Page:Heroes of the dawn.djvu/120

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
92
HEROES OF THE DAWN

"If it is forthcoming in the morning we shall be content to wait," they replied.

The three men went away to their lonely camp, and called the hound, saying to it:

"Hound of wonder and magic, help us now."

Then the hound opened its mouth and breathed hard, and with each breath pieces of gold and silver rolled out more quickly than the princes could pick them up, and in the morning the poets received their fee and departed. But Fionn was amazed that the money was forthcoming, and said that the men of Norway were workers of wonders, and that henceforth the rath should be known as "the little rath of wonders."

This was not the only time the princes astonished the Fians by their deeds, for one very hot evening Fionn and his men, returning from a hunting expedition, found that the spring on which they relied for water had almost dried up, and they were far from any other stream or spring.

"What shall we do for water?" asked Fionn. "We could manage well enough if