Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER VI: TALES OF THE OSSIANIC CYCLE 231was very silent and continually searched the lad's countenancewith his eyes. In time the use of speech came to him, and thestory that he told was this:He had known no father, and no mother save a gentle hind,with whom he lived in a most green and pleasant valley shutin on every side by towering cliffs that could not be scaled orby deep chasms in the earth. In the summer he lived on fruitsand suchlike, and in the winter store of provisions was laidfor him in a cave. And there came to them sometimes a tall,dark-visaged man, who spoke to his mother, now tenderly, andnow in loud menace, but she always shrank away in fear, andthe man departed in anger. At last there came a day when thedark man spoke very long with his mother in all tones of entreatyand of tenderness and of rage, but she would still keep aloof andgive no sign save of fear and abhorrence. Then at length thedark man drew near and smote her with a hazel wand; and withthat he turned and went his way, but she this time followed him,still looking back at her son and piteously complaining. And he,when he strove to follow, found himself unable to move a limb;and crying out with rage and desolation he fell to the earth, andhis senses left him. [270]When he came to himself he was on the mountain-side on BenBulban, where he remained some days, searching for that greenand hidden valley, which he never found again. And after a whilethe dogs found him; but of the hind his mother and of the DarkDruid there is no man knows the end.Finn called his name Oisīn (Little Fawn), and he became awarrior of fame, but far more famous for the songs and talesthat he made; so that of all things to this day that are told of theFianna of Erin men are wont to say: “Thus sang the bard Oisīn,son of Finn.”Oisīn and NiamIt happened that on a misty summer morning as Finn and Oisīnwith many companions were hunting on the shores of Loch Lena