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diff --git a/old/55025-8.txt b/old/55025-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 92c78e3..0000000 --- a/old/55025-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,15254 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (Volume 1 -of 2), by John Rhys - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (Volume 1 of 2) - -Author: John Rhys - -Release Date: July 2, 2017 [EBook #55025] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC FOLKLORE: WELSH AND MANX *** - - - - -Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project -Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously -made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - CELTIC FOLKLORE - - WELSH AND MANX - - BY - - JOHN RHYS, M.A., D.Litt. - - HON. LL.D. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH - PROFESSOR OF CELTIC - PRINCIPAL OF JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD - - - VOLUME I - - OXFORD - - AT THE CLARENDON PRESS - MDCCCCI - - - - - - - - - TO ALL THOSE - WHO HAVE IN ANY WAY CONTRIBUTED TO - THE PRODUCTION OF THIS WORK - IT IS RESPECTFULLY - DEDICATED - IN TOKEN OF HIS GRATITUDE - BY - THE AUTHOR - - - - - - - - - Our modern idioms, with all their straining after the - abstract, are but primitive man's mental tools adapted - to the requirements of civilized life, and they often - retain traces of the form and shape which the neolithic - worker's chipping and polishing gave them. - - - - - - - - -PREFACE - - -Towards the close of the seventies I began to collect Welsh folklore. I -did so partly because others had set the example elsewhere, and partly -in order to see whether Wales could boast of any story-tellers of -the kind that delight the readers of Campbell's Popular Tales of the -West Highlands. I soon found what I was not wholly unprepared for, -that as a rule I could not get a single story of any length from the -mouths of any of my fellow countrymen, but a considerable number of -bits of stories. In some instances these were so scrappy that it took -me years to discover how to fit them into their proper context; but, -speaking generally, I may say, that, as the materials, such as they -were, accumulated, my initial difficulties disappeared. I was, however, -always a little afraid of refreshing my memory with the legends of -other lands lest I should read into those of my own, ideas possibly -foreign to them. While one is busy collecting, it is safest probably -not to be too much engaged in comparison: when the work of collecting -is done that of comparing may begin. But after all I have not attempted -to proceed very far in that direction, only just far enough to find -elucidation here and there for the meaning of items of folklore -brought under my notice. To have gone further would have involved -me in excursions hopelessly beyond the limits of my undertaking, -for comparative folklore has lately assumed such dimensions, that it -seems best to leave it to those who make it their special study. - -It is a cause of genuine regret to me that I did not commence my -inquiries earlier, when I had more opportunities of pursuing them, -especially when I was a village schoolmaster in Anglesey and could -have done the folklore of that island thoroughly; but my education, -such as it was, had been of a nature to discourage all interest in -anything that savoured of heathen lore and superstition. Nor is that -all, for the schoolmasters of my early days took very little trouble -to teach their pupils to keep their eyes open or take notice of what -they heard around them; so I grew up without having acquired the -habit of observing anything, except the Sabbath. It is to be hoped -that the younger generation of schoolmasters trained under more -auspicious circumstances, when the baleful influence of Robert Lowe -has given way to a more enlightened system of public instruction, -will do better, and succeed in fostering in their pupils habits of -observation. At all events there is plenty of work still left to be -done by careful observers and skilful inquirers, as will be seen -from the geographical list showing approximately the provenance -of the more important contributions to the Kymric folklore in this -collection: the counties will be found to figure very unequally. Thus -the anglicizing districts have helped me very little, while the more -Welsh county of Carnarvon easily takes the lead; but I am inclined to -regard the anomalous features of that list as in a great measure due -to accident. In other words, some neighbourhoods have been luckier -than others in having produced or attracted men who paid attention -to local folklore; and if other counties were to be worked equally -with Carnarvonshire, some of them would probably be found not much -less rich in their yield. The anglicizing counties in particular are -apt to be disregarded both from the Welsh and the English points of -view, in folklore just as in some other things; and in this connexion -I cannot help mentioning the premature death of the Rev. Elias Owen -as a loss which Welsh folklorists will not soon cease to regret. - -My information has been obtained partly viva voce, partly by -letter. In the case of the stories written down for me in Welsh, -I may mention that in some instances the language is far from good; -but it has not been thought expedient to alter it in any way, beyond -introducing some consistency into the spelling. In the case of the -longest specimen of the written stories, Mr. J. C. Hughes' Curse of -Pantannas, it is worthy of notice in passing, that the rendering of -it into English was followed by a version in blank verse by Sir Lewis -Morris, who published it in his Songs of Britain. With regard to the -work generally, my original intention was to publish the materials, -obtained in the way described, with such stories already in print -as might be deemed necessary by way of setting for them; and to let -any theories or deductions in which I might be disposed to indulge -follow later. In this way the first six chapters and portions of -some of the others appeared from time to time in the publications of -the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion and in those of the Folk-Lore -Society. This would have allowed me to divide the present work into -the two well marked sections of materials and deductions. But, when -the earlier part came to be edited, I found that I had a good deal of -fresh material at my disposal, so that the chapters in question had -in some instances to be considerably lengthened and in some others -modified in other ways. Then as to the deductive half of the work, -it may be mentioned that certain portions of the folklore, though -ever apt to repeat themselves, were found when closely scrutinized -to show serious lacunæ, which had to be filled in the course of the -reasoning suggested by the materials in hand. Thus the idea of the -whole consisting of two distinctly defined sections had to be given -up or else allowed to wait till I should find time to recast it. But -I could no more look forward to any such time than to the eventual -possibility of escaping minor inconsistencies by quietly stepping -through the looking-glass and beginning my work with the index -instead of resting content to make it in the old-fashioned way at the -end. There was, however, a third course, which is only mentioned to -be rejected, and that was to abstain from all further publication; but -what reader of books has ever known any of his authors to adopt that! - -To crown these indiscretions I have to confess that even when most of -what I may call the raw material had been brought together, I had no -clear idea what I was going to do with it; but I had a hazy notion, -that, as in the case of an inveterate talker whose stream of words -is only made the more boisterous by obstruction, once I sat down to -write I should find reasons and arguments flowing in. It may seem -as though I had been secretly conjuring with Vergil's words viresque -adquirit eundo. Nothing so deliberate: the world in which I live swarms -with busybodies dying to organize everybody and everything, and my -instinctive opposition to all that order of tyranny makes me inclined -to cherish a somewhat wild sort of free will. Still the cursory -reader would be wrong to take for granted that there is no method -in my madness: should he take the trouble to look for it, he would -find that it has a certain unity of purpose, which has been worked -out in the later chapters; but to spare him that trouble I venture -to become my own expositor and to append the following summary:-- - -The materials crowded into the earlier chapters mark out the stories -connected with the fairies, whether of the lakes or of the dry land, as -the richest lode to be exploited in the mine of Celtic folklore. That -work is attempted in the later chapters; and the analysis of what -may briefly be described as the fairy lore given in the earlier ones -carries with it the means of forcing the conviction, that the complex -group of ideas identified with the little people is of more origins -than one; in other words, that it is drawn partly from history and -fact, and partly from the world of imagination and myth. The latter -element proves on examination to be inseparably connected with certain -ancient beliefs in divinities and demons associated, for instance, with -lakes, rivers, and floods. Accordingly, this aspect of fairy lore has -been dealt with in chapters vi and vii: the former is devoted largely -to the materials themselves, while the latter brings the argument to -a conclusion as to the intimate connexion of the fairies with the -water-world. Then comes the turn of the other kind of origin to be -discussed, namely, that which postulates the historical existence of -the fairies as a real race on which have been lavishly superinduced -various impossible attributes. This opens up a considerable vista -into the early ethnology of these islands, and it involves a variety -of questions bearing on the fortunes here of other races. In the -series which suggests itself the fairies come first as the oldest -and lowest people: then comes that which I venture to call Pictish, -possessed of a higher civilization and of warlike instincts. Next -come the earlier Celts of the Goidelic branch, the traces, linguistic -and other, of whose presence in Wales have demanded repeated notice; -and last of all come the other Celts, the linguistic ancestors of the -Welsh and all the other speakers of Brythonic. The development of these -theses, as far as folklore supplies materials, occupies practically the -remaining five chapters. Among the subsidiary questions raised may be -instanced those of magic and the origin of druidism; not to mention a -neglected aspect of the Arthurian legend, the intimate association of -the Arthur of Welsh folklore and tradition with Snowdon, and Arthur's -attitude towards the Goidelic population in his time. - -Lastly, I have the pleasant duty of thanking all those who have -helped me, whether by word of mouth or by letter, whether by -reference to already printed materials or by assistance in any -other way: the names of many of them will be found recorded in their -proper places. As a rule my inquiries met with prompt replies, and -I am not aware that any difficulties were purposely thrown in my -way. Nevertheless I have had difficulties in abundance to encounter, -such as the natural shyness of some of those whom I wished to examine -on the subject of their recollections, and above all the unavoidable -difficulty of cross-questioning those whose information reached me -by post. For the precise value of any evidence bearing on Celtic -folklore is almost impossible to ascertain, unless it can be made -the subject of cross-examination. This arises from the fact that we -Celts have a knack of thinking ourselves in complete accord with what -we fancy to be in the inquirer's mind, so that we are quite capable -of misleading him in perfect good faith. A most apposite instance, -deserving of being placed on record, came under my notice many years -ago. In the summer of 1868 I spent several months in Paris, where I -met the historian Henri Martin more than once. On being introduced to -him he reminded me that he had visited South Wales not long before, -and that he had been delighted to find the peasantry there still -believing in the transmigration of souls. I expressed my surprise, and -remarked that he must be joking. Nothing of the kind, he assured me, -as he had questioned them himself: the fact admitted of no doubt. I -expressed further surprise, but as I perceived that he was proud of the -result of his friendly encounters with my countrymen I never ventured -to return to the subject, though I always wondered what in the world -it could mean. A few years ago, however, I happened to converse with -one of the most charming and accomplished of Welsh ladies, when she -chanced to mention Henri Martin's advent: it turned out that he had -visited Dr. Charles Williams, then the Principal of Jesus College, -and that Dr. Williams introduced him to his friends in South Wales. So -M. Martin arrived among the hospitable friends of the lady talking -to me, who had in fact to act as his interpreter: I never understood -that he could talk much English or any Welsh. Now I have no doubt that -M. Martin, with his fixed ideas about the druids and their teaching, -propounded palpably leading questions for the Welsh people whom he -wished to examine. His fascinating interpreter put them into terse -Welsh, and the whole thing was done. I could almost venture to write -out the dialogue, which gave back to the great Frenchman his own exact -notions from the lips of simple peasants in that subtle non-Aryan -syntax, which no Welsh barrister has ever been able to explain to -the satisfaction of a bewildered English judge trying to administer -justice among a people whom he cannot wholly comprehend. - -This will serve to illustrate one of the difficulties with which -the collector of folklore in Wales has to cope. I have done my best -to reduce the possible extent of the error to which it might give -rise; and it is only fair to say that those whom I plagued with my -questionings bore the tedium of it with patience, and that to them -my thanks are due in a special degree. Neither they, however, nor I, -could reasonably complain, if we found other folklorists examining -other witnesses on points which had already occupied us; for in -such matters one may say with confidence, that in the multitude of -counsellors there is safety. - - -JOHN RHYS. - -Jesus College, Oxford, Christmas, 1900. - - - - - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - GEOGRAPHICAL LIST OF AUTHORITIES xxv - - LIST OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES xxxi - - - CHAPTER I - - Undine's Kymric Sisters 1 - - I. The legend of Llyn y Fan Fach 2 - II. The legend of Llyn y Forwyn 23 - III. Some Snowdon lake legends 30 - IV. The heir of Ystrad 38 - V. Llandegai and Llanllechid 50 - VI. Mapes' story of Llyn Syfadon 70 - - - CHAPTER II - - The Fairies' Revenge 75 - - I. Bedgelert and its environs 75 - II. The Pennant Valley 107 - III. Glasynys' yarns 109 - IV. An apple story 125 - V. The Conwy afanc 130 - VI. The Berwyn and Aran Fawdwy 135 - VII. The hinterland of Aberdovey 141 - VIII. Some more Merioneth stories 146 - IX. The Children of Rhys Dwfn 151 - X. Southey and the Green Isles of the Sea 169 - XI. The curse of Pantannas 173 - XII. More fairy displeasure 192 - - - CHAPTER III - - Fairy Ways and Words 197 - - I. The folklore of Nant Conwy 197 - II. Scenes of the Mabinogi of Math 207 - III. Celynnog Fawr and Llanaelhaearn 214 - IV. The blind man's folklore 219 - V. The old saddler's recollections 222 - VI. Traces of Tom Tit Tot 226 - VII. March and his horse's ears 231 - VIII. The story of the Marchlyn Mawr 234 - IX. The fairy ring of Cae Lleidr Dyfrydog 238 - X. A Cambrian kelpie 242 - XI. Sundry traits of fairy character 244 - XII. Ynys Geinon and its fairy treasures 251 - XIII. The aged infant 257 - XIV. Fairy speech 269 - - - CHAPTER IV - - Manx Folklore 284 - - The fenodyree or Manx brownie 286 - The sleih beggey or little people 289 - The butches or witches and the hare 293 - Charmers and their methods 296 - Comparisons from the Channel Islands 301 - Magic and ancient modes of thought 302 - The efficacy of fire to detect the witch 304 - Burnt sacrifices 305 - Laa Boaldyn or May-day 308 - Laa Lhunys or the beginning of harvest 312 - Laa Houney or Hollantide beginning the year 315 - Sundry prognostications and the time for them 317 - - - CHAPTER V - - The Fenodyree and his Friends 323 - - Lincolnshire parallels 323 - The brownie of Blednoch and Bwca'r Trwyn 325 - Prognostication parallels from Lincolnshire and - Herefordshire 327 - The traffic in wind and the Gallizenæ 330 - Wells with rags and pins 332 - St. Catherine's hen plucked at Colby 335 - The qualtagh or the first-foot and the question - of race 336 - Sundry instances of things unlucky 342 - Manx reserve and the belief in the Enemy of Souls 346 - The witch of Endor's influence and the - respectability of the charmer's vocation 349 - Public penance enforced pretty recently 350 - - - CHAPTER VI - - The Folklore of the Wells 354 - - Rag wells in Wales 354 - The question of distinguishing between offerings - and vehicles of disease 358 - Mr. Hartland's decision 359 - The author's view revised and illustrated 360 - T. E. Morris' account of the pin well of Llanfaglan 362 - Other wishing and divining wells 364 - The sacred fish of Llanberis and Llangybi 366 - Ffynnon Grassi producing the Glasfryn lake 367 - The Morgan of that lake and his name 372 - Ffynnon Gywer producing Bala Lake 376 - Bala and other towns doomed to submersion 377 - The legend of Llyn Llech Owen 379 - The parallels of Lough Neagh and Lough Ree 381 - Seithennin's realm overwhelmed by the sea 382 - Seithennin's name and its congeners 385 - Prof. Dawkins on the Lost Lands of Wales 388 - Certain Irish wells not visited with impunity 389 - The Lough Sheelin legend compared with that of - Seithennin 393 - The priesthood of the wells of St. Elian and - St. Teilo 395 - - - CHAPTER VII - - Triumphs of the Water-world 401 - - The sea encroaching on the coast of Glamorgan 402 - The Kenfig tale of crime and vengeance 403 - The Crymlyn story and its touch of fascination 404 - Nennius' description of Oper Linn Liguan compared 406 - The vengeance legend of Bala Lake 408 - Legends about the Llynclys Pool 410 - The fate of Tyno Helig 414 - The belief in cities submerged intact 415 - The phantom city and the bells of Aberdovey 418 - The ethics of the foregoing legends discussed 419 - The limits of the delay of punishment 420 - Why the fairies delay their vengeance 423 - Non-ethical legends of the eruption of water 425 - Cutting the green sward a probable violation of - ancient tabu avenged by water divinities 427 - The lake afanc's rôle in this connexion 428 - The pigmies of the water-world 432 - The Conwy afanc and the Highland water-horse 433 - The equine features of March and Labraid Lore 435 - Mider and the Mac Óc's well horses 436 - The Gilla Decair's horse and Du March Moro 437 - March ab Meirchion associated with Mona 439 - The Welsh deluge Triads 440 - Names of the Dee and other rivers in North Wales 441 - The Lydney god Nudons, Nuada, and Llud 445 - The fairies associated in various ways with water 449 - The cyhiraeth and the Welsh banshee 452 - Ancestress rather than ancestor 454 - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Welsh Cave Legends 456 - - The question of classification 456 - The fairy cave of the Arennig Fawr 456 - The cave of Mynyd y Cnwc 457 - Waring's version of Iolo's legend of Craig y Dinas 458 - Craigfryn Hughes' Monmouthshire tale 462 - The story of the cave occupied by Owen Lawgoch 464 - How London Bridge came to figure in that story 466 - Owen Lawgoch in Ogo'r Dinas 467 - Dinas Emrys with the treasure hidden by Merlin 469 - Snowdonian treasure reserved for the Goidel 470 - Arthur's death on the side of Snowdon 473 - The graves of Arthur and Rhita 474 - Elis o'r Nant's story of Llanciau Eryri's cave 476 - The top of Snowdon named after Rhita 477 - Drystan's cairn 480 - The hairy man's cave 481 - Returning heroes for comparison with Arthur and - Owen Lawgoch 481 - The baledwyr's Owen to return as Henry the Ninth 484 - Owen a historical man = Froissart's Yvain de Gales 487 - Froissart's account of him and the questions it - raises 488 - Owen ousting Arthur as a cave-dweller 493 - Arthur previously supplanting a divinity of the - class of the sleeping Cronus of Demetrius 493 - Arthur's original sojourn located in Faery 495 - - - CHAPTER IX - - Place-name Stories 498 - - The Triad of the Swineherds of the Isle of Prydain 499 - The former importance of swine's flesh as food 501 - The Triad clause about Coll's straying sow 503 - Coll's wanderings arranged to explain place-names 508 - The Kulhwch account of Arthur's hunt of Twrch Trwyth - in Ireland 509 - A parley with the boars 511 - The hunt resumed in Pembrokeshire 512 - The boars reaching the Loughor Valley 514 - Their separation 515 - One killed by the Men of Llydaw in Ystrad Yw 516 - Ystrad Yw defined and its name explained 516 - Twrch Trwyth escaping to Cornwall after an - encounter in the estuary of the Severn 519 - The comb, razor, and shears of Twrch Trwyth 519 - The name Twrch Trwyth 521 - Some of the names evidence of Goidelic speech 523 - The story about Gwydion and his swine compared 525 - Place-name explanations blurred or effaced 526 - Enumeration of Arthur's losses in the hunt 529 - The Men of Llydaw's identity and their Syfadon home 531 - Further traces of Goidelic names 536 - A Twrch Trwyth incident mentioned by Nennius 537 - The place-name Carn Cabal discussed 538 - Duplicate names with the Goidelic form preferred - in Wales 541 - The same phenomenon in the Mabinogion 543 - The relation between the families of Llyr, Dôn, - and Pwyll 548 - The elemental associations of Llyr and Lir 549 - Matthew Arnold's idea of Medieval Welsh story 551 - Brân, the Tricephal, and the Letto-Slavic Triglaus 552 - Summary remarks as to the Goidels in Wales 553 - - - CHAPTER X - - Difficulties of the Folklorist 556 - - The terrors of superstition and magic 557 - The folklorist's activity no fostering of - superstition 558 - Folklore a portion of history 558 - The difficulty of separating story and history 559 - Arthur and the Snowdon Goidels as an illustration 559 - Rhita Gawr and the mad kings Nynio and Peibio 560 - Malory's version and the name Rhita, Ritho, Ryons 562 - Snowdon stories about Owen Ymhacsen and Cai 564 - Goidelic topography in Gwyned 566 - The Goidels becoming Compatriots or Kymry 569 - The obscurity of certain superstitions a difficulty 571 - Difficulties arising from their apparent absurdity - illustrated by the March and Labraid stories 571 - Difficulties from careless record illustrated by - Howells' Ychen Bannog 575 - Possible survival of traditions about the urus 579 - A brief review of the lake legends and the iron - tabu 581 - The scrappiness of the Welsh Tom Tit Tot stories 583 - The story of the widow of Kittlerumpit compared 585 - Items to explain the names Sìli Ffrit and Sìli - go Dwt 590 - Bwca'r Trwyn both brownie and bogie in one 593 - That bwca a fairy in service, like the Pennant - nurse 597 - The question of fairies concealing their names 597 - Magic identifying the name with the person 598 - Modryb Mari regarding cheese-baking as disastrous - to the flock 599 - Her story about the reaper's little black soul 601 - Gwenogvryn Evans' lizard version 603 - Diseases regarded as also material entities 604 - The difficulty of realizing primitive modes - of thought 605 - - - CHAPTER XI - - Folklore Philosophy 607 - - The soul as a pigmy or a lizard, and the word enaid 607 - A different notion in the Mabinogi of Math 608 - The belief in the persistence of the body through - changes 610 - Shape-shifting and rebirth in Gwion's - transformations 612 - Tuan mac Cairill, Amairgen, and Taliessin 615 - D'Arbois de Jubainville's view of Erigena's - teaching 617 - The druid master of his own transformations 620 - Death not a matter of course so much as of magic 620 - This incipient philosophy as Gaulish druidism 622 - The Gauls not all of one and the same beliefs 623 - The name and the man 624 - Enw, 'name,' and the idea of breathing 625 - The exact nature of the association still obscure 627 - The Celts not distinguishing between names and - things 628 - A Celt's name on him, not by him or with him 629 - The druid's method of name-giving non-Aryan 631 - Magic requiring metrical formulæ 632 - The professional man's curse producing blisters 632 - A natural phenomenon arguing a thin-skinned race 633 - Cursing of no avail without the victim's name 635 - Magic and kingship linked in the female line 636 - - - CHAPTER XII - - Race in Folklore and Myth 639 - - Glottology and comparative mythology 640 - The question of the feminine in Welsh syntax 642 - The Irish goddess Danu and the Welsh Dôn 644 - Tynghed or destiny in the Kulhwch story 646 - Traces of a Welsh confarreatio in the same context 649 - Þokk in the Balder story compared with tynghed 650 - Questions of mythology all the harder owing to - race mixture 652 - Whether the picture of Cúchulainn in a rage be - Aryan or not 653 - Cúchulainn exempt from the Ultonian couvade 654 - Cúchulainn racially a Celt in a society reckoning - descent by birth 656 - Cúchulainn as a rebirth of Lug paralleled in - Lapland 657 - Doubtful origin of certain legends about Lug 658 - The historical element in fairy stories and lake - legends 659 - The notion of the fairies being all women 661 - An illustration from Central Australia 662 - Fairy counting by fives evidence of a non-Celtic - race 663 - The Basque numerals as an illustration 665 - Prof. Sayce on Irishmen and Berbers 665 - Dark-complexioned people and fairy changelings 666 - The blond fairies of the Pennant district - exceptional 668 - A summary of fairy life from previous chapters 668 - Sir John Wynne's instance of men taken for fairies 670 - Some of the Brythonic names for fairies 671 - Dwarfs attached to the fortunes of their masters 672 - The question of fairy cannibalism 673 - The fairy Corannians and the historical Coritani 674 - St. Guthlac at Croyland in the Fens 676 - The Irish sid, side, and the Welsh Caer Sidi 677 - The mound dwellings of Pechts and Irish fairies 679 - Prof. J. Morris Jones explaining the non-Aryan - syntax of neo-Celtic by means of Egyptian and - Berber 681 - The Picts probably the race that introduced it 682 - The first pre-Celtic people here 683 - Probably of the same race as the neolithic dwarfs - of the Continent 683 - The other pre-Celtic race, the Picts and the people - of the Mabinogion 684 - A word or two by way of epilogue 686 - - Additions and Corrections 689 - - Index 695 - - - - - - - - -We are too hasty when we set down our ancestors in the gross for -fools, for the monstrous inconsistencies (as they seem to us) -involved in their creed of witchcraft. In the relations of this -visible world we find them to have been as rational, and shrewd -to detect an historic anomaly, as ourselves. But when once the -invisible world was supposed to be opened, and the lawless agency -of bad spirits assumed, what measures of probability, of decency, of -fitness, or proportion--of that which distinguishes the likely from -the palpable absurd--could they have to guide them in the rejection -or admission of any particular testimony? That maidens pined away, -wasting inwardly as their waxen images consumed before a fire--that -corn was lodged, and cattle lamed--that whirlwinds uptore in diabolic -revelry the oaks of the forest--or that spits and kettles only danced -a fearful-innocent vagary about some rustic's kitchen when no wind -was stirring--were all equally probable where no law of agency was -understood.... There is no law to judge of the lawless, or canon by -which a dream may be criticised. - - Charles Lamb's Essays of Elia. - - - - - - - - -A GEOGRAPHICAL LIST OF AUTHORITIES AND SOURCES OF THE MORE IMPORTANT -CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WELSH FOLKLORE - - -ANGLESEY. - -Aberffraw: E. S. Roberts (after Hugh Francis), 240, 241. - -Llandyfrydog: E. S. Roberts (after Robert Roberts), 239, 240. - -Llyn yr Wyth Eidion: (no particulars), 429. - -Mynyd y Cnwc: A writer in the Brython for 1859, 457, 458. - -Mynyd Mechell: Morris Evans (from his grandmother), 203, 204. - -Towyn Trewern: John Roberts, 36-8. - - ? : Lewis Morris, in the Gwyliedyd, 450-2. - - - -BRECKNOCKSHIRE. - -Cwm Tawe: Rd. L. Davies, 256, 257. - - ,, : Rd. L. Davies (after J. Davies), 251-6. - -Llangorse: Giraldus, in his Itinerarium Kambriæ, 72. - - ? : Walter Mapes, in his book De Nugis, 70-2. - - ? : The Brython for 1863, 73, 74. - -Llyn Cwm Llwch neighbourhood: Ivor James, 21, 430, 445. - - ? : Ed. Davies, in his Mythology and Rites, 20, 21. - - - -CARDIGANSHIRE. - -Atpar: John Rhys (from Joseph Powell), 648, 649. - -Bronnant: D. Ll. Davies, 248, 249. - -Cadabowen: J. Gwenogvryn Evans, 603, 604. - -Llanwenog: J. Gwenogvryn Evans, 648. - -Llyn Eidwen: J. E. Rogers of Abermeurig, 578. - -Moedin: Howells, in his Cambrian Superstitions, 245. - - ,, : D. Silvan Evans, in his Ystên Sioned, 271-3. - -Ponterwyd: John Rhys, 294, 338, 378, 391, 392. - - ,, : Mary Lewis (Modryb Mari), 601, 602. - -Swyd Ffynnon: D. Ll. Davies, 246, 247, 250. - -Tregaron and neighbourhood: John Rhys (from John Jones and others), -577-9. - -Troed yr Aur } : Benjamin Williams (Gwynionyd), 166-8. - and } : Gwynionyd, in the Brython for 1858 and 1860, - Verwig? } 151-5, 158-60, 163, 164, 464-6. - -Ystrad Meurig: Isaac Davies, 245. - - ,, ,, : A farmer, 601. - - ? : A writer in the Brython for 1861, 690. - - - -CARMARTHENSHIRE. - -Cenarth: B. Davies, in the Brython, 1858, 161, 162. - -Llandeilo: D. Lleufer Thomas, in Y Geninen for 1896, 469. - - ,, : Mr. Stepney-Gulston, in the Arch. Camb. for 1893, 468. - -Llandybie: John Fisher, 379, 380. - - ,, : Howells, in his Cambrian Superstitions, 381. - - ,, : John Fisher and J. P. Owen, 468. - -Mydfai: Wm. Rees of Tonn, in the Physicians of Mydvai, 2-15. - - ,, : The Bishop of St. Asaph, 15, 16. - - ,, : John Rhys, 16. - - ? : Joseph Joseph of Brecon, 16. - - ? : Wirt Sikes, in his British Goblins, 17, 18. - -Mynyd y Banwen: Llywarch Reynolds, 18, 19, 428-30. - - ? : I. Craigfryn Hughes, 487. - - - -CARNARVONSHIRE. - -Aber Soch: Margaret Edwards, 231. - - ,, : A blacksmith in the neighbourhood, 232. - - ? : Edward Llwyd: see the Brython for 1860, 233, 234. - - ? : MS. 134 in the Peniarth Collection, 572, 573. - -Aberdaron: Mrs. Williams and another, 228. - - ? : Evan Williams of Rhos Hirwaen, 230. - -Bedgelert: Wm. Jones, 49, 80, 81, 94-7, 99, 100-5. - - ,, : ,, in the Brython for 1861-2, 86-9, 98-9. - - ,, : The Brython for 1861, 470, 473, 474. - -Bethesda: David Evan Davies (Dewi Glan Ffrydlas), 60-4, 66. - -Bettws y Coed: Edward Llwyd: see the Cambrian Journal for 1859, 130-3. - -Criccieth neighbourhood: Edward Llewelyn, 219-21. - - ? : Edward Llwyd: see the Camb. Journal for 1859, 201, 202. - -Dinorwig: E. Lloyd Jones, 234-7. - -Dolbenmaen: W. Evans Jones, 107-9. - -Dolwydelan: see Bedgelert. - - ,, : see Gwybrnant. - -Drws y Coed: S. R. Williams (from M. Williams and another), 38-40. - - ? : ,, 89, 90. - -Edern: John Williams (Alaw Lleyn), 275-9. - -Four Crosses: Lewis Jones, 222-5. - -Glasfryn Uchaf: John Jones (Myrdin Fard), 367, 368. - - ,, ,, : Mr. and Mrs. Williams-Ellis, 368-72. - -Glynllifon: Wm. Thomas Solomon, 208-14. - -Gwybrnant: Ellis Pierce (Elis o'r Nant), 476-9. - -Llanaelhaearn: R. Hughes of Uwchlaw'r Ffynnon, 214, 215, 217-9. - -Llanberis: Mrs. Rhys and her relatives, 31-6, 604. - - ,, : M. and O. Rhys, 229. - - ,, : A correspondent in the Liverpool Mercury, 366, 367. - - ? : Howell Thomas (from G. B. Gattie), 125-30. - - ? : Pennant, in his Tours in Wales, 125. - -Llandegai: H. Derfel Hughes, 52-60, 68. - - ,, : ,, ,, in his Antiquities, 471, 472. - - ,, : E. Owen, in the Powysland Club's Collections, 237, 238. - -Llandwrog: Hugh Evans and others, 207. - -Llanfaglan: T. E. Morris (from Mrs. Roberts), 362, 363. - -Llangybi: John Jones (Myrdin Fard), 366. - - ,, : Mrs. Williams-Ellis, 366, 471. - -Llaniestin: Evan Williams, 228, 229, 584. - -Llanllechid: Owen Davies (Eos Llechid), 41-6, 50-2. - -Nefyn: Lowri Hughes and another woman, 226, 227. - - ,, : John Williams (Alaw Lleyn), 228. - - ,, : A writer in the Brython for 1860, 164. - -Penmachno: Gethin Jones, 204-6. - -Rhyd Du: Mrs. Rhys, 604. - -Trefriw: Morris Hughes and J. D. Maclaren, 198-201. - - ,, : Pierce Williams, 30. - -Tremadoc: Jane Williams, 221, 222. - - ,, : R. I. Jones (from his mother and Ellis Owen), 105-7. - - ,, : Ellis Owen (cited by Wm. Jones), 95. - -Waen Fawr: Owen Davies, 41. - - ? : Glasynys, in Cymru Fu, 91-3, 110-23. - - ? : ,, in the Brython for 1863, 40, 41. - - ? : A London Eistedfod (1887) competitor, 361, 362. - - ? : John Jones (Myrdin Fard), 361, 362, 364-8. - - ? : Owen Jones (quoted in the Brython for 1861), 414, 415. - -Yspytty Ifan?: A Liverpool Eistedfod (1900) competitor, 692. - - - -DENBIGHSHIRE. - -Bryneglwys: E. S. Roberts (from Mrs. Davies), 241, 242. - -Eglwyseg: E. S. Roberts (after Thomas Morris), 238. - -Ffynnon Eilian: Mrs. Silvan Evans, 357. - - ,, ,, : Isaac Foulkes, in his Enwogion Cymru, 396. - - ,, ,, : Lewis, in his Topographical Dictionary, 395, 396. - - ,, ,, : P. Roberts, in his Camb. Popular Antiquities, 396. - - ,, ,, : A writer in Y Nofeld, 396. - -Llangollen: Hywel (Wm. Davies), 148. - -Pentre Voelas: Elias Owen, in his Welsh Folk-Lore, 222. - - - -FLINTSHIRE. - -Nil. - - - -GLAMORGANSHIRE. - -Bridgend: J. H. Davies, D. Brynmor-Jones, J. Rhys, 354, 355. - -Crymlyn: Cadrawd, in the South Wales Daily News, 405, 406. - - ? : Wirt Sikes, in his British Goblins, 191, 192, 405. - -Kenfig: Iolo Morganwg, in the Iolo MSS., 403, 404. - - ? : David Davies, 402. - -Llanfabon: I. Craigfryn Hughes, 257-268. - -Llanwynno: Glanffrwd, in his Plwyf Llanwyno, 26. - -Merthyr Tydfil: Llywarch Reynolds (from his mother), 269. - -Quakers' Yard: I. Craigfryn Hughes, 173-91. - -Rhonda Fechan: Llewellyn Williams, 24, 25. - - ,, ,, : J. Probert Evans, 25, 27. - - ,, ,, : Ll. Reynolds (from D. Evans and others), 27-9. - -Rhonda Valley: D. J. Jones, 356. - - ? : Dafyd Morganwg, in his Hanes Morganwg, 356. - - ? : Waring, in his Recollections of Edward Williams, 458-61. - - - -MERIONETHSHIRE. - -Aberdovey: J. Pughe, in the Arch. Camb. for 1853, 142-6, 428. - - ,, : Mrs. Prosser Powell, 416. - - ? : M. B., in the Monthly Packet for 1859, 416, 417. - -Ardudwy: Hywel (Wm. Davies), 147, 148. - -Bala: David Jones of Trefriw: see Cyfaill yr Aelwyd, 376, 377. - - ,, : Wm. Davies and Owen M. Edwards, 378. - - ? : Humphreys' Llyfr Gwybodaeth Gyffredinol, 408-10. - - ? : J. H. Roberts, in Edwards' Cymru for 1897, 148-51. - -Dolgelley: Lucy Griffith (from a Dolgelley man), 243, 244. - -Llandrillo: E. S. Roberts (from A. Evans and Mrs. Edwards), 138-41. - -Llanegryn: Mr. Williams and Mr. Rowlands, 243. - - ,, : A Llanegryn man (after Wm. Pritchard), 242. - - ,, : Another Llanegryn man, 242, 243. - -Llanuwchllyn: Owen M. Edwards, 147. - - ? : J. H. Roberts, in Edwards' Cymru for 1897, 215-7, 457. - - ? : Glasynys, in the Brython for 1862, 137. - - ? : ,, in the Taliesin for 1859-60, 215, 216, 456, 457. - - - -MONMOUTHSHIRE. - -Aberystruth: Edm. Jones, in his Parish of Aberystruth, 195, 196. - -Llandeilo Cressenny: Elizabeth Williams, 192, 193. - -Llanover: Wm. Williams and other gardeners there, 193, 194. - - ,, : Mrs. Gardner of Ty Uchaf Llanover, 194, 195. - - ,, : Professor Sayce, 602. - -Risca?: I. Craigfryn Hughes (from hearsay in the district between -Llanfabon and Caerleon), 462-4, 487, 593-6. - - - -MONTGOMERYSHIRE. - -Llanidloes: Elias Owen, in his Welsh Folk-Lore, 275. - - - -PEMBROKESHIRE. - -Fishguard: E. Perkins of Penysgwarne, 172, 173. - - ,, : Ferrar Fenton, in the Pembroke County Guardian, 160. - -Llandeilo Llwydarth: The Melchior family, 398. - - ,, ,, : Benjamin Gibby, 399, 400. - -Nevern: J. Thomas of Bancau Bryn Berian, 689. - -Trevine: 'Ancient Mariner,' in the Pembroke County Guardian, 171. - - ? : Ferrar Fenton, in the Pembroke County Guardian, 171. - - ? : Ab Nadol, in the Brython for 1861, 165. - - ? : Southey, in his Madoc, 170. - - - -RADNORSHIRE. - -Nil. - - - - - - - - -TO ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF MEN - - -The author would be glad to hear of unrecorded Welsh stories, or -bits of Welsh stories not comprised in this volume. He would also be -grateful for the names of more localities in which the stories here -given, or variants of them, are still remembered. It will be his -endeavour to place on record all such further information, except -stories about spooks and ghosts of the ordinary type. - - - - - - - - -LIST OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES - - -Ab Gwilym: Bardoniaeth Dafyd ab Gwilym, edited by Cyndelw (Liverpool, -1873), 206, 233, 439, 444, 671. - -Adamnan: The Life of St. Columba, written by Adamnan, edited by -William Reeves (Dublin, 1857), 545. - -Agrippa: H. Cornelius Agrippa De Occulta Philosophia (Paris, 1567), -213. - -Aneurin: The Book of Aneurin (see Skene), 226, 281, 543. - -Antiquary, the, a magazine devoted to the study of the past, published -by Elliot Stock (London, 1880-), 467. - - ,, : the Scottish: see Stevenson. - -Archæologia Cambrensis, the Journal of the Cambrian Archæological -Association (London, 1846-), 73, 141-6, 233, 366, 403, 468, 528, 532, -533, 542, 566, 570, 579. - -Athenæum, the, a journal of English and foreign literature, science, -fine arts, music, and the drama (London, 1828-), 335, 612. - -Atkinson: The Book of Ballymote, a collection of pieces (prose -and verse) in the Irish language, compiled about the beginning of -the fifteenth century, published by the Royal Irish Academy, with -introduction, analysis of contents, and index by Robert Atkinson -(Dublin, 1887), 375. - - ,, : The Book of Leinster, sometimes called the Book of Glendalough, -a collection of pieces (prose and verse) in the Irish language, -compiled, in part, about the middle of the twelfth century, published -by the Royal Irish Academy, with introduction, analysis of contents, -and index by Robert Atkinson (Dublin, 1880), 381, 390, 392, 528, -531, 616, 618, 635, 657. - -Aubrey: Miscellanies collected by John Aubrey (London, 1696) [the -last chapter is on second-sighted persons in Scotland], 273. - - - -Bastian: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, edited by A. 