"and I would be well pleased to have your
friendship," he said. "I am well pleased to give it," said the stranger.
"Give me your branch along with it," said Cormac. "I will give it," said
the stranger, "if you will give me the three gifts I ask in return." "I
will give them to you indeed," said Cormac.

Then the strange man left the branch and went away, and Cormac did not
know where was he gone to.

He went back then into the royal house, and there was wonder on all the
people when they saw the branch. And he shook it at them, and it put
them all asleep from that day to the same time on the morrow.

At the end of a year the strange man came back again, and he asked for
the first of his three requests. "You will get it," said Cormac. "I will
take your daughter, Aille, to-day," said the stranger.

So he brought away the girl with him, and the women of Ireland gave
three loud cries after the king's daughter. But Cormac shook the branch
at them, until it put away sorrow from them, and put them all into their
sleep.

That day month the stranger came again, and he brought Cormac's son,
Carpre Lifecar, away with him. There was crying and lamenting without
end in Teamhair after the boy, and on that night no one ate or slept,
and they were all under grief and very downhearted. But when Cormac
shook the branch their sorrow went from them.

Then the stranger came the third time, and Cormac asked him what did he
want. "It is your wife, Ethne, I am asking this time," he said. And he
went away then, bringing Ethne, the queen, along with him.

But Cormac would not bear that, and he went after them, and all his
people were following him. But in the middle of the Plain of the Wall, a
thick mist came on them, and when it was gone, Cormac found himself
alone on a great plain. And he saw a great dun in the middle of the
plain, with a wall of bronze around it, and in the dun a house of white
silver, and it half thatched with the white wings of birds. And there
was a great troop of the Riders of the Sidhe all about the house, and
their arms full of white birds' wings for thatching. But as soon as they
would put on the thatch, a blast of wind would come and carry it away
again.

Then he saw a man kindling a fire, and he used to throw a thick
oak-tree upon it. And when he would come back with a second tree, the
first one would be burned out. "I will be looking at you no longer,"
Cormac said then, "for there is no one here to tell me