And
they stopped three days feasting in Cacher's house, and then Finn gave
him the price of his feast and of his ale, fifty rings, and fifty horses
and fifty cows.
And he himself and the Fianna went on from that over Luachair to the
strand at Berramain. And Finn went trying his black horse on the strand,
and Caoilte and Oisin went racing against him; but it was only folly for
them to do that, for he gave a blow to his horse, and away with him to
Traigh Liath and over the Plain of Health to the Old Yew of the Old
Valley, and to the inver of the Flesc and the inver of the Lemain to
Loch Lein, till he came to the hill of Bairnech, and Caoilte and Oisin
after him.
"Night is coming on us," said Finn then; "and go look for some place
where we can sleep," he said. He looked round then at the rocks on his
left hand and he saw a house, and a fire shining out from it in the
valley below. "I never knew of a house in this valley," he said.
"It is best for us to go see it," said Caoilte, "for there are many
things we have no knowledge of."
The three went on then to the house, and they heard screams and crying
from it; and when they came to the house, the people of it were very
fierce and rough; and a big grey man took hold of their horses and
brought them in and shut the door of the house with iron hooks. "My
welcome to you, Finn of the great name," he said then; "it is a long
time you were in coming here."
They sat down then on the hard boards of a bed, and the grey man kindled
a fire, and he threw logs of elder-wood on it, till they went near being
smothered with the smoke.
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