Fiona

“ Fiona's will let go with a snap; she felt so dizzy that she had to lean against one of the great toadstools or she would have fallen. Round the assemblage ran a sound like the wind through the tree tops, the noise of [Pg 170] thousands drawing in breath at once; and the Chancellor started a war dance on his stack of books, and nearly fell off on his head. The King rose from his throne, but he took no notice of the Urchin; he turned straight to Fiona and bowed to her. ”

“ Fiona, the beauty, had a soft and lazy disposition. In her party all knew her and none of the men were specially delighted to have success with her, and none of them were mortified to see that she allowed the same favours to anybody else who tried for them.
"Aunt Fiona is the kindest of women, she never snubs anyone," all the convicts said jestingly. ”

“ Fiona was a charming young woman (Irish, of course) with a rich uncle and a poor, very unattractive cousin, who loved her for her expectations. As Fiona had no conception about money beyond the spending of it, the uncle made a will, whose object was that she should have plenty. The suitor, however, knowing of this, and being a naughty, rather improbable person, destroyed part of it, with the result that Fiona was apparently left only the ancestral home and no cash to keep it up. ”

“ And as a sign to the world above that we have treated you liberally, you will find that you will be unable to attend to business until you have told your nephew a fairy tale. Urchin! A doubt exists as to whether you have had your wish or not. You shall have the benefit of the doubt, so far as is good for you. You will find that you will get your gun."
And then the King turned to Fiona.
"Young lady," he said, "you have given us a display of courage which we are not likely to forget. You have rescued your friend; you have, which is much more to the point, rescued your enemy. ”

“ The secret of Sharp's responsibilities for the 'Fiona' literature was well kept in his lifetime. He sedulously encouraged the popular assumption that 'Fiona Macleod' was a young lady endowed with 'the dreamy Celtic genius.' Sharp contributed to 'Who's Who' a fictitious memoir of 'Fiona Macleod,' describing her favourite recreations as 'boating, hill-climbing, and hstening,' and he corresponded with her admiring readers through the hand of his sister. Educated Highland Celts detected in the books the imperfection of the supposed lady's Celtic equipment. ”

“ And as Fiona passed on, the hillside itself dissolved in mist, and there before her lay the fairy grove. And the guardian of the [Pg 142] grove, with white beard sweeping the ground, and old trembling hands, came out to meet her. And she showed him her feather, and from his belt he drew out and held up its fellow; and she knew that the path of danger was over.
"No one has come through by the way you have come for more years than my old memory can follow," he said. "They always fail at the lemon orchard. ”

“ You should take a lesson by me. You humans are all forgetting nowadays that the spoken word is an instru [Pg 92] ment of great power, and that once it is launched it goes on and on, and can work magic on its own account, quite independently of you. If you say a thing will happen, it frequently does happen."
"But what did I say?" asked Fiona.
"You told the Urchin that if he hurt the shore lark the Little People would take him. Well, they've taken him. That's all."
And the centipede slid down on to the ground, and with something like a chuckle vanished. ”

“ There was magic in the tips of her fingers. Her thin palm ravished him. Her slender foot set his heart beating; and whatever way her head moved there came a new shape of beauty to her face.
“She is always new,” said Fionn. “She is always better than any other woman; she is always better than herself.”
He attended no more to the Fianna. He ceased to hunt. He did not listen to the songs of poets or the curious sayings of magicians, for all of these were in his wife, and something that was beyond these was in her also.
“She is this world and the next one; she is completion,” said Fionn. ”

“ From every part of Ireland the musicians of the Fianna came to him to be instructed, and he taught them gentle faery melodies, and in the whole of Ireland there were no minstrels, except those of the Fianna, who could play such music.
"Little Nut of Melody," said Fionn to him one day, "you are far from your own people, and must often be very lonely. All my men have wives but you, and my wish is to find a fair and gentle woman for you."
"I do not want any wife at all," said the little man hastily. He was greatly alarmed lest Fionn should bestow on him one of the big tall women of the Fianna. ”

