But among the cottages was a small house of stone such as Oisin had never seen in the land of Erinn; stone was its roof as well as the walls, very steep and high, and near-by from a rude frame of timber there hung a bell of bronze.

Into this house there passed one whom from his shaven crown Oisin guessed to be a druid, and behind him two lads in white apparel.

The druid having seen the horseman turned his eyes again to the ground and passed on, regarding him not, and the lads did likewise.

And Oisin rode on, eager to reach the Dun upon the Hill of Allen and to see the faces of his kin and his friends.
[Illustration: "The white steed had vanished from their eyes like a wreath of mist"] At length, coming from the forest path into the great clearing where the Hill of Allen was wont to rise broad and green, with its rampart enclosing many white-walled dwellings, and the great hall towering high in the midst, he saw but grassy mounds overgrown with rank weeds and whin bushes, and among them pastured a peasant's kine.
Then a strange horror fell upon him, and he thought some enchantment from the land of Faery held his eyes and mocked him with false visions.

He threw his arms abroad and shouted the names of Finn and Oscar, but none replied, and he thought that perchance the hounds might hear him, and he cried upon Bran and Sceolaun, and strained his ears if they might catch the faintest rustle or whisper of the world from the sight of which his eyes were holden, but he heard only the sigh of the wind in the whins.