Chapter 5
ONE day his guardians were agitated: they held confabulations at
which Fionn was not permitted to assist. A man who passed by in the
morning had spoken to them. They fed the man, and during his
feeding Fionn had been shooed from the door as if he were a
chicken. When the stranger took his road the women went with him a
short distance. As they passed the man lifted a hand and bent a
knee to Fionn.
"My soul to you, young master," he said, and as he said it,
Fionn knew that he could have the man's soul, or his boots, or his
feet, or anything that belonged to him.
When the women returned they were mysterious and whispery. They
chased Fionn into the house, and when they got him in they chased
him out again. They chased each other around the house for another
whisper. The
