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The Courtship of Ferb

maidens all died from the sorrow that they felt at the death of the young man Mani; Nuagel also died of grief for the death of her husband and her two sons. And they dug a grave for Ferb, and a pillar of stone was erected for her, and her name was written upon it in letters of Ogham, and a monument of stone was made, so that Duma Ferbe is the name that is now for Raith Ini—in the north-west doth that monument stand.

Conor returned to Eman with victory and triumph, and to Mugain he related his tale from the beginning to the end; and he gave command to his bard Ferchertne, the son of Dergerdne, who was the son of Garb, who was the son of Fer Rossa the Red, who was the son of Rury, that he should forthwith make a great poem which should serve as a model to future times, and should preserve the memory of that tale. He then sang the poem that now follows; and he prophesied that in future days, by means of the tale he had told, should men unravel the threads of the story of the Tain bo Cualgne:—


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Hear the dream of upright Conor,
Cathba's son, so fair and great,
From his foray safe returning,
He who rules in Ulster's state.

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