One day, while still a boy, he was roaming through the woods when he
came to the mansion of a great lord, where many boys, sons of the
chief men of Ireland, were being trained in manly arts and exercises.
He found them playing at hurling, and they invited him to join them.
He did so, but the side he was on won too easily, so they divided
again, and yet again, giving fewer and fewer to Demna's side, till at
last he alone drove the ball to the goal through them all, flashing
among them as a salmon among a shoal of minnows. And then their anger
and jealousy rose and grew bitter against the stranger, and instead of
honouring him as gallant lads of gentle blood should have done they
fell upon him with their hurling clubs and sought to kill him. But
Demna felled seven of them to the ground and put the rest to flight,
and then went his way home. When the boys told what had happened the
chief asked them who it was that had defeated and routed them
single-handed. They said, "It was a tall shapely lad, and very fair
(_finn_)." So the name of Finn, the Fair One, clung to him
thenceforth, and by that name he is known to this day.
By and by Finn gathered round him a band of youths who loved him for
his strength and valour and for his generous heart, and with them he
went hunting in the forests.
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