nd one replied:--

"We have heard of the hero Finn, who ruled the Feni of Erin in times
of old, and who never had an equal for bravery and wisdom. The poets
of the Gaels have written many books concerning his deeds and the
deeds of the Feni, which we cannot now relate; but they are all gone
long since, for they lived many ages ago. We have heard also, and we
have seen it written in very old books, that Finn had a son named
Oisin. Now this Oisin went with a young fairy maiden to Tirnanoge, and
his father and his friends sorrowed greatly after him and sought him
long; but he was never seen again."

When I heard all this I was filled with amazement, and my heart grew
heavy with great sorrow. I silently turned my steed away from the
wondering people, and set forward straightway for Allen of the mighty
deeds, on the broad green plains of Leinster. It was a miserable
journey to me; and though my mind, being full of sadness at all I saw
and heard, forecasted further sorrows, I was grieved more than ever
when I reached Allen. For there indeed I found the hill deserted and
lonely, and my father's palace all in ruins and overgrown with grass
and weeds.

I turned slowly away, and afterwards fared through the land in every
direction in search of my friends. But I met only crowds of little
people, all strangers, who gazed on me with wonder; and none knew me.
I visited every place throughout the country where I knew the Feni had
lived; but I found their houses all like Allen, solitary and in ruins.

At length I came to Glenasmole,[B] where many a time I had hunted in
days of old with the Feni, and there I saw a crowd of people in the
glen. As soon as they saw me, one of them came forward and said:--

[B] Glenasmole, a fine valley about seven miles south of
Dublin, through which the river Dodder flows.

"Come to us, thou mighty hero, and help us out of our strait; for thou
art a man of vast strength."

I went to them, and found a number of men trying in vain to raise a
large flat stone. It was half lifted from the ground; but those who
were under it were not strong enough either to raise it further or to
free themselves from its weight. And they were in great distress, and
on the point of being crushed to death.

I thought it a shameful thing that so many men should be unable to
lift this stone, which Oscar, if he were alive, would take in his
right hand and fling over the heads of the feeble crowd. After I had
looke