I, to the Dun of the Lord of Luachar, and found an earthen rampart with a fosse before it, and on the top of the rampart was a fence of oaken posts interlaced with wattles, and over this we saw the many-coloured thatch of a great dwelling-house, and its white walls painted with bright colours under the broad eaves.  So I stood forth and called to the Lord of Luachar and bade him make ready to pay an eric to the mother of Glonda, whatsoever she should demand.  But he laughed at us and cursed us and bade us begone.  Then we withdrew into the forest, but returned with a great pile of dry brushwood, and while some of us shot stones and arrows at whoever should appear above the palisade, others rushed up with bundles of brushwood and laid it against the palisade and set it on fire, and the Immortal Ones sent a blast of wind that set the brushwood and palisade quickly in a blaze, and through that fiery gap we charged in shouting.  And half of the men of Luachar we killed and the rest fled, and the Lord of Luachar I slew in the doorway of his palace.  We took a great spoil then, O Crimmal—­these vessels of bronze and silver, and spears and bows, smoked bacon and skins of Greek wine; and in a great chest of yewwood we found this bag.  All these things shall now remain with you, and my company shall also remain to hunt for you and protect you, for ye shall know want and fear no longer while ye live.”

And Finn said, “I would fain know if my mother Murna still lives, or if she died by the sons of Morna.”

Crimmal said, “After thy father’s death, Finn, she was wedded to Gleor, Lord of Lamrigh, in the south, and she still lives in honour with him, and the sons of Morna have let her be.  Didst thou never see her since she gave thee, an infant, to the wise women on the day of Cnucha?”

“I remember,” said Finn, “when I was, as they tell me, but six years old, there came one day to our shieling in the woods of Slieve Bloom a chariot with bronze-shod wheels and a bronze wolf’s head at the end of the pole, and two horsemen riding with it, besides him who drove.  A lady was in it, with a gold frontlet on her brow and her cloak was fastened with a broad golden brooch.  She came into our hut and spoke long with my foster-mothers, and me she clasped in her arms and kissed many times, and I felt her tears on my face.  And they told me afterwards that this was Murna of the White Neck, and my mother.  If she have suffered no harm at the hands of the sons of Morna, so much the less is the debt that they shall one day pay.”

Now it is to be told what happened to Finn at the house of Finegas the Bard.  Finn did not deem that the time had come for him to seize the captaincy of the Fianna until he had perfected himself in wisdom and learning.  So on leaving the shelter of the old men in the wood he went to learn wisdom and the art of poetry from Finegas, who dwelt by the River Boyne, near to where is now the village of Slane.  It was a belief among the poets of Ireland that the