by Irish Myths
changed and it was like an enemy she took hold of the pig, and did
not let it go, and held her breath back and kept it for the Fianna.
And it was over Slieve Cua the hunt went, and Slieve Crot, and
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287
from Magh Cobha to Cruachan, and to Fionnabraic and to Finnias. And at evening when the hunt was over, there was not one pig of the whole herd without a hurt, and there were but a hundred and ten pigs left living. But if the hunt brought destruction on Angus, it brought losses on the Fianna as well, for there were ten
hundred of their men missing besides serving-lads and dogs.
"Let us go to Brugh na Boinne and get satisfaction for our people," said Oisin then. "That is the advice of a man without sense,"
said Finn; "for if we leave these pigs the way they are, they will
come to life again. And let us bum them," he said, "and throw
their ashes in the sea. "
Then the seven battalions o f the Fianna made seven fires to
every battalion; but for all they could do, they could not set fire to
one pig. Then Bran, that had great sense and knowledge, went
away, and she came back bringing three logs along with her, but
no one knows what wood it was they came from. And when the
logs were put on the fire they lit up like a candle, and it is with
them the pigs were burned; and after that their ashes were thrown
into the sea.
Then Oisin said again: "Let us go now to Brugh na Boinne and
avenge the death of our people." So the whole of the Fianna set
out for Brugh na Boinne, and every step they made could surely
be heard through the whole of the skies.
And Angus sent out messengers to where Finn was, offering
any one thing to him if he would spare his people. "I will take no
gift at all from you, Angus of the slender body," said Finn, "so
long as there is a room left in your house, north or east, without
being burned. " But Angus said: "Although you think bad of the
loss of your fine people that you have the sway over, yet, 0 Finn,
father of Oisin, it is sorrowful to me the loss of my own good son
is. For as to the black pig that came before you on the plain," he
said, "it was no common pig was in it, but my own son. And
there fell along with him," he said, "the son of the King of the
Narrow Sea, and the son of the King of the Sea of Gulls, and the
son of Ilbhrec, son of Manannan, and seven score of the comely
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sons of kings and queens. And it is what destroyed my strength
and my respect entirely, they to have been burned away from me
in a far place. And it is a pity for you, sweet daring Bran," he said,
"fosterling of Fergus of the thirty woods and plains, that you did
not do something worth praise before killing your own fosterbrother. And I will put a curse on you, Bran," he said, "beyond every hound in Ireland, that you will never see with your eyes any
deer you may ever kill. "
There was anger on Finn when he heard that, and he said: "If
you put a curse on Bran, Angus, there will not be a room left, east
or west, in the whole of your great house without being burned."
"If you do that," said Angus, "I will put trees and stones in front
of you in every battle; and I will know what number of men you
have in your armies," he said, "looking at them through my ring."
Then Oisin, that was wise, said: "It is best for you to agree
between yourselves now; and let us be helpful to one another," he
said, "and pay whatever fines are due. "
So they agreed to that, and they made peace, and gave children
to be fostered by one another: a son of Finn's to Angus, and son of
Angus Og to the Fianna.
But for all that, it is not very friendly to Finn Angus was afterwards, at the time he was following after Diarmuid and Grania through the whole length of Ireland.
CHAPTER XV.
THE HUNT OF SLIEVE CUILINN
Finn was one time out on the green of Almhuin, and he saw what
had the appearance of a grey fawn running across the plain. He
called and whistled to his hounds then, but neither hound nor
man heard him or came to him, but only Bran and Sceolan. He set
them after the fawn, and near as they kept to her, he himself kept
nearer to them, till at last they reached to Slieve Cuilinn in the
province of Ulster.
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289
But they were no sooner at the hill than the fawn vanished
from them, and they did not know where was she gone, and Finn
went looking for her eastward, and the two hounds went towards
the west.
It was not long till Finn came to a lake, and there was sitting
on the brink of it a young girl, the most beautiful he had ever
seen, having hair of the colour of gold, and skin as white as lime,
and eyes like the stars in time of frost; but she seemed to be some
way sorrowful and downhearted. Finn asked her did she see his
hounds pass that way. "I did not see them," she said; "and it is little I am thinking of your hounds or your hunting, but of the cause of my own trouble. " "What is it ails you, woman of the
white hands?" said Finn; "and is there any help I can give you?"
he said. "It is what I am fretting after," said she, "a ring of red gold
I lost off my finger in the lake. And I put you under bonds, Finn
of the Fianna," she said, "to bring it back to me out of the lake. "
Wi th that Finn stripped o ff his clothes and went into the lake
at the bidding of the woman, and he went three times round the
whole lake and did not leave any part of it without searching, till
he brought back the ring. He handed it up to her then out of the
water, and no sooner had he done that than she gave a leap into
the water and vanished.
