Then Cormac and the armed man saluted one another, and Cormac asked where did he come from.  “I come,” he said, “from a country where there is nothing but truth, and where there is neither age nor withering away, nor heaviness, nor sadness, nor jealousy nor envy, nor pride.”  “That is not so with us,” said Cormac, “and I would be well pleased to have your friendship,” he said.  “I am well pleased to give it,” said the stranger.  “Give me your branch along with it,” said Cormac.  “I will give it,” said the stranger, “if you will give me the three gifts I ask in return.”  “I will give them to you indeed,” said Cormac.

Then the strange man left the branch and went away, and Cormac did not know where was he gone to.

He went back then into the royal house, and there was wonder on all the people when they saw the branch.  And he shook it at them, and it put them all asleep from that day to the same time on the morrow.

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.  But as soon as they would put on the thatch, a blast of wind would come and carry it away again.

Then he saw a man kindling a fire, and he used to throw a thick oak-tree upon it.  And when he would come back with a second tree, the first one would be burned out.  “I will be looking at you no longer,” Cormac said then, “for there is no one here to tell me your story, and I think I could find good sense in your meanings if I understood them,” he said.