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 this place had its part with grass and bushes; the man is
not living that would know us, it would be a wonder to him to see us
here."
However, the children of Lir stopped that night in their father's place
and their grandfather's, where they had been reared, and they were
singing very sweet music of the Sidhe. And they rose up early on the
morning of the morrow and went to Inis Gluaire, and all the birds of the
country gathered near them on Loch na-n Ean, the Lake of the Birds.
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