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.
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