“Thou wert in my service awhile,” said Finn, “and I mind not that I paid thee any wage for it.  Let that service even go against this, and so we are quits.”

“Nay, then,” cried Conan the Bald, “but what shall I have for my ride on the mare of the Gilla Dacar?”

“What wilt thou have?” said the King of Sorca.

“This,” said Conan, “and nothing else will I accept.  Let fourteen of the fairest women of the land of Sorca be put on that same mare, and thy wife, O King, clinging to its tail, and let them be thus haled across the sea until they come to Corcaguiny in the land of Erinn.  I will have none of thy gold and silver, but the indignity that has been put upon me doth demand an honourable satisfaction.”

Then the King of Sorca smiled, and he said, “Behold thy men, Finn.”

[Illustration:  “‘Follow me now to the Hill of Allen’”]

Finn turned his head to look round, and as he did so the plain and the encampment of the Fairy Host vanished from his sight, and he saw himself standing on the shingly strand of a little bay, with rocky heights to right and left, crowned with yellow whin bushes whose perfume mingled with the salt sea wind.  It was the spot where he had seen the Gilla Dacar and his mare take water on the coast of Kerry.  Finn stared over the sea, to discover, if he might, by what means he had come thither, but nothing could he see there save the sunlit water, and nothing hear but what seemed a low laughter from the twinkling ripples that broke at his feet.  Then he looked for his men, who stood there, dazed like himself and rubbing their eyes; and there too stood the Princess Tasha, who stretched out her white arms to him.  Finn went over and took her hands.  “Shoulder your spears, good lads!” he called to his men.  “Follow me now to the Hill of Allen, and to the wedding feast of Tasha and of Finn mac Cumhal.”

CHAPTER XIV

The Birth of Oisin

One day as Finn and his companions and dogs were returning from the chase to their Dun on the Hill of Allen, a beautiful fawn started up on their path and the chase swept after her, she taking the way which led to their home.  Soon, all the pursuers were left far behind save only Finn himself and his two hounds Bran and Sceolaun.  Now these hounds were of strange breed, for Tyren, sister to Murna, the mother of Finn, had been changed into a hound by the enchantment of a woman of the Fairy Folk, who loved Tyren’s husband Ullan; and the two hounds of Finn were the children of Tyren, born to her in that shape.  Of all hounds in Ireland they were the best, and Finn loved them much, so that it was said he wept but twice in his life, and once was for the death of Bran.

At last, as the chase went on down a valley side, Finn saw the fawn stop and lie down, while the two hounds began to play round her and to lick her face and limbs.  So he gave commandment that none should hurt her, and she followed them to the Dun of Allen, playing with the hounds as she went.