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

76 The Fians.
" Dh' amhairc air Bran buadhach
'S ioghnadh air e bliith 'ga bhualadh ;
An lamh leis an do bhuail mi Bran
'S truagh o'n ghualainn nach do sgar."
The following tale was not written word for word
from the dictation of the reciter ; but full notes were
taken, and written out immediately after, so that it may-
be said that the tale is given in the words of the person
from whom it was heard, without addition or suppression.
The tale is particularly valuable as showing how the
human imagination runs in similar or analogous grooves.
Whoever composed the story, in all probability, never
heard of Gulliver ; and the " immortal" Swift never
heard of Fin-mac-Coul going to the kingdom of Big
Men. The two tales are founded on the same fancy, in
representing their heroes as visiting men of gigantic
size, compared with whom ordinary mortals are mere
pigmies ; but the incidents are so different, and cast in
such entirely different moulds, that it becomes probable
almost to certainty, that they have no connection with
each other.
How Fin went to the Kingdom of the
Big Men,
Fin and his men were in the Harbour of the Hill of
Howth on a hillock, behind the wind and in front of
the sun, where they could see every person, and nobody
could see them, when they saw a speck coming from
the west. They thought at first it was the blackness of
a shower ; but when it came nearer, they saw it was a
boat. It did not lower sail till it entered the harbour.
There were three men in it ; one for guide in the bow,
one for steering in the stern, and one for the tackle in
the centre. They came ashore, and drew It up seven
times its own length in dry grey grass, where the
scholars of the city could not make it stock for derision
or ridicule.