After this they bade each other farewell, for it was not permitted to the children of Lir to remain away from the stream of Moyle. As soon as they had parted, the Fairy Cavalcade returned to Shee Finnaha, where they related to the Dedannan chiefs all that had passed, and described the condition of the children of Lir. And the chiefs answered-- "It is not in our power to help them; but we are glad that they are living; and we know that in the end the enchantment will be broken, and that they will be freed from their sufferings." As to the children of Lir, they returned to their home on the Sea of Moyle, and there they remained till they had fulfilled their term of years. FOOTNOTES: [XXII.] Many of these old poems begin and end with the same line or couplet. [XXIII.] Fairy host; _i.e._ the Dedannans. (See note 1 at the end of the book.) CHAPTER VI. THE FOUR WHITE SWANS ON THE WESTERN SEA. And when their three hundred years were ended, Finola said to her brothers-- "It is time for us to leave this place, for our period here has come to an end." The hour has come; the hour has come; Three hundred years have passed: We leave this bleak and gloomy home, And we fly to the west at last! We leave for ever the stream of Moyle; On the clear, cold wind we go; Three hundred years round Glora's isle, Where wintry tempests blow! No sheltered home, no place of rest, From the tempest's angry blast: Fly, brothers, fly, to the distant west, For the hour has come at last! So the swans left the Sea of Moyle, and flew westward, till they reached Irros Domnann and the sea round the isle of Glora. There they remained for a long time, suffering much from storm and cold, and in nothing better off than they were on the Sea of Moyle. It chanced that a young man named Ebric, of good family, the owner of a tract of land lying along the shore, observed the birds and heard their singing. He took great delight in listening to their plaintive music, and he walked down to the shore almost every day, to see them and to converse with them; so that he came to love them very much, and they also loved him. This young man told his neighbours about the speaking swans, so that the matter became noised abroad; and it was he who arranged the story, after hearing it from themselves, and related it as it is related here.