he front of them. Finn asked did any of his
people know them. "We do not know them," they said, "but maybe you
yourself know them, Finn." "I do not," he said; "but it seems to be they
are enemies to myself." The troop of armed men came up to them then and
they greeted him, and Finn asked news of them, and from what country
they came. "I am Aonghus, son of Art Og of the children of Morna," one
of them said, "and this is Aodh, son of Andela; and we are enemies of
your own, and our fathers were at the killing of your father, and they
themselves died for that deed. And it is to ask peace we are come now to
you," they said. "Where were you the time my father was killed?" "In our
mothers' wombs," said they; "and our mothers were two women of the
Tuatha de Danaan, and it is time for us now to get our father's place
among the Fianna." "I will give you that," said Finn, "but I must put a
fine on you first in satisfaction for my father's death." "We have
neither gold or silver or goods or cattle to give you, Finn," said they.
"Do not put a fine on them, Finn," said Oisin, "beyond the death of
their fathers for your father." "It is what I think," said Finn, "if any
one killed myself, Oisin, it would be easy to pay the fine you would
ask. And there will no one come among the Fianna," he said, "without
giving what I ask in satisfaction for my father's death." "What is it
you are asking of us?" said Aonghus, son of Art Og. "I am asking but the
head of a champion, or the full of a fist of the berries of the
quicken-tree at Dubhros." "I will give you a good advice, children of
Morna," said Oisin, "to go back to the place you were reared, and not to
ask peace of Finn through the length of your lives. For it is not an
easy thing Finn is asking of you; and do you know whose head he is
asking you to bring him?" "We do not," said they. "The head of Diarmuid,
grandson of Duibhne, is the head he is asking of you. And if you were
twenty hundred men in their full strength, Diarmuid would not let you
take that head." "And what are the berries Finn is asking of us?" they
said then. "There is nothing is harder for you to get than those
berries," said Oisin.

He told them then the whole story of the tree, and of the Searbhan, the
Surly One of Lochlann, that was put to mind it by the Tuatha de Danaan.
But Aodh, son of Andela, spoke then, and it is what he said, that he
would sooner get his death looking for those berries than to go home
again to his