Part 44 (1/2)
”I will not go out to you,” said Dermat; ”for it would bring Finn's sure displeasure on you to act kindly towards me.”
He went to another narrow door, and asked who was there.
”Finn, the son of Glore of the Loud Voice, chief of the Fena of Ulster, and the Ulster men around him. Thou and we come not from the same territory; but we all love thee, Dermat; and now come forth to us, and who will dare to wound or harm thee?”
”I will not go out to you,” replied Dermat; ”you are a faithful friend of mine, and your father in like manner; and I do not wish you to earn the enmity of Finn on my account.”
He went to another narrow door, and asked who was there.
”No friend of thine! Here stand the Clann Navin watching for thee; namely, Aed the Lesser, and Aed the Tall, and Gonna the Wounder, and Gothan the Loud-voiced, and Cuan the Tracker, with all their men. We bear thee no love; and if thou come out at this door, we shall make thee a mark for our swords and spears!”
And Dermat answered, ”Lying and mean-faced dogs! It is not fear of you that keeps me from going forth at this door; but I do not wish to defile my spear with the blood of your shoeless, tracking vagabonds!”
And he went to another narrow door, and asked who was there.
”Finn, the son of c.u.mal, the son of Art, the son of Trenmore O'Baskin, and with him the Leinster Fena. No love awaits thee here; and if thou come forth we will cleave thee, flesh and bones!”
”The door I have sought I have found at last!” cried Dermat; ”for the door where thou, Finn, standest, that, of a certainty, is the very door by which I shall pa.s.s out!”
Then Finn charged his men, under pain of death, not to let Dermat pa.s.s.
But Dermat, watching an unguarded place, rose by means of his two spears with a light, airy bound over the fence, and alighted on the clear s.p.a.ce outside; and running swiftly forward, was in a moment beyond the reach of sword and spear. And so dismayed were they by his threatening look, that not a man attempted to follow him.
Then, turning southward, he never halted till he came to the Wood of the two Sallows, where he found Angus and Grania in a warm hut, with a boar fixed on hazel spits roasting before a great flaming fire. Dermat greeted them; and the spark of life all but leaped from Grania's heart with joy when she saw him.[CX.] So he told them all that had befallen him; and they ate their meal and slept in peace that night, till the morning of next day filled the world with light.
Then Angus arose with the dawn, and said to Dermat, ”I will now depart, my son; but Finn will still pursue you, and I leave you this counsel to guide you when I am gone. Go not into a tree having only one trunk; never enter a cave that has only one opening; never land on an island of the sea that has only one channel of approach; where you cook your food, there eat it not; where you eat, sleep not there; and where you sleep to-night, sleep not there to-morrow night!”
So Angus bade them farewell; and they were sad after him.
FOOTNOTES:
[CX.] Original: ”It was little but that the salmon of her life fled through her mouth with joy before Dermat.”
CHAPTER V.
THE THREE SEA-CHAMPIONS AND THEIR THREE VENOMOUS HOUNDS ON THE TRACK OF DERMAT AND GRANIA.
After Angus was gone, Dermat and Grania journeyed westward, keeping the Shannon on their right, till they reached the Rough Stream of the Champions, which is now called the Laune.[CXI.] They rested there; and Dermat killed a salmon with his spear, and fixed it on a hazel spit to broil on the near bank; and he crossed the river with Grania, to eat it on the further bank, as Angus had told him. And after they had eaten, they sought a sleeping-place further west.
They rose early next morning, and journeyed still west, till they reached the Grey Moor of Finnlia.[CXII.] There they met a man of great size, n.o.ble in gait and feature, but with arms and armour not befitting his appearance. Dermat greeted him, and asked who he was; and he replied--
”My name is Modan, and I am seeking a lord whom I may serve for pay.”
”If I take you into my service,” asked Dermat, ”what can you do for us?”
”I will serve you by day and watch for you by night,” answered Modan.
Whereupon they entered into bonds of agreement with one another, Modan to serve by day and watch by night, and Dermat to pay him wages.
Then the three went westward till they reached the river of Carra,[CXIII.] and Modan lifted Dermat and Grania with the greatest ease, and bore them dry across the stream. From that further west to Beha,[CXIV.] and Modan bore them over this stream in like manner. Here they found a cave, on the side of the hill over that part of the sea called Tonn Toma,[CXV.] namely, the hill of Curra-Kenn-Ammid; and Modan prepared a couch of soft rushes and birch tops in the innermost part of the cave, for Dermat and Grania. After this he went to the nearest wood and cut him a long, straight quicken tree rod; and, having put a hair and a hook on the rod, and a holly berry on the hook, he stood on the brink of the stream, and with three casts he hooked three salmon. Then he put the rod by for next day; and, putting the hook and the hair under his girdle, he returned to Dermat and Grania. And he broiled the fish, and they ate their meal, Modan giving the largest salmon to Dermat, the second in size to Grania, and keeping the smallest for himself. After which Dermat and Grania went to sleep in the cave, and Modan kept watch and ward at the mouth, till morning arose with its abundant light.