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 and soft leaves, and carried Fionn gently to the hill of the Sidhe, where Cuillean lived; but though they waited there some time no one came out to welcome them. Then, from all parts of Ireland, Oisin summoned seven battalions of the Fianna to him, and for three days and nights they laboured unceasingly at the hill, digging it away and tunnelling to the very heart of it. Then Cuillean, fearing lest they would level his hill-palace straight to the ground, came out to them, bearing in his hand a cup of gold, and going up to Fionn he asked him to drink of its contents. Fionn obeyed, and immediately his own shape returned to him, and his strength was greater than it had ever been before; the only thing which remained unchanged was his hair, which shone like white silver.

There were some of the Fianna who would have liked to drink from the cup also, for Cuillean said that whoever drank from it would have knowledge of the future. But as Fionn was passing the cup to one of them it slipped from his hand and sank deep into the earth, and was never found again; only where