Page:Heroes of the dawn.djvu/29

 As they came to one after another of the places where Fionn and his famous warriors had hunted or battled, Caeilté would stop and narrate to Patrick the history of the place, and tell of the deeds wrought by Fionn and his heroes, and of the adventures which befell them. Then Patrick would tell his chief scribe Brogan to write down all that Caeilté said, so that the memory of the noble Fionn and his Fianna should be preserved to the people that came after.

To make the following stories more interesting to you I will tell you something about the Fianna Eireann and Fionn's boyhood.

At the beginning of the second century there was a famous body of warrior-hunters—known as the Fians, or Fianna Eireann in Ireland. Of the Fianna two clans were preeminent: these were the Clan Basna, or Leinster Fians, over whom the hero Cumall was chief; and the Clan Morna, or Connaught Fians, who were under the chieftainship of Goll mac Morna. Often these two clans were at enmity with each other, striving for the