Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER IV: THE EARLY MILESIAN KINGS 139the king, who orders an opening to be made in the wall and themaiden fetched forth, for the king was childless, and it had beenprophesied to him by his Druid that a woman of unknown racewould bear him a son. Then said the king: “This is the womanthat has been prophesied to me.”Parentage and Birth of ConaryBefore her release, however, she is visited by a denizen fromthe Land of Youth. A great bird comes down through her roofwindow.On the floor of the hut his bird-plumage falls from himand reveals a glorious youth. Like Danaë, like Leda, like Ethlinndaughter of Balor, she gives her love to the god. Ere they part hetells her that she will be taken to the king, but that she will bearto her Danaan lover a son whose name shall be Conary, and that [167]it shall be forbidden to him to go a-hunting after birds.So Conary was born, and grew up into a wise and nobleyouth, and he was fostered with a lord named Desa, whose threegreat-grandsons grew up with him from childhood. Their nameswere Ferlee and Fergar and Ferrogan; and Conary, it is said,loved them well and taught them his wisdom.Conary the High KingThen King Eterskel died, and a successor had to be appointed.In Ireland the eldest son did not succeed to the throne orchieftaincy as a matter of right, but the ablest and best of thefamily at the time was supposed to be selected by the clan. Inthis tale we have a curious account of this selection by meansof divination. A “bull-feast” was held—i.e., a bull was slain,and the diviner would “eat his fill and drink its broth”; then hewent to bed, where a truth-compelling spell was chanted overhim. Whoever he saw in his dream would be king. So at Ægira,in Achæa, as Whitley Stokes points out, the priestess of Earthdrank the fresh blood of a bull before descending into the caveto prophesy. The dreamer cried in his sleep that he saw a nakedman going towards Tara with a stone in his sling.The bull-feast was held at Tara, but Conary was then with