And when Finn came up on the bank of the lake, he could not
so much as reach to where his clothes were; for on the moment
he, the head and the leader of the Fianna of Ireland, was but a
grey old man, weak and withered.
Bran and Sceolan came up to him then, but they did not know
him, and they went on round the lake, searching after their master.
In Almhuin, now, when he was missed, Caoilte began asking
after him. "Where is Finn," he said, "of the gentle rule and of the
spears?" But no one knew where was he gone, and there was grief
on the Fianna when they could not find him. But it is what
Conan said: "I never heard music pleased me better than to hear
the son of Cumhal is missing. And that he may be so through the
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whole year," he said, "and I myself will be king over you all." And
downhearted as they were, it is hardly they could keep from
laughing when they heard Conan saying that.
Caoilte and the rest of the chief men of the Fianna set out then
looking for Finn, and they got word of him; and at last they came
to Slieve Cuilinn, and there they saw a withered old man sitting
beside the lake, and they thought him to be a fisherman. "Tell us,
old man," said Caoilte, "did you see a fawn go by, and two hounds
after her, and a tall fair-faced man along with them?" "I did see
them," he said, "and it is not long
since they left me. " "Tell us
where are they now?" said Caoilte. But Finn made no answer, for
he had not the courage to say to them that he himself was Finn
their leader, being as he was an ailing, downhearted old man, without leaping, without running, without walk, grey and sorrowful.
Caoilte took out his sword from the sheath then, and he said:
"It is short till you will have knowledge of death unless you will
tell us what happened those three. "
Then Finn told them the whole story; and when the seven battalions of the Fianna heard him, and knew it was Finn that was in it, they gave three loud sorrowful cries. And to the lake they gave
the name of Loch Doghra, the Lake of Sorrow.
But Conan of the sharp tongue began abusing Finn and all the
Fianna by turns. "You never gave me right praise for my deeds,
Finn, son of Cumhal," he said, "and you were always the enemy
of the sons of Moma; but we are living in spite of you," he said,
"and I have but the one fault to find with your shape, and that is,
that it was not put on the whole of the Fianna the same as on
yourself. " Caoilte made at him then; "Bald, senseless Conan," he
said, "I will break your mouth to the bone." But Conan ran in
then among the rest of the Fianna and asked protection from
them, and peace was made again.
And as to Finn, they asked him was there any cure to be found
for him. "There is," he said; "for I know well the enchantment
was put on me by a woman of the Sidhe, Miluchradh, daughter of
Cuilinn, through jealousy of her sister Aine. And bring me to the
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29 1
hill that belongs to Cuilinn of Cuailgne," he said, "for he is the
only one can give me my shape again. "
They came around him then, and raised him up gently on
their shields, and brought him on their shoulders to the hill of the
Sidhe in Cuailgne, but no one came out to meet them. Then the
seven battalions began digging and rooting up the whole hill, and
they went on digging through the length of three nights and three
days. And at the end of that time Cuilinn of Cuailgne, that some
say was Manannan, son of Lir, came out of the hill, holding in his
hand a vessel of red gold, and he gave the vessel into Finn's hand.
And no sooner did Finn drink what was in the vessel than his
own shape and his appearance came back to him. But only his
hair, that used to be so fair and so beautiful, like the hair of a
woman, never got its own colour again, for the lake that Cuilinn's
daughter had made for Finn would have turned all the men of the
whole world grey if they had gone into it.
And when Finn had drunk all that was in the vessel it slipped
from his hand into the earth, that was loosened with the digging, and he saw it no more. But in the place where it went into the earth, a tree grew up, and any one that would look at the
branches of that tree in the morning, fasting, would have knowledge of all that was to happen on that day.
That, now, is the way Finn came by his grey hair, through the
jealousy of Miluchradh of the Sidhe, because he had not given his
love to her, but to her sister Aine.
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OISIN'S CHILDREN
Now as to Oisin, that was so brave and so comely, and that could
overtake a deer at its greatest speed, and see a thistle thorn on the
darkest night, the wife he took was Eibhir of the plaited yellow
hair, that was the foreign sweetheart of the High King of Ireland.
It is beyond the sea she lived, in a very sunny place; and her
father's name was Iunsa, and her sunny house was thatched with
the feathers of birds, and the doorposts were of gold, and the
doors of ribbed grass. And Oisin went there looking for her, and
he fought for her against the High King and against an army of
Firbolgs he had helping him; and he got the better of them all,
and brought away Eibhir of the yellow hair to Ireland.