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Robert -Ellis 'Cyndelw'], 66, 91, 109, 123, 155, 156, 481. - - - -Dalyell: The Darker Superstitions of Scotland illustrated from History -and Practice, by John Graham Dalyell (Edinburgh, 1834), 273. - -Davies: The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids, by Edward Davies -(London, 1809), 20. - -Davies: Antiquæ Linguæ Britannicæ et Linguæ Latinæ Dictionarium Duplex, -by Dr. John Davies (London, 1632), 13. - -Derfel Hughes: Hynafiaethau Llandegai a Llanllechid (Antiquities of -Llandegai and Llanllechid), by Hugh Derfel Hughes (Bethesda, 1866), -52, 480. - -Dionysius: Dionysii Halicarnassensis Antiquitatum Romanorum quæ -supersunt (the Didot edition, Paris, 1886), 650. - -Domesday: Facsimile of Domesday Book, the Cheshire volume, including -a part of Flintshire and Leicestershire (Southampton, 1861-5), 563. - -Dovaston: [John F. M. Dovaston's poetical works appear to have been -published in 1825, but I have not seen the book], 410-3. - -Doyle: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by A. Conan Doyle (London, -1893), 690. - -Drayton: The Battaile of Agincourt, by Michaell Drayton (London, -1627), 164. - -Dugdale: Monasticon Anglicanum, a history of the abbeys and other -monasteries in England and Wales, by Sir William Dugdale (vol. v, -London, 1825), 443, 469, 479. - - - -Edwards: Cymru, a monthly magazine edited by Owen M. Edwards (Welsh -National Press, Carnarvon), 148. - -Elfed: Cyfaill yr Aelwyd a'r Frythones, edited by Elfed (the -Rev. H. Elvet Lewis) and Cadrawd (Mr. T. C. Evans), and published by -Williams & Son, Llanelly, 23, 376, 418. - -Elton: Origins of English History, by Charles Elton (London, 1882), -615. - -Elworthy: The Evil Eye, an Account of this ancient and widespread -Superstition, by Frederick Thomas Elworthy (London, 1895), 346. - -Evans: The Beauties of England and Wales [published in London in -1801-15, and comprising two volumes (xvii and xviii) devoted to Wales, -the former of which (by the Rev. J. 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Froissart, published for the 'Société de -l'Histoire de France,' by Siméon Luce (Paris, 1869-), 489-91. - - ,, : Lord Berners' translation (in black letter), published in -London in 1525, and Thomas Johnes', in 1805-6, 490. - - - -Gaidoz: Revue Celtique, 'fondée par M. Henri Gaidoz,' 1870-85 [since -then it has been edited by H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, and it is now -published by Bouillon in Paris (67 Rue de Richelieu)], 60, 374, 375, -387, 389, 390, 427, 432, 435, 480, 519, 546, 573, 580, 581, 603, 618, -619, 629, 631, 649. - -Geoffrey: Gottfried's von Monmouth Historia Regum Britanniæ und Brut -Tysylio, published by San-Marte (Halle, 1854), 4, 280, 281, 374, 406, -448, 503, 507, 547, 562, 611. - -Gilbert: Leabhar na h-Uidhri, a collection of pieces in prose and -verse in the Irish language, compiled and transcribed about A.D. 1100 -by Moelmuiri mac Ceileachar, published by the Royal Irish Academy, -and printed from a lithograph of the original by O'Longan & O'Looney -(preface signed by J. T. Gilbert, Dublin, 1870), 381, 387, 414, 424, -435, 498, 537, 547, 611, 613, 618, 620, 624, 654, 657, 661. - -Gillen: The Native Tribes of Central Australia, by Baldwin Spencer -and F. J. Gillen (London, 1899), 662, 663. - -Giraldus: Giraldi Cambrensis Itinerarium Kambriæ et Descriptio -Kambriæ, edited by James F. Dimock (Rolls Series, London, 1868), 72, -90, 269-71, 303, 389, 414, 441, 507, 509, 660. - -Glanffrwd: Plwyf Llanwyno: yr hen Amser, yr hen Bobl, a'r hen Droion, -by Glanffrwd [the Rev. W. Glanffrwd Thomas] (Pontyprid, 1888), 26. - -Gottingen: Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, unter der Aufsicht der -königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften (Gottingen, 1890), 544. - -Gregor: Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland, by -the Rev. Walter Gregor, published for the Folk-Lore Society (London, -1881), 103. - -Griffin: The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Gerald Griffin (Dublin, -1857), 205, 418. - -Gröber: Grundriss der romanischen Philologie, unter Mitwirkung von -25 Fachgenossen, edited by Gustav Gröber (Strassburg, 1886), 563. - - ,, : Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, edited by Gustav Gröber -(Halle, 1877-), 563. - -Gruter: Iani Gruteri Corpus Inscriptionum (part ii of vol. i, -Amsterdam, 1707), 580. - -Guest: The Mabinogion, from the Llyfr Coch o Hergest and other ancient -Welsh manuscripts, with an English translation and notes by Lady -Charlotte Guest (London, 1849), 69, 123, 196, 386, 442, 502, 507, -509, 538, 553, 560, 613, 620, 629, 645-7, 649, 672. - -Gwenogvryn: Facsimile of the Black Book of Carmarthen, reproduced -by the autotype mechanical process, with a palæographical note by -J. Gwenogvryn Evans (Oxford, 1888), 216, 217, 383, 384, 413, 432, -478, 513, 527, 543, 545, 563, 565, 619, 621. - - ,, : Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language, published by -the Historical MSS. Commission (vol. i, London, 1898-9), 280, 330, -487, 573. - - ,, : The Text of the Bruts from the Red Book of Hergest, edited -by John Rhys and J. Gwenogvryn Evans (Oxford, 1890), 163, 201, 442, -506, 512, 562. - - ,, : The Text of the 'Mabinogion' and other Welsh Tales from -the Red Book of Hergest, edited by John Rhys and J. Gwenogvryn Evans -(Oxford, 1887), 69, 142, 196, 207, 208, 217, 218, 225, 226, 233, 264, -280, 287, 315, 386, 388, 425, 430, 439, 440, 442, 498, 500, 502, 506, -507, 509-16, 519-27, 529-34, 536, 537, 543, 546-8, 550, 551, 553, 560, -561, 565, 580, 608-10, 613, 619, 620, 622, 628-30, 636, 637, 644, 645, -647, 649, 657, 672. - - ,, : The Text of the Book of Llan Dâv, reproduced from the -Gwysaney manuscript by J. G. Evans, with the co-operation of John Rhys -(Oxford, 1893) [this is also known as the Liber Landavensis], 163, -398, 476, 478, 528, 531, 568, 691. - - - -Hancock: Senchus Mór, vol. i, prefaced by W. Neilson Hancock (Dublin, -1865), 617. - -Hardy: Descriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History -of Great Britain and Ireland, by Thos. Duffus Hardy (vol. i, London, -1862), 476. - -Hartland: The Legend of Perseus, a study of tradition in story, -custom, and belief, by Edwin Sidney Hartland (London, 1894-6), 662. - -Hartland: The Science of Fairy Tales, an inquiry into fairy mythology, -by Edwin Sidney Hartland (London, 1891), 18, 268, 583. - -Henderson: Fled Bricrend, edited with translation, introduction, -and notes, by George Henderson (London, 1899), 501. - -Henderson: Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England -and the Borders, by Wm. Henderson (London, 1879), 340, 346. - -Herbord: Herbordi Vita Ottonis Ep. Bambergensis, in vol. xiv of Pertz' -Monumenta Germaniæ Historica Scriptorum [= Script. vol. xii], edited -by G. H. Pertz (Hanover, 1826-85), 553. - -Hergest: The Red Book of Hergest: see Guest, Gwenogvryn, Skene. - -Heywood: The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood (London, 1874), 694. - -Higden: Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis, together -with the English translations of John Trevisa and an unknown writer -of the fifteenth century, edited by Ch. Babington (Rolls Series, -London, 1865-86), 330, 331. - -Holder: Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, by Alfred Holder (Leipsic, -1896-), 533, 622, 659. - -Howells: Cambrian Superstitions, comprising ghosts, omens, witchcraft, -and traditions, by W. Howells (Tipton, 1831), 74, 155, 160, 173, 204, -245, 268, 331, 424, 453, 469, 576-9. - -Hübner: Das Heiligtum des Nodon: see 446. - - ,, : Inscriptiones Britanniæ Latinæ, edited by Æmilius Hübner and -published by the Berlin Academy (Berlin, 1873), 535. - -Humphreys: Golud yr Oes, a Welsh magazine published by H. Humphreys -(vol. i, Carnarvon, 1863), 493. - - ,, : Llyfr Gwybodaeth Gyffredinol, a collection of Humphreys' -penny series (Carnarvon, no date), 408. - - - -Iolo: Iolo Manuscripts, a selection of ancient Welsh manuscripts -in prose and verse from the collection made by Edward Williams -(Iolo Morganwg), with English translations and notes by his son, -Taliesin Williams Ab Iolo, and published for the Welsh MSS. Society -(Llandovery, 1848), 564, 565, 569, 619. - -Iolo Goch: Gweithiau Iolo Goch gyda Nodiadau hanesydol a beirniadol, -by Charles Ashton, published for the Cymmrodorion Society (Oswestry, -1896), 281, 367. - - - -Jacobs: Celtic Fairy Tales, selected and edited by Joseph Jacobs -(London, 1892), 567. - -Jamieson: An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, by -John Jamieson (new ed., Paisley, 1881-2), 591. - -Jamieson: Popular Ballads and Songs, by Robert Jamieson (Edinburgh, -1806), 592. - - - -Jenkins: Bed Gelert, its Facts, Fairies, and Folk-Lore, by -D. E. Jenkins (Portmadoc, 1899), 450, 453, 469, 533, 567. - -Johnstone: Antiquitates Celto-Normannicæ, containing the Chronicle -of Man and the Isles, abridged by Camden, edited by James Johnstone -(Copenhagen, 1786), 334. - -Jones: see p. 195 for Edmund Jones' Account of the Parish of -Aberystruth (Trevecka, 1779), 195, 196. - - ,, : see p. 195 as to his Spirits in the County of Monmouth -(Newport, 1813), 195, 217, 350. - -Jones: The Elucidarium and other tracts in Welsh from Llyvyr Agkyr -Llandewivrevi, A.D. 1346 (Jesus College MS. 119), edited by J. Morris -Jones and John Rhys (Oxford, 1894), 529, 693. - -Jones: The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, collected out of ancient -manuscripts, by Owen Jones 'Myvyr,' Edward Williams, and William Owen -(London, 1801; reprinted in one volume by Thomas Gee, Denbigh, 1870), -441, 469, 529, 560, 610, 619. - -Jones: A History of the County of Brecknock, by the Rev. Theophilus -Jones (Brecknock, 1805, 1809), 516-8. - -Joyce: Old Celtic Romances, translated from the Gaelic by P. W. Joyce -(London, 1879), 94, 376, 381, 437, 662. - -Jubainville: Le Cycle mythologique irlandais et la Mythologie celtique, -by H. d'Arbois de Jubainville (Paris, 1884), 616, 617, 620. - - ,, : Essai d'un Catalogue de la Littérature épique de -l'Irlande, by H. d'Arbois de Jubainville (Paris, 1883), 549, 616, -617, 620. - - - -Kaluza: Libeaus Desconus, edited by Max Kaluza (Leipsic, 1890), 562. - -Keating: Forus Feasa air Éirinn, Keating's History of Ireland, book i, -part i, edited, with a literal translation, by P. W. Joyce (Dublin, -1880), 375. - -Kelly: Fockleyr Manninagh as Baarlagh, a Manx-English Dictionary by -John Kelly, edited by William Gill, and printed for the Manx Society -(Douglas, 1866), 316, 349. - -Kermode: Yn Lioar Manninagh, the Journal of the Isle of Man Natural -History and Antiquarian Society, edited by P. M. C. Kermode (Douglas, -1889-), 284, 289, 311, 334, 434. - -Kuhn: Beiträge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der -arischen, celtischen und slawischen Sprachen, edited by Kuhn and others -(Berlin, 1858-76), 629. - - ,, : Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete - der indogermanischen Sprachen, edited by Kuhn and others (Berlin, - 1854-), 625. - - - -Lampeter: The Magazine of St. David's College, Lampeter, 156. - -Leem: Canuti Leemii de Lapponibus Finmarchiæ Commentatio (Copenhagen, -1767), 658, 663. - -Leger: Cyrille et Méthode, Étude historique sur la Conversion des -Slaves au Christianisme, by Louis Leger (Paris, 1868), 553. - -Lewis: A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, by Samuel Lewis (3rd ed., -London, 1844), 395, 397, 470. - -Leyden: The Poetical Works of John Leyden (Edinburgh, 1875), 466. - -Lhuyd: Commentarioli Britannicæ Descriptionis Fragmentum, by Humfrey -Lhuyd (Cologne, 1572), 412. - -Lindsay: The Latin Language, an historical account of Latin sounds, -stems, and flexions, by Wallace Martin Lindsay (Oxford, 1894), 629. - -Loth: Les Mots latins dans les langues brittoniques, by J. Loth -(Paris, 1892), 383. - -Llais y Wlad, a newspaper published at Bangor, N. Wales, 234. - - - -Mabinogion: see Guest and Gwenogvryn. - -Macbain: The Celtic Magazine, edited by Alexander Macbain (Inverness, -1866-), 520. - -Malmesbury: De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum Libri Quinque, edited by -N. E. S. A. Hamilton (Rolls Series, London, 1870), 547. - -Malory: Le Morte Darthur, by Syr Thomas Malory, the original Caxton -edition reprinted and edited with an introduction and glossary by -H. Oskar Sommer (Nutt, London, 1889), 476, 562. - - ,, : Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, with a preface by John -Rhys, published by J. M. Dent & Co. (London, 1893), 543, 565. - -Mapes: Gualteri Mapes de Nugis Curialium Distinctiones Quinque, edited -by Thomas Wright and printed for the Camden Society, 1850 [at the last -moment a glance at the original Bodley MS. 851 forced me to deviate -somewhat from Wright's reading owing to its inaccuracy], 70-2, 496. - -Marquardt: Das Privatleben der Römer, by J. Marquardt (Leipsic, -1886), 650. - -Martin: A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, by M. Martin -(London, 1703), 615, 691, 692. - -Maspero: see 682. - -Maximus: Valerii Maximi factorum dictorumque memorabilium Libri novem -ad Tiberium Cæsarem Augustum (the Didot ed., Paris, 1871), 623. - -Mela: Pomponii Melæ de Chorographia Libri Tres, ed. Gustavus Parthey -(Berlin, 1867), 331, 550. - -Meyer: Festschrift Whitley Stokes, dedicated by Kuno Meyer and others -(Leipsic, 1900), 645. - - ,, : The Vision of MacConglinne, edited with a translation by Kuno -Meyer (London, 1892), 393, 501. - -Meyer: Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, edited by Kuno Meyer -and L. C. Stern (Halle, 1897-), 500. - -Meyer: Romania, Recueil trimestriel consacré à l'Étude des Langues -et des Littératures romanes, edited by Paul Meyer and Gaston Paris -(vol. xxviii. Paris, 1899), 690, 693, 694. - -Meyrick: The History and Antiquities of the County of Cardigan, -by Samuel Rush Meyrick (London, 1808), 579. - -Milton: English Poems, by John Milton, 288. - -Mind, a quarterly review of psychology and philosophy, edited by -G. F. Stout (London, 1876-), 633. - -Mommsen: Heortologie, antiquarische Untersuchungen über die städtischen -Feste der Athener, by August Mommsen (Leipsic, 1864), 310. - -Monthly Packet, the, now edited by C. R. Coleridge and Arthur Innes -(London, 1851-), 416, 417. - -Moore: The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man, by A. W. Moore (London, -1891), 284. - - ,, : The Surnames and Place-names of the Isle of Man, by A. W. Moore -(London, 1890), 311, 332, 334. - -Morgan: An Antiquarian Survey of East Gower, Glamorganshire, by -W. Ll. Morgan (London, 1899), 404. - -Morganwg: Hanes Morganwg, by Dafyd Morganwg [D. W. Jones, -F.G.S.] (Aberdare, 1874) [an octavo volume issued to subscribers, -and so scarce now that I had to borrow a copy], 356. - -Morris: Celtic Remains, by Lewis Morris, edited by Silvan Evans and -printed for the Cambrian Archæological Association (London, 1878), -148, 413, 564, 566, 694. - -Myrdin: Prophwydoliaeth Myrdin Wyllt: see 485. - - - -Nennius: Nennius und Gildas, edited by San-Marte (Berlin, 1844), 281, -406, 407, 537-9, 570. - -New English Dictionary, edited by Dr. James H. Murray and Henry Bradley -(London and Oxford, 1884-), 317. - -Nicholson: Golspie, contributions to its folklore, collected and -edited by Edward W. B. Nicholson (London, 1897), 317. - -Nicholson: The Poetical Works of Wm. Nicholson (3rd ed., Castle -Douglas, 1878), 325. - -Notes and Queries (Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C.), 563. - - ,, : Choice Notes from 'Notes and Queries,' consisting of folklore -(London, 1859), 140, 213, 217, 325, 418, 453, 454, 494, 596, 601, 611, -612. - -Nutt: The Voyage of Bran son of Febal to the Land of the Living, -by Kuno Meyer and Alfred Nutt (London, 1895, 1897), 618, 620, 622, -657, 662. - - ,, : Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, by Alfred Nutt (London, -1888), 287, 438, 548. - - - -O'Curry: On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, a series -of lectures delivered by the late Eugene O'Curry (London, 1873), 375, -392, 617, 632: see also Curry. - -O'Donovan: Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, -from the earliest period to the year 1616, edited by John O'Donovan -(2nd ed., Dublin, 1856), 414, 426-8, 433, 546, 569. - -O'Grady: Silva Gadelica, a collection of tales in Irish, with extracts -illustrating persons and places, edited from manuscripts and translated -by Dr. S. H. O'Grady (London, 1892), 381, 437. - -O'Reilly: An Irish-English Dictionary, by Edward O'Reilly, with a -supplement by John O'Donovan (Dublin, 1864), 142. - -Oliver: Monumenta de Insula Manniæ, being vol. iv of the publications -of the Manx Society, by J. R. Oliver (Douglas, 1860), 314, 334. - -Owen: Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, edited by Aneurin Owen -for the Public Records Commission (London, 1841), 421. - -Owen: Welsh Folk-Lore, a collection of the folk-tales and legends of -North Wales, being the prize essay of the National Eistedfod in 1887, -by the Rev. Elias Owen (Oswestry and Wrexham, 1896), 222, 275, 690. - -Owen: The Poetical Works of the Rev. Goronwy Owen, with his life and -correspondence, edited by the Rev. Robert Jones (London, 1876), 84. - -Owen: The Description of Pembrokeshire, by George Owen of Henllys, -edited with notes and an appendix by Henry Owen (London, 1892), 506, -513, 515. - -Owen: The Cambrian Biography, or Historical Notices of celebrated men -among the Ancient Britons, by William Owen (London, 1803), 169, 170. - - - -Paris: Merlin, Roman en Prose du XIIIe Siècle, edited by Gaston Paris -and Jacob Ulrich (Paris, 1886), 563. - -Parthey: Itinerarium Antonini Augusti et Hierosolymitanum ex Libris -manu scriptis, edited by G. Parthey and M. Pinder (Berlin, 1848), 514. - -Pembroke County Guardian, the, a newspaper owned and edited by -H. W. Williams and published at Solva, 160, 171, 172. - -Pennant: A Tour in Scotland, by Thomas Pennant (Warrington, 1774), 310. - - ,, : A Tour in Scotland and a Voyage to the Hebrides, MDCCLXXII, -by Thomas Pennant (Chester, 1774), 692. - - ,, : Tours in Wales, by Thomas Pennant, edited by J. Rhys -(Carnarvon, 1883), 125, 130, 532. - -Phillimore: Annales Cambriæ and Old-Welsh Genealogies from Harleian -MS. 3859, edited by Egerton Phillimore, in vol. ix of the Cymmrodor, -408, 476, 480, 551, 570. - -Phillips: The Book of Common Prayer in Manx Gaelic, being translations -made by Bishop Phillips in 1610 and by the Manx clergy in 1765; -edited by A. W. Moore, assisted by John Rhys, and printed for the -Manx Society (Douglas, 1893, 1894), 320. - -Plautus: T. Macci Plauti Asinaria, from the text of Goetz and Schoell, -by J. H. Gray (Cambridge, 1894), 535. - -Plutarch: De Defectu Oraculorum (the Didot ed., Paris, 1870), 331, -456, 493, 494. - -Powysland: Collections, historical and archæological, relating to -Montgomeryshire and its Borders, issued by the Powysland Club (London, -1868-), 237. - -Preller: Griechische Mythologie, von L. Preller, vierte Auflage von -Carl Robert (Berlin, 1887), 310. - -Price: Hanes Cymru a Chenedl y Cymry o'r Cynoesoed hyd at farwolaeth -Llewelyn ap Gruffyd, by the Rev. Thomas Price 'Carnhuanawc' -(Crickhowel, 1842), 490. - -Ptolemy: Claudii Ptolemæi Geographia: e Codicibus recognovit Carolus -Müllerus (vol. i, Paris, 1883), 385, 387, 388, 445, 581. - -Pughe: The Physicians of Mydvai (Medygon Mydfai), translated by John -Pughe of Aberdovey, and edited by the Rev. John Williams Ab Ithel -(Llandovery, 1861) [this volume has an introduction consisting of the -Legend of Llyn y Fan Fach, contributed by Mr. William Rees of Tonn, -who collected it, in the year 1841, from various sources named], 2, 12. - -Pughe: A Dictionary of the Welsh Language explained in English, -by Dr. Wm. Owen Pughe (2nd ed., Denbigh, 1832), 383, 502. - - - -Rastell: A. C. Mery Talys, printed by John Rastell, reprinted in -Hazlitt's Shakespeare Jest-books (London, 1844), 599. - -Rees: An Essay on the Welsh Saints or the primitive Christians usually -considered to have been the founders of Churches in Wales, by the -Rev. Rice Rees (London and Llandovery, 1836), 163, 217, 396, 534. - -Rees: Lives of the Cambro-British Saints, by the Rev. W. J. Rees, -published for the Welsh MSS. Society (Llandovery, 1853), 693. - -Rennes: Annales de Bretagne publiées par la Faculté des Lettres de -Rennes (Rennes, 1886-), 500. - -Revue Archéologique (new series, vol. xxiii, Paris, 1800-), 386. - -Rhys: Celtic Britain, by John Rhys (2nd ed., London, 1884), 72. - - ,, : Lectures on Welsh Philology, by John Rhys (2nd ed., London, -1879), 566. - - ,, : Hibbert Lectures, 1886, on the origin and growth of religion -as illustrated by Celtic heathendom, by John Rhys (London, 1888), -310, 321, 328, 331, 373, 387, 432, 435, 444, 447, 511, 542, 570, -613, 654, 657, 694. - -Rhys: Studies in the Arthurian Legend, by John Rhys (Oxford, 1891), -217, 287, 331, 375, 382, 387, 435, 438-41, 466, 494, 496, 561, 573, -610, 613. - -Rhys: Cambrobrytannicæ Cymraecæve Linguæ Institutiones et -Rudimenta ... conscripta à Joanne Dauide Rhæso, Monensi Lanuaethlæo -Cambrobrytanno, Medico Senensi (London, 1592), 22, 225. - -Richard: The Poetical Works of the Rev. Edward Richard (London, -1811), 577. - -Richards: A Welsh and English Dictionary, by Thomas Richards (Trefriw, -1815) 378. - -Roberts: The Cambrian Popular Antiquities, by Peter Roberts, (London, -1815), 396. - -Rosellini: see 682. - -Rymer: Foedera, Conventiones, Literæ et cujuscunque Generis Acta -publica inter Reges Angliæ et alios quosvis Imperatores, Reges, -Pontifices, Principes, vel Communitates, edited by Thomas Rymer -(vol. viii, London, 1709), 490. - - - -Sale: The Koran, translated into English with explanatory notes and -a preliminary discourse, by George Sale (London, 1877), 608. - -Sampson: Otia Merseiana, the publication of the Arts Faculty of -University College, Liverpool, edited by John Sampson (London), -393, 451. - -San-Marte: Beiträge zur bretonischen und celtisch-germanischen -Heldensage, by San-Marte (Quedlinburg, 1847), 611. - -Schwan: Grammatik des Altfranzösischen, by Eduard Schwan (Leipsic, -1888), 563. - -Scotland: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland -(Edinburgh), 244. - -Scott: the Works of Sir Walter Scott, 320, 643, 689. - -Sébillot: Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne, by Paul -Sébillot (Paris, 1882), 273. - -Shakespeare: The Plays and Poems of Shakespeare, 197, 636, 694. - -Sikes: British Goblins, Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and -Traditions, by Wirt Sikes (London, 1880), 17, 18, 99, 155, 160, 173, -191, 192. - -Silvan Evans: Dictionary of the Welsh Language (Geiriadur Cymraeg), -by D. Silvan Evans (Carmarthen, 1888-), 387, 431, 539, 580, 620, 621. - - ,, ,, : Y Brython, a periodical in Welsh for Welsh antiquities -and folklore, edited by the Rev. D. S. Evans, and published by Robert -Isaac Jones at Tremadoc (in quarto for 1858 and 1859, in octavo for -1860-2), 40, 73, 86, 98, 134, 137, 141, 151-5, 158-60, 202, 321, 413, -442, 456, 464, 470, 481, 690. - - ,, ,, : Ystên Sioned, by D. Silvan Evans (Aberystwyth, 1882), -271-3. - -Simrock: Die Edda, die ältere und jüngere, nebst den mythischen -Erzählungen der Skalda, translated and explained by Karl Simrock -(Stuttgart, 1855), 652. - -Sinclair: The Statistical Account of Scotland, drawn up from the -communications of the ministers of the different parishes, by Sir -John Sinclair (Edinburgh, 1794), 310. - -Skene: Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of the Scots, and other -Memorials of Scottish History, edited by Wm. F. Skene (Edinburgh, -1867), 374. - -Skene: The Four Ancient Books of Wales, by Wm. F. Skene (Edinburgh, -1868) [vol. ii contains, besides notes and illustrations, the text -of the Black Book of Carmarthen, 3-61; the Book of Aneurin, 62-107; -the Book of Taliessin, 108-217; and some of the poetry in the Red Book -of Hergest, 218-308. These four texts are to be found translated in -vol. i], 226, 233, 269, 281, 387, 442, 541, 543, 550, 614-7. - -South Wales Daily News (Duncan, Cardiff), 376. - -Southey: Madoc, a poem by Robert Southey (London, 1815), 169-71. - -Speed: The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, by John Speed -[not Speede] (London, 1611), 208. - -Steinmeyer: Die althochdeutschen Glossen, collected and elaborated -by Elias Steinmeyer and Eduard Sievers (Berlin, 1879-98), 683. - -Stengel: Li Romans de Durmart le Galois, altfranzösisches -Rittergedicht, published for the first time by Edmund Stengel -(Tübingen, 1873), 438. - -Stephens: The Gododin of Aneurin Gwawdryd, with an English translation -and copious notes, by Thomas Stephens; edited by Professor Powel, -and printed for the Cymmrodorion Society (London, 1888), 310, 543, 647. - -Stevenson: The Scottish Antiquary or Northern Notes and Queries, -edited by J. H. Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1886-), 693. - -Stokes: Cormac's Glossary: see Cormac. - - ,, : Goidelica, Old and Early-Middle-Irish Glosses, Prose and -Verse, edited by Whitley Stokes (2nd ed., London, 1872), 295, 374. - - ,, : Irische Texte mit Uebersetzungen und Wörterbuch, edited by -Whitley Stokes and E. Windisch (3rd series, Leipsic, 1891), 631. - - ,, : The Tripartite Life of Patrick, edited, with translations and -indexes, by Whitley Stokes (Rolls Series, London, 1887), 535. - - ,, : Urkeltischer Sprachschatz von Whitley Stokes, übersetzt, -überarbeitet und herausgegeben von Adalbert Bezzenberger, forming -the second part of the fourth edition of Fick's Vergleichendes -Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen (Gottingen, 1894), 671. - -Strabo: Strabonis Geographica recognovit Augustus Meineke (Leipsic, -1852-3), 654. - -Sturlæus: Edda Snorronis Sturlæi (Copenhagen, 1848), 652. - - - -Tacitus: Cornelii Taciti de Origine et Situ Germanorum Liber, edited -by Alfred Holder (Freiburg i. B., and Tübingen, 1882), 271. - -Taliesin, a Welsh periodical published at Ruthin in 1859-60, 135-7, -269. - -Taliessin: The Book of Taliessin (see Skene), 550, 614-7. - -Tegid: Gwaith Bardonol y diwedar barch. John Jones 'Tegid' [also called -Joan Tegid], edited by the Rev. Henry Roberts (Llandovery, 1859), 445. - -Triads: [The so-called Historical Triads, referred to in this volume, -are to be found in the Myvyrian Archaiology (London, 1801), series i -and ii in vol. ii, 1-22, and (the later) series iii in the same vol., -57-80. In the single-volume edition of the Myvyrian (Denbigh, 1870), -they occupy continuously pp. 388-414. Series ii comes from the Red -Book of Hergest, and will be found also in the volume of the Oxford -Mabinogion, pp. 297-309], 170, 281, 326, 382, 429-31, 433, 440, 441, -443-5, 498, 500, 501, 503-9, 565, 569. - -Tylor: Primitive Culture, Researches into the Development of Mythology, -Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Custom, by Edward Tylor -(2nd ed., London, 1873), 290, 329, 601, 603, 641, 658. - -Twyne: Thomas Twyne's Breuiary of Britayne, a translation of Humfrey -Lhuyd's Fragmentum (London, 1573), 412. - - - -Ulfilas: Ulfilas, Text, Grammar, and Dictionary, elaborated and edited -by F. L. Stamm (Paderborn, 1869), 626. - - - -Vigfusson: An Icelandic Dictionary, enlarged and completed by Gudbrand -Vigfusson (Oxford, 1874), 288, 652. - -Vising: see 563. - - - -Waldron: A Description of the Isle of Man, by George Waldron, being -vol. xi of the Manx Society's publications (Douglas, 1865), 290. - -Waring: Recollections and Anecdotes of Edward Williams, by Elijah -Waring (London, 1850), 458. - -Westermarck: The History of Human Marriage, by Edward Westermarck -(London, 1894), 654. - -Weyman: From the Memoirs of a Minister of France, by Stanley Weyman -(London, 1895), 690. - -Williams: The English Works of Eliezer Williams, with a memoir of -his life by his son, St. George Armstrong Williams (London, 1840), 493. - -Williams: Brut y Tywysogion, or the Chronicle of the Princes, edited -by John Williams Ab Ithel (Rolls Series, London, 1860), 79, 513. - -Williams: A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen, by the -Rev. Robert Williams (Llandovery, 1852), 534. - - ,, : Y Seint Greal, edited with a translation and glossary by the -Rev. Robert Williams (London, 1876), 438, 514, 580. - -Williams: The Doom of Colyn Dolphyn, by Taliesin Williams (London, -1837), 561. - - ,, : Traethawd ar Gywreined Glynn Ned, by Taliesin Williams: see -439. - -Williams: Observations on the Snowdon Mountains, by William Williams -of Llandegai (London, 1802), 48, 673, 674. - -Windisch: Irische Texte mit Wörterbuch, by Ernst Windisch (Leipsic, -1880), 501, 657. - - ,, : Kurzgefasste irische Grammatik (Leipsic, 1879), 291, 501, -502, 531, 546, 547, 603, 613, 618, 691. - - ,, : Über die irische Sage Noinden Ulad, in the Berichte der -k. sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften (phil.