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

man, "we will

surely go against yourselves, Finn and Caoilte and Oisin."

 

With that all in the house made an attack on the three; and they were

driven back into the corner, and the fire was quenched, and the fight

went on through the whole night in the darkness, and but for Finn and

the way he fought, they would have been put down.

 

And when the sun rose and lighted up the house on the morrow, a mist

came into the head of each of the three, so that they fell as if dead on

the floor.

 

But after awhile they rose up again, and there was nothing to be seen of

the house or of the people of the house, but they had all vanished. And

their horses were there, and they took them and went on, very weak and

tired, for a long way, till they came to the strand of Berramain.

 

And those three that fought against them were the three Shapes out of

the Valley of the Yew Tree that came to avenge their sister, Cuillen of

the Wide Mouth.

 

Now as to Cuillen, she was a daughter of the King of Munster, and her

husband was the King of Ulster's son. And they had a son that was called

Fear Og, the Young Man; and there was hardly in Ireland a man so good as

himself in shape and in courage and in casting a spear. And one time he

joined in a game with the Fianna, and he did better than them all, and

Finn gave him a great reward. And after that he went out to a hunt they

made, and it was by him and by none of the Fianna the first blood was

got of pig or of deer. And when they came back, a heavy sickness fell on

the young man through the eyes and the envy of the Fianna, and it left

him without life at the end of nine days. And he was buried under a

green hill, and the shining stone he used to hold in his hand, and he

doing his feats, was put over his head.

 

And his mother, Cuillen, came to his grave keening him every day through

the length of a year. And one day she died there for grief after her

son, and they put her into the same green hill.

 

But as to Finn, he was afraid of no earthly thing, and he killed many

great serpents in Loch Cuilinn and Loch Neathach, and at Beinn Edair;

and Shadow-Shapes at Loch Lein and Drom Cleib and Loch Liath, and a

serpent and a cat in Ath Cliath.

 

CHAPTER XIV. (THE PIGS OF ANGUS)

Angus Og, son of the Dagda, made a feast one time at Brugh na Boinne for

Finn and the Fianna of the Gael. Ten hundred of them were in it, and

they wearing green clothing and crimson cloaks; and as to the people of

Angus' house, it is clothing of red silk they had.

 

And Finn was sitting beside Angus in the beautiful house, and it is

long since the like of those two were seen in Ireland. And any stranger

would wonder to see the way the golden cups were going from hand to

hand.

 

And Angus said out in a loud voice that every one could hear: "It is a

better life this is than to be hunting." There was anger on Finn then,

and he said: "It is a worse life than hunting to be here, without

hounds, without horses, without battalions, without the shouting of

armies." "Why are you talking like that, Finn?" said Angus, "for as to

the hounds you have," he said, "they would not kill so much as one pig."

"You have not yourself," said Finn, "and the whole host of the Tuatha de

Danaan have not a pig that ever went on dry land that Bran and Sceolan

would not kill." "I will send you a pig," said Angus, "that will go from

you and your hounds, and that will kill them in the end."

 

The steward of the house called out then in a loud voice: "Let every one

go now to his bed, before the lightness of drunkenness comes on you."

But Finn said to his people: "Let us make ready and leave this; for we

are but a few," he said, "among the Men of Dea." So they set out and

went westward till they came to Slieve Fuad where the Fianna were at

that time.

 

And through the whole length of a year after that, the Tuatha de Danaan

were boasting how they would get the better of the Fianna, and the

Fianna were thinking how they could do best in the hunt. And at the end

of that time Angus sent messengers to Finn, asking him with great

respect if he was ready to keep his word. And Finn said he was, and the

hounds were brought out, and he himself was holding Bran and Sceolan,

one in each hand, and Caoilte had Adhnuall, and Oisin had Ablach, and

merry Bran Beag had Lonn, and Diarmuid was holding Eachtach, and Osgar

was holding Mac an Truim, and Garraidh was held by Faolan, and Rith

Fada, of the Long Run, by hungry Conan.

 

And they were not long there with their hounds till they saw on the

plain to the east a terrible herd of great pigs, every one of them the

height of a deer. And there was one pig out in front of the rest was

blacker than a smith's coal, and the bristles on its head were like a

thicket of thorn-trees.

 

Then Caoilte let out Adhnuall, and she was the first to kill a pig of

the herd. And then Bran made away from the leash that Finn was holding,

and the pigs ran their best, but she came up with them, and took hold of

a pig of them. And at that Angus said: "O Bran, fosterling of

fair-haired Fergus, it is not a right thing you are doing, to kill my

own son." But when Bran heard that, her ways 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 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 burn them," he said, "and throw their ashes in the sea."

 

Then the seven battalions of 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, O 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 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 foster-brother. 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.

 

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