And they gave him good training in running and leaping and swimming. One
of them would run round a tree, and she having a thorn switch, and Finn
after her with another switch, and each one trying to hit at the other;
and they would leave him in a field, and hares along with him, and would
bid him not to let the hares quit the field, but to keep before them
whichever way they would go; and to teach him swimming they would throw
him into the water and let him make his way out.
But after a while he went away with a troop of poets, to hide from the
sons of Morna, and they hid him in the mountain of Crotta Cliach; but
there was a robber in Leinster at that time, Fiacuil, son of Codhna, and
he came where the poets were in Fidh Gaible and killed them all. But he
spared the child and brought him to his own house, that was in a cold
marsh. But the two women, Bodhmall and Liath, came looking for him after
a while, and Fiacuil gave him up to them, and they brought him back to
the same place he was before.
He grew up there, straight and strong and fair-haired and beautiful. And
one day he was out in Slieve Bladhma, and the two women along with him,
and they saw before them a herd of the wild deer of the mountain. "It is
a pity," said the old women, "we not to be able to get a deer of those
deer." "I will get one for you," said Finn; and with that he followed
after them, and caught two stags of them and brought them home to the
hunting cabin.
Pages:
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211