-branch any longer bring him
forgetfulness of them. So one morning he took the branch and went out
alone from Tara over the plain, taking the direction in which they had
passed away a year agone; and ere long little wreathes of mist began
to curl about his feet, and then to flit by him like long trailing
robes, and he knew no more where he was. After a time, however, he
came out again into sunshine and clear sky, and found himself in a
country of flowery meadows and of woods filled with singing-birds
where he had never journeyed before. He walked on, till at last he
came to a great and stately mansion with a crowd of builders at work
upon it, and they were roofing it with a thatch made of the wings of
strange birds. But when they had half covered the house, their supply
of feathers ran short, and they rode off in haste to seek for more.
While they were gone, however, a wind arose and whirled away the
feathers already laid on, so that the rafters were left bare as
before. And this happened again and again, as Cormac gazed on them for
he knew not how long. At last his patience left him and he said, "I
see with that ye have been doing this since the beginning of the
world, and that ye will still be doing it in the end thereof," and
with that he went on his way.

And many other strange things he saw, but of them we say nothing now,
till he came to the gateway of a great and lofty Dun, where he entered
in and asked hospitality. Then there came to him a tall man clad in a
cloak of blue that changed into silver or to purple as its folds waved
in the light, and with him was a woman more beautiful than the
daughters of men, even she of whom it was said her beauty was as that
of a tear when it drops from the eyelid, so crystal-pure it was and
bright.[32] They greeted Cormac courteously and begged him to stay
with them for the night.

[32] See Miss Hull's CUCHULAIN, THE HOUND OF ULSTER, p. 175.
The pair were Mananan, god of the sea, and Fand his wife, of
whom a tale of great interest is told in the Cuchulain Cycle of
legends. The sea-cloak of Mananan is the subject of a
magnificent piece of descriptive poetry in Ferguson's CONGAL.

Cormac then entered a great hall with pillars of cedar and
many-coloured silken hangings on the walls. In the midst of it was a
fire-place whereon the host threw a huge log, and shortly afterwards
brought in a young pig which Cormac cut up to roast before the fire.
He first put one qu