Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c11.s1.97

c11.s1.97

† “*Cormac* . . . was by himself in Teamhair one time, and he saw an armed man coming towards him, *quiet, with high looks, and having grey hair; a shirt ribbed with gold thread next his skin, broad shoes of white bronze between his feet and the ground, a shining branch, having nine apples of red gold on his shoulder. And it is delightful the sound of that branch, and no one on earth would keep in mind any want, or trouble, or tiredness, when that branch was shaken for him; and whatever trouble there might be on him, he would forget it at the sound.*” (Gods and Fighting Men, Lady Gregory, p. 115, ‘Manannan’s Call to Cormac,’ after Whitley Stokes, *Irische Texte*). *And if there is, perhaps, in this Faery branch that stills all sorrow, a non-moral element which is lacking in the craftsman’s branch, yet the idea of consolation in distress is in both.*