FreeBSD boots very slowly!!!

I had a Linux installation, and decided to give FreeBSD a try, so
I installed 5.1 on a separate (primary) partition, then booted
into Linux, added

other=/dev/hda3
label="BSD"

to /etc/lilo.conf, and now I can multi-boot. Let me first say
that aside from having to screw with stty a bit too much,
FreeBSD is awesome and runs well. However, with my setup,
booting FreeBSD from Linux-installed LILO takes an extremely
long time, maybe 5 minutes, and I have a fast computer with
no special services running. I know this isn't normal, and
must be because something is wrong with my boot process.

Partition table entry for FreeBSD is this:
/dev/hda3 3375 3648 2200905 a5 FreeBSD
(it's all greek to me)

When booting, I stare at a succession of the following messages:

Bootstrap loader. Revision 1.1.
<long wait>
Loading /boot/defaults/loader.conf
<even longer wait>
/boot/kernel/kernel
<some more waiting>
/boot/defaults/loader.conf
<long wait>
Then the logo appears, after which things are still slow for
a while, and then booting becomes fast.

The machine is new, so that legacy BIOS stuff should be
irrelevant.

All help appreciated