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

Finn Mac Conl. 179
this should be called the Kingdom of the Big Men. Is
he bigger than yourself?" " Never you mind," said the
King. " I will mind," said Fin : " take your rest and
sleep to-night, and I shall go to meet him." " Is it
you ?" said the King ; "you would not keep half a stroke
against him."
When night came, and all men went to rest, the King
was for going away as usual ; but Fin at last prevailed
upon him to allow himself to go. " I shall combat him,"
said he, " or else he knows a trick." " I think much,"
said the King, " of allowing you to go, seeing he gives
myself enough to do." " Sleep you soundly to-night,"
said Fin, " and let me go ; if he comes too violently
upon me, I shall hasten home."
Fin went and reached the place where the combat
was to be. He saw no one before him, and he began to
pace backwards and forwards. At last he saw the sea
coming in kilns of fire and as a darting serpent, till it
came down below where he was. A Huge Monster
came up and looked towards him, and from him. "What
little speck do I see there ?" he said. " It is I," said Fin.
"What are you doing here ?" " I am a messenger from
the King of the Big Men ; he is under much sorrow and
distress ; the Queen has just died, and I have come to
ask if you will be so good as to go home to-night with-
out giving trouble to the kingdom." " I shall do that,"
said he ; and he went away with the rough humming of
a song in his mouth.
Fin went home when the time came, and lay down in
his own bed, at the foot of the King's bed. When the
King awoke, he cried out in great anxiety, " My king-
dom is lost, and my dwarf and my lapdog are killed !"
" They are not," said Fin ; " I am here yet ; and you
have got your sleep, a thing you were saying it was rare
for you to get." " How," said the King, " did you
escape, when you are so little, and that he is enough for
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