More costly than England could ransom:
So witty, so wealthy, my lady
Is worth them, -- and Ireland beside!"

Then Tosti came in, and called Cormac out to some work or other;
but he said: --

(9)
"Take m swift-footed steel for thy tiding,
Ay, and stint not the lash to him, Tosti:
On the desolate downs ye may wander
And drive him along till he weary.
I care not o'er mountain and moorland
The murrey-brown weathers to follow, --
Far liefer, I'd linger the morning
In long, cosy chatter with Steingerd."

Tosti said he would find it a merrier game, and went off; so
Cormac sat down to chess, and right gay he was. Steingerd said
he talked better than folk told of; and he sat there all the day;
and then he made this song: --

(10)
" 'Tis the dart that adorneth her tresses,
The deep, dewy grass of her forehead.
So kind to my keeping she gave it,
That good comb I shall ever remember!
A stranger was I when I sought her
-- Sweet stem with the dragon's hoard shining --"
With gold like the sea-dazzle gleaming --