only; and when he came to him, he asked what was there. "Meal, good soul," said the Irishman. And he felt about until he felt the head, and he squeezed that head as he had done the others. And, albeit he found that the head of this one was armed, he left him not until he had killed him. And then he sang an Englyn:-
"There is in this bag a different sort of meal,
The ready combatant, when the assault is made
By his fellow-warriors, prepared for battle."
Thereupon came the hosts unto the house. The men of the Island of
Ireland entered the house on the one side, and the men of the Island
of the Mighty on the other. And as soon as they had sat down there
was concord between them; and the sovereignty was conferred upon the
boy. When the peace was concluded, Bendigeid Vran called the boy
unto him, and from Bendigeid Vran the boy went unto Manawyddan, and
he was beloved by all that beheld him. And from Manawyddan the boy
was called by Nissyen the son of Eurosswydd, and the boy went unto
him lovingly. "Wherefore," said Evnissyen, "comes not my nephew the
son of my sister unto me? Though he were not king of Ireland, yet
willingly would I fondle the boy." "Cheerfully let him go to thee,"
said Bendigeid Vran, and the boy went unto him cheerfully. "By my
confession to Heaven," said Evnissyen in his heart, "unthought of by
the household is the slaughter that I will this instant commit."
Then he arose and took up the boy by the feet, and before any one in the house could seize hold of him, he thrust the boy headlong into the blazing fire. And when Branwen saw her son burning in the fire, she strove to leap into the fire also, from the place where she sat between her two brothers. But Bendigeid Vran grasped her with one hand, and his shield with the other. Then they all hurried about the house, and never was there made so great a tumult by any host in one house as was made by them, as each man armed himself.
