When his time to take arms was come he stood before Finn and made his covenant of fealty, and Finn gave him the captaincy of a band.

But mac Luga proved slothful and selfish, for ever vaunting himself and his weapon-skill and never training his men to the chase of deer or boar, and he used to beat his hounds and his serving-men.

At last the Fians under him came with their whole company to Finn at Loch Lena in Killarney, and there they laid their complaint against mac Luga, and said, "Choose now, O Finn, whether you will have us, or the son of Luga by himself." Then Finn sent to mac Luga and questioned him, but mac Luga could say nothing to the point as to why the Fianna would none of him.

Then Finn taught him the things befitting a youth of noble birth and a captain of men, and they were these:-- "Son of Luga, if armed service be thy design, in a great man's household be quiet, be surly in the narrow pass." "Without a fault of his beat not thy hound; until thou ascertain her guilt, bring not a charge against thy wife." "In battle, meddle not with a buffoon, for, O mac Luga, he is but a fool." "Censure not any if he be of grave repute; stand not up to take part in a brawl; have nought to do with a madman or a wicked one." "Two-thirds of thy gentleness be shown to women and to those that creep on the floor (little children) and to poets, and be not violent to the common people." "Utter not swaggering speech, nor say thou wilt not yield what is right; it is a shameful thing to speak too stiffly unless that it be feasible to carry out thy words." "So long as thou shalt live, thy lord forsake not; neither for gold nor for other reward in the world abandon one whom thou art pledged to protect." "To a chief do not abuse his people, for that is no work for a gentleman." "Be no talebearer, nor utterer of falsehoods; be not talkative nor rashly censorious.

Stir not up strife against thee, however good a man thou be." "Be no frequenter of the drinking-house, nor given to carping at the old; meddle not with a man of mean estate." "Dispense thy meat freely, have no niggard for thy familiar." "Force not thyself upon a chief, nor give him cause to speak ill of thee." "Stick to thy gear, hold fast to thy arms till the stern fight with its weapon-glitter be well ended." "Be more apt to give than to deny, and follow after gentleness, O son of Luga."[22] [22] I have in the main borrowed Standish Hayes O'Grady's vivid and racy translation of these adages of the Fianna.