Collectanea. 239
there was no mistake but Fionn could eat like a giant, — for what else was he? Well, ye wouldn't think he had much to complain about, as he got a leg of mutton every day for his dinner. But he was always telling the housekeeper that in his time the leg of a blackbird was the size of one of her legs of mutton. "Well," said she, "you lie," says she. Well, he made no remark, but he thought it was a terrible insult altogether. But he said he'd prove it to her, and that he'd get her the blackbird's leg as was bigger than her leg of mutton. Well, he had a great difficulty in doing this, for he had to get a dog and rear this dog himself, and it couldn't be any ordinary dog. So, as Saint Padraic had a hound as was goin' to have pups, (and they were the first Utter of pups she'd had), he told Saint Pddraic to watch and to be sure to get him the first pup as should be born. But she had already pupped, and the pups were mixed, so that he could not get the first pup at all, at all. So Fionn got a sheepskin, and nailed it against a door with the fleshy side out. Well, Fionn was blind at the time. So he told Saint Padraic's boy to take one of the pups and to throw it against the skin. Then he asked Saint Padraic's boy, did the pup fall? He said "yes." So he told him to throw all the pups one by one against the skin. So the last pup stuck to the skin, and Fionn asked him, — " Did he stick to the skin ? " "Oh yes," says Saint Padraic's boy, "he's after sticking to the skin." "Well, drown all the rest of the pups," says Fionn, "but keep him," says he. So this pup was called Bran. Well, he reared up Bran for twelve months, and, when the twelve months was over, he thought Bran was able to do his work. No;v, there was a big trumpet that had belonged to those giants -^ which had been hidden by Fionn MacCumhall in his young days. And this trumpet could summon all the birds in the world to him. So himself, and Saint Padraic's boy went for the trumpet, and they stood on the hill of Teamhair (Tara) and sounded the trumpet. Then he told the boy to watch and to have Bran in readiness. And he said to the boy, — "There's one big bird," says he, "that'll devour us all," says he, "only that we have Bran," says he, and it's for that he had Bran. Then he told the boy to look out and
"The Fianna. It is the common idea among the peasantry that Fionn and his Fianna were of gigantic size.
