And on the other side he saw six nice young girls,
yellow-haired, having shaggy gowns from their shoulders. And in the
middle there was another young girl sitting in a chair, and a harp in
her hand, and she playing on it and singing. And every time she stopped,
a man of them would give her a horn to drink from, and she would give it
back to him again, and they were all making mirth around her.
She spoke to Caoilte then. "Caoilte, my life," she said, "give us leave
to attend on you now." "Do not," said Caoilte, "for there is a better
man than myself outside, Finn, son of Cumhal, and he has a mind to eat
in this house to-night." "Rise up, Caoilte, and go for Finn," said a man
of the house then; "for he never refused any man in his own house, and
he will get no refusal from us."
Caoilte went back then to Finn, and when Finn saw him he said: "It is
long you are away from us, Caoilte, for from the time I took arms in my
hands I never had a night that put so much hardship on me as this one."
The six of them went then into the lighted house and their shields and
their arms with them. And they sat down on the edge of a seat, and a
girl having yellow hair came and brought them to a shining seat in the
middle of the house, and the newest of every food, and the oldest of
every drink was put before them. And when the sharpness of their hunger
and their thirst was lessened, Finn said: "Which of you can I question?"
"Question whoever you have a mind to," said the tallest of the men that
was near him.
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