His next act was to kill his nephew, Ailill Aine; and his ill-treatment of Aine's son, Maen, was the consummation of his cruelty.
The fratricide was at last slain by this very youth, who had now obtained the appellation of Labhraidh-Loingseach, or Lowry of the Ships.
We have special evidence here of the importance of our Historic Tales, and also that the blending of fiction and fact by no means deteriorates from their value.
Love affairs form a staple ground for fiction, with a very substantial under-strata of facts, even in the nineteenth century; and the annals of pre-Christian Erinn are by no means deficient in the same fertile source of human interest.

The History of the Exile is still preserved in the Leabhar Buidhe Lecain, now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.

It is a highly romantic story, but evidently founded on fact, and full of interest as descriptive of public and private life in the fifth century before Christ.

It tells how Maen, though supposed to be deaf and dumb, was, nevertheless, given in charge of two officers of the court to be educated; that he recovered or rather obtained speech suddenly, in a quarrel with another youth; and that he was as symmetrical of form and noble of bearing as all heroes of romance are bound to be.

His uncle expelled him from the kingdom, and he took refuge at the court of King Scoriath.