They were not long there till Finn and Conan came towards them, and saw
the three ugly old hags at their work, their coarse hair tossed, their
eyes red and bleary, their teeth sharp and crooked, their arms very
long, their nails like the tips of cows' horns, and the three spindles
in their hands.
Finn and Conan passed through the hanks of yarn to get a better look at
the hags. And no sooner had they done that, than a deadly trembling came
on them and a weakness, and the bold hags took hold of them and put them
in tight bonds.
Two other men of the Fianna came up then, and the sons of Menhann along
with them, and they went through the spindles to where Finn and Conan
were, and their strength went from them in the same way, and the hags
tied them fast and carried them into the cave.
They were not long there till Caoilte and Lugaidh's Son came to the
place, and along with them the best men of the sons of Baiscne. The sons
of Morna came as well, and no sooner did they see the hanks than their
strength and their bravery went out of them the same as it went from the
others.
And in the end the whole number of them, gentle and simple, were put in
bonds by the hags, and brought into the cave. And there began at the
mouth of the cave a great outcry of hounds calling for their masters
that had left them there. And there was lying on the hillside a great
heap of deer, and wild pigs, and hares, and badgers, dead and torn, that
were brought as far as that by the hunters that were tied up now in the
cave.
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