-historische Classe, -Dec. 1884), 654. - -Woodall: Bye-gones, a periodical reissue of notes, queries, and -replies on subjects relating to Wales and the Borders, published in -the columns of The Border Counties Advertizer, by Messrs. Woodall, -Minshall & Co. of the Caxton Press, Oswestry, 169, 378. - -Wood-Martin: Pagan Ireland, by W. G. Wood-Martin (London, 1895), 612. - -Worth: A History of Devonshire, with Sketches of its leading Worthies, -by R. N. Worth (London, 1895), 307. - -Wright: The English Dialect Dictionary, edited by Professor Joseph -Wright (London and Oxford, 1898-), 66. - -Wynne: The History of the Gwydir Family, published by Angharad Llwyd in -the year 1827, and by Askew Roberts at Oswestry in 1878, 490, 491, 670. - - - -Y Cymmrodor, the magazine embodying the transactions of the -Cymmrodorion Society of London (Secretary, E. Vincent Evans, 64 -Chancery Lane, W.C.), 374, 384, 480, 510, 513, 520, 600, 610, 690, -693, 694. - -Y Drych, a newspaper published at Utica in the United States of North -America, 234. - -Y Gordofigion, an extinct Welsh periodical: see p. 450. - -Y Gwyliedyd, a magazine of useful knowledge intended for the benefit -of monoglot Welshmen (Bala, 1823-37), 450. - -Y Nofelyd, a Welsh periodical published by Mr. Aubrey, of Llannerch -y Med, 396. - -Young: Burghead, by H. W. Young (Inverness, 1899), 345. - - - - - - - - -CELTIC FOLKLORE - -WELSH AND MANX - - - - - - - - -Gallias utique possedit, et quidem ad nostram memoriam. Namque -Tiberii Cæsaris principatus sustulit Druidas eorum, et hoc genus -vatum medicorumque. Sed quid ego hæc commemorem in arte Oceanum -quoque transgressa, et ad naturæ inane pervecta? Britannia hodieque -eam attonite celebrat tantis cerimoniis, ut dedisse Persis videri -possit. Adeo ista toto mundo consensere, quamquam discordi et sibi -ignoto. Nec satis æstimari potest, quantum Romanis debeatur, qui -sustulere monstra, in quibus hominem occidere religiosissimum erat, -mandi vero etiam saluberrimum. - - Pliny, Historia Naturalis, XXX. 4. - - -Pline fait remarquer que ces pratiques antipathiques au génie grec -sont d'origine médique. Nous les rencontrons en Europe à l'état de -survivances. L'universalité de ces superstitions prouve en effet -qu'elles émanent d'une source unique qui n'est pas européenne. Il -est difficile de les considérer comme un produit de l'esprit aryen; -il faut remonter plus haut pour en trouver l'origine. Si, en Gaule, en -Grande-Bretagne, en Irlande, tant de superstitions relevant de la magie -existaient encore au temps de Pline enracinées dans les esprits à tel -point que le grand naturaliste pouvait dire, à propos de la Bretagne, -qu'il semblait que ce fût elle qui avait donné la magie à la Perse, -c'est qu'en Gaule, en Grande-Bretagne, et en Irlande le fond de la -population était composé d'éléments étrangers à la race aryenne, -comme les faits archéologiques le démontrent, ainsi que le reconnait -notre éminent confrère et ami, M. d'Arbois de Jubainville lui-même. - - Alexandre Bertrand, La Religion des Gaulois, pp. 55, 56. - - -Une croyance universellement admise dans le monde lettré, en France et -hors de France, fait des Français les fils des Gaulois qui ont pris -Rome en 390 avant Jésus-Christ, et que César a vaincus au milieu du -premier siècle avant notre ère. On croit que nous sommes des Gaulois, -survivant à toutes les révolutions qui depuis tant de siècles ont -bouleversé le monde. C'est une idée préconçue que, suivant moi, la -science doit rejeter. Seuls à peu près, les archéologues ont vu la -vérité.... Les pierres levées, les cercles de pierre, les petites -cabanes construites en gros blocs de pierre pour servir de dernier -asile aux défunts, étaient, croyait-on, des monuments celtiques.... On -donnait à ces rustiques témoignages d'une civilisation primitive des -noms bretons, ou néo-celtiques de France; on croyait naïvement, en -reproduisant des mots de cette langue moderne, parler comme auraient -fait, s'ils avaient pu revenir à la vie, ceux qui ont remué ces -lourdes pierres, ceux qui les ont fixées debout sur le sol ou même -élevées sur d'autres.... Mais ceux qui ont dressé les pierres levées, -les cercles de pierres; ceux qui ont construit les cabanes funéraires -ne parlaient pas celtique et le breton diffère du celtique comme le -français du latin. - - H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, - Les premiers Habitants de l'Europe, II. xi-xiii. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER I - -UNDINE'S KYMRIC SISTERS - - Undine, liebes Bildchen du, - Seit ich zuerst aus alten Kunden - Dein seltsam Leuchten aufgefunden, - Wie sangst du oft mein Herz in Ruh! - - De la Motte Fouqué. - - -The chief object of this and several of the following chapters is to -place on record all the matter I can find on the subject of Welsh -lake legends: what I may have to say of them is merely by the way -and sporadic, and I should feel well paid for my trouble if these -contributions should stimulate others to communicate to the public bits -of similar legends, which, possibly, still linger unrecorded among -the mountains of Wales. For it should be clearly understood that all -such things bear on the history of the Welsh, as the history of no -people can be said to have been written so long as its superstitions -and beliefs in past times have not been studied; and those who may -think that the legends here recorded are childish and frivolous, may -rest assured that they bear on questions which could not themselves -be called either childish or frivolous. So, however silly a legend -may be thought, let him who knows such a legend communicate it to -somebody who will place it on record; he will then probably find that -it has more meaning and interest than he had anticipated. - - - - -I. - -I find it best to begin by reproducing a story which has already been -placed on record: this appears desirable on account of its being -the most complete of its kind, and the one with which shorter ones -can most readily be compared. I allude to the legend of the Lady -of Llyn y Fan Fach in Carmarthenshire, which I take the liberty of -copying from Mr. Rees of Tonn's version in the introduction to The -Physicians of Mydvai [1], published by the Welsh Manuscript Society, -at Llandovery, in 1861. There he says that he wrote it down from -the oral recitations, which I suppose were in Welsh, of John Evans, -tiler, of Mydfai, David Williams, Morfa, near Mydfai, who was about -ninety years old at the time, and Elizabeth Morgan, of Henllys Lodge, -near Llandovery, who was a native of the same village of Mydfai; to -this it may be added that he acknowledges obligations also to Joseph -Joseph, Esq., F.S.A., Brecon, for collecting particulars from the -old inhabitants of the parish of Llandeusant. The legend, as given -by Mr. Rees in English, runs as follows, and strongly reminds one in -certain parts of the Story of Undine as given in the German of De la -Motte Fouqué, with which it should be compared:-- - -'When the eventful struggle made by the Princes of South Wales to -preserve the independence of their country was drawing to its close in -the twelfth century, there lived at Blaensawde [2] near Llandeusant, -Carmarthenshire, a widowed woman, the relict of a farmer who had -fallen in those disastrous troubles. - -'The widow had an only son to bring up, but Providence smiled upon her, -and despite her forlorn condition, her live stock had so increased in -course of time, that she could not well depasture them upon her farm, -so she sent a portion of her cattle to graze on the adjoining Black -Mountain, and their most favourite place was near the small lake called -Llyn y Fan Fach, on the north-western side of the Carmarthenshire Fans. - -'The son grew up to manhood, and was generally sent by his mother to -look after the cattle on the mountain. One day, in his peregrinations -along the margin of the lake, to his great astonishment, he beheld, -sitting on the unruffled surface of the water, a lady; one of the most -beautiful creatures that mortal eyes ever beheld, her hair flowed -gracefully in ringlets over her shoulders, the tresses of which -she arranged with a comb, whilst the glassy surface of her watery -couch served for the purpose of a mirror, reflecting back her own -image. Suddenly she beheld the young man standing on the brink of -the lake, with his eyes riveted on her, and unconsciously offering -to herself the provision of barley bread and cheese with which he -had been provided when he left his home. - -'Bewildered by a feeling of love and admiration for the object -before him, he continued to hold out his hand towards the lady, -who imperceptibly glided near to him, but gently refused the offer -of his provisions. He attempted to touch her, but she eluded his -grasp, saying-- - - - Cras dy fara; Hard baked is thy bread! - Nid hawd fy nala. 'Tis not easy to catch me [3]; - - -and immediately dived under the water and disappeared, leaving the -love-stricken youth to return home, a prey to disappointment and -regret that he had been unable to make further acquaintance with one, -in comparison with whom the whole of the fair maidens of Llandeusant -and Mydfai [4] whom he had ever seen were as nothing. - -On his return home the young man communicated to his mother the -extraordinary vision he had beheld. She advised him to take some -unbaked dough or "toes" the next time in his pocket, as there must -have been some spell connected with the hard-baked bread, or "Bara -cras," which prevented his catching the lady. - -'Next morning, before the sun had gilded with its rays the peaks of -the Fans, the young man was at the lake, not for the purpose of looking -after his mother's cattle, but seeking for the same enchanting vision -he had witnessed the day before; but all in vain did he anxiously -strain his eyeballs and glance over the surface of the lake, as only -the ripples occasioned by a stiff breeze met his view, and a cloud -hung heavily on the summit of the Fan, which imparted an additional -gloom to his already distracted mind. - -'Hours passed on, the wind was hushed, and the clouds which had -enveloped the mountain had vanished into thin air before the powerful -beams of the sun, when the youth was startled by seeing some of his -mother's cattle on the precipitous side of the acclivity, nearly on -the opposite side of the lake. His duty impelled him to attempt to -rescue them from their perilous position, for which purpose he was -hastening away, when, to his inexpressible delight, the object of his -search again appeared to him as before, and seemed much more beautiful -than when he first beheld her. His hand was again held out to her, -full of unbaked bread, which he offered with an urgent proffer of -his heart also, and vows of eternal attachment. All of which were -refused by her, saying-- - - - Llaith dy fara! Unbaked is thy bread! - Ti ni fynna'. I will not have thee [5]. - - -But the smiles that played upon her features as the lady vanished -beneath the waters raised within the young man a hope that forbade -him to despair by her refusal of him, and the recollection of which -cheered him on his way home. His aged parent was made acquainted -with his ill-success, and she suggested that his bread should next -time be but slightly baked, as most likely to please the mysterious -being of whom he had become enamoured. - -'Impelled by an irresistible feeling, the youth left his mother's -house early next morning, and with rapid steps he passed over the -mountain. He was soon near the margin of the lake, and with all the -impatience of an ardent lover did he wait with a feverish anxiety -for the reappearance of the mysterious lady. - -'The sheep and goats browsed on the precipitous sides of the Fan; -the cattle strayed amongst the rocks and large stones, some of which -were occasionally loosened from their beds and suddenly rolled down -into the lake; rain and sunshine alike came and passed away; but all -were unheeded by the youth, so wrapped up was he in looking for the -appearance of the lady. - -'The freshness of the early morning had disappeared before the sultry -rays of the noon-day sun, which in its turn was fast verging towards -the west as the evening was dying away and making room for the shades -of night, and hope had wellnigh abated of beholding once more the Lady -of the Lake. The young man cast a sad and last farewell look over -the waters, and, to his astonishment, beheld several cows walking -along its surface. The sight of these animals caused hope to revive -that they would be followed by another object far more pleasing; nor -was he disappointed, for the maiden reappeared, and to his enraptured -sight, even lovelier than ever. She approached the land, and he rushed -to meet her in the water. A smile encouraged him to seize her hand; -neither did she refuse the moderately baked bread he offered her; and -after some persuasion she consented to become his bride, on condition -that they should only live together until she received from him three -blows without a cause, - - - Tri ergyd diachos. Three causeless blows. - - -And if he ever should happen to strike her three such blows she would -leave him for ever. To such conditions he readily consented, and would -have consented to any other stipulation, had it been proposed, as he -was only intent on then securing such a lovely creature for his wife. - -'Thus the Lady of the Lake engaged to become the young man's wife, -and having loosed her hand for a moment she darted away and dived -into the lake. His chagrin and grief were such that he determined -to cast himself headlong into the deepest water, so as to end his -life in the element that had contained in its unfathomed depths the -only one for whom he cared to live on earth. As he was on the point -of committing this rash act, there emerged out of the lake two most -beautiful ladies, accompanied by a hoary-headed man of noble mien -and extraordinary stature, but having otherwise all the force and -strength of youth. This man addressed the almost bewildered youth in -accents calculated to soothe his troubled mind, saying that as he -proposed to marry one of his daughters, he consented to the union, -provided the young man could distinguish which of the two ladies -before him was the object of his affections. This was no easy task, -as the maidens were such perfect counterparts of each other that it -seemed quite impossible for him to choose his bride, and if perchance -he fixed upon the wrong one all would be for ever lost. - -'Whilst the young man narrowly scanned the two ladies, he could not -perceive the least difference betwixt the two, and was almost giving -up the task in despair, when one of them thrust her foot a slight -degree forward. The motion, simple as it was, did not escape the -observation of the youth, and he discovered a trifling variation in -the mode with which their sandals were tied. This at once put an end -to the dilemma, for he, who had on previous occasions been so taken -up with the general appearance of the Lady of the Lake, had also -noticed the beauty of her feet and ankles, and on now recognizing -the peculiarity of her shoe-tie he boldly took hold of her hand. - -'"Thou hast chosen rightly," said her father; "be to her a kind and -faithful husband, and I will give her, as a dowry, as many sheep, -cattle, goats, and horses as she can count of each without heaving or -drawing in her breath. But remember, that if you prove unkind to her -at any time, and strike her three times without a cause, she shall -return to me, and shall bring all her stock back with her." - -'Such was the verbal marriage settlement, to which the young man gladly -assented, and his bride was desired to count the number of sheep she -was to have. She immediately adopted the mode of counting by fives, -thus:--One, two, three, four, five--One, two, three, four, five; -as many times as possible in rapid succession, till her breath was -exhausted. The same process of reckoning had to determine the number -of goats, cattle, and horses respectively; and in an instant the full -number of each came out of the lake when called upon by the father. - -'The young couple were then married, by what ceremony was not stated, -and afterwards went to reside at a farm called Esgair Llaethdy, -somewhat more than a mile from the village of Mydfai, where they -lived in prosperity and happiness for several years, and became the -parents of three sons, who were beautiful children. - -'Once upon a time there was a christening to take place in the -neighbourhood, to which the parents were specially invited. When the -day arrived the wife appeared very reluctant to attend the christening, -alleging that the distance was too great for her to walk. Her husband -told her to fetch one of the horses which were grazing in an adjoining -field. "I will," said she, "if you will bring me my gloves which -I left in our house." He went to the house and returned with the -gloves, and finding that she had not gone for the horse jocularly -slapped her shoulder with one of them, saying, "go! go!" (dos, dos), -when she reminded him of the understanding upon which she consented -to marry him:--That he was not to strike her without a cause; and -warned him to be more cautious for the future. - -'On another occasion, when they were together at a wedding, in -the midst of the mirth and hilarity of the assembled guests, who -had gathered together from all the surrounding country, she burst -into tears and sobbed most piteously. Her husband touched her on her -shoulder and inquired the cause of her weeping: she said, "Now people -are entering into trouble, and your troubles are likely to commence, -as you have the second time stricken me without a cause." - -'Years passed on, and their children had grown up, and were -particularly clever young men. In the midst of so many worldly -blessings at home the husband almost forgot that there remained -only one causeless blow to be given to destroy the whole of his -prosperity. Still he was watchful lest any trivial occurrence should -take place which his wife must regard as a breach of their marriage -contract. She told him, as her affection for him was unabated, to be -careful that he would not, through some inadvertence, give the last -and only blow, which, by an unalterable destiny, over which she had -no control, would separate them for ever. - -'It, however, so happened that one day they were together at a -funeral, where, in the midst of the mourning and grief at the house -of the deceased, she appeared in the highest and gayest spirits, and -indulged in immoderate fits of laughter, which so shocked her husband -that he touched her, saying, "Hush! hush! don't laugh." She said that -she laughed "because people when they die go out of trouble," and, -rising up, she went out of the house, saying, "The last blow has been -struck, our marriage contract is broken, and at an end! Farewell!" Then -she started off towards Esgair Llaethdy, where she called her cattle -and other stock together, each by name. The cattle she called thus:-- - - - Mu wlfrech, Moelfrech, Brindled cow, white speckled, - Mu olfrech, Gwynfrech, Spotted cow, bold freckled, - Pedair cae tonn-frech, The four field sward mottled, - Yr hen wynebwen, The old white-faced, - A'r las Geigen, And the grey Geingen, - Gyda'r Tarw Gwyn With the white Bull, - O lys y Brenin; From the court of the King; - A'r llo du bach, And the little black calf - Syd ar y bach, Tho' suspended on the hook, - Dere dithau, yn iach adre! Come thou also, quite well home! - - -They all immediately obeyed the summons of their mistress. The -"little black calf," although it had been slaughtered, became alive -again, and walked off with the rest of the stock at the command of -the lady. This happened in the spring of the year, and there were -four oxen ploughing in one of the fields; to these she cried:-- - - - Pedwar eidion glas The four grey oxen, - Syd ar y maes, That are on the field, - Denwch chwithan Come you also - Yn iach adre! Quite well home! - - -Away the whole of the live stock went with the Lady across Mydfai -Mountain, towards the lake from whence they came, a distance of above -six miles, where they disappeared beneath its waters, leaving no trace -behind except a well-marked furrow, which was made by the plough the -oxen drew after them into the lake, and which remains to this day as -a testimony to the truth of this story. - -'What became of the affrighted ploughman--whether he was left on the -field when the oxen set off, or whether he followed them to the lake, -has not been handed down to tradition; neither has the fate of the -disconsolate and half-ruined husband been kept in remembrance. But of -the sons it is stated that they often wandered about the lake and its -vicinity, hoping that their mother might be permitted to visit the face -of the earth once more, as they had been apprised of her mysterious -origin, her first appearance to their father, and the untoward -circumstances which so unhappily deprived them of her maternal care. - -'In one of their rambles, at a place near Dôl Howel, at the Mountain -Gate, still called "Llidiad y Medygon," The Physicians' Gate, the -mother appeared suddenly, and accosted her eldest son, whose name -was Rhiwallon, and told him that his mission on earth was to be a -benefactor to mankind by relieving them from pain and misery, through -healing all manner of their diseases; for which purpose she furnished -him with a bag full of medical prescriptions and instructions for the -preservation of health. That by strict attention thereto he and his -family would become for many generations the most skilful physicians -in the country. Then, promising to meet him when her counsel was most -needed, she vanished. But on several occasions she met her sons near -the banks of the lake, and once she even accompanied them on their -return home as far as a place still called "Pant-y-Medygon," The -dingle of the Physicians, where she pointed out to them the various -plants and herbs which grew in the dingle, and revealed to them -their medicinal qualities or virtues; and the knowledge she imparted -to them, together with their unrivalled skill, soon caused them to -attain such celebrity that none ever possessed before them. And in -order that their knowledge should not be lost, they wisely committed -the same to writing, for the benefit of mankind throughout all ages.' - -To the legend Mr. Rees added the following notes, which we reproduce -also at full length:-- - -'And so ends the story of the Physicians of Mydfai, which has been -handed down from one generation to another, thus:-- - - -Yr hên wr llwyd o'r cornel, The grey old man in the corner -Gan ci dad a glywod chwedel [6], Of his father heard a story, -A chan ci dad fe glywod yntau Which from his father he had heard, -Ac ar ei ôl mi gofiais innau. And after them I have remembered. - - -As stated in the introduction of the present work [i.e. the Physicians -of Mydvai], Rhiwallon and his sons became Physicians to Rhys Gryg, -Lord of Llandovery and Dynefor Castles, "who gave them rank, lands, -and privileges at Mydfai for their maintenance in the practice of their -art and science, and the healing and benefit of those who should seek -their help," thus affording to those who could not afford to pay, -the best medical advice and treatment gratuitously. Such a truly -royal foundation could not fail to produce corresponding effects. So -the fame of the Physicians of Mydfai was soon established over the -whole country, and continued for centuries among their descendants. - -'The celebrated Welsh Bard, Dafyd ap Gwilym, who flourished in the -following century, and was buried at the Abbey of Tal-y-llychau [7], -in Carmarthenshire, about the year 1368, says in one of his poems, -as quoted in Dr. Davies' dictionary-- - - -Medyg ni wnai mod y gwnaeth A Physician he would not make -Mydfai, o chai dyn medfaeth. As Mydfai made, if he had a mead - fostered man. - - -Of the above lands bestowed upon the Medygon, there are two farms -in Mydfai parish still called "Llwyn Ifan Fedyg," the Grove of Evan -the Physician; and "Llwyn Meredyd Fedyg," the Grove of Meredith the -Physician. Esgair Llaethdy, mentioned in the foregoing legend, was -formerly in the possession of the above descendants, and so was Ty -newyd, near Mydfai, which was purchased by Mr. Holford, of Cilgwyn, -from the Rev. Charles Lloyd, vicar of Llandefalle, Breconshire, -who married a daughter of one of the Medygon, and had the living -of Llandefalle from a Mr. Vaughan, who presented him to the same -out of gratitude, because Mr. Lloyd's wife's father had cured him -of a disease in the eye. As Mr. Lloyd succeeded to the above living -in 1748, and died in 1800, it is probable that the skilful oculist -was John Jones, who is mentioned in the following inscription on a -tombstone at present fixed against the west end of Mydfai Church:-- - - - HERE - Lieth the body of Mr. DAVID JONES, of Mothvey, Surgeon, - who was an honest, charitable, and skilful man. - He died September 14th, Anno Dom 1719, aged 61. - - JOHN JONES, Surgeon, - Eldest son of the said David Jones, departed this life - the 25th of November, 1739, in the 44th year - of his Age, and also lyes interred hereunder. - - -These appear to have been the last of the Physicians who practised -at Mydfai. The above John Jones resided for some time at Llandovery, -and was a very eminent surgeon. One of his descendants, named John -Lewis, lived at Cwmbran, Mydfai, at which place his great-grandson, -Mr. John Jones, now resides. - -'Dr. Morgan Owen, Bishop of Llandaff, who died at Glasallt, parish of -Mydfai, in 1645, was a descendant of the Medygon, and an inheritor -of much of their landed property in that parish, the bulk of which -he bequeathed to his nephew, Morgan Owen, who died in 1667, and was -succeeded by his son Henry Owen; and at the decease of the last of -whose descendants, Robert Lewis, Esq., the estates became, through the -will of one of the family, the property of the late D. A. S. Davies, -Esq., M.P. for Carmarthenshire. - -'Bishop Owen bequeathed to another nephew, Morgan ap Rees, son of -Rees ap John, a descendant of the Medygon, the farm of Rhyblid, -and some other property. Morgan ap Rees' son, Samuel Rice, resided -at Loughor, in Gower, Glamorganshire, and had a son, Morgan Rice, -who was a merchant in London, and became Lord of the Manor of Tooting -Graveney, and High Sheriff in the year 1772, and Deputy Lieutenant -of the county of Surrey, 1776. He resided at Hill House, which he -built. At his death the whole of his property passed to his only -child, John Rice, Esq., whose eldest son, the Rev. John Morgan Rice, -inherited the greater portion of his estates. The head of the family is -now the Rev. Horatio Morgan Rice, rector of South Hill with Callington, -Cornwall, and J.P. for the county, who inherited, with other property, -a small estate at Loughor. The above Morgan Rice had landed property in -Llanmadock and Llangenith, as well as Loughor, in Gower, but whether -he had any connexion with Howel the Physician (ap Rhys ap Llywelyn ap -Philip the Physician, and lineal descendant from Einion ap Rhiwallon), -who resided at Cilgwryd in Gower, is not known. - -'Amongst other families who claim descent from the Physicians were -the Bowens of Cwmydw, Mydfai; and Jones of Dollgarreg and Penrhock, -in the same parish; the latter of whom are represented by Charles -Bishop, of Dollgarreg, Esq., Clerk of the Peace for Carmarthenshire, -and Thomas Bishop, of Brecon, Esq. - -'Rees Williams of Mydfai is recorded as one of the Medygon. His -great-grandson was the late Rice Williams, M.D., of Aberystwyth, -who died May 16, 1842, aged 85, and appears to have been the last, -although not the least eminent, of the Physicians descended from the -mysterious Lady of Llyn y Fan [8].' - -This brings the legend of the Lady of the Fan Lake into connexion -with a widely-spread family. There is another connexion between -it and modern times, as will be seen from the following statement -kindly made to me by the Rev. A. G. Edwards, Warden of the Welsh -College at Llandovery, since then appointed Bishop of St. Asaph: -'An old woman from Mydfai, who is now, that is to say in January 1881, -about eighty years of age, tells me that she remembers "thousands and -thousands of people visiting the Lake of the Little Fan on the first -Sunday or Monday in August, and when she was young she often heard -old men declare that at that time a commotion took place in the lake, -and that its waters boiled, which was taken to herald the approach of -the Lake Lady and her Oxen."' The custom of going up to the lake on -the first Sunday in August was a very well known one in years gone by, -as I have learned from a good many people, and it is corroborated by -Mr. Joseph Joseph of Brecon, who kindly writes as follows, in reply -to some queries of mine: 'On the first Sunday in the month of August, -Llyn y Fan Fach is supposed to be boiling (berwi). I have seen scores -of people going up to see it (not boiling though) on that day. I do not -remember that any of them expected to see the Lady of the Lake.' As to -the boiling of the lake I have nothing to say, and I am not sure that -there is anything in the following statement made as an explanation of -the yearly visit to the lake by an old fisherwoman from Llandovery: -'The best time for eels is in August, when the north-east wind blows -on the lake, and makes huge waves in it. The eels can then be seen -floating on the waves.' - -Last summer I went myself to the village of Mydfai, to see if I could -pick up any variants of the legend, but I was hardly successful; -for though several of the farmers I questioned could repeat bits of -the legend, including the Lake Lady's call to her cattle as she went -away, I got nothing new, except that one of them said that the youth, -when he first saw the Lake Lady at a distance, thought she was a -goose--he did not even rise to the conception of a swan--but that -by degrees he approached her, and discovered that she was a lady in -white, and that in due time they were married, and so on. My friend, -the Warden of Llandovery College, seems, however, to have found a bit -of a version which may have been still more unlike the one recorded -by Mr. Rees of Tonn: it was from an old man at Mydfai last year, -from whom he was, nevertheless, only able to extract the statement -'that the Lake Lady got somehow entangled in a farmer's "gambo," -and that ever after his farm was very fertile.' A 'gambo,' I ought to -explain, is a kind of a cart without sides, used in South Wales: both -the name and the thing seem to have come from England, though I cannot -find such a word as gambo or gambeau in the ordinary dictionaries. - -Among other legends about lake fairies, there are, in the third -chapter of Mr. Sikes' British Goblins, two versions of this story: -the first of them differs but slightly from Mr. Rees', in that the -farmer used to go near the lake to see some lambs he had bought at -a fair, and that whenever he did so three beautiful damsels appeared -to him from the lake. They always eluded his attempts to catch them: -they ran away into the lake, saying, Cras dy fara, &c. But one day -a piece of moist bread came floating ashore, which he ate, and the -next day he had a chat with the Lake Maidens. He proposed marriage to -one of them, to which she consented, provided he could distinguish -her from her sisters the day after. The story then, so far as I -can make out from the brief version which Mr. Sikes gives of it, -went on like that of Mr. Rees. The former gives another version, -with much more interesting variations, which omit all reference, -however, to the Physicians of Mydfai, and relate how a young farmer -had heard of the Lake Maiden rowing up and down the lake in a golden -boat with a golden scull. He went to the lake on New Year's Eve, saw -her, was fascinated by her, and left in despair at her vanishing out -of sight, although he cried out to her to stay and be his wife. She -faintly replied, and went her way, after he had gazed at her long -yellow hair and pale melancholy face. He continued to visit the lake, -and grew thin and negligent of his person, owing to his longing. But -a wise man, who lived on the mountain, advised him to tempt her with -gifts of bread and cheese, which he undertook to do on Midsummer Eve, -when he dropped into the lake a large cheese and a loaf of bread. This -he did repeatedly, until at last his hopes were fulfilled on New -Year's Eve. This time he had gone to the lake clad in his best suit, -and at midnight dropped seven white loaves and his biggest and finest -cheese into the lake. The Lake Lady by-and-by came in her skiff to -where he was, and gracefully stepped ashore. The scene need not be -further described: Mr. Sikes gives a picture of it, and the story -then proceeds as in the other version. - -It is a pity that Mr. Rees did not preserve the Welsh versions out -of which he pieced together the English one; but as to Mr. Sikes, -I cannot discover whence his has been derived, for he seems not to -have been too anxious to leave anybody the means of testing his work, -as one will find on verifying his references, when he gives any. See -also the allusions to him in Hartland's Science of Fairy Tales, -pp. 64, 123, 137, 165, 278. - -Since writing the foregoing notes the following communication has -reached me from a friend of my undergraduate days at Jesus College, -Oxford, Mr. Llywarch Reynolds of Merthyr Tydfil. Only the first -part of it concerns the legend of Llyn y Fan Fach; but as the rest -is equally racy I make no apology for publishing it in full without -any editing, except the insertion of the meaning of two or three of -the Welsh words occurring in it:-- - -'Tell Rhys that I have just heard a sequel to the Medygon Mydfai story, -got from a rustic