Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Osslanic and other Early Legends. 267
"About a week after I came home, as I was hunting, the
hounds gave chase to a wild-looking but very handsome
man, all covered with long hair, and when I got up to
them they had seized him, and were on the point of
tearing him asunder. He stretched out his hands to me,
while the tears ran down his cheeks, and I drove off the
dogs and brought him home to my castle. I got his hair cut
off, and had him. clothed, and I amused myself in teaching
him to speak. Little did I think he was a disguised
follower of my brother, who had sent him into my family
by this stratagem, to corrupt my wife, and to get possession
of the sword of light for him.
" One day as I was returning from hunting through a
grove near this castle, I heard voices in a thicket. They
were familiar to me, and when I had arrived at a convenient
place, what did I espy but my wife seated under
a tree, and the villanous wild man, with not a trace of
wildness about him or in his speech, stretched on the
grass, his head upon her knees, and he looking up lovingly
into her face, and entreating her to secure the Cloidheamh
Solais for him. I had no further patience, but
rushed on ready to strike him through with my hunting
spear, but the moment my \vife caught sight of me, she
flung the magic rod at me, and I found myself, in the
twinkling of an eye, changed to a horse. I did not lose
my memory, but rushed on the villain to trample out
his life. However, he had got up into the tree before I
could reach him. I had neither the power nor the will
to trample or strike my wife. So the guilty pair escaped
for the time.
" She managed to have me caught very soon, and hard
worked, but that was going too far with the joke. I
kicked and bit every one she sent to yoke or bridle me,
and no one would venture to come near me. This did
not meet her views. So she came where I was one day,
struck me with the slat once more, and I was a wolf on
the moment. Great as her power was, she could not
kill me, but she contrived to get her father, who was just