But as to Conan, the sheepskin never left him; and the wool used to grow on it every year, the same as it would on any other skin.

BOOK NINE:  THE WEARING AWAY OF THE FIANNA.

CHAPTER I. THE QUARREL WITH THE SONS OF MORNA

One time when the Fianna were gone here and there hunting, Black Garraidh and Caoilte were sitting beside Finn, and they were talking of the battle where Finn’s father was killed.  And Finn said then to Garraidh:  “Tell me now, since you were there yourself, what way was it you brought my father Cumhal to his death?” “I will tell you that since you ask me,” said Garraidh; “it was my own hand and the hands of the rest of the sons of Morna that made an end of him.”  “That is cold friendship from my followers the sons of Morna,” said Finn.  “If it is cold friendship,” said Garraidh, “put away the liking you are letting on to have for us, and show us the hatred you have for us all the while.”  “If I were to lift my hand against you now, sons of Morna,” said Finn, “I would be well able for you all without the help of any man.”  “It was by his arts Cumhal got the upper hand of us,” said Garraidh; “and when he got power over us,” he said, “he banished us to every far country; a share of us he sent to Alban, and a share of us to dark Lochlann, and a share of us to bright Greece, parting us from one another; and for sixteen years we were away from Ireland, and it was no small thing to us to be without seeing one another through that time.  And the first day we came back to Ireland,” he said, “we killed sixteen hundred men, and no lie in it, and not a man of them but would be keened by a hundred.  And we took their duns after that,” he said, “and we went on till we were all around one house in Munster of the red walls.  But so great was the bravery of the man in that house, that was your father, that it was easier to find him than to kill him.  And we killed all that were of his race out on the hill, and then we made a quick rush at the house where Cumhal was, and every man of us made a wound on his body with his spear.  And I myself was in it, and it was I gave him the first wound.  And avenge it on me now, Finn, if you have a mind to,” he said.

* * * * *

It was not long after that, Finn gave a feast at Almhuin for all his chief men, and there came to it two sons of the King of Alban, and sons of the kings of the great world.  And when they were all sitting at the feast, the serving-men rose up and took drinking-horns worked by skilled men, and having shining stones in them, and they poured out strong drink for the champions; and it is then mirth rose up in their young men, and courage in their fighting men, and kindness and gentleness in their women, and knowledge and foreknowledge in their poets.

And then a crier rose up and shook a rough iron chain to silence the clowns and the common lads and idlers, and then he shook a chain of old silver to silence the high lords and chief men of the Fianna, and the learned men, and they all listened and were silent.