on Mynyd y Banwen, between Glynnêd and Glyntawë, on -a ramble recently with David Lewis the barrister and Sidney Hartland -the folklorist. It was to the effect that after the disappearance of -the forwn, "the damsel," into the lake, the disconsolate husband and -his friends set to work to drain the lake in order to get at her, -if possible. They made a great cutting into the bank, when suddenly -a huge hairy monster of hideous aspect emerged from the water and -stormed at them for disturbing him, and wound up with this threat:-- - - - Os na cha'i lonyd yn ym lle, If I get no quiet in my place, - Fi foda dre' 'Byrhondu! I shall drown the town of Brecon! - - -It was evidently the last braich, "arm," of a Triban Morgannwg, -but this was all my informant knew of it. From the allusion to Tre' -Byrhondu, it struck me that there was here probably a tale of Llyn -Safadon, which had migrated to Llyn y Fan; because of course there -would have to be a considerable change in the "levels" before Llyn -y Fan and the Sawde could put Brecon in any great jeopardy [9]. - -'We also got another tale about a cwmshurwr, "conjurer," who once -lived in Ystradgyrlais (as the rustic pronounced it). The wizard was -a dyn llaw-harn, "a man with an iron hand"; and it being reported -that there was a great treasure hidden in Mynyd y Drum, the wizard -said he would secure it, if he could but get some plucky fellow -to spend a night with him there. John Gethin was a plucky fellow -(dyn "ysprydol"), and he agreed to join the dyn llaw-harn in his -diablerie. The wizard traced two rings on the sward touching each -other "like a number 8"; he went into one, and Gethin into the other, -the wizard strictly charging him on no account to step out of the -ring. The llaw-harn then proceeded to trafod 'i lyfrau, or "busy -himself with his books"; and there soon appeared a monstrous bull, -bellowing dreadfully; but the plucky Gethin held his ground, and the -bull vanished. Next came a terrible object, a "fly-wheel of fire," -which made straight for poor Gethin and made him swerve out of the -ring. Thereupon the wheel assumed the form of the diawl, "devil," -who began to haul Gethin away. The llaw-harn seized hold of him and -tried to get him back. The devil was getting the upper hand, when the -llaw-harn begged the devil to let him keep Gethin while the piece of -candle he had with him lasted. The devil consented, and let go his hold -of Gethin, whereupon the cwmshurwr immediately blew out the candle, -and the devil was discomfited. Gethin preserved the piece of candle -very carefully, stowing it away in a cool place; but still it wasted -away although it was never lighted. Gethin got such a fright that -he took to his bed, and as the candle wasted away he did the same, -and they both came to an end simultaneously. Gethin vanished--and it -was not his body that was put into the coffin, but a lump of clay -which was put in to save appearances! It is said that the wizard's -books are in an oaken chest at Waungyrlais farm house to this day. - -'We got these tales on a ramble to see "Maen y Gwediau," on the -mountain near Coelbren Junction Station on the Neath and Brecon Railway -(marked on the Ordnance Map), but we had to turn back owing to the -fearful heat.' - -Before dismissing Mr. Reynolds' letter I may mention a story in point -which relates to a lake on the Brecon side of the mountains. It -is given at length by the Rev. Edward Davies in his Mythology and -Rites of the British Druids (London, 1809), pp. 155-7. According to -this legend a door in the rock was to be found open once a year--on -May-day, as it is supposed--and from that door one could make one's -way to the garden of the fairies, which was an island in the middle -of the lake. This paradise of exquisite bliss was invisible, however, -to those who stood outside the lake: they could only see an indistinct -mass in the centre of the water. Once on a time a visitor tried to -carry away some of the flowers given him by the fairies, but he was -thereby acting against their law, and not only was he punished with the -loss of his senses, but the door has never since been left open. It -is also related that once an adventurous person attempted to drain -the water away 'in order to discover its contents, when a terrific -form arose from the midst of the lake, commanding him to desist, -or otherwise he would drown the country.' This form is clearly of -the same species as that which, according to Mr. Reynolds' story, -threatened to drown the town of Brecon. Subsequent inquiries have -elicited more information, and I am more especially indebted to my -friend Mr. Ivor James, who, as registrar of the University of Wales, -has of late years been living at Brecon. He writes to the following -effect:--'The lake you want is Llyn Cwm Llwch, and the legend is very -well known locally, but there are variants. Once on a time men and -boys dug a gully through the dam in order to let the water out. A -man in a red coat, sitting in an armchair, appeared on the surface -of the water and threatened them in the terms which you quote from -Mr. Reynolds. The red coat would seem to suggest that this form of -the legend dates possibly from a time since our soldiers were first -clothed in red. In another case, however, the spectre was that of an -old woman; and I am told that a somewhat similar story is told in -connexion with a well in the castle wall in the parish of Llandew, -to the north of this town--Giraldus Cambrensis' parish. A friend of -mine is employing his spare time at present in an inquiry into the -origin of the lakes of this district, and he tells me that Llyn Cwm -Llwch is of glacial origin, its dam being composed, as he thinks, -of glacial débris through which the water always percolates into -the valley below. But storm water flows over the dam, and in the -course of ages has cut for itself a gully, now about ten feet deep -at the deepest point, through the embankment. The story was possibly -invented to explain that fact. There is no cave to be seen in the -rock, and probably there never was one, as the formation is the Old -Red Sandstone; and the island was perhaps equally imaginary.' - -That is the substance of Mr. James' letter, in which he, moreover, -refers to J. D. Rhys' account of the lake in his Welsh introduction -to his Grammar, published in London in 1592, under the title -Cambrobrytannicæ Cymraecæve Linguæ Institutiones et Rudimenta. There -the grammarian, in giving some account of himself, mentions his -frequent sojourns at the hospitable residence of a nobleman, named -M. Morgan Merêdydh, near y Bugeildy ynn Nyphryn Tabhîda o bhywn -Swydh Bhaesybhed, that is, 'near the Beguildy in the Valley of the -Teme within the county of Radnor.' Then he continues to the following -effect:--'But the latter part of this book was thought out under the -bushes and green foliage in a bit of a place of my own called y Clun -Hîr, at the top of Cwm y Llwch, below the spurs of the mountain of -Bannwchdeni, which some call Bann Arthur and others Moel Arthur. Below -that moel and in its lap there is a lake of pretty large size, -unknown depth, and wondrous nature. For as the stories go, no bird -has ever been seen to repair to it or towards it, or to swim on it: -it is wholly avoided, and some say that no animals or beasts of any -kind are wont to drink of its waters. The peasantry of that country, -and especially the shepherds who are wont to frequent these moels -and bans, relate many other wonders concerning it and the exceeding -strange things beheld at times in connexion with this loch. This lake -or loch is called Llyn Cwm y Llwch [10].' - - - - -II. - -Before dismissing the story of Llyn y Fan Fach I wish to append a -similar one from the parish of Ystrad Dyfodwg in Glamorganshire. The -following is a translation of a version given in Welsh in Cyfaill -yr Aelwyd a'r Frythones, edited by Elfed and Cadrawd, and published -by Messrs. Williams and Son, Llanelly. The version in question is by -Cadrawd, and it is to the following effect--see the volume for 1892, -p. 59:-- - -'Llyn y Forwyn, "the Damsel's Pool," is in the parish of Ystrad -Tyfodwg: the inhabitants call it also Llyn Nelferch. It lies about -halfway between the farm house of Rhonda Fechan, "Little Rhonda," and -the Vale of Safrwch. The ancient tradition concerning it is somewhat -as follows:-- - -'Once on a time a farmer lived at the Rhonda Fechan: he was unmarried, -and as he was walking by the lake early one morning in spring he beheld -a young woman of beautiful appearance walking on the other side of -it. He approached her and spoke to her: she gave him to understand that -her home was in the lake, and that she owned a number of milch cows, -that lived with her at the bottom of the water. The farmer fancied her -so much that he fell in love with her over head and ears: he asked -her on the spot for her hand and heart; and he invited her to come -and spend her life with him as his wife at the Rhonda Fechan. She -declined at first, but as he was importunate she consented at last -on the following conditions, namely, that she would bring her cattle -with her out of the lake, and live with him until he and she had three -disputes with one another: then, she said, she and the cattle would -return into the lake. He agreed to the conditions, and the marriage -took place. They lived very happily and comfortably for long years; -but the end was that they fell out with one another, and, when they -happened to have quarrelled for the third time, she was heard early -in the morning driving the cattle towards the lake with these words:-- - - - Prw dre', prw dre', prw'r gwartheg i dre'; - Prw Milfach a Malfach, pedair Llualfach, - Alfach ac Ali, pedair Ladi, - Wynebwen drwynog, tro i'r waun lidiog, - Trech llyn y waun odyn, tair Pencethin, - Tair caseg du draw yn yr eithin [11]. - - -And into the lake they went out of sight, and there they live to -this day. And some believed that they had heard the voice and cry of -Nelferch in the whisper of the breeze on the top of the mountain hard -by--many a time after that--as an old story (wedal) will have it.' - -From this it will be seen that the fairy wife's name was supposed -to have been Nelferch, and that the piece of water is called after -her. But I find that great uncertainty prevails as to the old name of -the lake, as I learn from a communication in 1894 from Mr. Llewellyn -Williams, living at Porth, only some five miles from the spot, that -one of his informants assured him that the name in use among former -generations was Llyn Alfach. Mr. Williams made inquiries at the Rhonda -Fechan about the lake legend. He was told that the water had long -since been known as Llyn y Forwyn, from a morwyn, or damsel, with a -number of cattle having been drowned in it. The story of the man who -mentioned the name as Llyn Alfach was similar: the maid belonged to -the farm of Penrhys, he said, and the young man to the Rhonda Fechan, -and it was in consequence of their third dispute, he added, that she -left him and went back to her previous service, and afterwards, while -taking the cattle to the water, she sank accidentally or purposely -into the lake, so that she was never found any more. Here it will -be seen how modern rationalism has been modifying the story into -something quite uninteresting but without wholly getting rid of the -original features, such as the three disputes between the husband -and wife. Lastly, it is worth mentioning that this water appears to -form part of a bit of very remarkable scenery, and that its waves -strike on one side against a steep rock believed to contain caves, -supposed to have been formerly inhabited by men and women. At present -the place, I learn, is in the possession of Messrs. Davis and Sons, -owners of the Ferndale collieries, who keep a pleasure boat on the -lake. I have appealed to them on the question of the name Nelferch -or Alfach, in the hope that their books would help to decide as to -the old form of it. Replying on their behalf, Mr. J. Probert Evans -informs me that the company only got possession of the lake and the -adjacent land in 1862, and that 'Llyn y Vorwyn' is the name of the -former in the oldest plan which they have. Inquiries have also been -made in the neighbourhood by my friend, Mr. Reynolds, who found the -old tenants of the Rhonda Fechan Farm gone, and the neighbouring farm -house of Dyffryn Safrwch supplanted by colliers' cottages. But he -calls my attention to the fact, that perhaps the old name was neither -Nelferch nor Alfach, as Elfarch, which would fit equally well, was once -the name of a petty chieftain of the adjoining Hundred of Senghenyd, -for which he refers me to Clark's Glamorgan Genealogies, p. 511. But -I have to thank him more especially for a longer version of the fairy -wife's call to her cattle, as given in Glanffrwd's Plwyf Llanwyno, -'the Parish of Llanwynno' (Pontyprid, 1888), p. 117, as follows:-- - - - Prw me, prw me, - Prw 'ngwartheg i dre'; - Prw Melen a Ioco, - Tegwen a Rhudo, - Rhud-frech a Moel-frech, - Pedair Lliain-frech; - Lliain-frech ag Eli, - A phedair Wen-ladi, - Ladi a Chornwen, - A phedair Wynebwen; - Nepwen a Rhwynog, - Tali Lieiniog; - Brech yn y Glyn - Dal yn dyn; - Tair lygeityn, - Tair gyffredm, - Tair Caseg du, draw yn yr eithin, - Deuwch i gyd i lys y Brenin; - Bwla, bwla, - Saif yn flaena', - Saf yn ol y wraig o'r Ty-fry, - Fyth nis godri ngwartheg i! - - -The last lines--slightly mended--may be rendered: - - - Bull, bull! - Stand thou foremost. - Back! thou wife of the House up Hill: - Never shalt thou milk my cows. - - -This seems to suggest that the quarrel was about another woman, and -that by the time when the fairy came to call her live stock into the -lake she had been replaced by another woman who came from the Ty-fry, -or the House up Hill [12]. In that case this version comes closer -than any other to the story of Undine supplanted by Bertalda as her -knight's favourite. - -Mr. Probert Evans having kindly given me the address of an aged farmer -who formerly lived in the valley, my friend, Mr. Llywarch Reynolds, -was good enough to visit him. Mr. Reynolds shall report the result -in his own words, dated January 9, 1899, as follows:-- - -'I was at Pentyrch this morning, and went to see Mr. David Evans, -formerly of Cefn Colston. - -'The old man is a very fine specimen of the better class of Welsh -farmer; is in his eighty-third year; hale and hearty, intelligent, -and in full possession of his faculties. He was born and bred in the -Rhonda Fechan Valley, and lived there until some forty years ago. He -had often heard the lake story from an old aunt of his who lived at -the Maerdy Farm (a short distance north of the lake), and who died -a good many years ago, at a very advanced age. He calls the lake -"Llyn Elferch," and the story, as known to him, has several points in -common with the Llyn y Fan legend, which, however, he did not appear -to know. He could not give me many details, but the following is the -substance of the story as he knows it:--The young farmer, who lived -with his mother at the neighbouring farm, one day saw the lady on -the bank of the lake, combing her hair, which reached down to her -feet. He fell in love at first sight, and tried to approach her; but -she evaded him, and crying out, Dali di dim o fi, crâs dy fara! (Thou -wilt not catch me, thou of the crimped bread), she sank into the -water. He saw her on several subsequent occasions, and gave chase, -but always with the same result, until at length he got his mother -to make him some bread which was not baked (or not baked so hard); -and this he offered to the lady. She then agreed to become his wife, -subject to the condition that if he offended her, or disagreed with -her three times (ar yr ammod, os byssa fa yn 'i chroesi hi dair gwaith) -she would leave him and return into the lake with all her belongings. - -'1. The first disagreement (croes) was at the funeral of a neighbour, -a man in years, at which the lady gave way to excessive weeping and -lamentation. The husband expressed surprise and annoyance at this -excessive grief for the death of a person not related to them, and -asked the reason for it; and she replied that she grieved for the -defunct on account of the eternal misery that was in store for him -in the other world. - -'2. The second "croes" was at the death of an infant child of the -lady herself, at which she laughed immoderately; and in reply to the -husband's remonstrance, she said she did so for joy at her child's -escape from this wicked world and its passage into a world of bliss. - -'3. The third "croes" Mr. Evans was unable to call to mind, but -equally with the other two it showed that the lady was possessed of -preternatural knowledge; and it resulted in her leaving her husband -and returning into the lake, taking the cattle, &c., with her. The -accepted explanation of the name of the lake was Llyn El-ferch [13] -(= Hela 'r ferch), "because of the young man chasing the damsel" -(hela 'r ferch). - -'The following is the cattle-call, as given to me by Mr. Evans' -aged housekeeper, who migrated with the family from Rhonda Fechan -to Pentyrch: - - - Prw i, prw e [14], - Prw 'ngwartheg sha [= tua] thre'; - Mil a môl a melyn gwtta; - Milfach a malfach; - Petar [= pedair] llearfach; - Llearfach ag aeli; - Petar a lafi; - Lafi a chornwan [= -wèn]; - [...] 'nepwan [= -wèn], - 'Nepwan drwynog; - Drotwan [= droedwen] litiog; - Tair Bryncethin; - Tair gyffretin; - Tair casag du - Draw yn yr ithin [= eithin], - Dewch i gyd i lys y brenin. - - -'Mr. Evans told me that Dyffryn Safrwch was considered to be a -corruption of Dyffryn Safn yr Hwch, "Valley of the Sow's Mouth"; -so that the explanation was not due to a minister with whom I -foregathered on my tramp near the lake the other day, and from whom -I heard it first.' - -The similarity between Mr. Evans' version of this legend and that of -Llyn y Fan Fach, tends to add emphasis to certain points which I had -been inclined to treat as merely accidental. In the Fan Fach legend -the young man's mother is a widow, and here he is represented living -with his mother. Here also something depends on the young man's bread, -but it is abruptly introduced, suggesting that a part of the story -has been forgotten. Both stories, however, give one the impression -that the bread of the fairies was regarded as always imperfectly -baked. In both stories the young man's mother comes to his help with -her advice. Mr. Evans' version ascribes supernatural knowledge to the -fairy, though his version fails to support it; and her moralizings -read considerably later than those which the Fan legend ascribes -to the fairy wife. Some of these points may be brought under the -reader's notice later, when he has been familiarized with more facts -illustrative of the belief in fairies. - - - - -III. - -On returning from South Wales to Carnarvonshire in the summer of -1881, I tried to discover similar legends connected with the lakes -of North Wales, beginning with Geirionyd, the waters of which form a -stream emptying itself into the Conwy, near Trefriw, a little below -Llanrwst. I only succeeded, however, in finding an old man of the -name of Pierce Williams, about seventy years of age, who was very -anxious to talk about 'Bony's' wars, but not about lake ladies. I was -obliged, in trying to make him understand what I wanted, to use the -word morforwyn, that is to say in English, 'mermaid'; he then told -me, that in his younger days he had heard people say that somebody -had seen such beings in the Trefriw river. But as my questions were -leading ones, his evidence is not worth much; however, I feel pretty -sure that one who knew the neighbourhood of Geirionyd better would -be able to find some fragments of interesting legends still existing -in that wild district. - -I was more successful at Llanberis, though what I found, at first, -was not much; but it was genuine, and to the point. This is the -substance of it:--An old woman, called Siân [15] Dafyd, lived at -Helfa Fawr, in the dingle called Cwm Brwynog, along the left side of -which you ascend as you go to the top of Snowdon, from the village -of lower Llanberis, or Coed y Dol, as it is there called. She was a -curious old person, who made nice distinctions between the virtues -of the respective waters of the district: thus, no other would do -for her to cure her of the defaid gwylltion [16], or cancerous warts, -which she fancied that she had in her mouth, than that of the spring -of Tai Bach, near the lake called Llyn Ffynnon y Gwas, though she -seldom found it out, when she was deceived by a servant who cherished -a convenient opinion of his own, that a drop from a nearer spring -would do just as well. Old Siân has been dead over thirty-five years, -but I have it, on the testimony of two highly trustworthy brothers, -who are of her family, and now between sixty and seventy years of -age, that she used to relate to them how a shepherd, once on a time, -saw a fairy maiden (un o'r Tylwyth Teg) on the surface of the tarn -called Llyn Du'r Ardu, and how, from bantering and joking, their -acquaintance ripened into courtship, when the father and mother of -the lake maiden appeared to give the union their sanction, and to -arrange the marriage settlement. This was to the effect that the -husband was never to strike his wife with iron, and that she was to -bring her great wealth with her, consisting of stock of all kinds -for his mountain farm. All duly took place, and they lived happily -together until one day, when trying to catch a pony, the husband threw -a bridle to his wife, and the iron in that struck her. It was then -all over with him, as the wife hurried away with her property into -the lake, so that nothing more was seen or heard of her. Here I may -as well explain that the Llanberis side of the steep, near the top of -Snowdon, is called Clogwyn du'r Ardu, or the Black Cliff of the Ardu, -at the bottom of which lies the tarn alluded to as the Black Lake of -the Ardu, and near it stands a huge boulder, called Maen du'r Ardu, -all of which names are curious, as involving the word du, black. Ardu -itself has much the same meaning, and refers to the whole precipitous -side of the summit with its dark shadows, and there is a similar Ardu -near Nanmor on the Merionethshire side of Bedgelert. - -One of the brothers, I ought to have said, doubts that the lake here -mentioned was the one in old Siân's tale; but he has forgotten which -it was of the many in the neighbourhood. Both, however, remembered -another short story about fairies, which they had heard another old -woman relate, namely, Mari Domos Siôn, who died some thirty years ago: -it was merely to the effect that a shepherd had once lost his way in -the mist on the mountain on the land of Caeau Gwynion, towards Cwellyn -[17] Lake, and got into a ring where the Tylwyth Teg were dancing: -it was only after a very hard struggle that he was able, at length, -to get away from them. - -To this I may add the testimony of a lady, for whose veracity I -can vouch, to the effect that, when she was a child in Cwm Brwynog, -from thirty to forty years ago, she and her brothers and sisters used -to be frequently warned by their mother not to go far away from the -house when there happened to be thick mist on the ground, lest they -should come across the Tylwyth Teg dancing, and be carried away to -their abode beneath the lake. They were always, she says, supposed -to live in the lakes; and the one here alluded to was Llyn Dwythwch, -which is one of those famous for its torgochiaid or chars. The mother -is still living; but she seems to have long since, like others, -lost her belief in the fairies. - -After writing the above, I heard that a brother to the foregoing -brothers, namely, Mr. Thomas Davies, of Mur Mawr, Llanberis, remembered -a similar tale. Mr. Davies is now sixty-four, and the persons from -whom he heard the tale were the same Siân Dafyd of Helfa Fawr, and -Mari Domos Siôn of Tyn [18] Gadlas, Llanberis: the two women were -about seventy years of age when he as a child heard it from them. At -my request, a friend of mine, Mr. Hugh D. Jones, of Tyn Gadlas, also -a member of this family, which is one of the oldest perhaps in the -place, has taken down from Mr. Davies' mouth all he could remember, -word for word, as follows:-- - -Yn perthyn i ffarm Bron y Fedw yr oed dyn ifanc wedi cael ei fagu, -nis gwydent faint cyn eu hamser hwy. Arferai pan yn hogyn fynd i'r -mynyd yn Cwm Drywenyd a Mynyd y Fedw ar ochr orllewinol y Wydfa i -fugeilio, a bydai yn taro ar hogan yn y mynyd; ac wrth fynychu gweld -eu gilyd aethant yn ffrindiau mawr. Arferent gyfarfod eu gilyd mewn -lle neillduol yn Cwm Drywenyd, lle'r oed yr hogan a'r teulu yn byw, -lle y bydai pob danteithion, chwareuydiaethau a chanu dihafal; ond -ni fydai'r hogyn yn gwneyd i fyny a neb ohonynt ond yr hogan. - -Diwed y ffrindiaeth fu carwriaeth, a phan soniod yr hogyn am idi -briodi, ni wnai ond ar un amod, sef y bywiai hi hefo fo hyd nes y -tarawai ef hi a haiarn. - -Priodwyd hwy, a buont byw gyda'u gilyd am nifer o flynydoed, a bu -idynt blant; ac ar dyd marchnad yn Gaernarfon yr oed y gwr a'r wraig -yn medwl mynd i'r farchnad ar gefn merlod, fel pob ffarmwr yr amser -hwnnw. Awd i'r mynyd i dal merlyn bob un. - -Ar waelod Mynyd y Fedw mae llyn o ryw dri-ugain neu gan llath o hyd ac -ugain neu deg llath ar hugain o led, ac y mae ar un ochr ido le têg, -fford y bydai'r ceffylau yn rhedeg. - -Daliod y gwr ferlyn a rhoes ef i'r wraig i'w dal heb ffrwyn, tra bydai -ef yn dal merlyn arall. Ar ol rhoi ffrwyn yn mhen ei ferlyn ei hun, -taflod un arall i'r wraig i roi yn mhen ei merlyn hithau, ac wrth ei -thaflu tarawod bit y ffrwyn hi yn ei llaw. Gollyngod y wraig y merlyn, -ac aeth ar ei phen i'r llyn, a dyna diwed y briodas. - -'To the farm of Bron y Fedw there belonged a son, who grew up to -be a young man, the women knew not how long before their time. He -was in the habit of going up the mountain to Cwm Drywenyd [19] and -Mynyd y Fedw, on the west side of Snowdon, to do the shepherding, -and there he was wont to come across a lass on the mountain, so that -as the result of frequently meeting one another, he and she became -great friends. They usually met at a particular spot in Cwm Drywenyd, -where the girl and her family lived, and where there were all kinds -of nice things to eat, of amusements, and of incomparable music; but -he did not make up to anybody there except the girl. The friendship -ended in courtship; but when the boy mentioned that she should be -married to him, she would only do so on one condition, namely, that -she would live with him until he should strike her with iron. They -were wedded, and they lived together for a number of years, and had -children. Once on a time it happened to be market day at Carnarvon, -whither the husband and wife thought of riding on ponies, like all -the farmers of that time. So they went to the mountain to catch a -pony each. At the bottom of Mynyd y Fedw there is a pool some sixty -or one hundred yards long by twenty or thirty broad, and on one side -of it there is a level space along which the horses used to run. The -husband caught a pony, and gave it to the wife to hold fast without -a bridle, while he should catch another. When he had bridled his own -pony, he threw another bridle to his wife for her to secure hers; -but as he threw it, the bit of the bridle struck her on one of her -hands. The wife let go the pony, and went headlong into the pool, -and that was the end of their wedded life.' - -The following is a later tale, which Mr. Thomas Davies heard from -his mother, who died in 1832: she would be ninety years of age had -she been still living:-- - -Pan oed hi'n hogan yn yr Hafod, Llanberis, yr oed hogan at ei hoed hi'n -cael ei magu yn Cwmglas, Llanberis, ac arferai dweyd, pan yn hogan a -thra y bu byw, y bydai yn cael arian gan y Tylwyth Teg yn Cwm Cwmglas. - -Yr oed yn dweyd y bydai ar foreuau niwliog, tywyll, yn mynd i le -penodol yn Cwm Cwmglas gyda dsygiad o lefrith o'r fuches a thywel -glan, ac yn ei rodi ar garreg; ac yn mynd yno drachefn, ac yn cael -y llestr yn wag, gyda darn deuswllt neu hanner coron ac weithiau fwy -wrth ei ochr. - -'When she was a girl, living at Yr Hafod, Llanberis, there was a -girl of her age being brought up at Cwmglas in the same parish. The -latter was in the habit of saying, when she was a girl and so long -as she lived, that she used to have money from the Tylwyth Teg, in -the Cwmglas Hollow. Her account was, that on dark, misty mornings she -used to go to a particular spot in that Hollow with a jugful of sweet -milk from the milking place, and a clean towel, and then place them -on a stone. She would return, and find the jug empty, with a piece -of money placed by its side: that is, two shillings or half a crown, -or at times even more.' - -A daughter of that woman lives now at a farm, Mr. Davies observes, -called Plas Pennant, in the parish of Llanfihangel yn Mhennant, in -Carnarvonshire; and he adds, that it was a tale of a kind that was -common enough when he was a boy; but many laughed at it, though the old -people believed it to be a fact. To this I may as well append another -tale, which was brought to the memory of an old man who happened to be -present when Mr. Jones and Mr. Davies were busy with the foregoing. His -name is John Roberts, and his age is seventy-five: his present home -is at Capel Sïon, in the neighbouring parish of Llandeiniolen:-- - -Yr oed ef pan yn hogyn yn gweini yn Towyn Trewern, yn agos i Gaergybi, -gyda hen wr o'r enw Owen Owens, oed yr adeg honno at ei oed ef yn -bresennol. - -Yr oedynt unwaith mewn hen adeilad ar y ffarm; a dywedod yr hen -wr ei fod ef wedi cael llawer o arian yn y lle hwnnw pan yn hogyn, -a buasai wedi cael ychwaneg oni bai ei dad. - -Yr oed wedi cudio yr arian yn y ty, ond daeth ei fam o hyd idynt, -a dywedod yr hanes wrth ei dad. Ofnai ei fod yn fachgen drwg, mai -eu lladrata yr oed. Dywedai ei dad y gwnai ido dweyd yn mha le yr -oed yn eu cael, neu y tynnai ei groen tros ei ben; ac aeth allan a -thorod wialen bwrpasol at orchwyl o'r fath. - -Yr oed y bachgen yn gwrando ar yr ymdidan rhwng ei dad a'i fam, ac -yr oed yn benderfynol o gadw'r peth yn dirgelwch fel yr oed wedi ei -rybudio gan y Tylwyth Teg. - -Aeth i'r ty, a dechreuod y tad ei holi, ac yntau yn gwrthod ateb; -ymbiliai a'i dad, a dywedai eu bod yn berffaith onest ido ef, ac -y cai ef ychwaneg os cadwai'r peth yn dirgelwch; ond os dywedai, -nad oed dim ychwaneg i'w gael. Mod bynnag ni wrandawai y tad ar ei -esgusion na'i resymau, a'r wialen a orfu; dywedod y bachgen mai gan -y Tylwyth Teg yr oed yn eu cael, a hynny ar yr amod nad oed i dweyd -wrth neb. Mawr oed edifeirwch yr hen bobl am lad yr wyd oed yn dodwy. - -Aeth y bachgen i'r hen adeilad lawer gwaith ar ol hyn, ond ni chafod -byth ychwaneg o arian yno. - -'When a lad, he was a servant at Towyn Trewern, near Holyhead, to -an old man about his own age at present. They were one day in an -old building on the farm, and the old man told him that he had had -much money in that place when he was a lad, and that he would have -had more had it not been for his father. He had hidden the money at -home, where his mother found it and told his father of the affair: -she feared he was a bad boy, and that it was by theft he got it. His -father said that he would make him say where he got it, or else that -he would strip him of the skin of his back, at the same time that he -went out and cut a rod fit for effecting a purpose of the kind. The -boy heard all this talk between his father and his mother, and felt -determined to keep the matter a secret, as he had been warned by the -Tylwyth Teg. He went into the house, and his father began to question -him, while he refused to answer. He supplicatingly protested that -the money was honestly got, and that he should get more if he kept -it a secret, but that, if he did not, there would be no more to be -got. However, the father would give no ear to his excuses or his -reasons, and the rod prevailed; so that the boy said that it was from -the Tylwyth Teg he used to get it, and that on condition of his not -telling anybody. Greatly did the old folks regret having killed the -goose that laid the eggs. The boy went many a time afterwards to the -old building, but he never found any more money there.' - - - - -IV. - -Through the Rev. Daniel Lewis, incumbent of Bettws Garmon, I was -directed to Mr. Samuel Rhys Williams, of the Post Office of that place, -who has kindly given me the result of his inquiries when writing on -the subject of the antiquities of the neighbourhood for a competition -at a literary meeting held there a few years ago. He tells me that he -got the following short tale from a native of Drws y Coed, whose name -is Margaret Williams. She has been living at Bettws Garmon for many -years, and is now over eighty. He does not know whether the story is in -print or not, but he is certain that Margaret Williams never saw it, -even if it be. He further thinks he has heard it from another person, -to wit a man over seventy-seven years of age, who has always lived -at Drws y Coed, in the parish of Bedgelert:-- - -Y mae hanes am fab i amaethwr a breswyliai yn yr Ystrad [20], Betws -Garmon [21], pan yn dychwelyd adref o daith yn hwyr un noswaith, -darfod ido weled cwmni o'r Tylwyth Teg ynghanol eu hafiaeth a'u -glodest. Syfrdanwyd y llanc yn y fan gan degwch anghymarol un o'r -rhianod hyn, fel y beidiod neidio i ganol y cylch, a chymeryd ei eilun -gydag ef. Wedi idi fod yn trigo gydag ef yn ei gartref am ysbaid, -cafod gandi adaw bod yn wraig ido ar amodau neillduol. Un o'r amodau -hyn ydoed, na bydai ido gyffwrd yndi ag un math o haiarn. Bu yn wraig -ido, a ganwyd idynt dau