Then Fionnuala said to Mochaovog, “Come now and baptize us quickly, for our end is near.  And if you are grieved at parting from us, know that also to us it is a grief.  Do thou make our grave when we are dead, and place Conn at my right side and Fiachra at my left, and Hugh before my face, for thus they were wont to be when I sheltered them on many a winter night by the tides of Moyle.”

So Mochaovog baptized the three brethren and their sister; and shortly afterwards they found peace and death, and they were buried even as Fionnuala had said.  And over their tomb a stone was raised, and their names and lineage graved on it in branching Ogham[13]; and lamentation and prayers were made for them, and their souls won to heaven.

   [13] See p. 133, note.

But Mochaovog was sorrowful, and grieved after them so long as he lived on earth.

CHAPTER II

The Quest of the Sons of Turenn

Long ago, when the people of Dana yet held lordship in Erinn, they were sorely afflicted by hordes of sea-rovers named Fomorians who used to harry the country and carry off youths and maidens into captivity.  They also imposed cruel and extortionate taxes upon the people, for every kneading trough, and every quern for grinding corn, and every flagstone for baking bread had to pay its tax.  And an ounce of gold was paid as a poll-tax for every man, and if any man would not or could not pay, his nose was cut off.  Under this tyranny the whole country groaned, but they had none who was able to band them together and to lead them in battle against their oppressors.

Now before this it happened that one of the lords of the Danaans named Kian had married with Ethlinn, daughter of Balor, a princess of the Fomorians.  They had a son named Lugh Lamfada, or Lugh of the Long Arm, who grew up into a youth of surpassing beauty and strength.  And if his body was noble and mighty, no less so was his mind, for lordship and authority grew to him by the gift of the Immortals, and whatever he purposed that would he perform, whatever it might cost in time or toil, in tears or in blood.  Now this Lugh was not brought up in Erinn but in a far-off isle of the western sea, where the sea-god Mananan and the other Immortals nurtured and taught him, and made him fit alike for warfare or for sovranty, when his day should come to work their will on earth.  Hither in due time came the report of the grievous and dishonouring oppression wrought by the Fomorians upon the people of Dana, and that report was heard by Lugh.  Then Lugh said to his tutors “It were a worthy deed to rescue my father and the people of Erinn from this tyranny; let me go thither and attempt it.”  And they said to him, “Go, and blessing and victory be with thee.”  So Lugh armed himself and mounted his fairy steed, and called his friends and foster-brothers about him, and across the bright and heaving surface of the waters they rode like the wind, until they took land in Erinn.