"It
would be a great grief to us," said Conn, "to be brought away into a
strange country." Then the rider threw three spears at them, and every
one came faster than the other. "It is the wounding of a king indeed,"
said the Druids, "any one to cast at Conn of Teamhair."
The rider stopped casting his spears on that, and he came to them and
bade Conn welcome, and asked him to come to his house. They went on then
till they came to a beautiful plain, and there they saw a king's rath,
and a golden tree at its door, and inside the rath a grand house with a
roof of white bronze. So they went into the house, and the rider that
had come to meet them was there before them, in his royal seat, and
there had never been seen a man like him in Teamhair for comeliness or
for beauty, or the wonder of his face.
And there was a young woman in the house, having a band of gold on her
head, and a silver vessel with hoops of gold beside her, and it full of
red ale, and a golden bowl on its edge, and a golden cup at its mouth.
She said then to the master of the house: "Who am I to serve drink to?"
"Serve it to Conn of the Hundred Battles," he said, "for he will gain a
hundred battles before he dies." And after that he bade her to pour out
the ale for Art of the Three Shouts, the son of Conn; and after that he
went through the names of all the kings of Ireland that would come after
Conn, and he told what would be the length of their lifetime. And the
young woman left the vessel with Conn, and the cup and the bowl, and she
gave him along with that the rib of an ox and of a hog; twenty-four feet
was the length of the ox-rib.
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