THE ARGUMENTS
And S. Patrick took in hand to convert Oisin, and to bring him to
baptism; but it was no easy work he had to do, and everything he would
say, Oisin would have an answer for it. And it is the way they used to
be talking and arguing with one another, as it was put down afterwards
by the poets of Ireland:--
PATRICK. "Oisin, it is long your sleep is. Rise up and listen to the
Psalm. Your strength and your readiness are gone from you, though you
used to be going into rough fights and battles."
OLSIN. "My readiness and my strength are gone from me since Finn has no
armies living; I have no liking for clerks, their music is not sweet to
me after his."
PATRICK. "You never heard music so good from the beginning of the world
to this day; it is well you would serve an army on a hill, you that are
old and silly and grey."
OLSIN. "I used to serve an army on a hill, Patrick of the closed-up
mind; it is a pity you to be faulting me; there was never shame put on
me till now.
"I have heard music was sweeter than your music, however much you are
praising your clerks: the song of the blackbird in Leiter Laoi, and the
sound of the Dord Fiann; the very sweet thrush of the Valley of the
Shadow, or the sound of the boats striking the strand. The cry of the
hounds was better to me than the noise of your schools, Patrick.
"Little Nut, little Nut of my heart, the little dwarf that was with
Finn, when he would make tunes and songs he would put us all into deep
sleep.
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