Gods and Fighting Men, Lady I. A Gregory [best e books to read TXT] 📗

Cumhal, a hundred years ago, and however

many men may be together, every man of them can drink his fill from it,

of whatever sort of drink he has a mind for."

 

Dubh was sitting near the door, on the edge of the crowd, and when the

cup came to him he took a drink from it, and then he slipped away in the

dark, bringing it with him. And when he came to the place where Finn

was, his log was burned out.

 

Then it was the turn of Dun to go out, for the second lot had fallen on

him, and he put a light to his log, and went out, and Bran with him.

 

He walked on through the night till he saw a fire that was shining from

a large house, and when he went in he saw a crowd of men, and they

fighting. And a very old man that was in a high place above the rest

called out: "Stop fighting now, for I have a better gift for you than

the one you lost to-night." And with that he drew a knife out of his

belt and held it up, and said: "This is the wonderful knife, the small

knife of division, that was stolen from Finn, son of Cumhal, a hundred

years ago; and you have but to cut on a bone with that knife and you

will get your fill of the best meat in the world." Then he gave the

knife to the man nearest him, and a bare bone with it, and the man began

to cut, and there came off the bone slices of the best meat in the

world.

 

The knife and the bone were sent round then from man to man till they

came to Dun, and as soon as he had the knife in his hand he slipped out

unknown and hurried back, and he had just got to the well where Finn

was, when his part of the log burned out.

 

Then Glasan lighted his log and went out on his watch till he came to

the house, the same way the others did. And he looked in and he saw the

floor full of dead bodies, and he thought to himself: "There must be

some great wonder here. And if I lie down on the floor and put some of

the bodies over me," he said, "I will be able to see all that happens."

 

So he lay down and pulled some of the bodies over him, and he was not

long there till he saw an old hag coming into the house, having one leg

and one arm and one upper tooth, that was long enough to serve her in

place of a crutch. And when she came inside the door she took up the

first dead body she met with, and threw it aside, for it was lean. And

as she went on, she took two bites out of every fat body she met with,

and threw away every lean one.

 

She had her fill of flesh and blood before she came to Glasan, and she

dropped down on the floor and fell asleep, and Glasan 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 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 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 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 to-morrow?" "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 rath, 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,"