eyes."

Then the people were terrified: there was yet a river for Bran to pass,
and they broke down the bridge which crossed it, but Bran laid himself
down and said, "Who will be a chief, let him be a bridge." Then his men
laid hurdles on his back, and the whole army crossed over; and that saying
of his became afterwards a proverb. Then the Irish resolved, in order to
appease the mighty visitor, to build him a house, because he had never
before had one that would hold him; and they decided to make the house
large enough to contain the two armies, one on each side. They accordingly
built this house, and there were a hundred pillars, and the builders
treacherously hung a leathern bag on each side of each pillar and put an
armed man inside of each, so that they could all rise by night and kill
the sleepers. But Bran's brother, who was a suspicious man, asked the
builders what was in the first bag. "Meal, good soul," they answered; and
he, putting his hand in, felt a man's head and crushed it with his mighty
fingers, and so with the next and the next and with the whole two hundred.
After this it did not take long to bring on a quarrel between the two
armies, and they fought all day.

After this great fight between the men of Ireland and the men of the
Isles of the Mighty there were but seven of these last who escaped,
besides their king Bran, who was wounded in the foot with a poisoned dart.
Then he knew that he should soon die, but he bade the seven men to cut off
his head and told them that they must always carry it with them--that it
would never decay and would always be able to speak and be pleasant
company for them. "A long time will you be on the road," he said. "In
Harlech you will feast seven years, the birds of Rhiannon singing to you
all the while. And at the Island of Gwales you will dwell for fourscore
years, and you may remain there, bearing the head with you uncorrupted,