Page:Heroes of the dawn.djvu/265

 THE PASSING OF THE FIANNA

the departure of Oisin with Niav, Fionn and his men remained many months at Berramain. Every morning at sunrise Fionn would shade his eyes with his hands and gaze steadily over the sea, longing and watching for the return of his son. Every sunset, too, he would keep watch, but Oisin did not return.

A year passed by, then Fionn and Caeilté, with their Fians, travelled eastward to settle a dispute they had with some of the dwellers on the Boyne; and it was in the fighting there, so one legend says, that Fionn met with his death. Another old story says that Fionn did not meet his death in such a manner, but that, when quite a boy, he was put under geasa (vow) to make a certain mighty leap once every year; and this year, owing to old age, and the feebleness caused by grief and the

219