Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/58

 30 The European Sky- God.

Taise iaebghel, the ' white-sided ' Teasa Taov Geal, was enamoured of Finn, and that night stole away to him. A chief captain in her father's host a champion called Lavran MacSuain undertook to recover her by waving a certain special branch of great beauty, the mere sound of which would throw all men into deepest slumber. Entering the green pavilion of Finn and the king of Sorcha, he thus lulled them to sleep and recaptured Taise for the king of the Greeks, who thereupon took himself off to Greece.] Soon afterwards Finn and the king of Sorca were conversing, when a troop was seen approaching. It proved to be Dermat accompanied by the Knight of Valour, now king of Tir-fa-tonn. He, as Dermat explained, had found out by his druidical art that it was Avarta the Dedannan, the son of lUahan of the Many-coloured Raiment [Abartach, son of Allchad], who had taken the form of the Gilla Dacker and carried off the sixteen [fifteen] Fianna to the Land of Promise. Finn resolved to go thither in quest of them. He went back to his ship, and voyaged from island to island over many seas until at length he reached the Land of Promise. [He had sent Dermot, Goll, Oscar, and Fergus to Greece in pursuit of Taise. They sailed to Athens, where Fergus with his poet's wand struck the city-gate and announced that they were travelling poets. While the king was away hunting, they carried off Taise and steered for the Land of Promise.^] Dermat, as a fosterling of Manannan, would not let Finn lay waste the land : but Foltlebar and one other, sent on as heralds to the mansion of Avarta, demanded the restitution of Conan and the missing Fianna. Avarta came back with Foltlebar, concluded peace with Finn, and brought him and his company to the mansion, where they found their lost friends and all made merry together. Finn, in view of this friendly re-union, claimed no damages but gave Avarta the wages of his service [said that the wages due to Abartach were cancelled by the damages due to himself]. But Conan, remembering the discomforts of his own abduction, claimed that fifteen of Avarta's men should make the return journey on the same monstrous horse, Avarta himself clinging to its tail [that fourteen of Avar- tach's best women should return astride the horse, Avartach's own wife at its tail] [[that the Gilla should return with the Fianna in their ship and

^ In the folk-tale (J. Curtin op. cit. p. 522 ff. ) there is here a considerable divergence. The Knight of Valour tells Dyeermud that the Hard Gilla is a champion resident in his realm, who is keeping the Fianna safe and sound. After challenging and overthrowing the usurping King of Tir Fohin, Dyeermud and the Knight of Valour, now installed as the rightful king, repair to the Gilla's castle, where they receive a warm welcome. Fin meantime, having helped the King of Sorach, waited in his castle till Goll, Oscar, and a druid had sailed to the land of the High King and brought back Teasa Taov Geal by force. The King of Sorach knew the Hard Gilla well and escorted Fin and his comrades to the Gilla's castle, where they met Dyeermud and the missing thirty.