Ossian Collection > Waifs and strays of Celtic tradition > Volume 4

loo The Fians.
Mur bhi 'an caogad laoch garbh
Bha 'n dail nan arm dha an tos
Bhitheamaid gun chobhair fuidh sprochd
Na'm faigheadh uainn a c heart choir.
Thorchuir Mac Morna le a laimh
Mac righ na Sorcha, sgeula mbr
'S mairg treubh a'n d' thainig a' bhean
O'n mhilleadh am fear o'n chuan.
An deigh tuiteam an fhir mhor
An goin do 'n chuan, cruidh an ceum
Do bha nighean Righ Tir-fo-thuinn
Bhadhna aig Fionn san Fheinn.
Thiodhlaic sinn ag cois an eas
An curaidh bu mhor treis is gniomh
Chuir sinn air a h-uile mear
Fainn oir mar onoir do Righ.
Note.
(i) The exact locality denoted by the Red Cataract {Eas Ruadh)
is not clear from any descTiption the writer has fallen in with. It
has been identified with the Salmon Leap on the river Bann at
Coleraine, in the north of Ireland. To this supposition an objec-
tion is, that the Salmon Leap is some distance from the sea, and
the coracle with the princess could not well be seen; neither could
the steed of the prince who attacked them, nor the breaking waves
be such as to cover the land to that extent. At all events, the poem
suggests that they were at no distance from the sea-shore.
The word which has been rendered "fish" is itself problematical;
many reciters say an eiginn mall (" in slow need"), and it is quite
possible that the warriors living upon hunting and fishing may
have been at the time scarce of food, and want ever makes those
who fall under its iron hand less energetic in their movements
{Cluin 'eil an t-acyas faoiii : " Scarcity of food is not a matter to
be neglected'"). If the chase was hid, and fish had betaken them-
selves to deep waters, the strongest man might have been rendered
slow in action.