d it from the deepest of the running water. After this she took a
sickle and began cutting rushes by the river-side, and Cormac saw that
when she cut a wisp of long rushes she would put it on one side, and
the short rushes on the other, and she bore them separately into the
house. But Cormac stopped her and saluted her, and said:

"For whom, maiden, art thou making this careful choice of the milk and
the rushes and the water?"

"I am making it," said she, "for one who is worthy that I should do
far more than that for him, if I could."

"What is his name?"

"Buicad, the farmer," said Ethne.

"Is it that Buicad, who was the rich farmer in Leinster that all
Ireland has heard of?" asked the King.

"It is even so."

"Then thou art his foster-child, Ethne the daughter of Dunlang?" said
Cormac.

"I am," said Ethne.

"Wilt thou be my wife and Queen of Erinn?" then said Cormac.

"If it please my foster-father to give me to thee, O King, I am
willing," replied Ethne.

Then Cormac took Ethne by the hand and they went before Buicad, and he
consented to give her to Cormac to wife. And Buicad was given rich
lands and great store of cattle in the district of Odran close by
Tara, and Ethne the Queen loved him and visited him so long as his
life endured.

IV

THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE KING

Ethne bore to Cormac a son, her firstborn, named Cairbry, who was King
of Ireland after Cormac. It was during the lifetime of Cormac that
Cairbry came to the throne, for it happened that ere he died Cormac
was wounded by a chance cast of a spear and lost one of his eyes, and
it was forbidden that any man having a blemish should be a king in
Ireland. Cormac therefore gave up the kingdom into the hands of
Cairbry, but before he did so he told his son all the wisdom that he
had in the governing of men, and this was written down in a book which
is called _The Instructions of Cormac_.[28] These are among the things
which are found in it, of the wisdom of Cormac:--

[28] _The Instructions of Cormac_ (Tecosa Cormaic) have been
edited with a translation by Dr. Kuno Meyer in the Todd Lecture
Series of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xv., April 1909.

"Let him (the king) restrain the great,
Let him exalt the good,
Let him establish peace,
Let him plant law,
Let him protect the just,
Let him bind the unjust,
Let his warriors be many and his counsellors few,
Let him shine in company and be the sun of the me