But if he himself would
harm others, that harm was not to be avenged on his people. And there
was no man taken into the Fianna till he knew the twelve books of
poetry. And before any man was taken, he would be put into a deep hole
in the ground up to his middle, and he having his shield and a hazel rod
in his hand. And nine men would go the length of ten furrows from him
and would cast their spears at him at the one time. And if he got a
wound from one of them, he was not thought fit to join with the Fianna.
And after that again, his hair would be fastened up, and he put to run
through the woods of Ireland, and the Fianna following after him to try
could they wound him, and only the length of a branch between themselves
and himself when they started. And if they came up with him and wounded
him, he was not let join them; or if his spears had trembled in his
hand, or if a branch of a tree had undone the plaiting of his hair, or
if he had cracked a dry stick under his foot, and he running. And they
would not take him among them till he had made a leap over a stick the
height of himself, and till he had stooped under one the height of his
knee, and till he had taken a thorn out from his foot with his nail,
and he running his fastest. But if he had done all these things, he was
of Finn's people.
It was good wages Finn and the Fianna got at that time; in every
district a townland, in every house the fostering of a pup or a whelp
from Samhain to Beltaine, and a great many things along with that.
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