he had done that, he bade him to sound a blast on the horn.  So the boy did that, and Oisin asked him did he see anything strange.  “I did not,” said the boy.  “Sound it again as loud as you can,” said Oisin.  “That is as hard as I can sound it, and I can see nothing yet,” said the boy when he had done that.  Then Oisin took the horn himself, and he put it to his mouth, and blew three great blasts on it.  “What do you see now?” he said.  “I see three great clouds coming,” he said, “and they are settling down in the valley; and the first cloud is a flight of very big birds, and the second cloud is a flight of birds that are bigger again, and the third flight is of the biggest and the blackest birds the world ever saw.”

“What is the dog doing?” said Oisin.  “The eyes are starting from his head, and there is not a rib of hair on him but is standing up.”  “Let him loose now,” said Oisin.

The dog rushed down to the valley then, and he made an attack on one of the birds, that was the biggest of all, and that had a shadow like a cloud.  And they fought a very fierce fight, but at last Bran Og made an end of the big bird, and lapped its blood.  But if he did, madness came on him, and he came rushing back towards Oisin, his jaws open and his eyes like fire.  “There is dread on me, Oisin,” said the boy, “for the dog is making for us, mad and raging.”  “Take this iron ball and make a cast at him when he comes near,” said Oisin.  “I am in dread to do that,” said the boy.  “Put it in my hand, and turn it towards him,” said Oisin.  The boy did that, and Oisin made a cast of the ball that went into the mouth and the throat of the dog, and choked him, and he fell down the slope, twisting and foaming.

Then they went where the great bird was left dead, and Oisin bade the lad to cut a quarter off it with the sword, and he did so.  And then he bade him cut open the body, and in it he found a rowan berry, the biggest he had ever seen, and an ivy leaf that was bigger than the biggest griddle.

So Oisin turned back then, and went to where S. Patrick was, and he showed him the quarter of the bird that was bigger than any quarter of a bullock, and the rowan berry that was bigger than a churning of butter, and the leaf.  “And you know now, Patrick of the Bells,” he said, “that I told no lie; and it is what kept us all through our lifetime,” he said, “truth that was in our hearts, and strength in our arms, and fulfilment in our tongues.”

“You told no lie indeed,” said Patrick.

And when Oisin had no sight left at all, he used every night to put up one of the serving-men on his shoulders, and to bring him out to see how were the cattle doing.  And one night the servants had no mind to go, and they agreed together to tell him it was a very bad night.