A Harvest of Irish Folk-Lore 327 



thing. The stories of Fin MacCumhail (pro- 

 nounced MacCool) and the Fenians of Erin are 

 full of grotesque incident and inimitable drollery. 

 Fin and his redoubtable dog Bran, the one-eyed 

 Gruagach, the hero Diarmuid, the old hag with the 

 life-giving ointment, the weird hand of Mai Mac- 

 Mulcan, and the cowherd that was son of the king 

 of Alban make a charming series of pictures. 

 Among Fin's followers there is a certain Conan 

 Maol, " who never had a good word in his mouth 

 for any man," and for whom no man had a good 

 word. This counterpart of Thersites, as Mr. Cur- 

 tin tells us, figures as conspicuously in North 

 American as in Aryan myths. Conan was always 

 at Fin's side, and advising him to mischief. Once 

 it had like to have gone hard with Conan. The 

 Fenians had been inveigled into an enchanted 

 castle, and could not rise from their chairs till two 

 of Fin's sons had gone and beheaded three kings 

 in the north of Erin, and put their blood into 

 three goblets, and come back and rubbed the blood 

 on the chairs. Conan had no chair, but was sit- 

 ting on the floor, with his back to the wall, and 

 just before they came to him the last drop of blood 

 gave out. The Fenians were hurrying past without 

 minding the mischief-maker, when, upon his ear- 

 nest appeal, Diarmuid " took him by one hand, and 



