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Of Cona'n Mael mac Morna his brother, gruff as a badger, bearded like a boar, bald as a crow, and with a tongue that could manage an insult where another man would not find even a stammer. His boast was that when he saw an open door he went into it, and when he saw a closed door he went into it. When he saw a peaceful man he insulted him, and when he met a man who was not peaceful he insulted him.
These two encountered then, and Oscar knocked a groan of distress out of Cona'n. He looked appealingly at his brother Art og mac Morna, and that powerful champion flew to his aid and wounded Oscar. Oisi'n, Oscar's father, could not abide that; he dashed in and quelled Art Og. Then Rough Hair mac Morna wounded Oisin and was himself tumbled by mac Lugac, who was again wounded by Gara mac Morna.
He stated that Fionn's brother Cairell struck Cona'n mac Morna, that Goll's two sons came to help Cona'n, that Oscar went to help Cairell, and with that Fionn's people and the clann-Morna rose at each other, and what had started as a brawl ended as a battle with eleven hundred of Fionn's people and sixty-one of Goll's people dead.
The watcher became then an eye, a rigidity, an intense out-thrusting and ransacking of thin-spun distance. At last he spoke. "There is a dust," he said. And at that the champions gazed also, straining hungrily afar, until their eyes became filled with a blue darkness and they could no longer see even the things that were close to them. "I," cried Cona'n triumphantly, "I see a dust."
Lots of the people in the Shi' learned that song by heart, and they applied it to every kind of circumstance. BY his arts Conaran changed the sight of Fionn's eyes, and he did the same for Cona'n. In a few minutes Fionn stood up from his place on the mound. Everything was about him as before, and he did not know that he had gone into Faery. He walked for a minute up and down the hillock.
"For tribute and sovereignty," growled that other, and he struck the haft of his spear violently on the ground. "By my hand," said Cona'n, "we have never heard of a warrior, however great, but his peer was found in Ireland, and the funeral songs of all such have been chanted by the women of this land."
The harridan did as she had promised, and in a short time Fionn and Oisi'n and Oscar and Cona'n were released, and after that all the Fianna were released. As each man came out of the cave he gave a jump and a shout; the courage of the world went into him and he felt that he could fight twenty.
She went away from Tara: and in all Ireland and in the world of living men she was not seen again, and she was never heard of again. "I think," said Cairell Whiteskin, "that although judgement was given against Fionn, it was Fionn had the rights of it." "He had eleven hundred killed," said Cona'n amiably, "and you may call that the rights of it if you like."
He was never thanked, of course, for although Fionn loved Goll he did not like him, and that was how Goll felt towards Fionn. Fionn, with Cona'n the Swearer and the dogs Bran and Sceo'lan, was sitting on the hunting-mound at the top of Cesh Corran.
Then, as by chance, he stepped down the sloping end of the mound and stood with his mouth open, staring. He cried out: "Come down here, Cona'n, my darling." Cona'n stepped down to him. "Am I dreaming?" Fionn demanded, and he stretched out his finger before him. "If you are dreaming," said Congn, "I'm dreaming too. They weren't here a minute ago," he stammered.
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