knows all their right powers to this day.
Then when the Tuatha de Danaan saw Nuada as well as he was before, they
gathered together to Teamhair, where Bres was, and they bade him give up
the kingship, for he had held it long enough. So he had to give it up,
though he was not very willing, and Nuada was put back in the kingship
again.
There was great vexation on Bres then, and he searched his mind to know
how could he be avenged on those that had put him out, and how he could
gather an army against them; and he went to his mother, Eri, daughter of
Delbaith, and bade her tell him what his race was.
"I know that well," she said; and she told him then that his father was
a king of the Fomor, Elathan, son of Dalbaech, and that he came to her
one time over a level sea in some great vessel that seemed to be of
silver, but she could not see its shape, and he himself having the
appearance of a young man with yellow hair, and his clothes sewed with
gold, and five rings of gold about his neck. And she that had refused
the love of all the young men of her own people, gave him her love, and
she cried when he left her. And he gave her a ring from his hand, and
bade her give it only to the man whose finger it would fit, and he went
away then the same way as he had come.
And she brought out the ring then to Bres, and he put it round his
middle finger, and it fitted him well. And they went then together to
the hill where she was the time she saw the silver vessel coming, and
down to the strand, and she and Bres and his people set out for the
country of the Fomor.
And when they came to that country they found a great plain with many
gatherings of people on it, and they went to the gathering that looked
the best, and the people asked where did they come from, and they said
they were come from Ireland. "Have you hounds with you?" they asked them
then, for it was the custom at that time, when strangers came to a
gathering, to give them some friendly challenge. "We have hounds," said
Bres. So the hounds were matched against one another, and the hounds of
the Tuatha de Danaan were better than the hounds of the Fomor. "Have you
horses for a race?" they asked then. "We have," said Bres. And the
horses of the Tuatha de Danaan beat the horses of the Fomor.
Then they asked was any one among them a good hand with the sword, and
they said Bres was the best. But when he put his hand to his sword,
Elathan, his father, that was among them,
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