While he was thus waiting there ran up to him a youth , scarcely able to speak so swiftly had he sped ; and he cried aloud : ` Hasten , hasten , Covan the Brown-haired , for your cows are in the corn , and you must drive them out ! ' ` Nay , ' said Covan smiling , ` it had been easier for you to have driven them out than to come here to tell me . ' And he went on listening to the music . Very soon the same youth returned and cried with panting breath : ` Out upon you , Covan son of Gorla , that you stand there agape . For our dogs are chasing your cows , and you must drive them off ! ' ` Nay , then , ' answered Covan as before , ` it had been easier for you to call off your dogs than to come here to tell me . ' And he stayed where he was till the music ceased . Then he turned to look for the cows , and found them all lying in the place where he had left them ; but when they saw Covan they rose up and walked homewards , taking a different path to that they had trod in the morning . This time they passed over a plain so bare that a pin could not have lain there unnoticed , yet Covan beheld with surprise a foal and its mother feeding there , both as fat as if they had pastured on the richest grass . Further on they crossed another plain , where the grass was thick and green , but on it were feeding a foal and its mother , so lean that you could have counted their ribs . And further again the path led them by the shores of a lake whereon were floating two boats ; one full of gay and happy youths , journeying to the land of the Sun , and another with grim shapes clothed in black , travelling to the land of Night . ` What can these things mean ? ' said Covan to himself , as he followed his cows . Darkness now fell , the wind howled , and torrents of rain poured upon them . Covan knew not how far they might yet have to go , or indeed if they were on the right road . He could not even see his cows , and his heart sank lest , after all , he should have failed to bring them safely back . What was he to do ? He waited thus , for he could go neither forwards nor backwards , till he felt a great friendly paw laid on his shoulder . ` My cave is just here , ' said the Dog of Maol-mor , of whom Covan son of Gorla had heard much . ` Spend the night here , and you shall be fed on the flesh of lamb , and shall lay aside three-thirds of thy weariness . '
And XXXXX entered , and supped , and slept , and in the morning rose up a new man .
Brown-haired Covan Gorla Maol-mor Sun left morning night right three-thirds