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

i8o The Fians.
myself, though I am so big." " Though you," said Fin,
" are so big and strong, I am quick and active."
Next night the King was for going : but Fin told
him to take his sleep to-night again : " I shall stand
myself in your place, or else a better hero than yonder
one will come." " He will kill you," said the King. " I
shall take my chance," said Fin.
He went, and as happened the night before, he saw
no one ; and he began to pace backwards and forwards.
He saw the sea coming in fiery kilns and as a darting
serpent : and that Huge Man came up. " Are you here
to-night again ?" said he. " I am, and this is my errand :
when the Queen was being put in the coffin (lit, dead-
chest), and the King heard the coffin being nailed, and
the joiner's stroke, he broke his heart with pain and
grief ; and the Parliament has sent me to ask you to go
home to-night till they get the King buried." The
Monster went this night also, roughly humming a song ;
and Fin went home when the time came.
In the morning the King awoke in great anxiety, and
called out, " My kingdom is lost, and my dwarf and my
lapdog are killed !" and he greatly rejoiced that Fin
and Bran were alive, and that he himself got rest, after
being so long without sleep.
Fin went the third night, and things happened as
before. There was no one before him, and he took to
pacing to and fro. He saw the sea coming till it came
down below him : the Big Monster came up ; he saw
the little black speck, and asked who was there, and
what he wanted. " I have come to combat you," said
Fin.
Fin and Bran began the combat. Fin was going
backwards, and the Huge Man was following. Fin
called to Bran, " Are you going to let him kill me ?"
Bran had a venomous shoe ; and he leaped and struck
the Huse Man with the venomous shoe on the breast-