Tete Brecc until the end of one year, and during all that time he had
speech with no one.

Now upon a certain day before the next Summer-End, at the end of a
year, when the men of Ulster were in the house where Cuchulain was,
Fergus being at the side-wall, and Conall Cernach at his head, and
Lugaid Red-Stripes at his pillow, and Ethne Inguba at his feet; when
they were there in this manner, a man came to them, and he seated
himself near the entrance of the chamber in which Cuchulain lay. "What
hath brought thee here?" said Conall the Victorious. "No hard question
to answer," said the man. "If the man who lies yonder were in health,
he would be a good protection to all of Ulster; in the weakness and the
sickness in which he now is, so much the more great is the protection
that they have from him. I have no fear of any of you," he said, "for
it is to give to this man a greeting that I come." "Welcome to thee,
then, and fear nothing," said the men of Ulster; and the man rose to
his feet, and he sang them these staves:


Ah! Cuchulain, who art under sickness still,
Not long thou its cure shouldst need;
Soon would Aed Abra's daughters, to heal thine ill,
To thee, at thy bidding, speed.

Liban, she at swift Labra's right hand who sits,
Stood up on Cruach's[FN#25] Plain, and cried:
"'Tis the wish of Fand's heart, she the tale permits,
To sleep at Cuchulain's side.