s their old place in the
Maoil, and they stopped there till the time they had to spend in it was
spent. And then Fionnuala said: "The time is come for us to leave this
place. And it is to Irrus Domnann we must go now," she said, "after our
three hundred years here. And indeed there will be no rest for us there,
or any standing ground, or any shelter from the storms. But since it is
time for us to go, let us set out on the cold wind, the way we will not
go astray."

So they set out in that way, and left Sruth na Maoile behind them, and
went to the point of Irrus Domnann, and there they stopped, and it is a
life of misery and a cold life they led there. And one time the sea
froze about them that they could not move at all, and the brothers were
lamenting, and Fionnuala was comforting them, for she knew there would
help come to them in the end.

And they stayed at Irrus Domnann till the time they had to spend there
was spent. And then Fionnuala said: "The time is come for us to go back
to Sidhe Fionnachaidh, where our father is with his household and with
all our own people."

"It pleases us well to hear that," they said.

So they set out flying through the air lightly till they came to Sidhe
Fionnachaidh; and it is how they found the place, empty before them, and
nothing in it but green hillocks and thickets of nettles, without a
house, without a fire, without a hearthstone. And the four pressed close
to one another then, and they gave out three sorrowful cries, and
Fionnuala made this complaint:--

"It is a wonder to me this place is, and it without a house, without a
dwelling-place. To see it the way it is now, Ochone! it is bitterness to
my heart.

"Without dogs, without hounds for hunting, without women, without great
kings; we never knew it to be like this when our father was in it.

"Without horns, without cups, without drinking in the lighted house;
without young men, without riders; the way it is to-night is a
foretelling of sorrow.

"The people of the place to be as they are now, Ochone! it is grief to
my heart! It is plain to my mind to-night the lord of the house is not
living.

"Och, house where we used to see music and playing and the gathering of
people! I think it a great change to see it lonely the way it is
to-night.

"The greatness of the hardships we have gone through going from one wave
to another of the sea, we never heard of the like of them coming on any
other person.

"It is seldom