id, 'for
he would not give them me more readily for that.'

'Loose our bonds,' said the children of Moirna, 'and we will go with
you, and give ourselves for your sake.'

'Not so,' answered Diarmid, 'for the sight of him might kill you.'

'Then let us go to watch you fight, before you cut off our heads.' And
Diarmid did so.

They found the giant asleep before the tree, and Diarmid pushed him
with his foot.

The giant raised his head and looked at him: 'Are you fain to break
peace, O Diarmid?'

'Not I,' answered he, 'but Grania my wife is ill, and she longs for
the taste of your berries, and it is to get a handful of them that I
am now come.'

'If she should die,' said the giant, 'she should have none.'

'I may not do you treachery,' replied Diarmid, 'therefore I tell you I
will have them by fair means or foul.'

The giant having heard that, stood up and dealt Diarmid three mighty
strokes with his club, so that he staggered. Then, flinging down his
weapons, he sprang upon the giant and grasped the club between his
hands, hurling the giant to the ground by the weight of his body.
Without giving him time to rise, Diarmid struck three blows with the
club at the giant's head and he died without a word.

Aod and Angus had watched the combat, and now came forth. 'Bury the
giant under the brushwood of the forest,' said Diarmid, 'so that
Grania may not see him, and then go and bring her to me, for I am very
weary.'

And the young men did so. 'There, Grania, are the berries you asked
for,' said Diarmid when she came, but she swore that she would not
taste a berry except he plucked it for her. So he plucked the berries
for her and for the children of Moirna, and they ate their fill of
them. 'Now go,' said he, 'take as many berries as you can to Fionn,
and tell him that it was you who slew the giant.' And they gave thanks
to Diarmid and left him, and he and Grania went to sleep on the top of
the tree where the sweetest berries grew.

The children of Moirna reached Fionn, and bowed before him. 'We have
slain the giant,' said they, 'and have brought you the berries, and
now we shall have peace for the death of our father.' Fionn took the
berries into his hand, and stooped down and smelt them. 'I swear,' he
cried, 'that it was Diarmid O'Dowd who gathered these berries, and
full sure I am that it was he who slew the giant. I will follow him
to the quicken tree, and it shall profit you nothing to have brought
the berries