ord Fiann; the very sweet thrush of the Valley of the
Shadow, or the sound of the boats striking the strand. The cry of the
hounds was better to me than the noise of your schools, Patrick.

"Little Nut, little Nut of my heart, the little dwarf that was with
Finn, when he would make tunes and songs he would put us all into deep
sleep.

"The twelve hounds that belonged to Finn, the time they would be let
loose facing out from the Siuir, their cry was sweeter than harps and
than pipes.

"I have a little story about Finn; we were but fifteen men; we took the
King of the Saxons of the feats, and we won a battle against the King of
Greece.

"We fought nine battles in Spain, and nine times twenty battles in
Ireland; from Lochlann and from the eastern world there was a share of
gold coming to Finn.

"My grief! I to be stopping after him, and without delight in games or
in music; to be withering away after my comrades; my grief it is to be
living. I and the clerks of the Mass books are two that can never agree.

"If Finn and the Fianna were living, I would leave the clerks and the
bells; I would follow the deer through the valleys, I would like to be
close on his track.

"Ask Heaven of God, Patrick, for Finn of the Fianna and his race; make
prayers for the great man; you never heard of his like."

PATRICK. "I will not ask Heaven for Finn, man of good wit that my anger
is rising against, since his delight was to be living in valleys with
the noise of hunts."

OISIN. "If you had been in company with the Fianna, Patrick of the
joyless clerks and of the bells, you would not be attending on schools
or giving heed to God."

PATRICK. "I would not part from the Son of God for all that have lived
east or west; O Oisin, O shaking poet, there will harm come on you in
satisfaction for the priests."

OISIN. "It was a delight to Finn the cry of his hounds on the mountains,
the wild dogs leaving their harbours, the pride of his armies, those
were his delights."

PATRICK. "There was many a thing Finn took delight in, and there is not
much heed given to it after him; Finn and his hounds are not living now,
and you yourself will not always be living, Oisin."

OISIN. "There is a greater story of Finn than of us, or of any that have
lived in our time; all that are gone and all that are living, Finn was
better to give out gold than themselves."

PATRICK. "All the gold you and Finn used to be giving out, it is little
it does for yo