And he had a daughter that married the son of Oiliol, son of
Eoghan, and of Beara, daughter of the King of Spain. It was that
Eoghan was driven out of Ireland one time, and it is to Spain he
went for safety. And Beara, that was daughter of the King of Spain,
was very shining and beautiful, and her father had a mind to
know who would be her husband, and he sent for his Druid and
asked the question of him. "I can tell you that," said the Druid,
"for the man that is to be her husband will come to land in Spain
this very night. And let your daughter go eastward to the river
Eibhear," he said, "and she will find a crimson-spotted salmon is
that river, having shining clothing on him from head to tail. And
let her strip that clothing off him," he said, "and make with it a
shining shirt for her husband."
So Beara went to the river Eibhear, and found the golden
salmon as the Druid had said, and she stripped him of his crimson clothing and made a shining shirt of it.
And as to Eoghan, the waves of the shore put a welcome
before him, and he came the same night to the king's house. And
the king gave him a friendly welcome; and it is what all the people said, that there was never seen a comelier man than Eoghan,
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293
or a woman more beautiful than Beara, and that it was fitting for
them to come together. And Eoghan's own people said they
would not be sorry for being sent away out of Ireland, if only
Eoghan could get her for his wife.
And after a while the king sent his Druid to ask Eoghan why
he did not ask for Beara. "I will tell you that," said Eoghan; "it
would not be fitting for me to be refused a wife, and I am but an
exile in this country, and I have brought no treasures or goods
with me out of Ireland for giving to learned men and to poets. But
for all that," he said, "the king's daughter is dear to me, and I
think I have the friendship of the king. "
The Druid went back with that message. "That is the answer
of a king, " said the King of Spain; "and bid my daughter to sit at
Eoghan's right hand," he said, "and I will give her to him this very
night." And when Beara, the king's daughter, heard that, she sent
out her serving-maid to bring the shirt she had made for Eoghan,
and he put it on him over his armour, and its shining was seen in
every place; and it was from wearing that shirt he got the name of
Eoghan the Bright.
And Oiliol was the first son they had; it was he that had his ear
bitten off by Aine of the Sidhe in revenge for her brother, and it
was his son married Oisin's daughter afterwards.
And as to Osgar, that was Oisin's son, of all the young men of
the Fianna he was the best in battle. And when he was but a
young child he was made much of by the whole of the Fianna,
and it is for him they used to keep the marrow bones, and they
did not like to put any hardship on him. And he grew up tall and
idle, and no one thought he would tum out so strong as he did.
And one day there was an attack made on a troop of the Fianna,
and all that were in it went out to fight, but they left Osgar after
the
m. And when he knew the fight was going on, he took a log of
wood that was the first thing he could find, and attacked the
enemy and made a great slaughter, and they gave way and ran
before him. And from that out there was no battle he did not go
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into; and he was said to be the strongest of all the Fianna, though
the people of Connacht said that Goll was the strongest. And he
and Diarmuid, grandson of Duibhne, were comrades and dear
friends; and it was Diarmuid taught him feats of arms and of skill,
and chess-playing. And Oisin his father took great pride in him,
and his grandfather Finn. And one time Finn was holding a feast at
Almhuin, and he asked the chief men of the Fianna that were there
what was the music they thought the best. "To be playing games,"
said Conan, "that is the best music I ever heard;" for though Conan
was a good hand against an enemy, there never was a man had less
sense. "The music I like the best is to be talking with a woman,"
said Diarmuid. "My music is the outcry of my hounds, and they
putting a deer to its last stand," said Lugaidhs Son. "The music of
the woods is best to me," said Oisin; "the sound of the wind and of
the cuckoo and the blackbird, and the sweet silence of the crane."
And then Osgar was asked, and he said: "The best music is
the striking of swords in a battle. " And it is likely he took after
Finn in that, for in spite of all the sweet sounds he gave an
account of the time he was at Conan's house, at Ceann Slieve, it
used to be said by the Fianna that the music that was best with
Finn was what happened.
This now is the way Osgar met with his wife.
One time Finn and his men came to Slieve Crot, and they saw a
woman waiting there before them, having a crimson fringed cloak,
and a gold brooch in it, and a band of yellow gold on her forehead.
Finn asked her name, and where she came from. "Etain of the Fair
Hair is my name," she said, "daughter of Aedh of the White Breast,
of the hill of the Sidhe at Beinn Edair, son of Angus Og." "What is
it brought you here, girl?" said Finn. "To ask a man of the Fianna
of Ireland to run a race with me. " "What sort of a runner are you?"
said Diarmuid. "I am a good runner," said the girl; "for it is the
same to me if the ground is long or short under my feet."
