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thought that every breath she drew would bring down the roof on
his head. He rose up then and looked at her, and wondered at the
bulk of her body. And at last he drew his sword and hit her a slash
that killed her; but if he did, three young men leaped out of her
body. And Glasan made a stroke that killed the first of them, and
Bran killed the second, but the third made his escape.
Glasan made his way back then, and just when he got to
where Finn was, his log of wood was burned out, and the day was
beginning to break.
And when Finn rose up in the morning he asked news of the
three watchers, and they gave him the cup and the knife and told
him all they had seen, and he gave great praise to Dubh and to
Dun; but to Glasan he said: "It might have been as well for you to
have left that old hag alone, for I am in dread the third young
man may bring trouble on us all."
It happened at the end of twenty-one years, Finn and the
Fianna were at their hunting in the hills, and they saw a Red
Haired Man coming towards them, and he spoke to no one, but
came and stood before Finn. "What is it you are looking for?" said
Finn. "I am looking for a master for the next twenty-one years," he
said. "What wages are you asking?" said Finn. "No wages at all,
but only if I die before the twenty-one years are up, to bury me on
Inis Caol, the Narrow Island. " "I will do that for you," said Finn.
So the Red-Haired Man served Finn well through the length of
twenty years. But in the twenty-first year he began to waste and to
wither away, and he died.
And when he was dead, the Fianna were no way inclined to go
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to Inis Caol to bury him. But Finn said he would break his word
for no man, and that he himself would bring his body there. And
he took an old white horse that had been turned loose on the hills,
and that had got younger and not older since it was put out, and he
put the body of the Red-Haired Man on its back, and let it take its
own way, and he himself followed it, and twelve men of the Fianna.
And when they came to Inis Caol they saw no trace of the
horse or of the body. And there was an open house on the island,
and they went in. And there were seats for every man of them
inside, and they sat down to rest for a while.
But when they tried to rise up it failed them to do it, for there
was enchantment on them. And they saw the Red-Haired Man
standing before them in that moment.
"The time is come now," he said, "for me to get satisfaction
from you for the death of my mother and my two brothers that
were killed by Glasan in the house of the dead bodies. " He began
to make an attack on them then, and he would have made an end
of them all, but Finn took hold of the Dord Fiann, and blew a
great blast on it.
And before the Red-Haired Man was able to kill more than
three of them, Diarmuid, grandson of Duibhne, that had heard the
sound of the Dord Fiann, came into the house and made an end of
him, and put an end to the enchantment. And Finn, with the nine
that were left of the Fianna, came back again to Almhuin.
CHAPTER III.
THE HOUND
One day the three battalions of the Fianna came to Magh Femen,
and there they saw three young men waiting for them, having a
hound with them; and there was not a colour in the world but
was on that hound, and it was bigger than any other hound.
"Where do you come from, young men?" said Finn. "Out of
the greater Iruath in the east," said they; "and our names are
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195
Dubh, the Dark, and Agh, the Battle, and Ilar, the Eagle." "What
is it you came for? " "To enter into service, and your friendship,"
said they. "What good will it do us, you to be with us?" said Finn.
"We are three," said they, "and you can make a different use of
each one of us." "What uses are those?" said Finn. "I will do the
watching for all the Fianna of Ireland and of Alban," said one of
them. "I will take the weight of every fight and every battle that
will come to them, the way they can keep themselves in quiet,"
said the second. "I will meet every troublesome thing that might
come to my master," said the third; "and let all the wants of the
world be told to me and I will satisfy them. And I have a pipe
with me," he said; "and all the men of the world would sleep at
the sound of it, and they in their sickness. And as to the hound,"
he said, "as long as there are deer in Ireland he will get provision
for the Fianna every second night. And I myself," he said, "will get
it on the other nights." "What will you ask of us to be with us like
that?" said Finn. "We will ask three things," they said: "no one to
come near to the place where we have our lodging after the fall of
night; nothing to be given out to us, but we to provide for ourselves; and the worst places to be given to us in the hunting." "Tell me by your oath now," said Finn, "why is it you will let no one see
you after nightfall? " "We have a reason," said they; "but do not ask
it of us, whether we are short or long on the one path with you.
But we will tell you this much," they said, "every third night, one
of us three is dead and the other two are watching him, and we
have no mind for any one to be looking at us."
