Page:Heroes of the dawn.djvu/231

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
HOSTING OF SLIEVE-NA-MAN
191

where there was a warm fire of logs, and called a young girl to wait on them.

"Give these heroes," he said, "the best there is in the house. Let them have the freshest of meat and the strongest of old ale, so that their weariness will fall from them like a cloak."

When the Fians had finished their supper Fionn rose from his seat and stretched his mighty limbs.

"Surely there is some magic in the food and drink you have given us," he said to his host, "for rarely, except when the battle-fury has been on me, have I felt the strength I do this night."

"It is a true word you have spoken," said the man, who seemed to be the chief of the house. "The meat you have eaten is that of one of Angus Oge's enchanted swine, which, though it was killed to-day, will be living again to-morrow. The golden-shining apples came from Manannan's Isle of Youth hidden in the distant sea; and from the hazel-trees of wisdom, which overhang the sacred well, the nuts are gathered. He who has once