o blant. Un diwrnod yr oed y gwr yn y maes yn -ceisio dal y ceffyl; wrth ei weled yn ffaelu, aeth y wraig ato i'w -gynorthwyo, a phan oed y march yn carlamu heibio gollyngod yntau y -ffrwyn o'i law, er mwyn ceisio ei atal heibio; a phwy a darawod ond -ei wraig, yr hon a diflannod yn y fan allan o'i olwg? - -'The story goes, that the son of a farmer, who lived at the Ystrad -in Bettws Garmon, when returning home from a journey, late in the -evening, beheld a company of fairies in the middle of their mirth and -jollity. The youth was at once bewildered by the incomparable beauty of -one of these ladies, so that he ventured to leap into the circle and -take his idol away with him. After she had tarried awhile with him at -his home, he prevailed on her, on special conditions, to become his -wife. One of these conditions was that he should not touch her with -iron of any description. She became his wife, and two children were -born to them. One day the husband was in the field trying to catch -the horse; seeing him unsuccessful, the wife went to him to help him, -and, when the horse was galloping past him, he let go the bridle at -him in order to prevent him from passing; but whom should he strike -but his wife, who vanished out of his sight on the spot.' - -Just as I was engaged in collecting these stories in 1881, a -correspondent sent me a copy of the Ystrad tale as published by -the late bard and antiquary, the Rev. Owen Wyn Jones, better known -in Wales by his bardic name of Glasynys [22], in the Brython [23] -for 1863, p. 193. I will not attempt to translate Glasynys' poetic -prose with all its compound adjectives, but it comes to this in a -few words. One fine sunny morning, as the young heir of Ystrad was -busied with his sheep on the side of Moel Eilio, he met a very pretty -girl, and when he got home he told the folks there of it. A few -days afterwards he met her again, and this happened several times, -when he mentioned it to his father, who advised him to seize her -when he next met her. The next time he met her he proceeded to do -so, but before he could take her away, a little fat old man came to -them and begged him to give her back to him, to which the youth would -not listen. The little man uttered terrible threats, but the heir of -Ystrad would not yield, so an agreement was made between them, that -the latter was to have the girl to wife until he touched her skin -with iron, and great was the joy both of the son and his parents in -consequence. They lived together for many years; but once on a time, -on the evening of the Bettws Fair, the wife's horse became restive, -and somehow, as the husband was attending to the horse, the stirrup -touched the skin of her bare leg, and that very night she was taken -away from him. She had three or four children, and more than one of -their descendants, as Glasynys maintains, were known to him at the -time he wrote in 1863. Glasynys regards this as the same tale which -is given by Williams of Llandegai, to whom we shall refer later; -and he says that he heard it scores of times when he was a lad. - -Lastly, I happened to mention these legends last summer among others to -the Rev. Owen Davies, curate of Llanberis, a man who is well versed -in Welsh literature, and thoroughly in sympathy with everything -Welsh. Mr. Davies told me that he knew a tale of the sort from his -youth, as current in the parishes of Llanllechid and Llandegai, -near Bangor. Not long afterwards he visited his mother at his native -place, in Llanllechid, in order to have his memory of it refreshed; -and he also went to the Waen Fawr, on the other side of Carnarvon, -where he had the same legend told him with the different localities -specified. The following is the Waen Fawr version, of which I give -the Welsh as I have had it from Mr. Davies, and as it was related, -according to him, some forty years ago in the valley of Nant y Bettws, -near Carnarvon:-- - -Ar brydnawngwaith hyfryd yn Hefin, aeth llanc ieuanc gwrol-dewr ac -anturiaethus, sef etifed a pherchennog yr Ystrad, i lan afon Gwyrfai, -heb fod yn nepell o'i chychwyniad o lyn Cawellyn, ac a ymgudiod yno -mewn dyryslwyn, sef ger y fan y bydai poblach y cotiau cochion--y -Tylwyth Teg--yn arfer dawnsio. Yr ydoed yn noswaith hyfryd loergannog, -heb un cwmwl i gau llygaid y Lloer, ac anian yn distaw dawedog, -odigerth murmuriad lledf y Wyrfai, a swn yr awel ysgafndroed yn -rhodio brigau deiliog y coed. Ni bu yn ei ymgudfa ond dros ychydig -amser, cyn cael difyrru o hono ei olygon a dawns y teulu dedwyd. Wrth -syllu ar gywreinrwyd y dawns, y chwim droadau cyflym, yr ymgyniweiriad -ysgafn-droediog, tarawod ei lygaid ar las lodes ieuanc, dlysaf, hardaf, -lunieidiaf a welod er ei febyd. Yr oed ei chwim droadau a lledneisrwyd -ei hagwedion wedi tanio ei serch tu ag ati i'r fath radau, fel ag yr -oed yn barod i unrhyw anturiaeth er mwyn ei hennill yn gydymaith ido -ei hun. O'i ymgudfa dywyll, yr oed yn gwylio pob ysgogiad er mwyn -ei gyfleustra ei hun. Mewn mynud, yn disymwth digon, rhwng pryder -ac ofn, llamneidiod fel llew gwrol i ganol cylch y Tylwyth Teg, ac -ymafaelod a dwylaw cariad yn y fun luniaid a daniod ei serch, a hynny, -pan oed y Tylwyth dedwyd yn nghanol nwyfiant eu dawns. Cofleidiod hi -yn dyner garedig yn ei fynwes wresog, ac aeth a hi i'w gartref--i'r -Ystrad. Ond diflannod ei chyd-dawnsydion fel anadl Gorphennaf, er -ei chroch dolefau am gael ei rhydhau, a'i hymegnion diflino i dianc -o afael yr hwn a'i hoffod. Mewn anwylder mawr, ymdygod y llanc yn -dyner odiaethol tu ag at y fun deg, ac yr oed yn orawydus i'w chadw -yn ei olwg ac yn ei fediant. Llwydod drwy ei dynerwch tu ag ati i -gael gandi adaw dyfod yn forwyn ido yn yr Ystrad. A morwyn ragorol -oed hi. Godrai deirgwaith y swm arferol o laeth odiar bob buwch, ac -yr oed yr ymenyn heb bwys arno. Ond er ei holl daerni, nis gallai -mewn un mod gael gandi dyweud ei henw wrtho. Gwnaeth lawer cais, -ond yn gwbl ofer. Yn damweiniol ryw dro, wrth yrru - - - Brithen a'r Benwen i'r borfa, - - -a hi yn noswaith loergan, efe a aeth i'r man lle yr arferai y Tylwyth -Teg fyned drwy eu campau yng ngoleuni'r Lloer wen. Y tro hwn eto, efe -a ymgudiod mewn dyryslwyn, a chlywod y Tylwyth Teg yn dywedyd y naill -wrth y llall--'Pan oedym ni yn y lle hwn y tro diwedaf, dygwyd ein -chwaer Penelope odiarnom gan un o'r marwolion.' Ar hynny, dychwelod -y llencyn adref, a'i fynwes yn llawn o falchder cariad, o herwyd ido -gael gwybod enw ei hoff forwyn, yr hon a synnod yn aruthr, pan glywod -ei meistr ieuanc yn ei galw wrth ei henw. Ac am ei bod yn odiaethol -dlos, a lluniaid, yn fywiog-weithgar, a medrus ar bob gwaith, a bod -popeth yn llwydo dan ei llaw, cynygiod ei hun idi yn wr--y celai fod yn -feistres yr Ystrad, yn lle bod yn forwyn. Ond ni chydsyniai hi a'i gais -ar un cyfrif; ond bod braid yn bendrist oherwyd ido wybod ei henw. Fod -bynnag, gwedi maith amser, a thrwy ei daerineb diflino, cydsyniod, -ond yn amodol. Adawod dyfod yn wraig ido, ar yr amod canlynol, sef, -'Pa bryd bynnag y tarawai ef hi â haiarn, yr elai ymaith odi wrtho, -ac na dychwelai byth ato mwy.' Sicrhawyd yr amod o'i du yntau gyda -pharodrwyd cariad. Buont yn cyd-fyw a'u gilyd yn hapus a chysurus -lawer o flynydoed, a ganwyd idynt fab a merch, y rhai oedynt dlysaf -a llunieidiaf yn yr holl froyd. Ac yn rhinwed ei medrusrwyd a'i -deheurwyd fel gwraig gall, rinwedol, aethant yn gyfoethog iawn--yn -gyfoethocach na neb yn yr holl wlad. Heblaw ei etifediaeth ei hun--Yr -Ystrad, yr oed yn ffarmio holl ogled-barth Nant y Betws, ac odi yno -i ben yr Wydfa, ynghyd a holl Gwm Brwynog, yn mhlwyf Llanberis. Ond, -ryw diwrnod, yn anffortunus digon aeth y dau i'r dol i dal y ceffyl, -a chan fod y ceffylyn braid yn wyllt ac an-nof, yn rhedeg odi arnynt, -taflod y gwr y ffrwyn mewn gwylltineb yn ei erbyn, er ei atal, ac ar -bwy y disgynnod y ffrwyn, ond ar Penelope, y wraig! Diflannod Penelope -yn y fan, ac ni welod byth mo honi. Ond ryw noswaith, a'r gwynt yn -chwythu yn oer o'r gogled, daeth Penelope at ffenestr ei ystafell wely, -a dywedod wrtho am gymmeryd gofal o'r plant yn y geiriau hyn: - - - Rhag bod anwyd ar fy mab, - Yn rhod rhowch arno gób ei dad; - Rhag bod anwyd ar liw'r can, - Rhodwch arni bais ei mham. - - -Ac yna ciliod, ac ni chlywyd na siw na miw byth yn ei chylch. - -For the sake of an occasional reader who does not know Welsh, I add -a summary of it in English. - -One fine evening in the month of June a brave, adventurous youth, the -heir of Ystrad, went to the banks of the Gwyrfai, not far from where it -leaves Cwellyn Lake, and hid himself in the bushes near the spot where -the folks of the Red Coats--the fairies--were wont to dance. The moon -shone forth brightly without a cloud to intercept her light; all was -quiet save where the Gwyrfai gently murmured on her bed, and it was -not long before the young man had the satisfaction of seeing the fair -family dancing in full swing. As he gazed on the subtle course of the -dance, his eyes rested on a damsel, the most shapely and beautiful he -had seen from his boyhood. Her agile movements and the charm of her -looks inflamed him with love for her, to such a degree that he felt -ready for any encounter in order to secure her to be his own. From his -hiding place he watched every move for his opportunity; at last, with -feelings of anxiety and dread, he leaped suddenly into the middle of -the circle of the fairies. There, while their enjoyment of the dance -was at its height, he seized her in his arms and carried her away to -his home at Ystrad. But, as she screamed for help to free her from -the grasp of him who had fallen in love with her, the dancing party -disappeared like one's breath in July. He treated her with the utmost -kindness, and was ever anxious to keep her within his sight and in -his possession. By dint of tenderness he succeeded so far as to get -her to consent to be his servant at Ystrad. And such a servant she -turned out to be! Why, she was wont to milk the cows thrice a day, -and to have the usual quantity of milk each time, so that the butter -was so plentiful that nobody thought of weighing it. As to her name, -in spite of all his endeavours to ascertain it, she would never tell -it him. Accidentally, however, one moonlight night, when driving two -of his cows to the spot where they should graze, he came to the place -where the fairies were wont to enjoy their games in the light of the -moon. This time also he hid himself in a thicket, when he overheard one -fairy saying to another, 'When we were last here our sister Penelope -was stolen from us by a man.' As soon as he heard this off he went -home, full of joy because he had discovered the name of the maid that -was so dear to him. She, on the other hand, was greatly astonished to -hear him call her by her own name. As she was so charmingly pretty, -so industrious, so skilled in every work, and so attended by luck in -everything she put her hand to, he offered to make her his wife instead -of being his servant. At first she would in no wise consent, but she -rather gave way to grief at his having found her name out. However, -his importunity at length brought her to consent, but on the condition -that he should not strike her with iron; if that should happen, she -would quit him never to return. The agreement was made on his side -with the readiness of love, and after this they lived in happiness -and comfort together for many years, and there were born to them a -son and a daughter, who were the handsomest children in the whole -country. Owing, also, to the skill and good qualities of the woman, -as a shrewd and virtuous wife, they became very rich--richer, indeed, -than anybody else in the country around; for, besides the husband's own -inheritance of Ystrad, he held all the northern part of Nant y Bettws, -and all from there to the top of Snowdon, together with Cwm Brwynog -in the parish of Llanberis. But one day, as bad luck would have it, -they went out together to catch a horse in the field, and, as the -animal was somewhat wild and untamed, they had no easy work before -them. In his rashness the man threw a bridle at him as he was rushing -past him, but alas! on whom should the bridle fall but on the wife! No -sooner had this happened than she disappeared, and nothing more was -ever seen of her. But one cold night, when there was a chilling wind -blowing from the north, she came near the window of his bedroom, -and told him in these words to take care of the children:-- - - - Lest my son should find it cold, - Place on him his father's coat: - Lest the fair one find it cold, - Place on her my petticoat. - - -Then she withdrew, and nothing more was heard of her. - -In reply to some queries of mine, Mr. O. Davies tells me that Penelope -was pronounced in three syllables, Pénelôp--so he heard it from his -grandfather: he goes on to say that the offspring of the Lake Lady -is supposed to be represented by a family called Pellings, which was -once a highly respected name in those parts, and that there was a -Lady Bulkeley who was of this descent, not to mention that several -people of a lower rank, both in Anglesey and Arfon, claimed to be of -the same origin. I am not very clear as to how the name got into this -tale, nor have I been able to learn anything about the Pellings; but, -as the word appears to have been regarded as a corrupt derivative -from Penelope, that is, perhaps, all the connexion, so that it may -be that it has really nothing whatever to do with the legend. This -is a point, however, which the antiquaries of North Wales ought to -be able to clear up satisfactorily. - -In reply to queries of mine, Mr. O. Davies gave me the following -particulars:--'I am now (June, 1881) over fifty-two years of age, and I -can assure you that I have heard the legend forty years ago. I do not -remember my father, as he died when I was young, but my grandfather -was remarkable for his delight in tales and legends, and it was his -favourite pastime during the winter nights, after getting his short -black pipe ready, to relate stories about struggles with robbers, about -bogies, and above all about the Tylwyth Teg; for they were his chief -delight. He has been dead twenty-six years, and he had almost reached -eighty years of age. His father before him, who was born about the -year 1740, was also famous for his stories, and my grandfather often -mentioned him as his authority in the course of his narration of the -tales. Both he and the rest of the family used to look at Corwrion, -to be mentioned presently, as a sacred spot. When I was a lad and -happened to be reluctant to leave off playing at dusk, my mother or -grandfather had only to say that 'the Pellings were coming,' in order -to induce me to come into the house at once: indeed, this announcement -had the same effect on persons of a much riper age than mine then was.' - -Further, Mr. Davies kindly called my attention to a volume, entitled -Observations on the Snowdon Mountains, by Mr. William Williams, -of Llandegai, published in London in 1802. In that work this tale -is given somewhat less fully than by Mr. Davies' informant, but the -author makes the following remarks with regard to it, pp. 37, 40:--'A -race of people inhabiting the districts about the foot of Snowdon, -were formerly distinguished and known by the nickname of Pellings, -which is not yet extinct. There are several persons and even families -who are reputed to be descended from these people.... These children -[Penelope's] and their descendants, they say, were called Pellings, -a word corrupted from their mother's name, Penelope. The late Thomas -Rowlands, Esq., of Caerau, in Anglesey, the father of the late Lady -Bulkeley, was a descendant of this lady, if it be true that the name -Pellings came from her; and there are still living several opulent and -respectable people who are known to have sprung from the Pellings. The -best blood in my own veins is this fairy's.' - -Lastly, it will be noticed that these last versions do not distinctly -suggest that the Lake Lady ran into the lake, that is into Cwellyn, -but rather that she disappeared in the same way as the dancing party -by simply becoming invisible like one's breath in July. The fairies -are called in Welsh, Y Tylwyth Teg, or the Fair Family; but the -people of Arfon have been so familiarized with the particular one I -have called the Lake Lady, that, according to one of my informants, -they have invented the term Y Dylwythes Deg, or even Y Dylwythen Deg, -to denote her; but it is unknown to the others, so that the extent -of its use is not very considerable. - -This is, perhaps, the place to give another tale, according to which -the man goes to the Lake Maiden's country, instead of her settling -with him at his home. I owe it to the kindness of Mr. William Jones, -of Regent Place, Llangollen, a native of Bedgelert. He heard it from -an old man before he left Bedgelert, but when he sent a friend to -inquire some time afterwards, the old man was gone. According to -Mr. Jones, the details of the tale are, for that reason, imperfect, -as some of the incidents have faded from his memory; but such as he -can still remember the tale, it is here given in his own words:-- - -Ryw noson lawn lloer ac un o feibion Llwyn On yn Nant y Betws yn -myned i garu i Glogwyn y Gwin, efe a welod y Tylwyth yn ymlodestu a -dawnsio ei hochr hi ar weirglod wrth lan Llyn Cawellyn. Efe a nesaod -tuag atynt; ac o dipyn i beth fe'i llithiwyd gan bereiddra swynol eu -canu a hoender a bywiogrwyd eu chwareu, nes myned o hono tu fewn i'r -cylch; ac yn fuan fe daeth rhyw hud drosto, fel y collod adnabydiaeth -o bobman; a chafod ei hun mewn gwlad hardaf a welod erioed, lle'r oed -pawb yn treulio eu hamser mewn afiaeth a gorfoled. Yr oed wedi bod yno -am saith mlyned, ac eto nid oed dim ond megis breudwyd nos; ond daeth -adgof i'w fedwl am ei neges, a hiraeth yndo am weled ei anwylyd. Felly -efe a ofynod ganiatad i dychwelyd adref, yr hyn a rodwyd ynghyd a llu o -gymdeithion i'w arwain tua'i wlad; ac yn disymwth cafod ei hun fel yn -deffro o freudwyd ar y dol, lle gwelod y Tylwyth Teg yn chwareu. Trod -ei wyneb tuag adref; ond wedi myned yno yr oed popeth wedi newid, -ei rieni wedi meirw, ei frodyr yn ffaelu ei adnabod, a'i gariad wedi -priodi un arall.--Ar ol y fath gyfnewidiadau efe a dorod ei galon, -ac a fu farw mewn llai nag wythnos ar ol ei dychweliad. - -'One bright moonlight night, as one of the sons of the farmer who lived -at Llwyn On in Nant y Bettws was going to pay his addresses to a girl -at Clogwyn y Gwin, he beheld the Tylwyth Teg enjoying themselves in -full swing on a meadow close to Cwellyn Lake. He approached them, and -little by little he was led on by the enchanting sweetness of their -music and the liveliness of their playing until he had got within -their circle. Soon some kind of spell passed over him, so that he lost -his knowledge of the place, and found himself in a country, the most -beautiful he had ever seen, where everybody spent his time in mirth -and rejoicing. He had been there seven years, and yet it seemed to -him but a night's dream; but a faint recollection came to his mind of -the business on which he had left home, and he felt a longing to see -his beloved one. So he went and asked for permission to return home, -which was granted him, together with a host of attendants to lead -him to his country; and, suddenly, he found himself, as if waking -from a dream, on the bank where he had seen the fair family amusing -themselves. He turned towards home, but there he found everything -changed: his parents were dead, his brothers could not recognize him, -and his sweetheart was married to another man. In consequence of such -changes he died broken-hearted in less than a week after coming back.' - - - - -V. - -The Rev. O. Davies regarded the Llanllechid legend as so very like -the one he got about Cwellyn Lake and the Waen Fawr, that he has not -written the former out at length, but merely pointed out the following -differences: (1) Instead of Cwellyn, the lake in the former is the -pool of Corwrion, in the parish of Llandegai, near Bangor. (2) What -the Lake Lady was struck with was not a bridle, but an iron fetter: -the word used is llyfether, which probably means a long fetter -connecting a fore-foot and a hind-foot of a horse together. In Arfon, -the word is applied also to a cord tying the two fore-feet together, -but in Cardiganshire this would be called a hual, the other word, -there pronounced llowethir, being confined to the long fetter. In -books, the word is written llywethair, llefethair and llyffethair -or llyffethar, which is possibly the pronunciation in parts of North -Wales, especially Arfon. This is an interesting word, as it is no other -than the English term 'long fetter,' borrowed into Welsh; as, in fact, -it was also into Irish early enough to call for an article on it in -Cormac's Irish Glossary, where langfiter is described as an English -word for a fetter between the fore and the hind legs: in Anglo-Manx it -is become lanketer. (3) The field in which they were trying to catch -the horse is, in the Llanllechid version, specified as that called -Maes Madog, at the foot of the Llefn. (4) When the fairy wife ran -away, it was headlong into the pool of Corwrion, calling after her -all her milch cows, and they followed her with the utmost readiness. - -Before going on to mention bits of information I have received from -others about the Llanllechid legend, I think it best here to finish -with the items given me by Mr. O. Davies, whom I cannot too cordially -thank for his readiness to answer my questions. Among other things, -he expresses himself to the following effect:-- 'It is to this day -a tradition--and I have heard it a hundred times--that the dairy of -Corwrion excelled all other dairies in those parts, that the milk -was better and more plentiful, and that the cheese and butter were -better there than in all the country round, the reason assigned being -that the cattle on the farm of Corwrion had mixed with the breed -belonging to the fairy, who had run away after being struck with the -iron fetter. However that may be, I remember perfectly well the high -terms of praise in which the cows of Corwrion used to be spoken of -as being remarkable for their milk and the profit they yielded; and, -when I was a boy, I used to hear people talk of Tarw Penwyn Corwrion, -or "the White-headed Bull of Corwrion," as derived from the breed of -cattle which had formed the fairy maiden's dowry.' - -My next informant is Mr. Hugh Derfel Hughes, of Pendinas, Llandegai -[24], who has been kind enough to give me the version, of which I here -give the substance in English, premising that Mr. Hughes says that -he has lived about thirty-four years within a mile of the pool and -farm house called Corwrion, and that he has refreshed his memory of -the legend by questioning separately no less than three old people, -who had been bred and born at or near that spot. He is a native of -Merioneth, but has lived at Llandegai for the last thirty-seven years, -his age now being sixty-six. I may add that Mr. Hughes is a local -antiquary of great industry and zeal; and that he published a book -on the antiquities of the district, under the title of Hynafiaethau -Llandegai a Llanllechid, that is 'the Antiquities of Llandegai and -Llanllechid' (Bethesda, 1866); but it is out of print, and I have -had some trouble to procure a copy:-- - -'In old times, when the fairies showed themselves much oftener to -men than they do now, they made their home in the bottomless pool -of Corwrion, in Upper Arllechwed, in that wild portion of Gwyned -called Arfon. On fine mornings in the month of June these diminutive -and nimble folk might be seen in a regular line vigorously engaged -in mowing hay, with their cattle in herds busily grazing in the -fields near Corwrion. This was a sight which often met the eyes -of the people on the sides of the hills around, even on Sundays; -but when they hurried down to them they found the fields empty, with -the sham workmen and their cows gone, all gone. At other times they -might be heard hammering away like miners, shovelling rubbish aside, -or emptying their carts of stones. At times they took to singing -all the night long, greatly to the delight of the people about, -who dearly loved to hear them; and, besides singing so charmingly, -they sometimes formed into companies for dancing, and their movements -were marvellously graceful and attractive. But it was not safe to -go too near the lake late at night, for once a brave girl, who was -troubled with toothache, got up at midnight and went to the brink -of the water in search of the root of a plant that grows there full -of the power to kill all pain in the teeth. But, as she was plucking -up a bit of it, there burst on her ear, from the depths of the lake, -such a shriek as drove her back into the house breathless with fear -and trembling; but whether this was not the doing of a stray fairy, -who had been frightened out of her wits at being suddenly overtaken by -a damsel in her nightdress, or the ordinary fairy way of curing the -toothache, tradition does not tell. For sometimes, at any rate, the -fairies busied themselves in doing good to the men and women who were -their neighbours, as when they tried to teach them to keep all promises -and covenants to which they pledged themselves. A certain man and his -wife, to whom they wished to teach this good habit, have never been -forgotten. The husband had been behaving as he ought, until one day, -as he held the plough, with the wife guiding his team, he broke his -covenant towards her by treating her harshly and unkindly. No sooner -had he done so, than he was snatched through the air and plunged in the -lake. When the wife went to the brink of the water to ask for him back, -the reply she had was, that he was there, and that there he should be. - -'The fairies when engaged in dancing allowed themselves to be gazed -at, a sight which was wont greatly to attract the young men of the -neighbourhood, and once on a time the son and heir of the owner of -Corwrion fell deeply in love with one of the graceful maidens who -danced in the fairy ring, for she was wondrously beautiful and pretty -beyond compare. His passion for her ere long resulted in courtship, -and soon in their being married, which took place on the express -understanding, that firstly the husband was not to know her name, -though he might give her any name he chose; and, secondly, that he -might now and then beat her with a rod, if she chanced to misbehave -towards him; but he was not to strike her with iron on pain of her -leaving him at once. This covenant was kept for some years, so that -they lived happily together and had four children, of whom the two -youngest were a boy and a girl. But one day as they went to one of the -fields of Bryn Twrw in the direction of Pennard Gron, to catch a pony, -the fairy wife, being so much nimbler than her husband, ran before -him and had her hand in the pony's mane in no time. She called out -to her husband to throw her a halter, but instead of that he threw -towards her a bridle with an iron bit, which, as bad luck would have -it, struck her. The wife at once flew through the air, and plunged -headlong into Corwrion Pool. The husband returned sighing and weeping -towards Bryn Twrw, "Noise Hill," and when he had reached it, the twrw, -"noise," there was greater than had ever been heard before, namely that -of weeping after "Belenë"; and it was then, after he had struck her -with iron, that he first learnt what his wife's name was. Belenë never -came back to her husband, but the feelings of a mother once brought her -to the window of his bedroom, where she gave him the following order:-- - - - Os byd anwyd ar fy mab, If my son should feel it cold, - Rho'wch am dano gob ei dad; Let him wear his father's coat; - Os anwydog a fyd can [25], If the fair one feel the cold, - Rho'wch am dani bais ei mam. Let her wear my petticoat. - - -'As years and years rolled on a grandson of Belenë's fell in love with -a beautiful damsel who lived at a neighbouring farm house called Tai -Teulwriaid, and against the will of his father and mother they married, -but they had nothing to stock their land with. So one morning what was -their astonishment, when they got up, to see grazing quietly in the -field six black cows and a white-headed bull, which had come up out -of the lake as stock for them from old grannie Belenë? They served -them well with milk and butter for many a long year, but on the day -the last of the family died, the six black cows and the white-headed -bull disappeared into the lake, never more to be seen.' - -Mr. Hughes referred to no less than three other versions, as -follows:--(1) According to one account, the husband was ploughing, -with the wife leading the team, when by chance he came across her -and the accident happened. The wife then flew away like a wood-hen -(iar goed) into the lake. (2) Another says that they were in a stable -trying to bridle one of the horses, when the misfortune took place -through inadvertence. (3) A third specifies the field in front of the -house at Corwrion as the place where the final accident took place, -when they were busied with the cows and horses. - -To these I would add the following traditions, which Mr. Hughes further -gives. Sometimes the inhabitants, who seem to have been on the whole -on good terms with the fairies, used to heat water and leave it in a -vessel on the hearth overnight for the fairies to wash their children -in it. This they considered such a kindness that they always left -behind them on the hearth a handful of their money. Some pieces are -said to have been sometimes found in the fields near Corwrion, and that -they consisted of coins which were smaller than our halfpennies, but -bigger than farthings, and had a harp on one side. But the tradition -is not very definite on these points. - -Here also I may as well refer to a similar tale which I got last year -at Llanberis from a man who is a native of the Llanllechid side of the -mountain, though he now lives at Llanberis. He is about fifty-five -years of age, and remembers hearing in his youth a tale connected -with a house called Hafoty'r Famaeth, in a very lonely situation on -Llanllechid Mountain, and now represented only by some old ruined -walls. It was to the effect that one night, when the man who lived -there was away from home, his wife, who had a youngish baby, washed -him on the hearth, left the water there, and went to bed with her -little one: she woke up in the night to find that the Tylwyth Teg -were in possession of the hearth, and busily engaged in washing their -children. That is all I got of this tale of a well-known type. - -To return to Mr. Hughes' communications, I would select from them -some remarks on the topography of the teeming home of the fairies. He -estimated the lake or pool of Corwrion to be about 120 yards long, -and adds that it is nearly round; but he thinks it was formerly -considerably larger, as a cutting was made some eighty or a hundred -years ago to lead water from it to Penrhyn Castle; but even then -its size would not approach that ascribed to it by popular belief, -according to which it was no less than three miles long. In fact -it was believed that there was once a town of Corwrion which was -swallowed up by the lake, a sort of idea which one meets with in -many parts of Wales, and some of the natives are said to be able to -discern the houses under the water. This must have been near the end -which is not bottomless, the latter being indicated by a spot which -is said never to freeze even in hard winters. Old men remember it -the resort of herons, cormorants, and the water-hen (hobi wen). Near -the banks there grew, besides the water-lily, various kinds of rushes -and sedges, which were formerly much used for making mats and other -useful articles. It was also once famous for eels of a large size, -but it is not supposed to have contained fish until Lord Penrhyn placed -some there in recent years. It teemed, however, with leeches of three -different kinds so recently that an old man still living describes to -Mr. Hughes his simple way of catching them when he was a boy, namely, -by walking bare-legged in the water: in a few minutes he landed with -nine or ten leeches sticking to his legs, some of which fetched a -shilling each from the medical men of those days. Corwrion is now a -farm house occupied by Mr. William Griffiths, a grandson of the late -bard Gutyn Peris. When Mr. Hughes called to make inquiries about the -legend, he found there the foundations of several old buildings, and -several pieces of old querns about the place. He thinks that there -belonged to Corwrion in former times, a mill and a fuller's house, -which he seems to infer from the names of two neighbouring houses -called 'Y Felin Hen,' the Old Mill, and 'Pandy Tre Garth,' the Fulling -Mill of Tregarth, respectively. He also alludes to a gefail or smithy -there, in which one Rhys ab Robert used to work, not to mention that -a great quantity of ashes, such as come from a smithy, are found at -the end of the lake furthest from the farm house. The spot on which -Corwrion stands is part of the ground between the Ogwen and another -stream which bears the name of 'Afon Cegin Arthur,' or the River of -Arthur's Kitchen, and most of the houses and fields about have names -which have suggested various notions to the people there: such are the -farms called 'Coed Howel,' whence the belief in the neighbourhood that -Howel Da, King of Wales, lived here. About him Mr. Hughes has a great -deal to say: among other things, that he had boats on Corwrion lake, -and that he was wont to present the citizens of Bangor yearly with 300 -fat geese