, by land or by sea, till you come to
Ireland. And bring away this beautiful green cup with you," she said,
"for there is power in it, and if you do but pour water into it, it will
be turned to wine on the moment. And do not let it out of your hand,"
she said, "but keep it with you; for at whatever time it will escape
from you, your death will not be far away. And it is where you will meet
your death, in the green valley at the side of the Boinn; and it is a
wandering wild deer will give you a wound, and after that, it is
strangers will put an end to you. And I myself will bury your body, and
there will be a hill over it, and the name it will get is Croidhe Essu."

They went out of the shining house then, and Cliodna of the Fair Hair
went with them to the place they had left their ship, and she bade their
comrades a kindly welcome; and she asked them how long had they been in
that country. "It seems to us," they said, "we are not in it but one day
only." "You are in it through the whole length of a year," said she,
"and through all that time you used neither food nor drink. But however
long you would stop here," she said, "cold or hunger would never come on
you." "It would be a good thing to live this way always," said Tadg's
people when they heard that. But he himself said: "It is best for us to
go on and to look for our people. And we must leave this country,
although it is displeasing to us to leave it."

Then Cliodna and Tadg bade farewell to one another, and she gave her
blessing to him and to his people. And they set out then over the ridges
of the sea; and they were downhearted after leaving that country until
the birds began to sing for th