At that time his wife had beside her a beautiful sister, named Emnait. Fáelán's heart was set upon her, so that he gained her love, and she became great with child. Fear and dread seized her on account of her sister, and because of the shame of the (evil) deed that had befallen her. Wherefore she went back stealthily by the same road; and not by day, but by night she used to travel, and every day she lay still. So thus she reached her own country, to wit, Cenél Siatnai12 in the west.
Now when she came in this wise to the midst of the Luachair in the west, the night falls upon her there, and a prodigious snow descends, so that it reached men's shoulders. Then, because of the exceeding cold, and the greatness of the snow, and the fear and dread that came about her, birthpangs seized her, and thereafter she brought forth the babe that lay in her womb, to wit, a boy sweet and beautiful, sweet and shining.
There came a service of angels to the place wherein he lay. So because of that service the snow melted for thirty feet on every side from him. But she turned her back to the little child, and left equal rights between him and the snow, and was seeking how she should inflict death upon him, for she felt shame in looking at him, she, instead of her sister, having conceived him.
The sun's radiance arose over the face of the green-sided, choice earth, and she was contemplating the infant there. Then she put her forearms about him, to inflict upon him death and extinction and tragic fate.13 So therefore the Lord sent a dove from heaven to protect that little child. And the dove put its plumage and its wings about the infant's skin, so that it was (both) covering and warming the babe. The girl was stretching out her hand towards him, on the side on which the dove was not, in order to kill the child. But the dove would come around him on every side, and put its wings over his countenance and its claws over the girl's face;14 and in this wise it was protecting the infant until daytime came thereat.