reared on the waters of the same. I am referred by another -man to a lecture delivered in the neighbourhood on these and similar -things by the late bard and antiquary the Rev. Robert Ellis (Cyndelw), -but I have never come across a copy. A field near Corwrion is called -'Cae Stabal,' or the Field of the Stable, which contains the remains -of a row of stables, as it is supposed, and of a number of mangers -where Howel's horses were once fed. In a neighbouring wood, called -'Parc y Gelli' or 'Hopiar y Gelli,' my informant goes on to say, -there are to be seen the foundations of seventeen or eighteen old -hut-circles, and near them some think they see the site of an old -church. About a mile to the south-east of Corwrion is Pendinas, -which Mr. Hughes describes as an old triangular Welsh fortress, -on the bank of the Ogwen; and within two stone's-throws or so of -Corwrion on the south side of it, and a little to the west of Bryn -Twrw mentioned in the legend, is situated Penard Gron, a caer or -fort, which he describes as being, before it was razed in his time, -forty-two yards long by thirty-two wide, and defended by a sort of -rampart of earth and stone several yards wide at the base. It used -to be the resort of the country people for dancing, cock-fighting -[26], and other amusements on Sundays. Near it was a cairn, which, -when it was dug into, was found to cover a kistvaen, a pot, and a -quern: a variety of tales attaching to it are told concerning ghosts, -caves, and hidden treasures. Altogether Mr. Hughes is strongly of -opinion that Corwrion and its immediate surroundings represent a spot -which at one time had great importance; and I see no reason wholly to -doubt the correctness of that conclusion, but it would be interesting -to know whether Penrhyn used, as Mr. Hughes suggests, to be called -Penrhyn Corwrion; there ought, perhaps, to be no great difficulty in -ascertaining this, as some of the Penrhyn estate appears to have been -the subject of litigation in times gone by. - -Before leaving Mr. Hughes' notes, I must here give his too brief -account of another thing connected with Corwrion, though, perhaps, -not with the legends here in question. I allude to what he calls the -Lantern Ghost (Ysbryd y Lantar):--'There used to be formerly,' he says, -'and there is still at Corwrion, a good-sized sour apple-tree, which -during the winter half of the year used to be lit up by fire. It -began slowly and grew greater until the whole seemed to be in a -blaze. He was told by an old woman that she formerly knew old people -who declared they had seen it. In the same way the trees in Hopiar y -Gelli appeared, according to them, to be also lit up with fire.' This -reminds me of Mr. Fitzgerald's account of the Irish Bile-Tineadh in -the Revue Celtique, iv. 194. - -After communicating to me the notes of which the foregoing are -abstracts, Mr. Hughes kindly got me a version of the legend from -Mr. David Thomas, of Pont y Wern, in the same neighbourhood, but as it -contains nothing which I have not already given from Mr. Hughes' own, -I pass it by. Mr. Thomas, however, has heard that the number of the -houses making up the town of Corwrion some six or seven centuries ago -was about seventy-five; but they were exactly seventy-three according -to my next informant, Mr. David Evan Davies, of Treflys, Bethesda, -better known by his bardic name of Dewi Glan Ffrydlas. Both these -gentlemen have also heard the tradition that there was a church at -Corwrion, where there used to be every Sunday a single service, after -which the people went to a spot not far off to amuse themselves, and -at night to watch the fairies dancing, or to mix with them while they -danced in a ring around a glow-worm. According to Dewi Glan Ffrydlas, -the spot was the Pen y Bonc, already mentioned, which means, among -other things, that they chose a rising ground. This is referred to -in a modern rhyme, which runs thus:-- - - - A'r Tylwyth Teg yn dawnsio'n sionc - O gylch magïen Pen y Bonc. - - With the fairies nimbly dancing round - The glow-worm on the Rising Ground. - - -Dewi Glan Ffrydlas has kindly gone to the trouble of giving me a brief, -but complete, version of the legend as he has heard it. It will be -noticed that the discovering of the fairy's name is an idle incident -in this version: it is brought in too late, and no use is made of it -when introduced. This is the substance of his story in English:--'At -one of the dances at Pen y Bonc, the heir of Corwrion's eyes fell -on one of the damsels of the fair family, and he was filled with -love for her. Courtship and marriage in due time ensued, but he had -to agree to two conditions, namely, that he was neither to know her -name nor to strike her with iron. By-and-by they had children, and -when the husband happened to go, during his wife's confinement, to a -merry-making at Pen y Bonc, the fairies talked together concerning -his wife, and in expressing their feelings of sympathy for her, -they inadvertently betrayed the mystery of her name by mentioning it -within his hearing. Years rolled on, when the husband and wife went out -together one day to catch a colt of theirs that had not been broken -in, their object being to go to Conway Fair. Now, as she was swifter -of foot than her husband, she got hold of the colt by the mane, and -called out to him to throw her a halter, but instead of throwing her -the one she asked for, he threw another with iron in it, which struck -her. Off she went into the lake. A grandson of this fairy many years -afterwards married one of the girls of Corwrion. They had a large -piece of land, but no means of stocking it, so that they felt rather -distressed in their minds. But lo and behold! one day a white-headed -bull came out of the lake, bringing with him six black cows to their -land. There never were the like of those cows for milk, and great -was the prosperity of their owners, as well as the envy it kindled -in their neighbours' breasts. But when they both grew old and died, -the bull and the cows went back into the lake.' - -Now I add the other sayings about the Tylwyth Teg, which Dewi Glan -Ffrydlas has kindly collected for me, beginning with a blurred story -about changelings:-- - -'Once on a time, in the fourteenth century, the wife of a man at -Corwrion had twins, and she complained one day to a witch, who lived -close by, at Tydyn y Barcud, that the children were not getting on, -but that they were always crying day and night. "Are you sure that -they are your children?" asked the witch, adding that it did not -seem to her that they were like hers. "I have my doubts also," said -the mother. "I wonder if somebody has exchanged children with you," -said the witch. "I do not know," said the mother. "But why do you not -seek to know?" asked the other. "But how am I to go about it?" said the -mother. The witch replied, "Go and do something rather strange before -their eyes and watch what they will say to one another." "Well, I do -not know what I should do," said the mother. "Well," said the other, -"take an egg-shell, and proceed to brew beer in it in a chamber -aside, and come here to tell me what the children will say about -it." She went home and did as the witch had directed her, when the -two children lifted their heads out of the cradle to find what she -was doing--to watch and to listen. Then one observed to the other, -"I remember seeing an oak having an acorn," to which the other replied, -"And I remember seeing a hen having an egg"; and one of the two added, -"But I do not remember before seeing anybody brew beer in the shell -of a hen's egg." The mother then went to the witch and told her what -the twins had said one to the other; and she directed her to go to a -small wooden bridge, not far off, with one of the strange children -under each arm, and there to drop them from the bridge into the -river beneath. The mother went back home again and did as she had -been directed. When she reached home this time, she found to her -astonishment that her own children had been brought back.' - -Next comes a story about a midwife who lived at Corwrion. 'One of -the fairies called to ask her to come and attend on his wife. Off -she went with him, and she was astonished to be taken into a splendid -palace. There she continued to go night and morning to dress the baby -for some time, until one day the husband asked her to rub her eyes -with a certain ointment he offered her. She did so, and found herself -sitting on a tuft of rushes, and not in a palace. There was no baby: -all had disappeared. Some time afterwards she happened to go to the -town, and whom should she there see busily buying various wares, -but the fairy on whose wife she had been attending. She addressed -him with the question, "How are you to-day?" Instead of answering -her, he asked, "How do you see me?" "With my eyes," was the prompt -reply. "Which eye?" he asked. "This one," said the woman, pointing to -it; and instantly he disappeared, never more to be seen by her.' This -tale, as will be seen on comparison later, is incomplete, and probably -incorrect. - -Here is another from Mr. D. E. Davies:--'One day Guto, the farmer of -Corwrion, complained to his wife that he lacked men to mow his hay, -when she replied, "Why fret about it? look yonder! There you have -a field full of them at it, and stripped to their shirt-sleeves -(yn llewys eu crysau)." When he went to the spot the sham workmen -of the fairy family had disappeared. This same Guto--or somebody -else--happened another time to be ploughing, when he heard some -person he could not see, calling out to him, "I have got the bins -(that is the vice) of my plough broken." "Bring it to me," said the -driver of Guto's team, "that I may mend it." When they finished the -furrow, they found the broken vice, with a barrel of beer placed -near it. One of the men sat down and mended the vice. Then they -made another furrow, and when they returned to the spot they found -there a two-eared dish filled to the brim with bara a chwrw, or -"bread and beer." The word vice, I may observe, is an English term, -which is applied in Carnarvonshire to a certain part of the plough: -it is otherwise called bins, but neither does this seem to be a Welsh -word, nor have I heard either used in South Wales. - -At times one of the fairies was in the habit, as I was told by more -than one of my informants, of coming out of Llyn Corwrion with her -spinning-wheel (troell bach) on fine summer days and betaking herself -to spinning. While at that work she might be heard constantly singing -or humming, in a sort of round tune, the words sìli ffrit. So that sìli -ffrit Leisa Bèla may now be heard from the mouths of the children in -that neighbourhood. But I have not been successful in finding out what -Liza Bella's 'silly frit' exactly means, though I am, on the whole, -convinced that the words are other than of Welsh origin. The last of -them, ffrit, is usually applied in Cardiganshire to anything worthless -or insignificant, and the derivative, ffrityn, means one who has no go -or perseverance in him: the feminine is ffriten. In Carnarvonshire my -wife has heard ffrityn and ffritan applied to a small man and a small -woman respectively. Mr. Hughes says that in Merioneth and parts of -Powys sìli ffrit is a term applied to a small woman or a female dwarf -who happens to be proud, vain, and fond of the attentions of the other -sex (benyw fach neu goraches falch a hunanol a fydai hoff o garu); -but he thinks he has heard it made use of with regard to the gipsies, -and possibly also to the Tylwyth Teg. The Rev. O. Davies thinks the -words sìli ffrit Leisa Bèla to be very modern, and that they refer -to a young woman who lived at a place in the neighbourhood, called -Bryn Bèla or Brymbèla, 'Bella's Hill,' the point being that this Bella -was ahead, in her time, of all the girls in those parts in matters of -taste and fashion. This however does not seem to go far enough back, -and it is possible still that in Bèla, that is, in English spelling, -Bella, we have merely a shortening of some such a name as Isabella -or Arabella, which were once much more popular in the Principality -than they are now: in fact, I do not feel sure that Leisa Bèla is -not bodily a corruption of Isabella. As to sìli ffrit, one might at -first have been inclined to render it by small fry, especially in -the sense of the French 'de la friture' as applied to young men and -boys, and to connect it with the Welsh sil and silod, which mean small -fish; but the pronunciation of silli or sìli being nearly that of the -English word silly, it appears, on the whole, to belong to the host of -English words to be found in colloquial Welsh, though they seldom find -their way into books. Students of English ought to be able to tell us -whether frit had the meaning here suggested in any part of England, -and how lately; also, whether there was such a phrase as 'silly frit' -in use. After penning this, I received the following interesting -communication from Mr. William Jones, of Llangollen:--The term sìli -ffrit was formerly in use at Bedgelert, and what was thereby meant -was a child of the Tylwyth Teg. It is still used for any creature -that is smaller than ordinary. 'Pooh, a silly frit like that!' (Pw, -rhyw sìli ffrit fel yna!). 'Mrs. So-and-So has a fine child.' 'Ha, -do you call a silly frit like that a fine child?' (Mae gan hon a hon -blentyn braf. Ho, a ydych chwi'n galw rhyw sìli ffrit fel hwnna'n -braf?) To return to Leisa Bèla and Belenë, it may be that the same -person was meant by both these names, but I am in no hurry to identify -them, as none of my correspondents knows the latter of them except -Mr. Hughes, who gives it on the authority of the bard Gutyn Peris, -and nothing further so far as I can understand, whereas Bèla will -come before us in another story, as it is the same name, I presume, -which Glasynys has spelled Bella in Cymru Fu. - -So I wrote in 1881: since then I have ascertained from Professor -Joseph Wright, who is busily engaged on his great English Dialect -Dictionary, that frit [27] is the same word, in the dialects of -Cheshire, Shropshire, and Pembrokeshire, as fright in literary -English; and that the corresponding verb to frighten is in them -fritten, while a frittenin (= the book English frightening) means a -ghost or apparition. So sìli ffrit is simply the English silly frit, -and means probably a silly sprite or silly ghost, and sìli ffrit Leisa -Bèla would mean the silly ghost of a woman called Liza Bella. But the -silly frit found spinning near Corwrion Pool will come under notice -again, for that fairy belongs to the Rumpelstiltzchen group of tales, -and the fragment of a story about her will be seen to have treated -Silly Frit as her proper name, which she had not intended to reach -the ears of the person of whom she was trying to get the better. - -These tales are brought into connexion with the present day in more -ways than one, for besides the various accounts of the bwganod -or bogies of Corwrion frightening people when out late at night, -Mr. D. E. Davies knows a man, who is still living, and who well -remembers the time when the sound of working used to be heard in the -pool, and the voices of children crying somewhere in its depths, -but that when people rushed there to see what the matter was, all -was found profoundly quiet and still. Moreover, there is a family -or two, now numerously represented in the parishes of Llandegai -and Llanllechid, who used to be taunted with being the offspring of -fairy ancestors. One of these families was nicknamed 'Simychiaid' or -'Smychiaid'; and my informant, who is not yet quite forty, says that -he heard his mother repeat scores of times that the old people used to -say, that the Smychiaid, who were very numerous in the neighbourhood, -were descended from fairies, and that they came from Llyn Corwrion. At -all this the Smychiaid were wont to grow mightily angry. Another -tradition, he says, about them was that they were a wandering family -that arrived in the district from the direction of Conway, and that the -father's name was a Simwch, or rather that was his nickname, based on -the proper name Simwnt, which appears to have once been the prevalent -name in Llandegai. The historical order of these words would in that -case have been Simwnt, Simwch, Simychiaid, Smychiaid. Now Simwnt seems -to be merely the Welsh form given to some such English name as Simond, -just as Edmund or Edmond becomes in North Wales Emwnt. The objection to -the nickname seems to lie in the fact, which one of my correspondents -points out to me, that Simwch is understood to mean a monkey, a point -on which I should like to have further information. Pughe gives simach, -it is true, as having the meaning of the Latin simia. A branch of the -same family is said to be called 'y Cowperiaid' or the Coopers, from -an ancestor who was either by name or by trade a cooper. Mr. Hughes' -account of the Smychiaid was, that they are the descendants of one -Simonds, who came to be a bailiff at Bodysgallan, near Deganwy, and -moved from there to Coetmor in the neighbourhood of Corwrion. Simonds -was obnoxious to the bards, he goes on to say, and they described the -Smychiaid as having arrived in the parish at the bottom of a cawell, -'a creel or basket carried on the back,' when chance would have it that -the cawell cord snapped just in that neighbourhood, at a place called -Pont y Llan. That accident is described, according to Mr. Hughes, -in the following doggerel, the origin of which I do not know-- - - - E dorai 'r arwest, ede wan, - Brwnt y lle, ar Bont y Llan. - - The cord would snap, feeble yarn, - At that nasty spot, Pont y Llan. - - -Curiously enough, the same cawell story used to be said of a widely -spread family in North Cardiganshire, whose surname was pronounced -Massn and written Mason or Mazon: as my mother was of this family, -I have often heard it. The cawell, if I remember rightly, was said, -in this instance, to have come from Scotland, to which were traced -three men who settled in North Cardiganshire. One had no descendants, -but the other two, Mason and Peel--I think his name was Peel, but I am -only sure that it was not Welsh--had so many, that the Masons, at any -rate, are exceedingly numerous there; but a great many of them, owing -to some extent, probably, to the cawell story, have been silly enough -to change their name into that of Jones, some of them in my time. The -three men came there probably for refuge in the course of troubles -in Scotland, as a Frazer and a Francis did to Anglesey. At any rate, -I have never heard it suggested that they were of aquatic origin, but, -taking the cawell into consideration, and the popular account of the -Smychiaid, I should be inclined to think that the cawell originally -referred to some such a supposed descent. I only hope that somebody -will help us with another and a longer cawell tale, which will make -up for the brevity of these allusions. We may, however, assume, -I think, that there was a tendency at one time in Gwyned, if not in -other parts of the Principality, to believe, or pretend to believe, -that the descendants of an Englishman or Scotsman, who settled among -the old inhabitants, were of fairy origin, and that their history was -somehow uncanny, which was all, of course, duly resented. This helps, -to some extent, to explain how names of doubtful origin have got -into these tales, such as Smychiaid, Cowperiaid, Pellings, Penelope, -Leisa Bèla or Isabella, and the like. This association of the lake -legends with intruders from without is what has, perhaps, in a great -measure served to rescue such legends from utter oblivion. - -As to a church at Corwrion, the tradition does not seem to be an old -one, and it appears founded on one of the popular etymologies of the -word Corwrion, which treats the first syllable as cor in the sense of -a choir; but the word has other meanings, including among them that -of an ox-stall or enclosure for cattle. Taking this as coming near -the true explanation, it at once suggests itself, that Creuwyryon in -the Mabinogi of Math ab Mathonwy is the same place, for creu or crau -also meant an enclosure for animals, including swine. In Irish the -word is cró, an enclosure, a hut or hovel. The passage in the Mabinogi -[28] relates to Gwydion returning with the swine he had got by dint of -magic and deceit from Pryderi, prince of Dyfed, and runs thus in Lady -Charlotte Guest's translation: 'So they journeyed on to the highest -town of Arllechwed, and there they made a sty (creu) for the swine, -and therefore was the name of Creuwyryon given to that town.' As to -wyryon or wyrion, which we find made into wrion in Corwrion according -to the modern habit, it would seem to be no other word than the usual -plural of wyr, a grandson, formerly also any descendant in the direct -line. If so, the name of an ancestor must have originally followed, -just as one of the places called Bettws was once Betws Wyrion Idon, -'the Bettws of Idon's Descendants'; but it is possible that wyrion -in Creu- or Cor-wyrion was itself a man's name, though I have never -met with it. It is right to add that the name appears in the Record -of Carnarvon (pp. 12, 25, 26) as Creweryon, which carries us back to -the first half of the fourteenth century. There it occurs as the name -of a township containing eight gavels, and the particulars about it -might, in the hand of one familiar with the tenures of that time, -perhaps give us valuable information as to what may have been its -status at a still earlier date. - - - - -VI. - -Here, for the sake of comparison with the Northwalian stories in -which the fairy wife runs away from her husband in consequence of -his having unintentionally touched or hit her with the iron in the -bridle, the fetter, or the stirrup, as on pp. 35, 40, 46, 50, 54, -61. I wish to cite the oldest recorded version, namely from Walter -Mapes' curious miscellany of anecdotes and legends entitled De Nugis -Curialium Distinctiones Quinque. Mapes flourished in the latter part -of the twelfth century, and in Distinctio ii. 11 of Thomas Wright's -edition, published in the year 1850, one reads the following story, -which serves the purpose there of giving the origin of a certain -Trinio, of whom Mapes had more to say:-- - -Aliud non miraculum sed portentum nobis Walenses referunt. Wastinum -Wastiniauc secus stagnum Brekeinauc [read Brecheinauc], quod in -circuitu duo miliaria tenet, mansisse aiunt et vidisse per tres -claras a luna noctes choreas fæminarum in campo avenæ suæ, et -secutum eum eas fuisse donec in aqua stagni submergerentur, unam -tamen quarta vice retinuisse. Narrabat etiam ille raptor illius quod -eas noctibus singulis post submersionem earum murmurantes audisset -sub aqua et dicentes, 'Si hoc fecisset, unam de nobis cepisset,' -et se ab ipsis edoctum quomodo hanc adepta [read -us] sit, quæ -et consensit et nupsit ei, et prima verba sua hæc ad virum suum, -'Libens tibi serviam, et tota obedientiæ devotione usque in diem illum -prosilire volens ad clamores ultra Lenem [read Leueni] me freno tuo -percusseris.' Est autem Leueni aqua vicina stagno. Quod et factum -est; post plurimæ prolis susceptionem ab eo freno percussa est, -et in reditu suo inventam eam fugientem cum prole, insecutus est, -et vix unum ex filiis suis arripuit, nomine Triunem Uagelauc. - -'The Welsh relate to us another thing, not so much a miracle as a -portent, as follows. They say that Gwestin of Gwestiniog dwelt beside -Brecknock Mere, which has a circumference of two miles, and that on -three moonlight nights he saw in his field of oats women dancing, -and that he followed them until they sank in the water of the mere; -but the fourth time they say that he seized hold of one of them. Her -captor further used to relate that on each of these nights he had -heard the women, after plunging into the mere, murmuring beneath the -water and saying, "If he had done so and so, he would have caught -one of us," and that he had been instructed by their own words, as -to the manner in which he caught her. She both yielded and became his -wife, and her first words to her husband were these: "Willingly will -I serve thee, and with whole-hearted obedience, until that day when, -desirous of sallying forth in the direction of the cries beyond the -Llyfni, thou shalt strike me with thy bridle"--the Llyfni is a burn -near the mere. And this came to pass: after presenting him with a -numerous offspring she was struck by him with the bridle, and on -his returning home, he found her running away with her offspring, -and he pursued her, but it was with difficulty that he got hold even -of one of his sons, and he was named Trinio (?) Faglog.' - -The story, as it proceeds, mentions Trinio engaged in battle with -the men of a prince who seems to have been no other than Brychan of -Brycheiniog, supposed to have died about the middle of the fifth -century. The battle was disastrous to Trinio and his friends, and -Trinio was never seen afterwards; so Walter Mapes reports the fact -that people believed him to have been rescued by his mother, and that -he was with her living still in the lake. Giraldus calls it lacus -ille de Brecheniauc magnus et famosus, quem et Clamosum dicunt, 'that -great and famous lake of Brecknock which they also call Clamosus,' -suggested by the Welsh Llyn Llefni, so called from the river Llefni, -misinterpreted as if derived from llef 'a cry.' With this lake he -connects the legend, that at the bidding of the rightful Prince of -Wales, the birds frequenting it would at once warble and sing. This -he asserts to have been proved in the case of Gruffud, son of Rhys, -though the Normans were at the time masters of his person and of his -territory [29]. After dwelling on the varying colours of the lake he -adds the following statement:--Ad hæc etiam totus ædificiis consertus, -culturis egregiis, hortis ornatus et pomeriis, ab accolis quandoque -conspicitur, 'Now and then also it is seen by the neighbouring -inhabitants to be covered with buildings, and adorned with excellent -farming, gardens, and orchards.' It is remarkable as one of the few -lakes in Wales where the remains of a crannog have been discovered, -and while Mapes gives it as only two miles round, it is now said to -be about five; so it has sometimes [30] been regarded as a stockaded -island rather than as an instance of pile dwellings. - -In the Brython for 1863, pp. 114-15, is to be found what purports to be -a copy of a version of the Legend of Llyn Syfadon, as contained in a -manuscript of Hugh Thomas' in the British Museum. It is to the effect -that the people of the neighbourhood have a story that all the land -now covered by the lake belonged to a princess, who had an admirer -to whom she would not be married unless he procured plenty of gold: -she did not care how. So he one day murdered and robbed a man who -had money, and the princess then accepted the murderer's suit, but -she felt uneasy on account of the reports as to the murdered man's -ghost haunting the place where his body had been buried. So she made -her admirer go at night to interview the ghost and lay it. Whilst he -waited near the grave he heard a voice inquiring whether the innocent -man was not to be avenged, and another replying that it would not be -avenged till the ninth generation. The princess and her lover felt -safe enough and were married: they multiplied and became numerous, -while their town grew to be as it were another Sodom; and the original -pair lived on so astonishingly long that they saw their descendants -of the ninth generation. They exulted in their prosperity, and one -day held a great feast to celebrate it; and when their descendants -were banqueting with them, and the gaiety and mirth were at their -zenith, ancestors and descendants were one and all drowned in a mighty -cataclysm which produced the present lake. - -Lastly may be briefly mentioned the belief still lingering in the -neighbourhood, to the effect that there is a town beneath the waters -of the lake, and that in rough weather the bells from the church -tower of that town may be heard ringing, while in calm weather the -spire of the church may be distinctly seen. My informant, writing in -1892, added the remark: 'This story seems hardly creditable to us, -but many of the old people believe it.' - -I ought to have mentioned that the fifteenth-century poet Lewis Glyn -Cothi connects with Syfadon [31] Lake an afanc legend; but this will -be easier to understand in the light of the more complete one from -the banks of the river Conwy. So the reader will find Glyn Cothi's -words given in the next chapter. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE FAIRIES' REVENGE - - In th'olde dayes of the king Arthour, - Of which that Britons speken greet honour, - Al was this land fulfild of fayerye. - The elf-queen, with hir joly companye, - Daunced ful ofte in many a grene mede; - This was the olde opinion, as I rede. - I speke of manye hundred yeres ago. - - Chaucer. - - -I. - -The best living authority I have found on the folklore of Bedgelert, -Drws y Coed, and the surrounding district, is Mr. William Jones, of -Llangollen. He has written a good deal on the subject in the Brython, -and in essays intended for competition at various literary meetings in -Wales. I had the loan from him of one such essay, and I have referred -to the Brython; and I have also had from Mr. Jones a number of letters, -most of which contain some additional information. In harmony, -moreover, with my usual practice, I have asked Mr. Jones to give -me a little of his own history. This he has been kind enough to do; -and, as I have so far followed no particular order in these jottings, -I shall now give the reader the substance of his letters in English, -as I am anxious that no item should be lost or left inaccessible to -English students of folklore. What is unintelligible to me may not be -so to those who have made a serious study of the subject. Mr. Jones' -words are in substance to the following effect:-- - -'I was bred and born in the parish of Bedgelert, one of the most -rustic neighbourhoods and least subject to change in the whole -country. Some of the old Welsh customs remained within my memory, -in spite of the adverse influence of the Calvinistic Reformation, -as it is termed, and I have myself witnessed several Knitting Nights -and Nuptial Feasts (Neithiorau), which, be it noticed, are not to -be confounded with weddings, as they were feasts which followed the -weddings, at the interval of a week. At these gatherings song and -story formed an element of prime importance in the entertainment at a -time when the Reformation alluded to had already blown the blast of -extinction on the Merry Nights (Noswyliau Llawen) and Saints' Fêtes -[32] (Gwyliau Mabsant) before the days of my youth, though many of -my aged acquaintances remembered them well, and retained a vivid -recollection of scores of the amusing tales which used to be related -for the best at the last mentioned long-night meetings. I have heard -not a few of them reproduced by men of that generation. As an example -of the old-fashioned habits of the people of Bedgelert in my early -days, I may mention the way in which wives and children used to be -named. The custom was that the wife never took her husband's family -name, but retained the one she had as a spinster. Thus my grandmother -on my mother's side was called Ellen Hughes, daughter to Hugh Williams, -of Gwastad Annas. The name of her husband, my grandfather, was William -Prichard [= W. ab Rhisiart, or Richard's son], son to Richard William, -of the Efail Newyd. The name of their eldest son, my uncle (brother -to my mother), was Hugh Hughes, and the second son's name was Richard -William. The mother had the privilege of naming her first-born after -her own family in case it was a boy; but if it happened to be a girl, -she took her name from the father's family, for which reason my -mother's maiden name was Catharine Williams. This remained her name -to the day of her death: and the old people at Bedgelert persisted -in calling me, so long as I was at home, William Prichard, after my -grandfather, as I was my mother's eldest child. - -'Most of the tales I have collected,' says Mr. Jones, 'relate to -the parishes of Bedgelert and Dolwydelen. My kindred have lived for -generations in those two parishes, and they are very numerous: in -fact, it used to be said that the people of Dolwydelen and Bedgelert -were all cousins. They were mostly small farmers, and jealous of -all strangers, so that they married almost without exception from -the one parish into the other. This intermixture helped to carry -the tales of the one parish to the other, and to perpetuate them -on the hearths of their homes from generation to generation, until -they were swept away by another influence in this century. Many of my -ancestors seem to have been very fond of stories, poetry, and singing, -and I have been told that some of them were very skilled in these -things. So also, in the case of my parents, the memory of the past -had a great charm for them on both sides; and when the relatives -from Dolwydelen and Bedgelert met in either parish, there used to -be no end to the recounting of pedigrees and the repeating of tales -for the best. By listening to them, I had been filled with desire to -become an adept in pedigrees and legends. My parents used to let me -go every evening to the house of my grandfather, William ab Rhisiart, -the clerk, to listen to tales, and to hear edifying books read. My -grandfather was a reader "without his rival," and "he used to beat -the parson hollow." Many people used to meet at Pen y Bont in the -evenings to converse together, and the stories of some of them were -now and then exceedingly eloquent. Of course, I listened with eager -ears and open mouth, in order, if I heard anything new, to be able -to repeat it to my mother. She, unwilling to let herself be beaten, -would probably relate another like it, which she had heard from her -mother, her grandmother, or her old aunt of Gwastad Annas, who was -a fairly good verse-wright of the homely kind. Then my father, if -he did not happen to be busy with his music-book, would also give -us a tale which he had heard from his grandmother or grandfather, -the old John Jones, of Tyn Llan Dolwydelen, or somebody else would -do so. That is one source from which I got my knowledge of folklore; -but this ceased when we moved from Bedgelert to Carnarvon in the year -1841. My grandfather died in 1844, aged seventy-eight. - -'Besides those,' Mr. Jones goes on to say, 'who used to come to -my grandfather's house and to his workshop to relate stories, the -blacksmith's shop used to be, especially on a rainy day, a capital -place for a story, and many a time did I lurk there instead of going -to school, in order to hear old William Dafyd, the sawyer, who, peace -be to his ashes! drank many a hornful from the Big Quart without ever -breaking down, and old Ifan Owen, the fisherman, tearing away for -the best at their yarns, sometimes a tissue of lies and sometimes -truth. The former was funny, and a great wag, up to all kinds of -tricks. He made everybody laugh, whereas the latter would preserve -the gravity of a saint, however lying might be the tale which he -related. Ifan Owen's best stories were about the Water Spirit, or, -as he called it, Llamhigyn y Dwr, "the Water Leaper." He had not -himself seen the Llamhigyn, but his father had seen it "hundreds of -times." Many an evening it had prevented him from catching a single -fish in Llyn Gwynan, and, when the fisherman got on this theme, his -eloquence was apt to become highly polysyllabic in its adjectives. Once -in particular, when he had been angling for hours towards the close -of the day, without catching anything, he found that something took -the fly clean off the hook each time he cast it. After moving from -one spot to another on the lake, he fished opposite the Benlan Wen, -when something gave his line a frightful pull, "and, by the gallows, -I gave another pull," the fisherman used to say, "with all the -force of my arm: out it came, and up it went off the hook, whilst -I turned round to see, as it dashed so against the cliff of Benlan -that it blazed like a lightning." He used to add, "If that was not -the Llamhigyn, it must have been the very devil himself." That cliff -must be two hundred yards at least from the shore. As to his father, -he had seen the Water Spirit many times, and he had also been fishing -in the Llyn Glâs or Ffynnon Lâs, once upon a time, when he hooked a -wonderful and fearful monster: it was not like a fish, but rather -resembled a toad, except that it had a tail and wings instead of -legs. He pulled it easily enough towards the shore, but, as its head -was coming out of the water, it gave a terrible shriek that was enough -to split the fisherman's bones to the marrow, and, had there not been -a friend standing by, he would have fallen headlong into the lake, -and been possibly dragged like a sheep into the depth; for there is -a tradition that if a sheep got into the Llyn Glâs, it could not be -got out again, as something would at once drag it to the bottom. This -used to be the belief of the shepherds of Cwm Dyli, within my memory, -and they acted on it in never letting their dogs go after the sheep -in the neighbourhood of this lake. These two funny fellows, William -Dafyd and Ifan Owen, died long ago, without leaving any of their -descendants blessed with as much as the faintest gossamer thread of -the story-teller's mantle. The former, if he had been still living, -would now be no less than 129 years of age, and the latter about 120.' - -Mr. Jones proceeds to say that he had stories from sources besides -those mentioned, namely, from Lowri Robart, wife of Rhisiart Edwart, -the 'Old Guide'; from his old aunt of Gwastad Annas; from William -Wmffra, husband to his grandmother's sister; from his grandmother, who -was a native of Dolwydelen, but had been brought up at Pwllgwernog, -in Nanmor; from her sister; and from Gruffud Prisiart, of Nanmor, -afterwards of Glan Colwyn, who gave him the legend of Owen Lawgoch of -which I shall have something to say later, and the story of the bogie -of Pen Pwll Coch, which I do not know. 