"
"That will not be good," says her mother; "a king's pursuit will be on
her."
Then Cormac weds again his wife, even Etain, and this was his desire,
that the daughter of the woman who had before been abandoned [i.e. his
own daughter] should be killed. So Cormac would not leave the girl to
her mother to be nursed. Then his two thralls take her to a pit, and she
smiles a laughing smile at them as they were putting her into it. Then
their kindly nature came to them. They carry her into the calfshed of
the cowherds of Etirscel, great-grandson of Iar, king of Tara, and they
fostered her till she became a good embroideress; and there was not in
Ireland a king's daughter dearer than she.
A fenced house of wickerwork was made by the thralls for her, without
any door, but only a window and a skylight. King Eterscel's folk espy
that house and suppose that it was food that the cowherds kept there.
But one of them went and looked through the skylight, and he saw in the
house the dearest, beautifullest maiden! This is told to the king, and
straightway he sends his people to break the house and carry her off
without asking the cowherds.
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