Then Birog by her enchantments put them all into a deep
sleep, and Cian went to speak with Ethlinn. And when she saw him she
said that was the face she had seen in her dreams. So she gave him her
love; but after a while he was brought away again on a blast of wind.
And when her time came, Ethlinn gave birth to a son. And when Balor knew
that, he bade his people put the child in a cloth and fasten it with a
pin, and throw him into a current of the sea. And as they were carrying
the child across an arm of the sea, the pin dropped out, and the child
slipped from the cloth into the water, and they thought he was drowned.
But he was brought away by Birog of the Mountain, and she brought him to
his father Cian; and he gave him to be fostered by Taillte, daughter of
the King of the Great Plain. It is thus Lugh was born and reared.
And some say Balor came and struck the head off Cian on a white stone,
that has the blood marks on it to this day; but it is likely it was some
other man he struck the head off, for it was by the sons of Tuireann
that Cian came to his death.
And after Lugh had come to Teamhair, and made his mind up to join with
his father's people against the Fomor, he put his mind to the work; and
he went to a quiet place in Grellach Dollaid, with Nuada and the Dagda,
and with Ogma; and Goibniu and Diancecht were called to them there. A
full year they stopped there, making their plans together in secret, the
way the Fomor would not know they were going to rise against them till
such time as all would be ready, and till they would know what their
strength was.
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