'But the chief story-teller of -his time at Bedgelert,' Mr. Jones goes on to say, 'was Twm Ifan Siams -(pronounced Siams or Shams), brother, I believe, to Dafyd Siôn Siams, -of the Penrhyn, who was a bard and pedigree man. Twm lived at Nanmor, -but I know not what his vocation was; his relatives, however, were -small farmers, carpenters, and masons. It is not improbable that he -was also an artisan, as he was conversant with numbers, magnitude, and -letters, and left behind him a volume forming a pedigree book known -at Nanmor as the Barcud Mawr, or "Great Kite," as Gruffud Prisiart -told me. The latter had been reading it many a time in order to know -the origin of somebody or other. All I can remember of this character -is that he was very old--over 90--and that he went from house to -house in his old age to relate tales and recount pedigrees: great -was the welcome he had from everybody everywhere. I remember, also, -that he was small of stature, nimble, witty, exceedingly amusing, -and always ready with his say on every subject. He was in the habit -of calling on my grandfather in his rambles, and very cordial was the -reception which my parents always gave him on account of his tales -and his knowledge of pedigrees. The story of the afanc, as given in my -collection, is from his mouth. You will observe how little difference -there is between his version [33] and that known to Edward Llwyd in the -year 1695. I had related this story to a friend of mine at Portmadoc, -who was grandson or great-grandson to Dafyd Siôn Siams, of Penrhyn, -in 1858, when he called my attention to the same story in the Cambrian -Journal from the correspondence of Edward Llwyd. I was surprised at -the similarity between the two versions, and I went to Bedgelert to -Gruffud Rhisiart, who was related to Twm Siôn Siams. I read the story -to him, and I found that he had heard it related by his uncle just as -it was by me, and as given in the Cambrian Journal. Twm Ifan Siams -had funny stories about the tricks of Gwrach y Rhibyn, the Bodach -[34] Glas, and the Bwbach Llwyd, which he localized in Nanmor and -Llanfrothen; he had, also, a very eloquent tale about the courtship -between a sailor from Moel y Gest, near Portmadoc, and a mermaid, -of which I retain a fairly good recollection. I believe Twm died in -the year 1835-6, aged about ninety-five.' - -So far, I have merely translated Mr. Jones' account of himself and -his authorities as given me in the letter I have already referred to, -dated in June of last year, 1881. I would now add the substance of his -general remarks about the fairies, as he had heard them described, and -as he expressed himself in his essay for the competition on folklore at -the Carnarvon Eistedfod of 1880:--The traditions, he says, respecting -the Tylwyth Teg vary according to the situation of the districts with -which they are connected, and many more such traditions continue to -be remembered among the inhabitants of the mountains than by those of -the more level country. In some places the Tylwyth Teg are described -as a small folk of a thieving nature, living in summer among the fern -bushes in the mountains, and in winter in the heather and gorse. These -were wont to frequent the fairs and to steal money from the farmers' -pockets, where they placed in its stead their own fairy money, -which looked like the coin of the realm, but when it was paid for -anything bought it would vanish in the pockets of the seller. In other -districts the fairies were described as a little bigger and stronger -folk; but these latter were also of a thieving disposition. They -would lurk around people's houses, looking for an opportunity to -steal butter and cheese from the dairies, and they skulked about -the cow-yards, in order to milk the cows and the goats, which they -did so thoroughly that many a morning there was not a drop of milk -to be had. The principal mischief, however, which those used to do, -was to carry away unbaptized infants, and place in their stead their -own wretched and peevish offspring. They were said to live in hidden -caves in the mountains, and he had heard one old man asserting his -firm belief that it was beneath Moel Eilio, also called Moel Eilian, -a mountain lying between Llanberis and Cwellyn, the Tylwyth Teg of -Nant y Bettws lived, whom he had seen many a time when he was a lad; -and, if any one came across the mouth of their cave, he thought that he -would find there a wonderful amount of wealth, 'for they were thieves -without their like.' There is still another species of Tylwyth Teg, -very unlike the foregoing ones in their nature and habits. Not only -was this last kind far more beautiful and comely than the others, -but they were honest and good towards mortals. Their whole nature was -replete with joy and fun, nor were they ever beheld hardly, except -engaged in some merry-making or other. They might be seen on bright -moonlight nights at it, singing and carolling playfully on the fair -meadows and the green slopes, at other times dancing lightly on the -tops of the rushes in the valleys. They were also wont to be seen -hunting in full force on the backs of their grey horses; for this -kind were rich, and kept horses and servants. Though it used to be -said that they were spiritual and immortal beings, still they ate -and drank like human beings: they married and had children. They were -also remarkable for their cleanliness, and they were wont to reward -neat maid-servants and hospitable wives. So housewives used to exhort -their maids to clean their houses thoroughly every night before going -to bed, saying that if the Tylwyth Teg happened to enter, they would -be sure to leave money for them somewhere; but they were to tell no -one in case they found any, lest the Tylwyth should be offended and -come no more. The mistresses also used to order a tinful of water to -be placed at the foot of the stairs, a clean cloth on the table, with -bread and its accompaniments (bara ac enllyn) placed on it, so that, if -the Tylwyth came in to eat, the maids should have their recompense on -the hob as well as unstinted praise for keeping the house clean, or, as -Mr. Jones has it in a couplet from Goronwy Owen's Cywyd y Cynghorfynt-- - - - Cael eu rhent ar y pentan, - A llwyr glod o bai llawr glân. - - Finding the fairies' pay on the hob, - With full credit for a clean floor. - - -Thus, whether the fairies came or not to pay a visit to them -during their sleep, the house would be clean by the morning, and -the table ready set for breakfast. It appears that the places most -frequently resorted to by this species were rushy combes surrounded -by smooth hills with round tops, also the banks of rivers and the -borders of lakes; but they were seldom seen at any time near rocks -or cliffs. So more tales about them are found in districts of the -former description than anywhere else, and among them may be mentioned -Penmachno, Dolwydelan, the sides of Moel Siabod, Llandegái Mountain, -and from there to Llanberis, to Nantlle Lakes, to Moel Tryfan [35] -and Nant y Bettws, the upper portion of the parish of Bedgelert from -Drws y Coed to the Pennant, and the district beginning from there and -including the level part of Eifion, on towards Celynnog Fawr. I have -very little doubt that there are many traditions about them in the -neighbourhood of the Eifl and in Lleyn; I know but little, however, -about these last. This kind of fairies was said to live underground, -and the way to their country lay under hollow banks that overhung -the deepest parts of the lakes, or the deepest pools in the rivers, -so that mortals could not follow them further than the water, should -they try to go after them. They used to come out in broad daylight, -two or three together, and now and then a shepherd, so the saying -went, used to talk and chat with them. Sometimes, moreover, he fell -over head and ears in love with their damsels, but they did not -readily allow a mortal to touch them. The time they were to be seen -in their greatest glee was at night when the moon was full, when -they celebrated a merry night (noswaith lawen). At midnight to the -minute, they might be seen rising out of the ground in every combe -and valley; then, joining hands, they would form into circles, and -begin to sing and dance with might and main until the cock crew, when -they would vanish. Many used to go to look at them on those nights, -but it was dangerous to go too near them, lest they should lure the -spectator into their circle; for if that happened, they would throw -a charm over him, which would make him invisible to his companions, -and he would be detained by the fairies as long as he lived. At times -some people went too near to them, and got snatched in; and at other -times a love-inspired youth, fascinated by the charms of one of their -damsels, rushed in foolhardily to try to seize one of them, and became -instantly surrounded and concealed from sight. If he could be got -out before the cock crew he would be no worse; but once the fairies -disappeared without his having been released, he would never more be -seen in the land of the living. The way to get the captured man out -was to take a long stick of mountain ash (pren criafol), which two -or more strong men had to hold with one of its ends in the middle of -the circle, so that when the man came round in his turn in the dance -he might take hold of it, for he is there bodily though not visible, -so that he cannot go past without coming across the stick. Then the -others pull him out, for the fairies, no more than any other spirit, -dare touch the mountain ash. - -We now proceed to give some of Mr. Jones' legends. The first is -one which he published in the fourth volume of the Brython, p. 70, -whence the following free translation is made of it:-- - -'In the north-west corner of the parish of Bedgelert there is a -place which used to be called by the old inhabitants the Land of the -Fairies, and it reaches from Cwm Hafod Ruffyd along the slope of the -mountain of Drws y Coed as far as Llyn y Dywarchen. The old people -of former times used to find much pleasure and amusement in this -district in listening every moonlight night to the charming music of -the fair family, and in looking at their dancing and their mirthful -sports. Once on a time, a long while ago, there lived at upper Drws -y Coed a youth, who was joyous and active, brave and determined of -heart. This young man amused himself every night by looking on and -listening to them. One night they had come to a field near the house, -near the shore of Llyn y Dywarchen, to pass a merry night. He went, -as usual, to look at them, when his glances at once fell on one of -the ladies, who possessed such beauty as he had never seen in a human -being. Her appearance was like that of alabaster; her voice was as -agreeable as the nightingale's, and as unruffled as the zephyr in a -flower-garden at the noon of a long summer's day; and her gait was -pretty and aristocratic; her feet moved in the dance as lightly on -the grass as the rays of the sun had a few hours before on the lake -hard by. He fell in love with her over head and ears, and in the -strength of that passion--for what is stronger than love!--he rushed, -when the bustle was at its height, into the midst of the fair crowd, -and snatched the graceful damsel in his arms, and ran instantly with -her to the house. When the fair family saw the violence used by a -mortal, they broke up the dance and ran after her towards the house; -but, when they arrived, the door had been bolted with iron, wherefore -they could not get near her or touch her in any way; and the damsel -had been placed securely in a chamber. The youth, having her now under -his roof, as is the saying, endeavoured, with all his talent, to win -her affection and to induce her to wed. But at first she would on no -account hear of it; on seeing his persistence, however, and on finding -that he would not let her go to return to her people, she consented -to be his servant if he could find out her name; but she would not be -married to him. As he thought that was not impossible, he half agreed -to the condition; but, after bothering his head with all the names -known in that neighbourhood, he found himself no nearer his point, -though he was not willing to give up the search hurriedly. One night, -as he was going home from Carnarvon market, he saw a number of the -fair folks in a turbary not far from his path. They seemed to him -to be engaged in an important deliberation, and it struck him that -they were planning how to recover their abducted sister. He thought, -moreover, that if he could secretly get within hearing, he might -possibly find her name out. On looking carefully around, he saw that -a ditch ran through the turbary and passed near the spot where they -stood. So he made his way round to the ditch, and crept, on all fours, -along it until he was within hearing of the family. After listening -a little, he found that their deliberation was as to the fate of the -lady he had carried away, and he heard one of them crying, piteously, -"O Penelop, O Penelop, my sister, why didst thou run away with a -mortal!" "Penelop," said the young man to himself, "that must be the -name of my beloved: that is enough." At once he began to creep back -quietly, and he returned home safely without having been seen by -the fairies. When he got into the house, he called out to the girl, -saying, "Penelop, my beloved one, come here!" and she came forward -and asked, in astonishment, "O mortal, who has betrayed my name -to thee?" Then, lifting up her tiny folded hands, she exclaimed, -"Alas, my fate, my fate!" But she grew contented with her fate, -and took to her work in earnest. Everything in the house and on the -farm prospered under her charge. There was no better or cleanlier -housewife in the neighbourhood around, or one that was more provident -than she. The young man, however, was not satisfied that she should be -a servant to him, and, after he had long and persistently sought it, -she consented to be married, on the one condition, that, if ever he -should touch her with iron, she would be free to leave him and return -to her family. He agreed to that condition, since he believed that -such a thing would never happen at his hands. So they were married, -and lived several years happily and comfortably together. Two children -were born to them, a boy and a girl, the picture of their mother and -the idols of their father. But one morning, when the husband wanted -to go to the fair at Carnarvon, he went out to catch a filly that was -grazing in the field by the house; but for the life of him he could -not catch her, and he called to his wife to come to assist him. She -came without delay, and they managed to drive the filly to a secure -corner, as they thought; but, as the man approached to catch her, -she rushed past him. In his excitement, he threw the bridle after her; -but, who should be running in the direction of it, but his wife! The -iron bit struck her on the cheek, and she vanished out of sight on the -spot. Her husband never saw her any more; but one cold frosty night, a -long time after this event, he was awakened from his sleep by somebody -rubbing the glass of his window, and, after he had given a response, -he recognized the gentle and tender voice of his wife saying to him:-- - - - Lest my son should find it cold, - Place on him his father's coat; - Lest the fair one find it cold, - Place on her my petticoat. - - -It is said that the descendants of this family still continue in -these neighbourhoods, and that they are easy to be recognized by their -light and fair complexion. A similar story is related of the son of -the farmer of Braich y Dinas, in Llanfihangel y Pennant, and it used -to be said that most of the inhabitants of that neighbourhood were -formerly of a light complexion. I have often heard old people saying, -that it was only necessary, within their memory, to point out in -the fair at Penmorfa any one as being of the breed of the Tylwyth, -to cause plenty of fighting that day at least.' - -The reader may compare with this tale the following, for which I have -to thank Mr. Samuel Rhys Williams, whose words I give, followed by -a translation:-- - -Yr oed gwr ieuanc o gymydogaeth Drws y Coed yn dychwelyd adref o -Bedgelert ar noswaith loergan lleuad; pan ar gyfer Llyn y Gader -gwelai nifer o'r bonedigesau a elwir y Tylwyth Teg yn myned trwy eu -chwareuon nosawl. Swynwyd y llanc yn y fan gan brydferthwch y rhianod -hyn, ac yn neillduol un o honynt. Collod y llywodraeth arno ei hunan -i'r fath radau fel y penderfynod neidio i'r cylch a dwyn yn ysbail -ido yr hon oed wedi myned a'i galon mor llwyr. Cyflawnod ei fwriad -a dygod y fonediges gydag ef adref. Bu yn wraig ido, a ganwyd plant -idynt. Yn damweiniol, tra yn cyflawni rhyw orchwyl, digwydod ido ei -tharo a haiarn ac ar amrantiad diflannod ei anwylyd o'i olwg ac nis -gwelod hi mwyach, ond darfod idi dyfod at ffenestr ei ystafell wely -un noswaith ar ol hyn a'i annog i fod yn dirion wrth y plant a'i bod -hi yn aros gerllaw y ty yn Llyny Dywarchen. Y mae y tradodiad hefyd -yn ein hysbysu darfod i'r gwr hwn symud i fyw o Drws y Coed i Ystrad -Betws Garmon. - -'A young man, from the neighbourhood of Drws y Coed, was returning -home one bright moonlight night, from Bedgelert; when he came opposite -the lake called Llyn y Gader, he saw a number of the ladies known as -the Tylwyth Teg going through their nightly frolics. The youth was -charmed at once by the beauty of these ladies, and especially by one -of them. He so far lost his control over himself, that he resolved to -leap into the circle and carry away as his spoil the one who had so -completely robbed him of his heart. He accomplished his intention, and -carried the lady home with him. She became his wife, and children were -born to them. Accidentally, while at some work or other, it happened -to him to strike her with iron, and, in the twinkling of an eye, his -beloved one disappeared from his sight. He saw her no more, except that -she came to his bedroom window one night afterwards, and told him to -be tender to the children, and that she was staying, near the house, -in the lake called Llyn y Dywarchen. The tradition also informs us that -this man moved from Drws y Coed to live at Ystrad near Bettws Garmon.' - -The name Llyn y Dywarchen, I may add, means the Lake of the Sod or -Turf: it is the one with the floating island, described thus by -Giraldus, ii. 9 (p. 135):--Alter enim insulam habet erraticam, -vi ventorum impellentium ad oppositas plerumque lacus partes -errabundam. Hic armenta pascentia nonnunquam pastores ad longinquas -subito partes translata mirantur. 'For one of the two lakes holds a -wandering island, which strays mostly with the force of the winds -impelling it to the opposite parts of the lake. Sometimes cattle -grazing on it are, to the surprise of the shepherds, suddenly carried -across to the more distant parts.' Sheep are known to get on the -floating islet, and it is still believed to float them away from -the shore. Mr. S. Rhys Williams, it will be noticed, has given the -substance of the legend rather than the story itself. I now proceed -to translate the same tale as given in Welsh in Cymru Fu (pp. 474-7 -of the edition published by Messrs. Hughes and Son, Wrexham), in -a very different dress--it is from Glasynys' pen, and, as might be -expected, decked out with all the literary adornments in which he -delighted. The language he used was his own, but there is no reason -to think that he invented any of the incidents:--'The farmer of Drws -y Coed's son was one misty day engaged as a shepherd on the side of -the mountain, a little below Cwm Marchnad, and, as he crossed a rushy -flat, he saw a wonderfully handsome little woman standing under a -clump of rushes. Her yellow and curly hair hung down in ringed locks, -and her eyes were as blue as the clear sky, while her forehead was as -white as the wavy face of a snowdrift that has nestled on the side of -Snowdon only a single night. Her two plump cheeks were each like a red -rose, and her pretty-lipped mouth might make an angel eager to kiss -her. The youth approached her, filled with love for her, and, with -delicacy and affection, asked her if he might converse with her. She -smiled kindly, and reaching out her hand, said to him, "Idol of my -hopes, thou hast come at last!" They began to associate secretly, -and to meet one another daily here and there on the moors around -the banks of Llyn y Gader; at last, their love had waxed so strong -that the young man could not be at peace either day or night, as he -was always thinking of Bella or humming to himself a verse of poetry -about her charms. The yellow-haired youth was now and then lost for -a long while, and nobody could divine his history. His acquaintances -believed that he had been fascinated: at last the secret was found -out. There were about Llyn y Dywarchen shady and concealing copses: -it was there he was wont to go, and the she-elf would always be there -awaiting him, and it was therefore that the place where they used to -meet got to be called Llwyn y Forwyn, the Maiden's Grove. After fondly -loving for a long time, it was resolved to wed; but it was needful -to get the leave of the damsel's father. One moonlight night it was -agreed to meet in the wood, and the appointment was duly kept by the -young man, but there was no sign of the subterranean folks coming, -until the moon disappeared behind the Garn. Then the two arrived, -and the old man at once proceeded to say to the suitor: "Thou shalt -have my daughter on the condition that thou do not strike her with -iron. If thou ever touch her with iron, she will no longer be thine, -but shall return to her own." The man consented readily, and great -was his joy. They were betrothed, and seldom was a handsomer pair -seen at the altar. It was rumoured that a vast sum of money as dowry -had arrived with the pretty lady at Drws y Coed on the evening of her -nuptials. Soon after, the mountain shepherd of Cwm Marchnad passed -for a very rich and influential man. In the course of time they -had children, and no happier people ever lived together than their -parents. Everything went on regularly and prosperously for a number -of years: they became exceedingly wealthy, but the sweet is not to -be had without the bitter. One day they both went out on horseback, -and they happened to go near Llyn y Gader, when the wife's horse got -into a bog and sank to his belly. After the husband had got Bella off -his back, he succeeded with much trouble in getting the horse out, and -then he let him go. Then he lifted her on the back of his own, but, -unfortunately, in trying quickly to place her foot in the stirrup, -the iron part of the same slipped, and struck her--or, rather, -it touched her at the knee-joint. Before they had made good half -their way home, several of the diminutive Tylwyth began to appear -to them, and the sound of sweet singing was heard on the side of the -hill. Before the husband reached Drws y Coed his wife had left him, -and it is supposed that she fled to Llwyn y Forwyn, and thence to the -world below to Faery. She left her dear little ones to the care of -her beloved, and no more came near them. Some say, however, that she -sometimes contrived to see her beloved one in the following manner. As -the law of her country did not permit her to frequent the earth with -an earthly being, she and her mother invented a way of avoiding the -one thing and of securing the other. A great piece of sod was set -to float on the surface of the lake, and on that she used to be for -long hours, freely conversing in tenderness with her consort on shore; -by means of that plan they managed to live together until he breathed -his last. Their descendants owned Drws y Coed for many generations, and -they intermarried and mixed with the people of the district. Moreover, -many a fierce fight took place in later times at the Gwyl-fabsant at -Dolbenmaen or at Penmorfa, because the men of Eifionyd had a habit -of annoying the people of Pennant by calling them Bellisians.' - -In a note, Glasynys remarks that this tale is located in many -districts without much variation, except in the names of the places; -this, however, could not apply to the latter part, which suits Llyn -y Dywarchen alone. With this account of the fairy wife frequenting a -lake island to converse with her husband on shore, compare the Irish -story of the Children of Lir, who, though transformed into swans, -were allowed to retain their power of reasoning and speaking, so that -they used to converse from the surface of the water with their friends -on the dry land: see Joyce's Old Celtic Romances, pp. x, 1-36. Now -I return to another tale which was sent me by Mr. William Jones: -unless I am mistaken it has not hitherto been published; so I give -the Welsh together with a free translation of it:-- - -Yr oed ystori am fab Braich y Dinas a adrodai y diwedar hybarch -Elis Owen o Gefn y Meusyd yn lled debyg i chwedl mab yr Ystrad gan -Glasynys, sef ido hudo un o ferched y Tylwyth Teg i lawr o Foel -Hebog, a'i chipio i mewn i'r ty drwy orthrech; ac wedi hynny efe -a'i perswadiod i ymbriodi ag ef ar yr un telerau ag y gwnaeth mab yr -Ystrad. Ond clywais hen fonediges o'r enw Mrs. Roberts, un o ferched -yr Isallt, oed lawer hyn na Mr. Owen, yn ei hadrod yn wahanol. Yr oed -yr hen wreigan hon yn credu yn nilysrwyd y chwedl, oblegid yr oed hi -'yn cofio rhai o'r teulu, waeth be' deudo neb.' Dirwynnai ei hedau yn -debyg i hyn:--Yn yr amser gynt--ond o ran hynny pan oed hi yn ferch -ifanc--yr oed llawer iawn o Dylwyth Teg yn trigo mewn rhyw ogofau yn y -Foel o Gwm Ystradllyn hyd i flaen y Pennant. Yr oed y Tylwyth hwn yn -llawer iawn hardach na dim a welid mewn un rhan arall o'r wlad. Yr -oedynt o ran maint yn fwy o lawer na'r rhai cyffredin, yn lan eu -pryd tu hwnt i bawb, eu gwallt yn oleu fel llin, eu llygaid yn loyw -leision. Yr oedynt yn ymdangos mewn rhyw le neu gilyd yn chwareu, -canu ac ymdifyru bob nos deg a goleu; a bydai swn eu canu yn denu -y llanciau a'r merched ifainc i fyned i'w gweled; ac os bydent yn -digwyd bod o bryd goleu hwy a ymgomient a hwynt, ond ni adawent i -un person o liw tywyll dod yn agos atynt, eithr cilient ymaith o -fford y cyfryw un. Yrwan yr oed mab Braich y Dinas yn llanc hard, -heini, bywiog ac o bryd glan, goleu a serchiadol. Yr oed hwn yn hoff -iawn o edrych ar y Tylwyth, a bydai yn cael ymgom a rhai o honynt yn -aml, ond yn bennaf ag un o'r merched oed yn rhagori arnynt oll mewn -glendid a synwyr; ac o fynych gyfarfod syrthiod y dau mewn cariad -a'u gilyd, eithr ni fynai hi ymbriodi ag ef, ond adawod fyned i'w -wasanaeth, a chydunod i'w gyfarfod yn Mhant--nid wyf yn cofio yr enw -i gyd--drannoeth, oblegid nid oed wiw idi geisio myned gydag ef yn -ngwyd y lleill. Felly drannoeth aeth i fynu i'r Foel, a chyfarfydod -y rhian ef yn ol ei hadewid, ag aeth gydag ef adref, ac ymgymerod a'r -swyd o laethwraig, a buan y dechreuod popeth lwydo o dan ei llaw: yr -oed yr ymenyn a'r caws yn cynhydu beunyd. Hir a thaer y bu'r llanc -yn ceisio gandi briodi. A hi a adawod, os medrai ef gael allan ei -henw. Ni wydai Mrs. Roberts drwy ba ystryw y llwydod i gael hwnnw, -ond hynny a fu, a daeth ef i'r ty un noswaith a galwod ar 'Sibi,' -a phan glywod hi ei henw, hi a aeth i lewygfa; ond pan daeth ati ei -hun, hi a ymfodlonod i briodi ar yr amod nad oed ef i gyffwrd a hi -a haiarn ac nad oed bollt haiarn i fod ar y drws na chlo ychwaith, -a hynny a fu: priodwyd hwynt, a buont fyw yn gysurus am lawer o -flynydoed, a ganwyd idynt amryw blant. Y diwed a fu fel hyn: yr oed -ef wedi myned un diwrnod i dori baich o frwyn at doi, a tharawod -y cryman yn y baich i fyned adref; fel yr oed yn nesu at y gadlas, -rhedod Sibi i'w gyfarfod, a thaflod ynteu y baich brwyn yn direidus -tu ag ati, a rhag ido dyfod ar ei thraws ceisiod ei atal a'i llaw, -yr hon a gyffyrdod a'r cryman; a hi a diflannod o'r golwg yn y fan -yn nghysgod y baich brwyn: ni welwyd ac ni chlywyd dim odiwrthi mwyach. - -'There was a story respecting the son of the farmer of Braich y Dinas, -which used to be told by the late respected Mr. Ellis Owen, of Cefn -y Meusyd, somewhat in the same way as that about the Ystrad youth, -as told by Glasynys; that is to say, the young man enticed one of the -damsels of the fair family to come down from Moel Hebog, and then -he carried her by force into the house, and afterwards persuaded -her to become his wife on the same conditions as the heir of Ystrad -did. But I have heard an old lady called Mrs. Roberts, who had been -brought up at Isallt, and who was older than Mr. Owen, relating it -differently. This old woman believed in the truth of the story, as -"she remembered some of the family, whatever anybody may say." She -used to spin her yarn somewhat as follows:--In old times--but, for -the matter of that, when she was a young woman--there were a great -many of the fair family living in certain caves in the Foel from Cwm -Strállyn [36] down to the upper part of Pennant. This Tylwyth was -much handsomer than any seen in any other part of the country. In -point of stature they were much bigger