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

The Lad zuith the Skin Coverings. 265
and three times against them. She then went away, and
Fionn returned home and began to make ready.
In a year and a day the whole fleet of the Fians was
fitted out, and Fionn then cut down a tree, and made two
masts for a coracle ; when it was ready he went to the
wife of the Lad with the Skin Coverings and asked her
to allow her husband to go with them. " What request
could you make that would not be granted ?" she said,
and that she would let him go away with him, on condi-
tion that he would bring him back alive or dead. When
she was parting with her husband, she said :
"Youaregoinginsearchof the woman. I know and will
tell you who she is ; she is the daughter of a King Avack
Glun Du, from the city of Camlisk, under Druidic spells.
You will be the one to guide them ; you will go in Fionn's
own ship, and when you are a day's sailing, you will go up
to the top of the mast and will see at some distance from
you the land of the Tutor of the Son of Avack Black
Knee, and on a white beach of sand,
'A little thickset man
In a russet coat, bounding three times.'
He will have a magic keg upon his shoulder, and will be
casting it into the sea. You are not to be afraid of him,
but put your hands on your hips, jump ashore, and you
will of a certainty reach land ; then catch hold of the little
man, take from him the magic keg, and strike him down
to the waist in the soft sand ; his death is not under the
heavens but in that way. You will take with you the
magic keg, and one who will steer you to the Kingdom
of Avack Black Knee (8), and when you reach the land,
the ships of the Tutor of the Son of Avack Black Knee
will come, then you will throw out the magic keg, and the
whole of the ships will be destroyed."
In this way everything occurred, and the Tutor's ships
were lost. Fionn then went away, he and his men of