There, in almost complete solitude, Fionn mac Cumall was reared—he who in future years was to raise the Fianna Eireann to undreamt-of power, and whose great deeds inspired the bards of this and other countries to sing unnumbered songs in his honour.
Six years passed away, then word was sent to Fionn's mother Muireen—who was said to belong to the faery people of the Sidhe (Shee)—that her boy was safe. In great secrecy and haste, over bog and hill and plain, she travelled till she reached the hut that sheltered her little boy and his guardians, and found him lying peacefully asleep on his bed of skins and rushes. She would gladly have taken him home with her, but the Clan Morna still vowed hostility against any of the Clan Basna who might be living, and on account of her little son Muireen held them in fear. When she bade farewell to the Druidesses she asked them to still protect her child, and teach him all that a Fian should know, so that when he grew older he could take vengeance on the Clan Morna for the death of his father Cumall.
Soon after Muireen returned home it came
