o guard with him,
and he said: "It is better for you to spare my life than to kill me. And
if you spare me now," he said, "the cows of Ireland will never go dry."
"I will ask an advice about that from our wise men," said Lugh. So he
told Maeltine Mor-Brethach, of the Great Judgments, what Bres was after
saying. But Maeltine said: "Do not spare him for that, for he has no
power over their offspring, though he has power so long as they are
living."

Then Bres said: "If you spare me, the men of Ireland will reap a harvest
of corn every quarter." But Maeltine said: "The spring is for ploughing
and sowing, and the beginning of summer for the strength of corn, and
the beginning of autumn for its ripeness, and the winter for using it."

"That does not save you," said Lugh then to Bres. But then to make an
excuse for sparing him, Lugh said: "Tell us what is the best way for the
men of Ireland to plough and to sow and to reap."

"Let their ploughing be on a Tuesday, and their casting seed into the
field on a Tuesday, and their reaping on a Tuesday," said Bres. So Lugh
said that would do, and he let him go free after that.

It was in this battle Ogma found Orna, the sword of Tethra, a king of
the Fomor, and he took it from its sheath and cleaned it. And when the
sword was taken out of the sheath, it told all the deeds that had been
done by it, for there used to be that power in swords.

And Lugh and the Dagda and Ogma followed after the Fomor, for they had
brought away the Dagda's harp with them, that was called Uaitne. And
they came to a feasting-house, and in it they found Bres and his father
Elathan, and there was the harp hanging on the wall. And it was in that
harp the Dagda had bound the music, so that it would not sound till he
would call to it. And sometimes it was called Dur-da-Bla, the Oak of Two
Blossoms, and sometimes Coir-cethar-chuin, the Four-Angled Music.

And when he saw it hanging on the wall it is what he said: "Come summer,
come winter, from the mouth of harps and bags and pipes." Then the harp
sprang from the wall, and came to the Dagda, and it killed nine men on
its way.

And then he played for them the three things harpers understand, the
sleepy tune, and the laughing tune, and the crying tune. And when he
played the crying tune, their tearful women cried, and then he played
the laughing tune, till their women and children laughed; and then he
played the sleepy tune, and all the hosts fell asleep. An