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 by mountain cattle; for, between the darkness of the early autumn morning and the fog they could not see plainly where they were going. Then, as the mist lifted a little, Fionn bade them unleash the hounds, and soon the Fians knew, by the excited yelping and barking of their dogs, that they had started something from its lair in the tall bracken and hazel-bushes growing near.

Soon a curiously marked deer, with one side all white, and the other all black, flashed by them, and the Fians followed on its track. For many hours they continued the chase, but even Bran, the swiftest of all the Fians' hounds, could not overtake the deer, and when the darkness of night came on the Fians lost all trace of their dogs and the hunted animal, nor did they quite know in what part of the country they were.

They were very perplexed, not knowing which way to go in order to find their hounds, and Conan mac Morna, who was very cross, began to abuse Fionn.

"It would have been better for me to have stopped in my bed this day," said Conan,