Blair Collection > Beside the fire

BRAN. 17
There arose some quarrel or fighting between the hounds
that the Fenians had, when she was only a puppy, and
Three score hounds and twenty puppies
Bran did kill, and she a puppy,
Two wild-geese, as much as they all.
It was Finn himself who killed Bran. They went out
hunting, and there was made a fawn of Finn's mother.
W/io tnade a fawn of her ? Oh, how do I know ? It was
with some of their pishtrogues.) Bran was pursuing her.
" Silly fawn leave on mountain,"
said Finn. " Oh, young son,'' said she, "how shall I
escape ? —
" If I go in the sea beneath
I never shall come back again.
And if I go in the air above
My swiftness is no match for Bran.
*' Go out between my two legs," said Finn.
She went between his two legs, and Bran followed
her ; and as Bran went out under him, Finn squeezed
his two knees on her and killed her.
Bran had a daughter. That pup was a black hound,
and the Fenians reared it ; and they told the woman
who had a charge of the pup to give it the milk of a cow
without a single spot, and to give it every single drop,
and not to keep back one tint* from her. The woman
did not do that, but kept a portion of the milk without
giving it to the pup.
The first day that the Fenians loosed out the young
hound, there was a glen full of wild-geese and other
birds ; and when the black hound was loosed amongst
them, she caught them all except a very few that went
t Tint, means a drop, or small portion of liquid, amongst English speaking
persons in Connacht and most other parts of Ireland.