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 nightfall? It is a custom of the Fianna to be merry at night after the day's work, and if you hold to this condition you will be lonely while your comrades are feasting."

"We may not tell you our reasons," they answered, "and whether we travel together for a week or for years we must ask you to question us no more. One thing, however, we may tell you: every third night one of us seems to die, and the other two watch him till the dawn comes, for he must not be disturbed. Therefore we would have our camp at a distance from yours."

"I give you my word," said Fionn, "that I and my Fians will never seek to visit you at night-time. Besides, I am forbidden to see a dead man unless he has been killed by weapons."

So the three men entered the Fianna of Ireland; but Fionn, instead of proceeding on his journey, gave instructions to his men to camp by the side of the rath, saying they would stop there for some time and hunt through the country round them.

When they had been there a few days