.

And as to the two whelps, they stopped always with Finn, and the names
he gave them were Bran and Sceolan.

CHAPTER IV. OISIN'S MOTHER.

It happened one time Finn and his men were coming back from the hunting,
a beautiful fawn started up before them, and they followed after it, men
and dogs, till at last they were all tired and fell back, all but Finn
himself and Bran and Sceolan. And suddenly as they were going through a
valley, the fawn stopped and lay down on the smooth grass, and Bran and
Sceolan came up with it, and they did not harm it at all, but went
playing about it, licking its neck and its face.

There was wonder on Finn when he saw that, and he went on home to
Almhuin, and the fawn followed after him playing with the hounds, and it
came with them into the house at Almhuin. And when Finn was alone late
that evening, a beautiful young woman having a rich dress came before
him, and she told him it was she herself was the fawn he was after
hunting that day. "And it is for refusing the love of Fear Doirche, the
Dark Druid of the Men of Dea," she said, "I was put in this shape. And
through the length of three years," she said, "I have lived the life of
a wild deer in a far part of Ireland, and I am hunted like a wild deer.
And a serving-man of the Dark Druid took pity on me," she said, "and he
said that if I was once within the dun of the Fianna of Ireland, the
Druid would have no more power over me. So I made away, and I never
stopped through the whole length of a day till I came into the district
of Almhuin. And I never stopped then till there was no one after me but
only Bran and Sceolan, that have human wits; and I was safe with them,
for they knew my nature to be like their own."

Then Finn gave her his love, and took her as his wife, and she stopped
in Almhuin. And so great was his love for her, he gave up his hunting
and all the things he used to take pleasure in, and gave his mind to no
other thing but herself.

But at last the men of Lochlann came against Ireland, and their ships
were in the bay below Beinn Edair, and they landed there.

And Finn and the battalions of the Fianna went out against them, and
drove them back. And at the end of seven days Finn came back home, and
he went quickly over the plain of Almhuin, thinking to see Sadbh his
wife looking out from the dun, but there was no sign of her. And when he
came to the dun, all his people came out to meet him, but they had a
very