The colour of her great dun is the shining whiteness of lime, And within it are floors strewn with green rushes and couches white, Soft wondrous silks and blue gold-claspt mantles and furs Are there, and jewelled golden cups for revelry by night: Thy grianan of gold and glass is filled with sunshine-light, O Macha, queen by day, queen by night! Beyond the green portals, and the brown and red thatch of wings Striped orderly, the wings of innumerous stricken birds, A wide shining floor reaches from wall to wall, wondrously carven Out of a sheet of silver, whereon are graven swords Intricately ablaze; mistress of many hoards Art thou, Macha of few words! Fair indeed is thy couch, but fairer still is thy throne, A chair it is, all of a blaze of wonderful yellow gold: There thou sittest, and watchest the women going to and fro, Each in garments fair and with long locks twisted fold in fold: With the joy that is in thy house men would not grow old, O Macha, proud, austere, cold. Of a surety there is much joy to be had of thee and thine, There in the song-sweet sunlit bowers in that place: Wounded men might sink in sleep and be well content So to sleep, and to dream perchance, and know no other grace Than to wake and look betimes on thy proud queenly face, O Macha of the Proud Face! And if there be any here who wish to know more of this wonder, Go, you will find all as I have shown, as I have said: From beneath its portico thatched with wings of birds blue and yellow Reaches a green lawn, where a fount is fed From crystal and gems: of crystal and gold each bed In the house of Macha of the Ruddy Head. In that great house where Macha the queen has her pleasaunce There is everything in the whole world that a man might desire. God is my witness that if I say little it is for this, That I am grown faint with wonder, and can no more admire, But say this only, that I live and die in the fire Of thine eyes, O Macha, my desire, With thine eyes of fire!”[14] It was in this wonderful forefront of Ulster that Concobar reigned. The fame of Emain Macha was throughout Gaeldom; and there was no man or woman who, as the days went by, did not hear of the greatness of Concobar. On a day of the days, the king went with his chief lords on a visit to the dun of Felim, a warrior and harper whom he loved. There was to be great feasting, and all men were glad. Felim himself rejoiced, though he would fain have had the king come to him a few days later, for his wife was heavy with child, and looked for her hour that very day or the next. In the midmost of the feast, Concobar saw that Cathba, an aged Druid who had accompanied him, was staring into the other world that is about us.