And after a while he saw Coirpre, a man of the Luigne, go in
secretly to where Finn's wife was.
And when the woman knew he had seen that, she begged and prayed of Lomna
to hide it from Finn. And Lomna agreed to that, but it preyed on him to
have a hand in doing treachery on Finn. And after a while he took a
four-square rod and wrote an Ogham on it, and these were the words he
wrote:--"An alder stake in a paling of silver; deadly night-shade in a
bunch of cresses; a husband of a lewd woman; a fool among the
well-taught Fianna; heather on bare Ualann of Luigne."
Finn saw the message, and there was anger on him against the woman; and
she knew well it was from Lomna he had heard the story, and she sent a
message to Coirpre bidding him to come and kill the fool.
So Coirpre came and struck his head off, and brought it away with him.
And when Finn came back in the evening he saw the body, and it without a
head. "Let us know whose body is this," said the Fianna. And then Finn
did the divination of rhymes, and it is what he said: "It is the body of
Lomna; it is not by a wild boar he was killed; it is not by a fall he
was killed; it is not in his bed he died; it is by his enemies he died;
it is not a secret to the Luigne the way he died. And let out the hounds
now on their track," he said.
So they let out the hounds, and put them on the track of Coirpre, and
Finn followed them, and they came to a house, and Coirpre in it, and
three times nine of his men and he cooking fish on a spit; and Lomna's
head was on a spike beside the fire.
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