"
"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_.
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