So Finn promised that; but if he did there were some of the
Fianna were not well pleased because of the ways of those three
men, living as they did by themselves, and having a wall of fire
about them, and they would have made an end of them but for
Finn protecting them.
About that time there came seven men of poetry belonging
to the people of Cithruadh, asking the fee for a poem, three
times fifty ounces of gold and the same of silver to bring back to
Cithruadh at Teamhair. "Whatever way we get it, we must find
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some way to get that," said a man of the Fianna. Then the three
young men from Iruath said: "Well, men of learning," they said,
"would you sooner get the fee for your poem to-night or tomorrow? " "To-morrow will be time enough," said they.
And the three young men went to the place where the hound
had his bed a little way off from the path, and the hound threw
out of his mouth before them the three times fifty ounces of gold
and three times fifty of silver, and they gave them to the men of
poetry, and they went away.
Another time Finn said: "What can the three battalions of the
Fianna do to-night, having no water? " And one of the men of
Iruath said: "How many drinking-horns are with you?" "Three
hundred and twelve," said Caoilte. "Give me the horns into my
hand," said the young man, "and whatever you will find in them
after that, you may drink it. " He filled the horns then with beer
and they drank it, and he did that a second and a third time; and
with the third time of filling they were talkative and their wits
confused. "This is a wonderful mending of the feast," said Finn
.
And they gave the place where all that happened the name of the
Little Rath of Wonders.
And one time after that again there came to Finn three bald
red clowns, holding three red hounds in their hands, and three
deadly spears. And there was poison on their clothes and on their
hands and their feet, and on everything they touched. And Finn
asked them who were they. And they said they were three sons of
Uar, son of Indast of the Tuatha de Danaan; and it was by a man
of the Fianna, Caoilte, son of Ronan, their father was killed in the
battle of the Tuatha de Danaan on Slieve nan Ean, the Mountain
of Birds, in the east. "And let Caoilte son of Ronan give us the
blood-fine for him now," they said. "What are your names?" said
Finn. "Aincel and Digbail and Espaid; Ill-wishing and Hann and
Want are our names. And what answer do you give us now, Finn?"
they said. "No one before me ever gave a blood-fine for a man
killed in battle, and I will not give it," said Finn. "We will do
revenge and robbery on you so ," said they. "What revenge is
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197
that?" said Finn. "It is what I will do," said Aincel, "if I meet with
two or three or four of the Fianna, I will take their feet and their
hands from them." "It is what I will do," said Digbail, "I will not
leave a day without loss of a hound or a serving-boy or a fighting
man to the Fianna of Ireland. " "And I myself will be always leaving them in want of people, or of a hand, or of an eye," said Espaid.
"Without we get some help against them," said Caoilte, "there will
not be one of us living at the end of a year." "Well," said Finn, "we
will make a dun and stop here for a while, for I will not be going
through Ireland and these men following after me, till I find who
are the strongest, themselves or ourselves."
So the Fianna made little raths for themselves all about Slieve
Mis, and they stopped there through a month and a quarter and a
year. And through all that time the three red bald-headed men
were doing every sort of hurt and harm upon them.
But the three sons of the King of Iruath came to speak with
Finn, and it is what they said: "It is our wish, Finn, to send the
hound that is with us to go around you three times in every day,
and however many may be trying to hurt or to rob you, they will
not have power to do it after that. But let there be neither fire nor
arms nor any other dog in the house he goes into," they said. "I
will let none of these things go into the one house with him," said
Finn, "and he will go safe back to you." So every day the hound
would be sent to Finn, having his chain of ridges of red gold
around his neck, and he would go three times around Finn, and
three times he would put his tongue upon him. And to the people
that were nearest to the hound when he came into the house it
would seem like as if a vat of mead was being strained, and to
others there would come the sweet smell of an apple garden.
And every harm and sickness the three sons of Uar would
bring on the Fianna, the three sons of the King of Iruath would
take it off them with their herbs and their help and their healing.
And after a while the High King of Ireland came to Slieve Mis
with a great troop of his men, to join with Finn and the Fianna.
And they told the High King the whole story, and how the sons of
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Uar were destroying them, and the three sons of the King of
Iruath were helping them against them. "Why would not the men
that can do all that find some good spell that would drive the sons
of Uar out of Ireland?" said the High King.
