But they put a bad name on the Firbolgs and
the men of Domnand and the Gaileoin, for lies and for big talk and
injustice. But for all that there were good fighters among them, and
Ferdiad, that made so good a stand against Cuchulain, in the war for the
Bull of Cuailgne was one of them. And the Gaileoin fought well in the
same war; but the men of Ireland had no great liking for them, and their
Druids drove them out of the country afterwards.
BOOK FOUR: THE EVER-LIVING LIVING ONES.
CHAPTER I. BODB DEARG
But as to the Tuatha de Danaan after they were beaten, they would not go
under the sway of the sons of Miled, but they went away by themselves.
And because Manannan, son of Lir, understood all enchantments, they left
it to him to find places for them where they would be safe from their
enemies. So he chose out the most beautiful of the hills and valleys of
Ireland for them to settle in; and he put hidden walls about them, that
no man could see through, but they themselves could see through them and
pass through them.
And he made the Feast of Age for them, and what they drank at it was the
ale of Goibniu the Smith, that kept whoever tasted it from age and from
sickness and from death. And for food at the feast he gave them his own
swine, that though they were killed and eaten one day, would be alive
and fit for eating again the next day, and that would go on in that way
for ever.
And after a while they said: "It would be better for us one king to be
over us, than to be scattered the way we are through the whole of
Ireland.
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