And they put their harps on the
corners of the pillars and went out, and there was wonder on Caoilte
that they left him. And he took notice that his strength and the
strength of his hands was not come to him yet, and he said: "It is many
a rough battle and many a hard fight I went into, and now there is not
enough strength in me so much as to go out along with the rest," and he
cried tears down.
And the others came back to him then, and he asked news of them. "What
was that sound of music we heard?" he said. "It was Uaine out of the
hill of the Sidhe, at the Wave of Cliodna in the south," said they; "and
with her the birds of the Land of Promise; and she is musician to the
whole of that country. And every year she goes to visit one of the hills
of the Sidhe, and it is our turn this time." Then the woman from the
Land of Promise came into the house, and the birds came in along with
her, and they pitched on the pillars and the beams, and thirty of them
came in where Caoilte was, began singing together. And Cascorach took
his harp, and whatever he would play, the birds would sing to it. "It is
much music I have heard," said Caoilte, "but music so good as that I
never heard before."
And after that Caoilte asked to have the healing of his thigh done, and
the daughter of Elcmar gave herself to that, and all that was bad was
sucked from the wound by her serving people till it was healed. And
Caoilte stopped on where he was for three nights after that.
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