With that Caoilte went looking for the three young men from
Iruath and brought them to the High King. "These are comely
men," said the High King, "good in their shape and having a good
name. And could you find any charm, my sons," he said, "that
will drive out these three enemies that are destroying the Fianna
of Ireland? " "We would do that if we could find those men near
us," said they; "and it is where they are now," they said, "at Daire's
Cairn at the end of the raths . " "Where are Garb-Cronan, the
Rough Buzzing One, and Saltran of the Long Heel? " said Finn.
"Here we are, King of the Fianna," said they. "Go out to those
men beyond; and tell them I will give according to the judgment
of the King of Ireland in satisfaction for their father. " The messengers went out then and brought them in, and they sat down on the bank of the rath.
Then the High King said: "Rise up, Dubh, son of the King of
Iruath, and command these sons of Uar with a spell to quit Ireland. " And Dubh rose up, and he said: "Go out through the strength of this spell and this charm, you three enemies of the
Fianna, one-eyed, lame-thighed, left-handed, of the bad race. And
go out on the deep bitter sea," he said, "and let each one of you
strike a blow of his sword on the head of his brothers. For it is
long enough you are doing harm and destruction on the King of
the Fianna, Finn, son of Cumhal. "
With that the hound sent a blast o f wind under them that
brought them out into the fierce green sea, and each of them
struck a blow on the head of the others. And that was the last that
was seen of the three destroying sons of Uar, Aincel and Digbail
and Espaid.
But after the time of the Fianna, there came three times in the
one year, into West Munster, three flocks of birds from the western sea having beaks of bone and fiery breath, and the wind from
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199
their wings was as cold as the wind of spring. And the first time
they came was at reaping time, and every one of them brought
away an ear of com from the field. And the next time they came
they did not leave apple on tree, or nut on bush, or berry on the
rowan; and the third time they spared no live thing they could lift
from the ground, young bird or fawn or silly little child. And the
first day they came was the same day of the year the three sons of
Uar were put out in the sea.
And when Caoilte, that was one of the last of the Fianna, and
that was living yet, heard of them, he remembered the sons of
Uar, and he made a spell that drove them out into the sea again,
and they perished there by one another.
It was about the length of a year the three sons of the King of
Iruath stopped with Finn. And at the end of that time Donn and
Dubhan, two sons of the King of Ulster, came out of the north to
Munster. And one night they kept watch for the Fianna, and three
times they made a round of the camp. And it is the way the young
men from Iruath used to be, in a place by themselves apart from
the Fianna, and their hound in the middle between them; and at
the fall of night there used a wall of fire to be around them, the
way no one could look at them.
And the third time the sons of the King of Ulster made the
round of the camp, they saw the fiery wall, and Donn said: "It is a
wonder the way those three young men are through the length of
>
a year now, and their hound along with them, and no one getting
leave to look at them. "
With that he himself and his brother took their arms in their
hands, and went inside the wall of fire, and they began looking at
the three men and at the hound. And the great hound they used
to see every day at the hunting was at this time no bigger than a
lap-dog that would be with a queen or a high person. And one of
the young men was watching over the dog, and his sword in his
hand, and another of them was holding a vessel of white silver to
the mouth of the dog; and any drink any one of the three would
ask for, the dog would put it out of his mouth into the vessel.
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Then one of the young men said to the hound: "Well, noble
one and brave one and just one, take notice of the treachery that
is done to you by Finn. " When the dog heard that he turned to
the King of Ulster's sons, and there rose a dark Druid wind that
blew away the shields from their shoulders and the swords from
their sides into the wall of fire. And then the three men came out
and made an end of them; and when that was done the dog came
and breathed on them, and they turned into ashes on the moment,
and there was never blood or flesh or bone of them found after.
And the three battalions of the Fianna divided themselves into
companies of nine, and went searching through every part of Ireland for the King of Ulster's two sons.
And as to Finn, he went to Teamhair Luachra, and no one
with him but the serving-lads and the followers of the army. And
the companies of nine that were looking for the King of Ulster's
sons came back to him there in the one night; but they brought
no word of them, if they were dead or living.
But as to the three sons of the King of Iruath and the hound that
was with them, they were seen no more by Finn and the Fianna.
CHAPTER IV
RED RIDGE
There was another young man came and served Finn for a while;
out of Connacht he came, and he was very daring, and the Red
Ridge was the name they gave him. And he all but went from
Finn one time, because of his wages that were too long in coming
to him. And the three battalions of the Fianna came trying to
quiet him, but he would not stay for them. And at the last Finn
himself came, for it is a power he had, if he would make but three
