Celtic Mythology and Religion

142 CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION.
career of the enchanted one in Tir-nan-og. Niam
of the Golden Hair suddenly presents herself before
the Feni, tells her love for Ossian, and says :
"I
place you under obligations which no true heroes
break through—to come with me on my white
steed to Tir-nan-og, the most delightful and renowned
country under the sun.
in abundance, and honey and wine ;
Jewels and gold there are
the trees bear
fruit and blossoms and green leaves all the year
round. Feasting and music and harmless pastimes
are there each day. You will get a hundred swords,
and robes of richest loom ; a hundred steeds, and
hounds of keenest scent ; numberless herds, and
sheep with fleeces of gold ; a hundred maidens
merry and young, sweeter of mouth than the music
of birds ;
a hundred suits of armour, and a sword,
gold-handled, that never missed a stroke.
shall not come on you, nor death, nor decay.
Decline
These,
and much more that passeth all mention, shall be
yours, and myself as your wife !
" Needless is it
to recount how Ossian went, the wonders he saw
by the way, and the feats he did ; how he found
Tir-nan-og all that it was painted by the Princess
Niam ; 'how, after three hundred years, he returned
to earth on the white steed, from whose back he was
forbidden to dismount ; how he fell from the steed
when helping the poor weakly mortals that he found
then on earth to raise a huge stone ; and how the
steed rushed off and left him, old and withered and
blind, " among|little men."