Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Ossianic and other Early Legends. 223
would take his stand on a certain high hill in Minister on
such a day, and he respectfully invited every lady who
desired to be a mother of heroes to take her station at
the base of said hill, and at a given signal start for the
summit, where he would be ready with open heart and
arms to receive the fair competitor of healthy constitution
and fleet limbs, who would first bless him with her
presence. The invitation was not neglected. Many
beauteous and active ladies sped upwards through rocks,
grass, and heath at the signal, and. according to common
report, Grainne, daughter of King Cormac, outstripped
her rivals. As the nuptials of Fion and Grainne are
differently related in one of the best of the Ossianic
romances, we are inclined to think that Grainne's prede-
cessor, the fair and fleet Maghneiss, was the successful
aspirant on that day. However that may be, the hill
thenceforward was called Sliabh na Bhan Fionn (the Hill
of the Fair Women), the SUcnamon of the vulgar tongue.
In time the Lady Maghneiss died, and he obtained
the hand of the daughter of King Cormac. This marriage
was unfortunate for all parties. Grainne on her
wedding-day laid geasa on Diarmuid to bear her away,
and the flight and pursuit form the subject of the third
volume of the " Ossianic Transactions."
PURSUIT OF DIARMUID AND GRAINNE.
Diarmuid was unhappily gifted with a A?//.$-d'/nY (beauty
spot) on his shoulder, and Grainne, catching sight of
it while sitting at the window of her Grianan (sunny
chamber) while looking at him hurling, could no more
avoid loving him than hapless Phaedra, her stepson Hippolytus.
When she laid geasa on him to take her away,
it was with much grief he obeyed her. It was deeply
wronging his chief, but to disobey a lady's injunctions
was out of the question. The close pursuit and the