a mountain of blackness in the sky, and the
greatest rain falling has been these long years
on the earth. The gods help Conchubor. He'll
be a sorry man this night, reaching his dun,
and he with all his spirits, thinking to himself
he'll be putting his arms around her in two
days or three.
LAVARCHAM. It's more than Conchu-
bor'll be sick and sorry, I'm thinking, before
this story is told to the end.
[Loud knocking on door at the right.
LAVARCHAM -- startled. -- Who is that?
NAISI -- outside. -- Naisi and his brothers.
LAVARCHAM. We are lonely women.
What is it you're wanting in the blackness of
the night?
NAISI. We met a young girl in the woods
who told us we might shelter this place if the
rivers rose on the pathways and the floods
gathered from the butt of the hills.
[Old Woman clasps her hands in horror.


33

LAVARCHAM -- with great alarm. -- You
cannot come in. . . . There is no one let in
here, and no young girl with us.
NAISI. Let us in from the great storm.
Let us in and we will go further when the