"
She took off the fastenings then, and the Fianna made no delay, but rose
up and went out and sat down on the side of the hill. And Fergus of the
Sweet Lips looked at Goll, son of Morna, and made great praises of him,
and of all that he had done.
CHAPTER III. DONN SON OF MIDHIR
One time the Fianna were at their hunting at the island of Toraig to the
north of Ireland, and they roused a fawn that was very wild and
beautiful, and it made for the coast, and Finn and six of his men
followed after it through the whole country, till they came to
Slieve-nam-Ban. And there the fawn put down its head and vanished into
the earth, and none of them knew where was it gone to.
A heavy snow began to fall then that bent down the tops of the trees
like a willow-gad, and the courage and the strength went from the Fianna
with the dint of the bad weather, and Finn said to Caoilte: "Is there
any place we can find shelter to-night?" Caoilte made himself supple
then, and went over the elbow of the hill southward.
And when he looked around him he saw a house full of light, with cups
and horns and bowls of different sorts in it. He stood a good while
before the door of the house, that he knew to be a house of the Sidhe,
thinking would it be best go in and get news of it, or to go back to
Finn and the few men that were with him. And he made up his mind to go
into the house, and there he sat down on a shining chair in the middle
of the floor; and he looked around him, and he saw, on the one side,
eight-and-twenty armed men, each of them having a well-shaped woman
beside him.
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