“Go to seek my foster-son,” said Fin.
Fergus went to Caol, and asked him how his health was. “If my battle-harness were loosened, my body would fall asunder from wounds; but more grieved am I at the escape of the foreigner with tidings than at my own woful state. Take me to the sea, Fergus, that I may swim after the foreigner; perhaps he will fall by this hand before the life leaves me.”
Fergus took him to the sea; and he swam to the ship. The foreigner thought him one of his own men, and reached down to raise him to the ship-board; but Caol grasped the man firmly and drew him to the water. Both sank in the clear, cold sea, and were drowned.
No man saw the foreigner afterward; but Caol’s body was carried by the waves, borne northward, and past the islands, till it came to land, at the port which is now called Caoil Cuan (Caol’s Harbor).
FOOTNOTES
[1] This Winishuyat is represented as no larger than a man’s thumb, and confined under the hair on the top of the head, the hair being tied over him. He is foresight itself. Winis means “he sees,” what huyat means I have not discovered yet.
[2] Sprisawn, in Gaelic spriosan, a small twig, and, figuratively, a poor little creature, a sorry little fellow.
[3] Pronounced Shawn,—John.