"The twelve hounds that belonged to Finn, the time they would be let
loose facing out from the Siuir, their cry was sweeter than harps and
than pipes.
"I have a little story about Finn; we were but fifteen men; we took the
King of the Saxons of the feats, and we won a battle against the King of
Greece.
"We fought nine battles in Spain, and nine times twenty battles in
Ireland; from Lochlann and from the eastern world there was a share of
gold coming to Finn.
"My grief! I to be stopping after him, and without delight in games or
in music; to be withering away after my comrades; my grief it is to be
living. I and the clerks of the Mass books are two that can never agree.
"If Finn and the Fianna were living, I would leave the clerks and the
bells; I would follow the deer through the valleys, I would like to be
close on his track.
"Ask Heaven of God, Patrick, for Finn of the Fianna and his race; make
prayers for the great man; you never heard of his like."
PATRICK. "I will not ask Heaven for Finn, man of good wit that my anger
is rising against, since his delight was to be living in valleys with
the noise of hunts."
OISIN. "If you had been in company with the Fianna, Patrick of the
joyless clerks and of the bells, you would not be attending on schools
or giving heed to God."
PATRICK. "I would not part from the Son of God for all that have lived
east or west; O Oisin, O shaking poet, there will harm come on you in
satisfaction for the priests.
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