On that they went into a grand house, where there was a bed for every
couple, three times nine beds. And the food that was put on every dish
never came to an end, and they had every sort of food and of drink they
wished for.
And it seemed to them they were only a year there when the desire of
home took hold on one of them, Nechtan, son of Collbrain, and his
kinsmen were begging and praying Bran to go back with him to Ireland.
The woman said there would be repentance on them if they went; but in
spite of that they set out in the end. And the woman said to them not to
touch the land when they would come to Ireland, and she bade them to
visit and to bring with them the man they left in the Island of Joy.
So they went on towards Ireland till they came to a place called Srub
Bruin. And there were people on the strand that asked them who they were
that were coming over the sea. And Bran said: "I am Bran, son of Febal."
But the people said: "We know of no such man, though the voyage of Bran
is in our very old stories."
Then Nechtan, son of Collbrain, made a leap out of the curragh, and no
sooner did he touch the shore of Ireland than he was a heap of ashes,
the same as if he had been in the earth through hundreds of years.
And then Bran told the whole story of his wanderings to the people,
from the beginning. And after that he bade them farewell, and his
wanderings from that time are not known.
CHAPTER XI. HIS THREE CALLS TO CORMAC
And another that went to Manannan's country was Cormac, grandson of
Conn, King of Teamhair, and this is the way it happened.
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