“ He was in the world of men, where movement is not easy and the very air a burden. In his own sphere, in his own element, he might have outrun Fionn, but this was Fionn’s world, Fionn’s element, and the flying god was not gross enough to outstrip him. Yet what a race he gave, for it was but at the entrance to his own Shi’ that the pursuer got close enough. Fionn put a finger into the thong of the great spear, and at that cast night fell on Aillen mac Midna. ”

“ Such a soldier was he that, single-handed, he could take the Fianna out of any hole they got into, but such an inveterate poet was he that all the Fianna together could scarcely retrieve him from the abysses into which he tumbled. It took him to keep the Fianna safe, but it took all the Fianna to keep their captain out of danger. They did not complain of this, for they loved every hair of Fionn's head more than they loved their wives and children, and that was reasonable, for there was never in the world a person more worthy of love than Fionn was. ”

“ At last she came to the edge of the sea, where the Fians stood watching her, and her voice sounded like sweet music as she spoke to Fionn:
"It is a long road from my country to yours, O Fionn, but I have taken it in search of you."
"Beautiful queen," said Fionn, "I am old and my men are nearly all killed, but few and sorrowful as we are, we will not refuse any service you may ask of us. Tell us now, O fairest of women, your name and your country, and what your desire is."
"My father calls me Niav of the Red-gold Hair, and he is lord of the Island of Youth," she answered. ”

“ Then he spoke to the men: "Who are you, young men, and where do you come from?"
"We are princes, sons of the King of Norway, and have travelled across the sea from the east to meet you, lord of the Fians," they answered.
"What do you seek, or what is your need?" asked Fionn.
"We have heard of your fame as a warrior, and we wish to take service with you," they replied.
"Are you good fighters?" questioned Fionn. "No one can enter the Fianna who has not strength in his arm and unfailing courage in his heart. ”

“ But for dread of the clann-Morna he did not go as Fionn. He called himself Deimne on that journey.
We get wise by asking questions, and even if these are not answered we get wise, for a well-packed question carries its answer on its back as a snail carries its shell. Fionn asked every question he could think of, and his master, who was a poet, and so an honourable man, answered them all, not to the limit of his patience, for it was limitless, but to the limit of his ability. ”

“ The Fianna would be within their rights in putting you to death, but neither Fionn nor the Fians would have it said that they were so unchivalrous as to bring death on a man who had adventured solitary among them. If you will swear by the three powers of sun and moon and wind to send tribute every year from your country to the Fianna, as long as you live, you will be allowed to return to your own land in the condition you are now in. ”

“ Those who had been the champions before he came would marshal each other, and, by social pressure, would muster all the others against him; so that in the end not a friendly eye was turned on Fionn in that assembly. For not only did he beat them at swimming, he beat their best at running and jumping, and when the sport degenerated into violence, as it was bound to, the roughness of Fionn would be ten times as rough as the roughness of the roughest rough they could put forward. Bravery is pride when one is young, and Fionn was proud. ”

“ When Fionn heard that he placed his thumb of knowledge in his mouth, and divined instantly the dreadful death that had happened to Donn and Dubhan. Terrible then was the wrath that filled him against the King of Norway's sons—for Fionn alone had power to judge any misdeed or broken word of the Fianna—and taking his spear in his hand he went out to the camp of the men of Norway; but they and their hound had disappeared, nor were they ever seen or heard of in Ireland again. ”

“ Fionn stayed with his guardians and hunted for them. He could run a deer down and haul it home by the reluctant skull. “Come on, Goll,” he would say to his stag, or, lifting it over a tussock with a tough grip on the snout, “Are you coming, bald Cona’n, or shall I kick you in the neck?”
The time must have been nigh when he would think of taking the world itself by the nose, to haul it over tussocks and drag it into his pen; for he was of the breed in whom mastery is born, and who are good masters. ”

