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 spoke. "Many brave heroes have fallen by my hand too, and if you oppose my wishes not all your courage and strength will hinder me from destroying you and your Fians."

Fionn and his heroes laughed scornfully; they were amused that this magpie-coloured woman should imagine she could so easily overcome them, whom so many famous champions had failed to conquer.

"You laugh now," she said in a quiet voice; "I think in a little while you will laugh no more. But before you sleep for ever I will play and sing to you if you like."

She took a small harp and played, and the music was like the rippling of a rock-strewn mountain stream, or the murmur of the night-wind when it plays through tall pines in summer. Then she chanted a little song to them in an unknown tongue, and a strange helplessness relaxed their limbs; although they felt that some great disaster was about to overtake them they had no strength to avert it.

When the woman saw that her spells had conquered the Fians, she fetched a two-edged