ced also that
it had come without the assistance of servile hands. A cloak was laid
gently about his shoulders, and he was glad of it, for his own was
soiled by exposure to sun and wind and water, and was not worthy of a
lady's eye.

Then he was invited to eat.

He noticed, however, that food had been set for no one but himself, and
this did not please him, for to eat alone was contrary to the hospitable
usage of a king, and was contrary also to his contract with the gods.

"Good, my hosts," he remonstrated, "it is geasa (taboo) for me to eat
alone."

"But we never eat together," the queen replied.

"I cannot violate my geasa," said the High King.

"I will eat with you," said Segda (Sweet Speech), "and thus, while you
are our guest you will not do violence to your vows."

"Indeed," said Conn, "that will be a great satisfaction, for I have
already all the trouble that I can cope with and have no wish to add to
it by offending the gods."

"What is your trouble?" the gentle queen asked. "During a year," Conn
replied, "there has been neither corn nor milk in Ireland. The land is
parched, the trees are withered, the birds do not sing in Ireland, and
the bees do not make honey."

"You are certainly in trouble," the queen assented.

"But," she continued, "for what purpose have you come to our island?"

"I have come to ask for the loan of your son."

"A loan of my son!"

"I have been informed," Conn explained, "that if the son of a sinless
couple is brought to Tara and is bathed in the waters of Ireland the
land will be delivered from those ills."

The king of this island, Daire, had not hitherto spoken, but he now did
so with astonishment and emphasis.

"We would not lend our son to any one, not even to gain the kingship of
the world," said he.

But Segda, observing that the guest's countenance was discomposed, broke
in:

"It is not kind to refuse a thing that the Ard-Ri' of Ireland asks for,
and I will go with him."

"Do not go, my pulse," his father advised.

"Do not go, my one treasure," his mother pleaded.

"I must go indeed," the boy replied, "for it is to do good I am
required, and no person may shirk such a requirement."

"Go then," said his father, "but I will place you under the protection
of the High King and of the Four Provincial Kings of Ireland, and under
the protection of Art, the son of Conn, and of Fionn, the son of Uail,
and under the protection of the magicians and poets and the m