on the rampart expecting his return. So he bade them
tell him what had chanced, and they said--

"Whilst thou, our father and lord, wert afar off smiting the
foreigner, and Saba looking ever down the pass for thy return, we saw
one day as it were the likeness of thee approaching, and Bran and
Sceolaun at thy heels. And we seemed also to hear the notes of the
Fian hunting call blown on the wind. Then Saba hastened to the great
gate, and we could not stay her, so eager was she to rush to the
phantom. But when she came near, she halted and gave a loud and bitter
cry, and the shape of thee smote her with a hazel wand, and lo, there
was no woman there any more, but a deer. Then those hounds chased it,
and ever as it strove to reach again the gate of the Dun they turned
it back. We all now seized what arms we could and ran out to drive
away the enchanter, but when we reached the place there was nothing to
be seen, only still we heard the rushing of flying feet and the baying
of dogs, and one thought it came from here, and another from there,
till at last the uproar died away and all was still. What we could do,
O Finn, we did; Saba is gone."

Finn then struck his hand on his breast but spoke no word, and he went
to his own chamber. No man saw him for the rest of that day, nor for
the day after. Then he came forth, and ordered the matters of the
Fianna as of old, but for seven years thereafter he went searching for
Saba through every remote glen and dark forest and cavern of Ireland,
and he would take no hounds with him save Bran and Sceolaun. But at
last he renounced all hope of finding her again, and went hunting as
of old. One day as he was following the chase on Ben Gulban in Sligo,
he heard the musical bay of the dogs change of a sudden to a fierce
growling and yelping as though they were in combat with some beast,
and running hastily up he and his men beheld, under a great tree, a
naked boy with long hair, and around him the hounds struggling to
seize him, but Bran and Sceolaun fighting with them and keeping them
off. And the lad was tall and shapely, and as the heroes gathered
round he gazed undauntedly on them, never heeding the rout of dogs at
his feet. The Fians beat off the dogs and brought the lad home with
them, and Finn was very silent and continually searched the lad's
countenance with his eyes. In time, the use of speech came to him, and
the story that he told was this:--

He had known no father, and no moth