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 THE HOSTING OF SLIEVE-NA-MAN

was a bitterly cold day in the beginning of winter, and Fionn, who with his son Oisin, Oscur, Caeilte, Diarmuid, and the son of Lugach had been travelling from early in the morning, soon after midday found themselves in a desolate part of the country lying a little to the south of Loch Erne. Heavy hailstorms frequently swept down upon them, and they were looking for a house to shelter in when they started a shy, beautiful fawn from its lair in a hazel-wood. It ran swiftly away from them, and, forgetting all their discomfort, they followed it from one place to another till they came to Slieve-na-man. Suddenly the fawn disappeared from their sight and they could not tell in which direction it went. Indeed, it seemed to them to disappear into the ground.

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