e
height of himself, and till he had stooped under one the height of his
knee, and till he had taken a thorn out from his foot with his nail,
and he running his fastest. But if he had done all these things, he was
of Finn's people.

It was good wages Finn and the Fianna got at that time; in every
district a townland, in every house the fostering of a pup or a whelp
from Samhain to Beltaine, and a great many things along with that. But
good as the pay was, the hardships and the dangers they went through for
it were greater. For they had to hinder the strangers and robbers from
beyond the seas, and every bad thing, from coming into Ireland. And they
had hard work enough in doing that.

And besides the fighting men, Finn had with him his five Druids, the
best that ever came into the west, Cainnelsciath, of the Shining Shield,
one of them was, that used to bring down knowledge from the clouds in
the sky before Finn, and that could foretell battles. And he had his
five wonderful physicians, four of them belonging to Ireland, and one
that came over the sea from the east. And he had his five high poets and
his twelve musicians, that had among them Daighre, son of Morna, and
Suanach, son of Senshenn, that was Finn's teller of old stories, the
sweetest that ever took a harp in his hand in Ireland or in Alban. And
he had his three cup-bearers and his six door-keepers and his
horn-players and the stewards of his house and his huntsman, Comhrag of
the five hundred hounds, and his serving-men that were under
Garbhcronan, of the Rough Buzzing; and a great troop of others along
with them.

And there were fifty of the best sewing-women in Ireland brought
together in a rath on Magh Feman, under the charge of a daughter of the
King of Britain, and they used to be making clothing for the Fianna
through the whole of the year. And three of them, that were a king's
daughters, used to be making music for the rest on a little silver
harp; and there was a very great candlestick of stone in the middle of
the rath, for they were not willing to kindle a fire more than three
times in the year for fear the smoke and the ashes might harm the
needlework.

And of all his musicians the one Finn thought most of was Cnu Deireoil,
the Little Nut, that came to him from the Sidhe.

It was at Slieve-nam-ban, for hunting, Finn was the time he came to him.
Sitting down he was on the turf-built grave that is there; and when he
looked around him he saw a s