Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/373

Rh eye in the middle of his black forehead. He was armed with a great club, tied by a chain to an iron girdle round his body, and he was such a magician that he could not be killed by fire, by water, or by weapons of war: there was only one way of overcoming him, and that was by giving him three blows of his own club. By day he watched at the foot of the tree, and at night he slept in a hut he had made him aloft in its branches. He did not allow the Féni to hunt in the neighbourhood, so that it was a wilderness for many miles around the tree. Therefore Diarmait, when pursued by Finn, took refuge there; this he did with the giant's surly permission, provided only he did not eat of the berries of the quicken-tree. But Grainne, Diarmait's wife, hearing of the berries, was seized with a longing desire for them; knowing the danger, she concealed her desire as long as she could, until, in fact, she thought she must die unless she got some of the forbidden fruit. So Diarmait, fearing danger to her, went, much against his inclination, to ask for some of the berries. The giant's reply was a brutal negative. "I swear," quoth he, "were it [even] that thou shouldst have no children but that birth [now] in her womb, and were there but Grainne of the race of Cormac the son of Art, and were I sure that she should perish in bearing that child, that she should never taste one berry of those berries." Diarmait replied, that, as he did not wish to deal treacherously by him, the giant must understand that he had no intention of going his way without them; a duel then began, which soon ended in Diarmait's killing the