And the horse set out gladly, and when he came to the strand he shook
himself and he neighed three times, and then he made for the sea. And
when Finn and the Fianna saw Oisin facing the wide sea, they gave three
great sorrowful shouts. And as to Finn, he said: "It is my grief to see
you going from me; and I am without a hope," he said, "ever to see you
coming back to me again."
CHAPTER III. THE LAST OF THE GREAT MEN
And indeed that was the last time Finn and Oisin and the rest of the
Fianna of Ireland were gathered together, for hunting, for battle, for
chess-playing, for drinking or for music; for they all wore away after
that, one after another.
As to Caoilte, that was old and had lost his sons, he used to be
fretting and lonesome after the old times. And one day that there was
very heavy snow on the ground, he made this complaint:--
"It is cold the winter is; the wind is risen; the fierce high-couraged
stag rises up; it is cold the whole mountain is to-night, yet the fierce
stag is calling. The deer of Slievecarn of the gatherings does not lay
his side to the ground; he no less than the stag of the top of cold
Echtge hears the music of the wolves.
"I, Caoilte, and brown-haired Diarmuid and pleasant light-footed Osgar,
we used to be listening to the music of the wolves through the end of
the cold night. It is well the brown deer sleeps with its hide to the
hollow, hidden as if in the earth, through the end of the cold night.
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