"
Then Ailbe of the Freckled Face said to the king: "What should these
seventeen queens belonging to Finn's household do?" "Let a safe, secret
sunny house be given to every one of them," said the king; "and let her
stop there and her women with her, and let provision be given to her for
a month and a quarter and a year till we have knowledge if Finn is alive
or dead."
Then the king stood up, and a smooth drinking-horn in his hand, and he
said: "It would be a good thing, men of Ireland, if any one among you
could get us news of Finn in hills or in secret places, or in rivers or
invers, or in any house of the Sidhe in Ireland or in Alban."
With that Berngal, the cow-owner from the borders of Slieve Fuad, that
was divider to the King of Ireland, said: "The day Finn came out from
the north, following after a deer of the Sidhe, and his five comrades
with him, he put a sharp spear having a shining head in my hand, and a
hound's collar along with it, and he bade me to keep them till he would
meet me again in the same place." Berngal showed the spear and the
collar then to the king and to Goll, and they looked at them and the
king said: "It is a great loss to the men of Ireland the man is that
owned this collar and this spear. And were his hounds along with him?"
he said. "They were," said Berngal; "Bran and Sceolan were with Finn,
and Breac and Lainbhui with Caoilte, and Conuall and Comrith with
Lugaidh's Son."
The High King called then for Fergus of the True Lips, and he said: "Do
you know how long is Finn away from us?" "I know that well," said
Fergus; "it is a month and a quarter and a year since we lost him.
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