It was the child who had been promised to
the Ultonians.
CHAPTER III
DETHCAEN'S NURSLING
"Very small and beautiful like a star."
--HOMER.
"I love all that thou lovest,
Spirit of delight;
The fresh earth in new leaves drest,
And the blessed night;
Starry evening and the morn,
When the golden mists are born."
SHELLEY.
Sualtam of Dun Dalgan on the Eastern Sea, took to wife Dectera,
daughter of Factna the Righteous. She was sister of Concobar Mac
Nessa. Sualtam was the King of Cooalney [Footnote: Now the barony
of Cooley, a mountainous promontory which the County of Louth
projects into the Irish Sea.] a land of woods and mountains, an
unproductive headland reaching out into the Ictian Sea.
Dectera bare a son to Sualtam, and they called him Setanta, That
was his first name. His nurse was Dethcaen, the druidess, daughter
of Cathvah the druid, the mighty wizard and prophet of the Crave
Rue. His breast-plate [Footnote: A poetic spell or incantation.
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