Page:Heroes of the dawn.djvu/275

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THE RETURN OF OISIN


We have followed the wanderings of Caeilté through many years; we must now go back to Oisin, whom we left journeying with Niav on the white horse to the Land of the Ever-Young. And this is the story which Oisin related to St. Patrick, two hundred years later, when he returned to Ireland from Tirna-noge.


"Over unnumbered leagues of sea the white horse sped, outracing the swift sea-birds and the rushing wind. Many curious and startling sights I beheld, and often I asked Niav to check the horse's speed, so that I could observe them more closely.

"How far we had travelled I do not know, when we came to a region of islands, inhabited by strange and terrible beings and animals.


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