This and other “boy-exploits” of Finn mac Cumhail are contained in a little tract written upon a fragment of the ninth century Psalter of Cashel. It is translated in Vol. IV of the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_. Footnote 245: Campbell’s _Fians_, p. 22. Footnote 246: See chap. XI—“The Gods in Exile”. Footnote 247: From the _Colloquy of the Ancients_ in O’Grady’s _Silva Gadelica_. Footnote 248: It is translated in Vol. VI of the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_. Footnote 249: Pronounced _Brăn_, not _Brān_. Footnote 250: Pronounced _Skōlaun_ or _Scolaing_. Footnote 251: A fine translation of the _Pursuit of Diarmait and Grainne_ has been published by S. H. O’Grady in Vol. III of the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_. Footnote 252: Pronounced _Navin_ or _Nowin_. Footnote 253: The mountain-ash, or rowan. Footnote 254: Now called Benbulben. It is near Sligo. Footnote 255: Pronounced _Gavra_. Footnote 256: See O’Grady’s _Silva Gadelica_. Footnote 257: Pronounced _Nee-av_. Footnote 258: _The Lay of Oisin in the Land of Youth_, translated by Brian O’Looney for the Ossianic Society—_Transactions_, Vol. IV. A fine modern poem on the same subject is W. B. Yeats’ _Wanderings of Oisin_. Footnote 259: See the _Transactions of the Ossianic Society_. They are generally called the _Dialogues of Oisin and Patrick_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XV THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE GODS In spite, however, of the wide-spread popularity of the ballads that took the form of dialogues between Ossian and Patrick, certain traditions say that the saint succeeded in converting the hero. Caoilté, the other great surviving Fenian, was also represented as having gladly exchanged his pagan lore for the faith and salvation offered him. We may see the same influence on foot in the later legends concerning the Red Branch Champions. It was the policy of the first Christianizers of Ireland to describe the loved heroes of their still half-heathen flocks as having handed in their submission to the new creed. The tales about Conchobar and Cuchulainn were amended, to prove that those very pagan personages had been miraculously brought to accept the gospel at the last. An entirely new story told how the latter hero was raised from the dead by Saint Patrick that he might bear witness of the truth of Christianity to Laogaire the Second, King of Ireland, which he did with such fervour and eloquence that the sceptical monarch was convinced.[260]