And that was the hardest day's work Caoilte ever did, unless the day he
brought the flock of beasts and birds to Teamhair, to ransom Finn from
the High King of Ireland.
Another time Maer, wife of Bersa of Berramain, fell in love with Finn,
and she made nine nuts of Segair with love charms, and sent them to
Finn, and bade him eat them. "I will not," said Finn; "for they are not
nuts of knowledge, but nuts of ignorance; and it is not known what they
are, unless they might be an enchantment for drinking love." So he
buried them a foot deep in the earth.
CHAPTER XII. THE RED WOMAN
One time the Fianna were in Almhuin with no great work to do, and there
came a very misty morning, and Finn was in dread that sluggishness would
come on his men, and he rose up, and he said: "Make yourselves ready,
and we will go hunting to Gleann-na-Smol."
They all said the day was too misty to go hunting; but there was no use
in talking: they had to do as Finn bade them. So they made themselves
ready and went on towards Gleann-na-Smol; and they were not gone far
when the mist lifted and the sun came shining out.
And when they were on the edge of a little wood, they saw a strange
beast coming towards them with the quickness of the wind, and a Red
Woman on its track. Narrow feet the beast had, and a head like the head
of a boar, and long horns on it; but the rest of it was like a deer, and
there was a shining moon on each of its sides.
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