"Oh, isn't that for my baptism?" says Oisín.
"I hope in God that you are saved," says St. Patrick, "you have undergone baptism and ...?"
"Patrick," says Oisín, "would you not be able to take the Fenians out of hell"—he saw them there when he was in his sleep.
"I could not," says St. Patrick, "and any one who is in hell, it is impossible to bring him out of it."
"Patrick," says Oisín, "are you able to take me to the place where Finn and the Fenians of Erin are?"
"I cannot," says St. Patrick.
As much as the humming gnat
Or a scintilla of the beam of the sun,
Unknown to the great powerful king
Shall not pass in beneath my shield.
"Can you give them relief from the pain?" says Oisín.
St. Patrick then asked it as a petition from God to give them a relief from their pain, and he said to Oisín that they had found relief. This is the relief they got from God. Oscar got a flail, and he requested a fresh thong to be put into the flail, and there went a green rush as a thong into it, and he got the full of his palm of green sand, and he shook the sand on the ground, and as far as the sand reached the devils were not able to follow; but if they were to come beyond the place where the sand was strewn, Oscar was able to follow them, and to beat them with the flail. Oscar and all the Fenians are on this side of the sand, and the devils are on the other side, for St. Patrick got it as a request from God that they should not be able to follow them where the sand was shaken,—and the thong that was in the flail never broke since!