every act
of more than ordinary skill was attributed to supernatural causes,
though effected through human agents. Perhaps even, in the enlightened
nineteenth century, we might not be much the worse for the pious belief,
less the pagan cause to which it was attributed. It should be observed
here, that the Brehon Laws were probably then in force; for the
"blemish" of the monarch appears to have deprived him of his dignity, at
least until the silver hand could satisfy for the defective limb. The
Four Masters tell us briefly that the Tuatha De Dananns gave the
sovereignty to Breas, son of Ealathan, "while the hand of Nuada was
under cure," and mentions that Breas resigned the kingdom to him in the
seventh year after the cure of his hand.

A more detailed account of this affair may be found in one of our
ancient historic tales, of the class called _Catha_ or _Battles_, which
Professor O'Curry pronounces to be "almost the earliest event upon the
record of which we may place sure reliance."[37] It would appear that
there were two battles between the Firbolgs and Tuatha De Dananns, and
that, in the last of these, Nuada was slain. According to this ancient
tract, when the Firbolg king heard of the arrival of the invaders, he
sent a warrior named Sreng to reconnoitre their camp. The Tuatha De
Dananns were as skilled in war as in magic; they had sentinels carefully
posted, and their _videttes_ were as much on the alert as a Wellington
or a Napier could desire. The champion Breas was sent forward to meet
the stranger. As they approached, each raised his shield, and cautiously
surveyed his opponent from above the protecting aegis. Breas was the
first to speak. The mother-tongue was as dear then as now, and Sreng was
charmed to hear himself addressed in his own language, which, equally
dear to the exiled Nemedian chiefs, had been preserved by them in their
long wanderings through northern Europe. An examination of each others
armour next took place. Sreng was armed with "two heavy, thick,
pointless, but sharply rounded spears;" while Breas carried "two
beautifully shaped, thin, slender, long, sharp-pointed spears."[38]
Perhaps the one bore a spear of the same class of heavy flint weapons of
which we give an illustration, and the other the lighter and more
graceful sword, of which many specimens may be seen in the collection of
the Royal Irish Academy. Breas then proposed that they should divide the
island between the two parties; a