mother's country. And he said to Oisin to care his people
till he would come back again, and if anything should happen himself and
his brother in their journey, to send them back again to the Land of
Promise. And the two said farewell then to Oisin and to the chief men of
the Fianna, and they went forward till they reached Dubhros. And they
went along the wood till they found a track, and they followed it to
the door of the hunting-cabin where Diarmuid and Grania were.

Diarmuid heard them coming, and he put his hand on his weapons and asked
who was at the door. "We are of the children of Morna," they said,
"Aodh, son of Andela, and Aonghus, son of Art Og." "What brings you to
this wood?" said Diarmuid. "Finn, son of Cumhal, that put us looking for
your head, if you are Diarmuid, grandson of Duibhne," said they. "I am
indeed," said Diarmuid. "If that is so," they said, "Finn will take
nothing from us but your head, or a fistful of the berries of the
quicken-tree of Dubhros as satisfaction for the death of his father."
"It is not easy for you to get either of those things," said Diarmuid,
"and it is a pity for any one to be under the power of that man. And
besides that," he said, "I know it was he himself made an end of your
fathers, and that was enough satisfaction for him to get; and if you do
bring him what he asks, it is likely he will not make peace with you in
the end." "Is it not enough for you," said Aodh, "to have brought his
wife away from Finn without speaking ill of him?" "It is not for the
sake of speaking ill of him I said that," said Diarmuid, "but to save
yourselves from the danger he has sent you into."

"What are those berries Finn is asking?" said Grania, "that they cannot
be got for him?"

Diarmuid told her then the whole story of the berry the Tuatha de Danaan
had lost, and of the tree that had sprung up from it, and of the man of
Lochlann that was keeping the tree. "And at the time Finn sent me hiding
here and became my enemy," he said, "I got leave from the Surly One to
hunt, but he bade me never to meddle with the berries. And now, sons of
Morna," he said, "there is your choice, to fight with me for my head, or
to go asking the berries of the Surly One." "I swear by the blood of my
people," said each of them, "I will fight with yourself first."

With that the two young men made ready for the fight. And it is what
they chose, to fight with the strength of their hands alone. And
Diarmuid put the