sume their seats. 'Upon my veracity, he is doomed
for evil who owns as companions such four fellows as you are, who tamely
suffer one single sheep to carry away your food and devour it before
your faces,' exclaimed the man with the twelve eyes; and at the same
time going up to the ram, he caught him by the feet and gave him a
violent pitch out of the door, so that he fell on his back on the
ground; and from that time we saw him no more. Soon after this the hag
started up, and having thrown her ashy-grey coverlet over my four men,
metamorphosed them into four withered, drooping-headed old men. When I
saw that I was seized with great fear and alarm; and when the man at the
door-post perceived this, he desired me to come over to him, place my
head on his bosom, and sleep. I did so; and the hag got up and took her
coverlet off my four men; and when I awoke I found them restored to
their own shape, and that was a great happiness to me. 'O Fionn,' asked
the man of the door-post, 'do you feel surprised at the appearance and
arrangements of this house?' I assured him that I never saw anything
which surprised me more. 'Well, then, I will explain the meaning of all
these things to you,' said the man. 'The giant carrying the grunting hog
between the prongs of the iron fork, whom you first saw, is he who is
yonder, and his name is SLOTH. She who is close to me is the young woman
who had been forcing him along, that is ENERGY; and ENERGY compels SLOTH
forward with her; for ENERGY moves, in the twinkling of the eye, a
greater distance than the foot can travel in a year. The old man of the
bright eyes yonder signifies the WORLD; and he is more powerful than
anyone, which has been proved by his rendering the ram powerless. That
ram which you saw signifies the CRIMES of the man. That hag there beyond
is withering OLD AGE, and her clothing has withered your four men. The
two wells from which you drank the two draughts mean FALSEHOOD and
TRUTH; for while telling a lie one finds it sweet, but it becomes bitter
at the last. Cuanna from Innistuil is my own name. I do not reside here,
but having conceived a wonderful love for you, O Fionn, on account of
your superiority in wisdom and general celebrity, I therefore put those
things into the way before you in order that I might see you. And this
story shall be called, to the end of the world, the Hospitality of
Cuanna's House to Fionn. Let you and your men come together, and do ye
five sleep unti