from looking for the cup, and saw what
had happened, he took his sword and made a stroke at Conan. But Conan
called to Osgar to defend him, and Osgar attacked the Grey Man, and it
was not long till he made him acquainted with death.

And when Ailne saw that, with the grief and the dread that came on her,
she fell dead then and there.

Then all the Fianna made a feast with what they found of food and of
drink, and they were very joyful and merry. But when they rose up in the
morning, there was no trace or tidings of the dun, but it was on the
bare grass they were lying.

But as to Conan, the sheepskin never left him; and the wool used to grow
on it every year, the same as it would on any other skin.

BOOK NINE: THE WEARING AWAY OF THE FIANNA.

CHAPTER I. THE QUARREL WITH THE SONS OF MORNA

One time when the Fianna were gone here and there hunting, Black
Garraidh and Caoilte were sitting beside Finn, and they were talking of
the battle where Finn's father was killed. And Finn said then to
Garraidh: "Tell me now, since you were there yourself, what way was it
you brought my father Cumhal to his death?" "I will tell you that since
you ask me," said Garraidh; "it was my own hand and the hands of the
rest of the sons of Morna that made an end of him." "That is cold
friendship from my followers the sons of Morna," said Finn. "If it is
cold friendship," said Garraidh, "put away the liking you are letting on
to have for us, and show us the hatred you have for us all the while."
"If I were to lift my hand against you now, sons of Morna," said Finn,
"I would be well able for you all without the help of any man." "It was
by his arts Cumhal got the upper hand of us," said Garraidh; "and when
he got power over us," he said, "he banished us to every far country; a
share of us he sent to Alban, and a share of us to dark Lochlann, and a
share of us to bright Greece, parting us from one another; and for
sixteen years we were away from Ireland, and it was no small thing to us
to be without seeing one another through that time. And the first day we
came back to Ireland," he said, "we killed sixteen hundred men, and no
lie in it, and not a man of them but would be keened by a hundred. And
we took their duns after that," he said, "and we went on till we were
all around one house in Munster of the red walls. But so great was the
bravery of the man in that house, that was your father, that it was
easier to find him than to kill