Conn was in Teamhair one time, and he went up in the early morning to
the Rath of the Kings at the rising of the sun, and his three Druids
with him, Maol and Bloc and Bhuice; and his three poets, Ethain and Corb
and Cesarn. And the reason he had for going up there with them every
day, was to look about on every side, the way if any men of the Sidhe
would come into Ireland they would not come unknown to him. And on this
day he chanced to stand upon a stone that was in the rath, and the stone
screamed under his feet, that it was heard all over Teamhair and as far
as Bregia.
Then Conn asked his chief Druid how the stone came there, and what it
screamed for. And the Druid said he would not answer that till the end
of fifty-three days. And at the end of that time, Conn asked him again,
and it is what the Druid said: "The Lia Fail is the name of the stone;
it is out of Falias it was brought, and it is in Teamhair it was set up,
and in Teamhair it will stay for ever. And as long as there is a king in
Teamhair it is here will be the gathering place for games, and if there
is no king to come to the last day of the gathering, there will be
hardness in that year. And when the stone screamed under your feet," he
said, "the number of the screams it gave was a foretelling of the number
of kings of your race that would come after you. But it is not I myself
will name them for you," he said.
And while they were in the same place, there came a great mist about
them and a darkness, so that they could not know what way they were
going, and they heard the noise of a rider coming towards them.
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