Blair Collection > Carmina gadelica > Volume 2

22 UIBE
FATH-FITH [133]
' Fath-fFth ' and ' fith-fath ' are interchangeable terms and indiscriminately used.
They are applied to the occult power which rendered a person invisible to mortal eyes
and which transformed one object into another. Men and women were made invisible,
or men were transformed into horses, bulls, or stags, while women were transformed
into cats, hares, or hinds. These transmutations were sometimes voluntary, some-
times involuntary. The ' fith-fath ' was especially serviceable to hunters, warriors,
and travellers, rendering them invisible or unrecognisable to enemies and to animals.
Fionn had a fairy sweetheart, a daughter of the people of the mounds, but
Fionn forsook her and married a daughter of the sons of men. The fairy was
angry at the slight' put upon her, and she placed the wife of Fionn under the ' fith-
fath' spell in the form of a hind of the hill. The wife of Fionn bore a son in the
island of Sanndraigh in Loch-nan-ceall in Arasaig. The mother jiossessed so much
of the n.iture of the hind that she licked the temple of the child when he was born,
but she possessed so much of the nature of the woman that she only gave one lick.
r5ut hair like the hair of a fawn grew on the part of the temple of tlie child which
the tongue of the hind-mother had touched. And because of this patch of fawn's
hair on his temple the child was called ' Oisein,' the fawn. While still a boy
Ossian followed Fionn and the Feinne to the hunting-hill to chase the mountain
deer. In the midst of the chase a magic mist darker than night came down upon
the hunters, blinding them from one another and iVom their surroundings — no one
knew where was another or where lie was himself. Hunt-wandering came over
Ossian, and he wandered wearily alone, and at last found himself in a deep green
glen surrounded by high blue hills. As he walked along he saw a timid hind
browsing in a green corrie before him. And Ossian thought to himself that he
had never seen a creature so lovely as this timid hind, and he stood gazing upon her
with joy. But the spirit of the hunt was strong upon Ossian, and the blood of the
hunter was hot in his veins, and he drew his spear to throw it at the hind. The
hind turned and looked at Ossian and gazed upon him with her full wistful grej'
eyes, more lovely and alluring than the blue eyes of love. ' Do not hurt me,
Ossian," said the hind; 'I am thy mother under the "fith-fath," in tlie form of a
hind abroad and in the form of a woman at home. Thou art hungry and thirsty
and weary. Come thou home with me, thou fawn of my heart.' And Ossian
accompanied the hind step by step till they reached a rock in the base of the
hill. The hind opened a leaf in a door in the rock where no door seemed to be,
and she went in, and Ossian went in after her. She closed the door-leaf in the rock
and there was no appearance of a door. And the graceful hind became trans-
formed into a beautiful woman, like the lovely woman of the green kirtle and
the locks of gold. There was light in the bower in the bosom of the ben like the
light of ' trath-nona la leth an t-samhraidh ' — noontide on midsummer day. Nor was
it the light of the sun, nor was it the light of the moon, nor was it the light of the