So when they had talked their fill, Cormac and his wife and children were brought to a chamber where they lay down to sleep.  But when they woke up on the morrow morn, they found themselves in the Queen’s chamber in the royal palace of Tara, and by Cormac’s side were found the bell-branch and the magical cup and the cloth of gold that had covered the table where they sat in the palace of Mananan.  Seven months it was since Cormac had gone out from Tara to search for his wife and children, but it seemed to him that he had been absent but for the space of a single day and night.

IX

DESCRIPTION OF CORMAC[33]

   [33] The original from the BOOK OF BALLYMOTE (14th century) is
   given in O’Curry’s MS. MATERIALS OF IRISH HISTORY, Appendix
   xxvi.  I have in the main followed O’Curry’s translation.

“A noble and illustrious king assumed the sovranty and rule of Erinn, namely Cormac, grandson of Conn of the Hundred Battles.  The world was full of all goodness in his time; there were fruit and fatness of the land, and abundant produce of the sea, with peace and ease and happiness.  There were no killings or plunderings in his time, but everyone occupied his land in happiness.

“The nobles of Ireland assembled to drink the Banquet of Tara with Cormac at a certain time....  Magnificently did Cormac come to this great Assembly; for no man, his equal in beauty, had preceded him, excepting Conary Mor or Conor son of Caffa, or Angus Og son of the Dagda.[34] Splendid, indeed, was Cormac’s appearance in that Assembly.  His hair was slightly curled, and of golden colour; a scarlet shield he had, with engraved devices, and golden bosses and ridges of silver.  A wide-folding purple cloak was on him with a gem-set gold brooch over his breast; a golden torque round his neck; a white-collared shirt embroidered with gold was on him; a girdle with golden buckles and studded with precious stones was around him; two golden net-work sandals with golden buckles upon his feet; two spears with golden sockets and many red bronze rivets in his hand; while he stood in the full glow of beauty, without defect or blemish.  You would think it was a shower of pearls that was set in his mouth, his lips were rubies, his symmetrical body was as white as snow, his cheek was ruddy as the berry of the mountain-ash, his eyes were like the sloe, his brows and eye-lashes were like the sheen of a blue-black lance.”

   [34] Angus Og was really a deity or fairy king.  He appears also
   in the story of Midir and Etain. q.v.

X

THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF CORMAC

Strange was the birth and childhood of Cormac strange his life and strange the manner of his death and burial, as we now have to narrate.

Cormac, it is said, was the third man in Ireland who heard of the Christian Faith before the coming of Patrick.  One was Conor mac Nessa, King of Ulster, whose druid told him of the crucifixion of Christ and who died of that knowledge.[35] The second was the wise judge, Morann, and the third Cormac, son of Art.  This knowledge was revealed to him by divine illumination, and thenceforth he refused to consult the druids or to worship the images which they made as emblems of the Immortal Ones.