‘It would be delightful’, say the crew, ‘if this were a messenger from the Lord to bring us tidings!’ With that the elder (brother) raises up his face. ‘God is able (to do) that’, quoth he.
‘It is to hold speech with you assuredly I have come’, saith the bird.
Vivid was the colour of that bird, to wit, in its breast were three beautiful bright rays, with a sun's radiance.
‘Of the land of Erin am I’, quoth the bird, ‘and I am the soul of a woman, and I am monkess unto thee’, she saith to the elder.
‘Tell me of this’, saith he, ‘are we going to hell?’
‘Ye will not go’, saith the bird.
‘We render thanks to God’, saith the elder, ‘for we ourselves have deserved to go into hell in our bodies.’
‘Come ye to another place’, saith the bird, ‘to hearken to yon birds. The birds that ye see are the souls28 that come on Sunday out of hell.’
‘Let us fare hence’, saith the elder ‘We will go the way that thou wilt go’, say his fellows.