STORY

As to Oisin, it was a long time after he was brought away by Niamh that
he came back again to Ireland. Some say it was hundreds of years he was
in the Country of the Young, and some say it was thousands of years he
was in it; but whatever time it was, it seemed short to him.

And whatever happened him through the time he was away, it is a withered
old man he was found after coming back to Ireland, and his white horse
going away from him, and he lying on the ground.

And it was S. Patrick had power at that time, and it was to him Oisin
was brought; and he kept him in his house, and used to be teaching him
and questioning him. And Oisin was no way pleased with the way Ireland
was then, but he used to be talking of the old times, and fretting after
the Fianna.

And Patrick bade him to tell what happened him the time he left Finn and
the Fianna and went away with Niamh. And it is the story Oisin
told:--"The time I went away with golden-haired Niamh, we turned our
backs to the land, and our faces westward, and the sea was going away
before us, and filling up in waves after us. And we saw wonderful things
on our journey," he said, "cities and courts and duns and lime-white
houses, and shining sunny-houses and palaces. And one time we saw beside
us a hornless deer running hard, and an eager white red-eared hound
following after it. And another time we saw a young girl on a horse and
having a golden apple in her right hand, and she going over the tops of
the waves; and there was following after her a young man riding a white
horse, and having a crimson cloak and a gold-hilted sword in his right
hand."

"Follow on with your story, pleasant Oisin," said Patrick, "for you did
not tell us yet what was the country you went to."

"The Country of the Young, the Country of Victory, it was," said Oisin.
"And O Patrick," he said, "there is no lie in that name; and if there
are grandeurs in your Heaven the same as there are there, I would give
my friendship to God.

"We turned our backs then to the dun," he said, "and the horse under us
was quicker than the spring wind on the backs of the mountains. And it
was not long till the sky darkened, and the wind rose in every part, and
the sea was as if on fire, and there was nothing to be seen of the sun.

"But after we were looking at the clouds and the stars for a while the
wind went down, and the storm, and the sun brightened. And we saw before
us a very delightful country