CHAPTER XIII
The Chase of the Gilla Dacar
In the reign of Cormac mac Art, grandson of Conn of the Hundred
Battles, the order of precedence and dignity in the court of the High
King at Tara was as follows: First came great Cormac, the kingly, the
hospitable, warrior and poet, and he was supreme over all. Next in
order came the five kings of the five Provinces of Ireland, namely,
Ulster, Munster, Connacht, Leinster, and Mid-Erinn. After these ranked
the captains of the royal host, of whom Finn, son of Cumhal, was the
chief.
Now the privileges of the Fianna of Erinn were many and great; to wit,
in every county in Ireland one townland, and in every townland a
cartron of land, and in the house of every gentleman the right to
have a young deer-hound or a beagle kept at nurse from November to
May, together with many other taxes and royalties not to be recounted
here. But if they had these many and great privileges, yet greater
than these were the toils and hardships which they had to endure, in
guarding the coasts of all Ireland from oversea invaders and
marauders, and in keeping down all robbers and outlaws and evil folk
within the kingdom, for this was the duty laid upon them by their bond
of service to the King.
Now the summer half of the year was wont to be ended by a great
hunting in one of the forests of Ireland, and so it was that one
All-hallowtide, when the great banquet of Finn in his Dun on the Hill
of Allen was going forward, and the hall resounded with cheerful talk
and laughter and with the music of tympan and of harp, Finn asked of
the assembled captains in what part of Erinn they should proceed to
beat up game on the morrow.
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