and said, 'Come to speak to me, Caer.' 'Who calls me?' was the reply. 'Aengus calls thee,' he said. 'I will come,' said she, 'provided I obtain that thou wilt on thy honour make for the lake after me.' 'I will,' said he. She accordingly came to him, whereupon he placed his two hands on her; then they flew off in the form of a pair of swans and they went thrice round the lake. They afterwards took their flight to the Brugh of the Boyne, where they made such enchanting music that it plunged everybody in a deep sleep, which lasted three days and three nights. Caer remained at the Brugh of the Boyne as the Mac Óc's consort.
Here must be added one or two extracts from the Irish manuscript, of the 14th century, called the Speckled Book: the first runs, in the words of O'Curry's translation, as follows:[1] "It is in the reign of Flann Cinaidh [Ginach, or 'the voracious'] that the Rowing-wheel, and the Broom out of Fanaid, and the Fiery Bolt, shall come. Cliach was the harper of Smirdubh Mac Smáil, king of the three Rosses of Sliabh Bán [in Connacht]. Cliach set out on one occasion to seek the hand in marriage of one of the daughters of Bodhbh Derg, of the [fairy] palace of Femhen [in Tipperary]. He continued a whole year playing his harp, on the outside of the palace, without being able to approach nearer to Bodhbh, so great was his [necromantic] power; nor did he make
- ↑ The italics and the parentheses are O'Curry's, whose rendering, though not quite accurate or without one 'bull,' will do for my purpose: see his MS. Materials, pp. 426-7, 632-3, and the original in the Lebar Brecc or Speckled Book, fol. 242b: the reference is to the lithographed facsimile published by the R. Irish Academy, Dublin, 1876. See also the Bk. of Leinster, 169a.
