About this ebook
ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 306
In this 306th ÿissue of the Baba Indaba?s Children's Stories series, Baba Indaba narrates the Irish fairty ?THE ENCHANTED CAVE OF CESH CORRAN? ? A tale of Finn MacCumhail.
ONCE upon a time, long, long ago and far, far away in Ireland, Fionn mac Uail (Finn MacCumhail) was the most prudent chief of an army in the world. He would take any opportunity that presented for an adventure; for he was not only a soldier, he was a poet also, that is, a man of science as well. He could lead the Fianna out of any hole they got into, but such an inveterate poet was he that all the Fianna together could scarcely retrieve him from the abysses into which he tumbled. ÿ
One day Fionn, with Cona?n the Swearer and the dogs Bran and Sceo?lan, was sitting on the hunting-mound at the top of Cesh Corran. Below and around on every side the Fianna were beating the coverts in Legney and Brefny, ranging the fastnesses of Glen Dallan, creeping in the nut and beech forests of Carbury, spying among the woods of Kyle Conor, and ranging the wide plain of Moy Conal.
Now the king of the Shi? of Cesh Corran, Conaran, son of Imidel, was also watching the hunt, but Fionn did not see him, for we cannot see the people of Faery until we enter their realm, and Fionn was not thinking of Faery at that moment. Conaran did not like Fionn, and, seeing that the great champion was alone, save for Cona?n and the two hounds Bran and Sceo?lan, he thought the time had come to get Fionn into his power. We do not know what Fionn had done to Conaran, but it must have been bad enough, for the king of the Shi? of Cesh Cotran was filled with joy at the sight of Fionn thus close to him, thus unprotected, thus unsuspicious.
This Conaran had four daughters. He was fond of them and proud of them, but if one were to search the Shi?s of Ireland or the land of Ireland, the equal of these four would not be found for ugliness and bad humour and twisted temperaments.
Their hair was black as ink and tough as wire: it stuck up and poked out and hung down about their heads in bushes and spikes and tangles.
Their eyes were bleary and red. Their mouths were black and twisted, and in each of these mouths there was a hedge of curved yellow fangs. They had long scraggy necks that could turn all the way round like the neck of a hen. Their arms were long and skinny and muscular, and at the end of each finger they had a spiked nail that was as hard as horn and as sharp as a briar. Their bodies were covered with a bristle of hair and fur and fluff, so that they looked like dogs in some parts and like cats in others, and in other parts again they looked like chickens. They had moustaches poking under their noses and woolly wads growing out of their ears, so that when you looked at them the first time you never wanted to look at them again, and if you had to look at them a second time you were likely to die of the sight.
Conaran called these three to him.
?Fionn is alone,? said he. ?Fionn is alone, my treasures.?
?Ah!? said Caevo?g, and her jaw crunched upwards and stuck outwards, as was usual with her when she was satisfied.
?When the chance comes take it,? Conaran continued, and he smiled a black, beetle-browed, unbenevolent smile.
?It?s a good word,? quoth Cuillen, and she swung her jaw loose and made it waggle up and down, for that was the way she smiled.
?And here is the chance,? her father added.
And that?s when the fun started??..
What was ?the Chance? you ask? How do the four sisters and Conaran of the Shi? fit into this and what did they intend to do to Fionn and the Fianna? To answer this and the myriad of questions you have swirling in your mind, download and read this story to find out how, or indeed IF, Fionn can lead the Fianna out of the trap being set for them by Conaran.
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Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT - use Google maps.
Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories".
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About the author
The Baba Indaba Children's Stories, published by Abela Publishing, often uses folklore and fairy tales which have their origins mists of time. Afterall who knows who wrote the story of Cinderella, also known in other cultures as The Little Glass Slipper, or Cenerentola (Italian),ÿ Cendrillon, ou La petite Pantoufle de Verre (French), Aschenputtel (German), Tattercoats and Cap o? Rushes (English), or Conkiajgharuna (Georgian). There is still debate as to whether the story originated in Egypt or China. So who wrote the original? The answer is simple. No-one knows, or will ever know, so to assume that anyone owns the rights to these stories is nothing but nonsense. As such, we have decided to use the Author name "Anon E. Mouse" which, of course, is a play on the word "Anonymous".