“ Fionn called Bran to him, and the man walked over to where the boar lay panting on the ground. He struck it lightly with a hazel wand, and to the wonder of the Fians the fierce, ungainly beast changed instantly into a beautiful girl. He then touched himself, and from an ugly giant he became a tall, handsome man.
On seeing this Fionn drew back a step or two. He thought that perhaps the man might touch him with his magic stick, and he had no mind to be transformed into a pig, or a fly, or whatever else the enchanter might choose to make him. ”

“ Fionn hesitated—he remembered the song he had heard them sing; then he thought how foolish it was to imagine that these girls could work harm to him or his Fians, so he and Conan stepped over the rope, which was woven from one side of the cave's mouth to the other. No sooner were they inside the cave than a trembling came over all their limbs, and the strength left their bodies. Then, before their eyes, the maidens transformed themselves into terrible, fierce-looking hags, more deformed and ugly than any one the Fians had ever seen before. ”

“ His mind, quietly busy on all sides, picked up one sound and dwelt on it. “A man,” said Fionn, and he listened in that direction, back towards the city.
A man it was, almost as skilled in darkness as Fionn himself “This is no enemy,” Fionn thought; “his walking is open.”
“Who comes?” he called.
“A friend,” said the newcomer.
“Give a friend’s name,” said Fionn.
“Fiacuil mac Cona,” was the answer.
“Ah, my pulse and heart!” cried Fionn, and he strode a few paces to meet the great robber who had fostered him among the marshes. ”

“ If a man enters the Fianna Eireann, and after entering fails in either of these things, then the Fians cast him out, and disgrace rests on him whereever he goes."
"We pledge you our word," said they, "that in neither of these things shall we ever fail. Nor are we without knowledge, for certain gifts are ours that may be of use to you some time or other."
"What are they?" asked Fionn.
"I will watch over and guard the Fianna of Ireland, both night and day," said one.
"That is a good thing for one man to be able to do," remarked Fionn ”

“ The dark hours of the night passed on, and Fionn shivered as the chill autumnal dews dropped on his weak and helpless limbs. He thought how the poor and the old must suffer, without warmth or comfort, and welcomed the dawn and sunrise more eagerly than he ever had before; then on his ears fell the sound of men's voices shouting and calling, and the barking of many dogs. Nearer and nearer the sound came; a minute or two later his son Oisin, and Oscur the son of Oisin, with Caeilté and Conan mac Morna and a great band of the Fianna Eireann, came over the hill-top to him. ”

“ But he was as fitted for loneliness as the crane is that haunts the solitudes and bleak wastes of the sea; for the man with a thought has a comrade, and Fionn's mind worked as featly as his body did. To be alone was no trouble to him who, however surrounded, was to be lonely his life long; for this will be said of Fionn when all is said, that all that came to him went from him, and that happiness was never his companion for more than a moment. ”

“ I do not know in literature better friends and lovers. When one of the Fianna finds Osgar dying the proud death of a young man, and asks is it well with him, he is answered, "I am as you would have me be." The very heroism of the Fianna is indeed but their pride and joy in one another, their good fellowship. Goll, old and savage, and letting himself die of hunger in a cave because he is angry and sorry, can speak lovely words to the wife whose help he refuses. ”

“ Another is, that we do not wish you to give us food and drink; we are under a vow to provide everything for ourselves. Our third request is, that you give us that part of the country to hunt which contains the least game."
"Those are very curious demands," said Fionn. "I should like to know what reason you have for wishing to remain isolated after nightfall? It is a custom of the Fianna to be merry at night after the day's work, and if you hold to this condition you will be lonely while your comrades are feasting." ”

“ Fionn was naturally embarrassed. He did not particularly want a wife just then; but if he had to choose he preferred Aina, the brown-haired, quiet girl who had not yet spoken to him. Miluchra, he thought, had a tongue which moved a trifle too readily, and he did not care for women who were always talking. ”