than the ordinary ones, fair -of complexion beyond everybody, with hair that was as light as flax, -and eyes that were of a clear blue colour. They showed themselves -in one spot or another, engaged in playing, singing, and jollity -every light night. The sound of their singing used to draw the lads -and the young women to look at them; and, should they be of clear -complexion, the fairies would chat with them; but they would let -no person of a dark hue come near them: they moved away from such a -one. Now the young man of Braich y Dinas was a handsome, vigorous, -and lively stripling of fair, clear, and attractive complexion. He -was very fond of looking at the fair family, and had a chat with some -of them often, but chiefly with one of the damsels, who surpassed all -the rest in beauty and good sense. The result of frequently meeting -was that they fell in love with one another, but she would not marry -him. She promised, however, to go to service to him, and agreed to -meet him at Pant y--I have forgotten the rest of the name--the day -after, as it would not do for her to go with him while the others -happened to be looking on. So he went up the next day to the Foel, -and the damsel met him according to her promise, and went with him -home, where she took to the duties of a dairymaid. Soon everything -began to prosper under her hand; the butter and the cheese were daily -growing in quantity. Long and importunately did the youth try to get -her to marry him. She promised to do so provided he could find out -her name. Mrs. Roberts did not know by what manoeuvre he succeeded -in discovering it, but it was done, and he came into the house one -night and called to "Sibi," and when she heard her name she fainted -away. When, however, she recovered her consciousness, she consented -to marry on the condition that he was not to touch her with iron, -and that there was not to be a bolt of iron on the door, or a lock -either. It was agreed, and they were married; they lived together -comfortably many years, and had children born to them. The end came -thus: he had gone one day to cut a bundle of rushes for thatching, -and planted the reaping-hook in the bundle to go home. As he drew -towards the haggard, Sibi ran out to meet him, and he wantonly threw -the bundle of rushes towards her, when she, to prevent its hitting her, -tried to stop it with her hand, which touched the reaping-hook. She -vanished on the spot out of sight behind the bundle of rushes, and -nothing more was seen or heard of her.' - -Mr. Ellis Owen, alluded to above, was a highly respected gentleman, -well known in North Wales for his literary and antiquarian tastes. He -was born in 1789 at Cefn y Meusyd near Tremadoc, where he continued -to live till the day of his death, which was January 27, 1868. His -literary remains, preceded by a short biography, were published in -1877 by Mr. Robert Isaac Jones of Tremadoc; but it contains no fairy -tales so far as I have been able to find. - -A tale which partially reminds one of that given by Dewi Glan -Ffrydlas respecting the Corwrion midwife, referred to at p. 63 above, -was published by Mr. W. Jones in the fourth volume of the Brython, -p. 251: freely rendered into English, it runs thus:-- - -'Once on a time, when a midwife from Nanhwynan had newly got to the -Hafodyd Brithion to pursue her calling, a gentleman came to the door -on a fine grey steed and bade her come with him at once. Such was the -authority with which he spoke, that the poor midwife durst not refuse -to go, however much it was her duty to stay where she was. So she -mounted behind him, and off they went, like the flight of a swallow, -through Cwmllan, over the Bwlch, down Nant yr Aran, and over the -Gader to Cwm Hafod Ruffyd, before the poor woman had time even to say -Oh! When they reached there, she saw before her a magnificent mansion, -splendidly lit up with such lamps as she had never seen before. They -entered the court, and a crowd of servants in expensive liveries came -to meet them, and she was at once led through the great hall into a -bed-chamber, the like of which she had never seen. There the mistress -of the house, to whom she had been fetched, was awaiting her. The -midwife got through her duties successfully, and stayed there until -the lady had completely recovered, nor had she spent any part of her -life so merrily, for there nought but festivity went on day and night: -dancing, singing, and endless rejoicing reigned there. But merry -as it was, she found that she must go, and the nobleman gave her a -large purse, with the order not to open it until she had got into her -own house. Then he bade one of his servants escort her the same way -that she had come. When she reached home she opened the purse, and, -to her great joy, it was full of money: she lived happily on those -earnings to the end of her life.' - -With this ending of the story one should contrast Dewi Glan Ffrydlas' -tale to which I have already alluded; and I may here refer to -Mr. Sikes' British Goblins, pp. 86-8, for a tale differing from both -Dewi's and Jones', in that the fairies are there made to appear as -devils to the nurse, who had accidentally used a certain ointment which -she was not to place near her own eyes. Instead of being rewarded -for her services she was only too glad to be deposited anyhow near -her home. 'But,' as the story goes on to relate, 'very many years -afterwards, being at a fair, she saw a man stealing something from a -stall, and, with one corner of her eye, beheld her old master pushing -the man's elbow. Unthinkingly she said, "How are you, master? how -are the children?" He said, "How did you see me?" She answered, -"With the corner of my left eye." From that moment she was blind of -her left eye, and lived many years with only her right.' Such is the -end of this tale given by Mr. Sikes. - -'But the fair family did not,' Mr. William Jones goes on to say, -'always give mortals the means of good living: sometimes they made no -little fun of them. Once on a time the Drws y Coed man was going home -from Bedgelert Fair, rather merry than sad, along the old road over -the Gader, when he saw, on coming near the top of the Gader, a fine, -handsome house near the road, in which there was a rare merrymaking. He -knew perfectly well that there was no such a building anywhere on his -way, and it made him think that he had lost his way and gone astray; -so he resolved to turn into the house to ask for lodgings, which were -given him. At once, when he entered, he took it to be a nuptial feast -(neithior) by reason of the jollity, the singing, and the dancing. The -house was full of young men, young women, and children, all merry, -and exerting themselves to the utmost. The company began to disappear -one by one, and he asked if he might go to bed, whereupon he was led -to a splendid chamber, where there was a bed of the softest down -with snow-white clothes on it. He stripped at once, went into it, -and slept quietly enough till the morning. The first thing to come -to his mind when he lay half asleep, half awake, was the jollity of -the night before, and the fact of his sleeping in a splendid chamber -in the strange house. He opened his eyes to survey his bedroom, but -it was too wide: he was sleeping on the bare swamp, with a clump of -rushes as his pillow, and the blue sky as his coverlet.' - -Mr. Jones mentions that, within his memory, there were still people -in his neighbourhood who believed that the fairies stole unbaptized -children and placed their own in their stead: he gives the following -story about the farmer's wife of Dyffryn Mymbyr, near Capel Curig, -and her infant:-- - -Yr oed y wraig hon wedi rhodi genedigaeth i blentyn iach a heinif -yn nechreu y cynheuaf ryw haf blin a thymhestlog: ac o herwyd fod y -tydyn getyn o fford odiwrth lan na chapel, a'r hin mor hynod o lawiog, -esgeuluswyd bedydio y plentyn yn yr amser arferol, sef cyn ei fod yn -wyth niwrnod oed. Ryw diwrnod teg yn nghanol y cynheuaf blin aeth y -wraig allan i'r maes gyda'r rhelyw o'r teulu i geisio achub y cynheuaf, -a gadawod y baban yn cysgu yn ei gryd o dan ofal ei nain, yr hon oed -hen a methiantus, ac yn analluog i fyned lawer o gwmpas. Syrthiod yr -hen wreigan i gysgu, a thra yr oed hi felly, daeth y Tylwyth i fewn, -a chymerasant y baban o'r cryd, a dodasant un arall yn ei le. Yn mhen -ennyd dechreuod hwn erain a chwyno nes deffro y nain, ac aeth at y -cryd, lle y gwelod gleiriach hen eidil crebachlyd yn ymstwyrian yn -flin. 'O'r wchw!' ebai hi, 'y mae yr hen Dylwyth wedi bod yma;' ac yn -dioed chwythod yn y corn i alw y fam, yr hon a daeth yno yn diatreg; -a phan glywod y crio yn y cryd, rhedod ato, a chodod y bychan i fynu -heb sylwi arno, a hi a'i cofleidiod, a'i suod ac a'i swcrod at ei -bronnau, ond nid oed dim yn tycio, parhau i nadu yn didor yr oed nes -bron a hollti ei chalon; ac ni wydai pa beth i wneud i'w distewi. O'r -diwed hi a edrychod arno, a gwelod nad oed yn debyg i'w mhebyn hi, -ac aeth yn loes i'w chalon: edrychod arno drachefn, ond po fwyaf yr -edrychai arno, hyllaf yn y byd oed hi yn ei weled; anfonod am ei gwr -o'r cae, a gyrrod ef i ymholi am wr cyfarwyd yn rhywle er mwyn cael ei -gynghor; ac ar ol hir holi dywedod rhywun wrtho fod person Trawsfynyd -yn gyfarwyd yn nghyfrinion yr ysprydion; ac efe a aeth ato, ac archod -hwnnw ido gymeryd rhaw a'i gorchudio a halen, a thori llun croes yn -yr halen; yna ei chymeryd i'r ystafell lle yr oed mab y Tylwyth, ac -ar ol agor y ffenestr, ei rhodi ar y tan hyd nes y llosgai yr halen; -a hwy a wnaethant felly, a phan aeth yr halen yn eiriasboeth fe aeth -yr erthyl croes ymaith yn anweledig idynt hwy, ac ar drothwy y drws -hwy a gawsant y baban arall yn iach a dianaf. - -'This woman had given birth to a healthy and vigorous child at the -beginning of the harvest, one wretched and inclement summer. As the -homestead was a considerable distance from church or chapel, and the -weather so very rainy, it was neglected to baptize the child at the -usual [37] time, that is to say, before it was eight days old. One -fine day, in the middle of this wretched harvest, the mother went -to the field with the rest of the family to try to save the harvest, -and left her baby sleeping in its cradle in its grandmother's charge, -who was so aged and decrepit as to be unable to go much about. The -old woman fell asleep, and, while she was in that state, the Tylwyth -Teg came in and took away the baby, placing another in its stead. Very -shortly the latter began to whine and groan, so that the grandmother -awoke: she went to the cradle, where she saw a slender, wizened old -man moving restlessly and peevishly about. "Alas! alas!" said she, -"the old Tylwyth have been here"; and she at once blew in the horn -to call the mother home, who came without delay. As she heard the -crying in the cradle, she ran towards it, and lifted the little one -without looking at him; she hugged him, put him to her breast, and -sang lullaby to him, but nothing was of any avail, as he continued, -without stopping, to scream enough to break her heart; and she knew -not what to do to calm him. At last she looked at him: she saw that -he was not like her dear little boy, and her heart was pierced with -agony. She looked at him again, and the more she examined him the -uglier he seemed to her. She sent for her husband home from the -field, and told him to search for a skilled man somewhere or other; -and, after a long search, he was told by somebody that the parson -of Trawsfynyd was skilled in the secrets of the spirits; so he went -to him. The latter bade him take a shovel and cover it with salt, -and make the figure of the cross in the salt; then to take it to -the chamber where the fairy child was, and, after taking care to -open the window, to place the shovel on the fire until the salt -was burnt. This was done, and when the salt had got white hot, the -peevish abortion went away, seen of no one, and they found the other -baby whole and unscathed at the doorstep.' Fire was also made use of -in Scotland in order to detect a changeling and force him to quit: see -the British Association's Report, 1896, p. 650, where Mr. Gomme refers -to Mr. Gregor's Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland, pp. 8-9. - -In answer to a question of mine with regard to gossamer, which is -called in North Wales edafed gwawn, 'gwawn yarn,' Mr. Jones told me -in a letter, dated April, 1881, that it used to be called Rhaffau'r -Tylwyth Teg, that is to say, the Ropes of the Fair Family, which -were associated with the diminutive, mischievous, and wanton kind -of fairies who dwelt in marshy and rushy places, or among the fern -and the heather. It used to be said that, if a man should lie down -and fall asleep in any such a spot, the fairies would come and bind -him with their ropes so that he could not move, and that they would -then cover him with a sheet made of their ropes, which would make -him invisible. This was illustrated by him by the following tale he -had heard from his mother:-- - -Clywais fy mam yn adrod chwedl am fab y Ffrid, yr hwn wrth dychwelyd -adref o ffair Bedgelert yn rhywle odeutu Pen Cae'r Gors a welod beth -afrifed o'r Tylwyth Bach yn neidio a phrancio ar bennau y grug. Efe -a eistedod i lawr i edrych arnynt, a daeth hun drosto; ymollyngod i -lawr a chysgod yn drwm. A phan oed felly, ymosodod yr holl lu arno -a rhwymasant ef mor dyn fel na allasai symud; yna hwy a'i cudiasant -ef a'r tuded gwawn fel na allai neb ei weled os digwydai ido lefain -am help. Yr oed ei deulu yn ei disgwyl adref yn gynnar y nos honno, -ac wrth ei weled yn oedi yn hwyr, aethant yn anesmwyth am dano ac -aethpwyd i'w gyfarfod, eithr ni welent dim odiwrtho, ac aed gan -belled a'r pentref, lle en hyspyswyd ei fod wedi myned tuag adref -yn gynnar gyda gwr Hafod Ruffyd. Felly aed tua'r Hafod i edrych a -oed yno; ond dywedod gwr yr Hafod eu bod wedi ymwahanu ar Bont Glan -y Gors, pawb tua'i fan ei hun. Yna chwiliwyd yn fanwl bob ochr i'r -fford odiyno i'r Ffrid heb weled dim odiwrtho. Buwyd yn chwilio yr -holl ardal drwy y dyd drannoeth ond yn ofer. Fod bynnag odeutu yr -un amser nos drannoeth daeth y Tylwyth ac a'i rhydhasant, ac yn fuan -efe a deffrôd wedi cysgu o hono drwy y nos a'r dyd blaenorol. Ar ol -ido deffro ni wydai amcan daear yn mha le yr oed, a chrwydro y bu hyd -ochrau y Gader a'r Gors Fawr hyd nes y canod y ceiliog, pryd yr adnabu -yn mha le yr oed, sef o fewn llai na chwarter milltir i'w gartref. - -'I have heard my mother relating a tale about the son of the farmer -of the Ffrid, who, while on his way home from Bedgelert Fair, saw, -somewhere near Pen Cae'r Gors, an endless number of the diminutive -family leaping and capering on the heather tops. He sat him down -to look at them, and sleep came over him; he let himself down on the -ground, and slept heavily. When he was so, the whole host attacked him, -and they bound him so tightly that he could not have stirred; then -they covered him with the gossamer sheet, so that nobody could see him -in case he called for help. His people expected him home early that -evening, and, as they found him delaying till late, they got uneasy -about him. They went to meet him, but no trace of him was seen, and -they went as far as the village, where they were informed that he had -started home in good time with the farmer of Hafod Ruffyd. So they -went to the Hafod to see if he was there; but the farmer told them -that they had parted on Glan y Gors Bridge to go to their respective -homes. A minute search was then made on both sides of the road from -there to the Ffrid, but without finding any trace of him. They kept -searching the whole neighbourhood during the whole of the next day, -but in vain. However, about the same time the following night the -Tylwyth came and liberated him, and he shortly woke up, after sleeping -through the previous night and day. When he woke he had no idea where -on earth he was; so he wandered about on the slopes of the Gader and -near the Gors Fawr until the cock crew, when he found where he was, -namely, less than a quarter of a mile from his home.' - -The late Mr. Owen, of Cefn Meusyd, has already been alluded to. I -have not been able to get at much of the folklore with which he was -familiar, but, in reply to some questions of mine, Mr. Robert Isaac -Jones of Tremadoc, his biographer, and the publisher of the Brython, -so long as it existed, has kindly ransacked his memory. He writes to -me in Welsh to the following effect:-- - -'I will tell you what I heard from Mr. Owen and my mother when I -was a lad, about fifty-seven years ago. The former used to say that -the people of Pennant in Eifionyd had a nickname, to wit, that of -Belsiaid y Pennant, "the Bellisians of the Pennant"; that, when he was -a boy, if anybody called out Belsiaid y Pennant at the Penmorfa Fair, -every man jack of them would come out, and fighting always ensued. The -antiquary used to explain it thus. Some two or three hundred years ago, -Sir Robert of the Nant, one of Sir Richard Bulkeley's ancestors, had a -son and heir who was extravagant and wild. He married a gipsy, and they -had children born to them; but, as the family regarded this marriage -as a disgrace to their ancient stem, it is said that the father, the -next time the vagabonds came round, gave a large sum of money to the -father of the girl for taking her away with him. This having been done, -the rumour was spread abroad that it was one of the fairies the youth -had married, and that she had gone with him to catch a pony, when he -threw the bridle at the beast to prevent it passing, and the iron -of the bridle touched the wife; then that she at once disappeared, -as the fairies always do so when touched with iron. However, the two -children were put out to nurse, and the one of them, who was a girl, -was brought up at Plas y Pennant, and her name was Pelisha [38]; her -descendants remain to this day in the Nant, and are called Bellis, -who are believed there, to this day, to be derived from the Tylwyth -Teg. Nothing offends them more than to be reminded of this.' - -Mr. R. I. Jones goes on to relate another tale as follows:-- - -Dywedir fod lle a elwir yr Hafod Rugog mewn cwm anial yn y mynyd lle -y bydai y Tylwyth Teg yn arferol a mynychu; ac y bydent yn trwblio'r -hen wraig am fenthyg rhywbeth neu gilyd. Dywedod hithau, 'Cewch os -caniatewch dau beth cyntaf--i'r peth cyntaf y cyffyrdaf ag ef wrth y -drws dorri, a'r peth cyntaf y rhof fy llaw arno yn y ty estyn hanner -llath.' Yr oed carreg afael, fel ei gelwir, yn y mur wrth y drws ar -ei fford, ac yr oed gandi defnyd syrcyn gwlanen yn rhy fyr o hanner -llath. Ond yn anffodus wrth dod a'i chawellad mawn i'r ty bu agos idi -a syrthio: rhoes ei llaw ar ben ei chlun i ymarbed a thorod honno, -a chan faint y boen cyffyrdod yny ty a'i thrwyn yr hwn a estynnod -hanner llath. - -'It is said that there was a place called Hafod Rugog in a wild -hollow among the mountains, where the fair family were in the habit of -resorting, and that they used to trouble the old woman of Hafod for -the loan of one thing and another. So she said, one day, "You shall -have the loan if you will grant me two first things--that the first -thing I touch at the door break, and that the first thing I put my -hand on in the house be lengthened half a yard." There was a grip -stone (carreg afael), as it is called, in the wall near the door, -which was in her way, and she had in the house a piece of flannel -for a jerkin which was half a yard too short. But, unfortunately, -as she came, with her kreel full of turf on her back, to the house, -she nearly fell down: she put her hand, in order to save herself, -to her knee-joint, which then broke; and, owing to the pain, when she -had got into the house, she touched her nose with her hand, when her -nose grew half a yard longer.' - -Mr. Jones went on to notice how the old folks used to believe that the -fairies were wont to appear in the marshes near Cwellyn Lake, not far -from Rhyd-Du, to sing and dance, and that it was considered dangerous -to approach them on those occasions lest one should be fascinated. As -to the above-mentioned flannel and stone a folklorist asks me, why -the old woman did not definitely mention them and say exactly what -she wanted. The question is worth asking: I cannot answer it, but I -mention it in the hope that somebody else will. - - - - -II. - -Early in the year 1899 [39] I had a small group of stories communicated -to me by the Rev. W. Evans Jones, rector of Dolbenmaen, who tells me -that the neighbourhood of the Garn abounds in fairy tales. The scene -of one of these is located near the source of Afon fach Blaen y Cae, -a tributary of the Dwyfach. 'There a shepherd while looking after -his flock came across a ring of rushes which he accidentally kicked, -as the little people were coming out to dance. They detained him, -and he married one of their number. He was told that he would live -happily with them as long as he would not touch any instrument of -iron. For years nothing happened to mar the peace and happiness of -the family. One day, however, he unknowingly touched iron, with the -consequence that both the wife and the children disappeared.' This -differs remarkably from stories such as have been already mentioned -at pp. 32, 35; but until it is countenanced by stories from other -sources, I can only treat it as a blurred version of a story of the -more usual type, such as the next one which Mr. Evans Jones has sent -me as follows:-- - -'A son of the farmer of Blaen Pennant married a fairy and they -lived together happily for years, until one day he took a bridle -to catch a horse, which proved to be rather an obstreperous animal, -and in trying to prevent the horse passing, he threw the bridle at -him, which, however, missed the animal and hit the wife so that the -bit touched her, and she at once disappeared. The tradition goes, -that their descendants are to this day living in the Pennant Valley; -and if there is any unpleasantness between them and their neighbours -they are taunted with being of the Tylwyth Teg family.' These are, -I presume, the people nicknamed Belsiaid, to which reference has -already been made. - -The next story is about an old woman from Garn Dolbenmaen who was -crossing y Graig Goch, 'the Red Rock,' 'when suddenly she came across a -fairy sitting down with a very large number of gold coins by her. The -old woman ventured to remark how wealthy she was: the fairy replied, -Wele dacw, "Lo there!" and immediately disappeared.' This looks as -if it ought to be a part of a longer story which Mr. Evans Jones has -not heard. - -The last bit of folklore which he has communicated is equally short, -but of a rarer description: 'A fairy was in the habit of attending -a certain family in the Pennant Valley every evening to put the -children to bed; and as the fairy was poorly clad, the mistress of -the house gave her a gown, which was found in the morning torn into -shreds.' The displeasure of the fairy at being offered the gown is -paralleled by that of the fenodyree or the Manx brownie, described in -chapter iv. As for the kind of service here ascribed to the Pennant -fairy, I know nothing exactly parallel. - - - - -III. - -The next four stories are to be found in Cymru Fu at pp. 175-9, whence -I have taken the liberty of translating them into English. They were -contributed by Glasynys, whose name has already occurred so often in -connexion with these Welsh legends, that the reader ought to know more -about him; but I have been disappointed in my attempt to get a short -account of his life to insert here. All I can say is, that I made -his acquaintance in 1865 in Anglesey: at that time he had a curacy -near Holyhead, and he was in the prime of life. He impressed me as an -enthusiast for Welsh antiquities: he was born and bred, I believe, -in the neighbourhood of Snowdon, and his death took place about ten -years ago. It would be a convenience to the student of Welsh folklore -to have a brief biography of Glasynys, but as yet nothing of the kind -seems to have been written. - -(1) 'When the people of the Gors Goch one evening had just gone to bed, -they heard a great row and disturbance around the house. One could -not comprehend at all what it was that made a noise at that time -of night. Both the husband and the wife had waked up, quite unable -to make out what it might be. The children also woke, but no one -could utter a word: their tongues had all stuck to the roof of their -mouths. The husband, however, at last managed to move, and to ask, -"Who is there? What do you want?" Then he was answered from without by -a small silvery voice, "It is room we want to dress our children." The -door was opened: a dozen small beings came in, and began to search -for an earthen pitcher with water; there they remained for some hours, -washing and titivating themselves. As the day was breaking, they went -away, leaving behind them a fine present for the kindness they had -received. Often afterwards did the Gors Goch folks have the company -of this family. But once there happened to be there a fine plump and -pretty baby in his cradle. The fair family came, and, as the baby -had not been baptized, they took the liberty of changing him for one -of their own. They left behind in his stead an abominable creature -that would do nothing but cry and scream every day of the week. The -mother was nearly breaking her heart on account of the misfortune, -and greatly afraid of telling anybody about it. But everybody got to -see that there was something wrong at the Gors Goch, which was proved -before long by the mother dying of longing for her child. The other -children died broken-hearted after their mother, and the husband was -left alone with the little elf without any one to comfort them. But -shortly after, one began to resort again to the hearth of the Gors -Goch to dress children, and the gift, which had formerly been silver -money, became henceforth pure gold. In the course of a few years the -elf became the heir of a large farm in North Wales, and that is why -the old people used to say, "Shoe the elf with gold and he will grow" -(Fe daw gwidon yn fawr ond ei bedoli ag aur). That is the legend of -the Gors Goch.' - -(2) 'Once when William Ellis, of the Gilwern, was fishing on the bank -of Cwm Silin Lake on a dark misty day, he had seen no living Christian -from the time when he left Nantlle. But as he was in a happy mood, -throwing his line, he beheld over against him in a clump of rushes a -large crowd of people, or things in the shape of people about a foot -in stature: they were engaged in leaping and dancing. He looked on -for hours, and he never heard, as he said, such music in his life -before. But William went too near them, when they threw a kind of -dust into his eyes, and, while he was wiping it away, the little -family took the opportunity of betaking themselves somewhere out of -his sight, so that he neither saw nor heard anything more of them.' - -(3) 'There is a similar story respecting a place called Llyn y -Ffynhonnau. There was no end of jollity there, of dancing, harping, and -fiddling, with the servant man of Gelli Ffrydau and his two dogs in the -midst of the crowd, leaping and capering as nimbly as anybody else. At -it they were for three days and three nights, without stopping; and -had it not been for a skilled man, who lived not far off, and came to -know how things were going on, the poor fellow would, without doubt, -have danced himself to death. But he was rescued that time.' - -(4) The fourth story is one, of which he says, that he heard it from -his mother; but he has elaborated it in his usual fashion, and the -proper names are undoubtedly his own:--'Once on a time, a shepherd -boy had gone up the mountain. That day, like many a day before and -after, was exceedingly misty. Now, though he was well acquainted -with the place, he lost his way, and walked backwards and forwards -for many a long hour. At last he got into a low rushy spot, where he -saw before him many circular rings. He at once recalled the place, -and began to fear the worst. He had heard, many hundreds of times, -of the bitter experiences, in those rings, of many a shepherd who had -happened to chance on the dancing place or the circles of the fair -family. He hastened away as fast as ever he could, lest he should be -ruined like the rest; but, though he exerted himself to the point of -perspiring and losing his breath, there he was, and there he continued -to be, a long time. At last he was met by an old fat little man, with -merry blue eyes, who asked him what he was doing. He answered that -he was trying to find his way home. "Oh," said he, "come after me, -and do not utter a word until I bid thee." This he did, following him -on and on until they came to an oval stone; and the old fat little -man lifted it, after tapping the middle of it three times with his -walking-stick. There was there a narrow path with stairs visible here -and there; and a sort of whitish light, inclining to grey and blue, -was to be seen radiating from the stones. "Follow me fearlessly," -said the fat man; "no harm will be done thee." So on the poor youth -went, as reluctantly as a dog to be hanged. But presently a fine, -wooded, fertile country spread itself out before them, with well -arranged mansions dotting it all over, while every kind of apparent -magnificence met the eye and seemed to smile in the landscape; the -bright waters of the rivers meandered in twisted streams, and the -hills were covered with the luxuriant verdure of their grassy growth, -and the mountains with a glossy fleece of smooth pasture. By the time -they had reached the stout gentleman's mansion, the young man's senses -had been bewildered by the sweet cadence of the music which the birds -poured forth from the groves: then there was gold dazzling his eyes, -and silver flashing on his sight. He saw there all kinds of musical -instruments and all sorts of things for playing; but he could discern -no inhabitant in the whole place; and, when he sat down to eat, the -dishes on the table came to their places of themselves, and disappeared -when one had done with them. This puzzled him beyond measure; moreover, -he heard people talking together around him, but for the life of him -he could see no one but his old friend. At length the fat man said -to him: "Thou canst now talk as much as it may please thee;" but, -when he attempted to move his tongue, it would no more stir than if it -had been a lump of ice, which greatly frightened him. At this point, -a fine old lady, with health and benevolence beaming in her face, came -to them and slightly smiled at the shepherd: the mother was followed -by her three daughters, who were remarkably beautiful. They gazed with -somewhat playful looks at him, and at length began to talk to him; -but his tongue would not wag. Then one of the girls came to him, and, -playing with his yellow and curly locks, gave him a smart kiss on his -ruddy lips. This loosened the string that bound his tongue, and he -began to talk freely and eloquently. There he was, under the charm of -that kiss, in the bliss of happiness; and there he remained a year and -a day without knowing that he had passed more than a day among them; -for he had got into a country where there was no reckoning of time. But -by-and-by he began to feel somewhat of a longing to visit his old home, -and asked the stout man if he might go. "Stay a little yet," said he, -"and thou shalt go for awhile." That passed: he stayed on, but Olwen, -for that was the name of the damsel that had kissed him, was very -unwilling that he should depart. She looked sad every time he talked -of going away; nor was he himself without feeling a sort of a cold -thrill passing through him at the thought of leaving her. On condition, -however, of returning, he obtained leave to go, provided with plenty -of gold and silver, of trinkets and gems. When he reached home, nobody -knew who he was: it had been the belief that he had been killed by -another shepherd, who found it necessary to betake himself hastily far -away to America, lest he should be hanged without delay. But here is -Einion Lâs at home, and everybody wonders especially to see that the -shepherd had got to look like a wealthy man: his manners, his dress, -his language, and the treasure he had with him, all conspired to give -him the air of a gentleman. He went back one Thursday night, the first -of the moon of that month, as suddenly as he had left the first time, -and nobody knew whither. There was great joy in the country below when -Einion returned thither, and nobody was more rejoiced at it than Olwen -his beloved. The two were right impatient to get married; but it was -necessary to do that quietly, for the family below hated nothing more -than fuss and noise; so, in a sort of a half-secret fashion, they -were wedded. Einion was very desirous to go once more among his own -people, accompanied, to be sure, by his wife. After he had been long -entreating the old man for leave, they set out on two white ponies, -that were, in fact, more like snow than anything else in point of -colour. So he arrived with his consort in his old home, and it was -the opinion of all that Einion's wife was the handsomest person they -had anywhere seen. Whilst at home, a son was born to them, to whom -they gave the name of Taliessin. Einion was now in the enjoyment -of high repute, and his wife received due respect. Their wealth was -immense, and soon they acquired a large estate; but it was not long -till people began to inquire after the pedigree of Einion's wife: the -country was of opinion that it was not the right thing to be without -a pedigree. Einion was questioned about it, but without giving any -satisfactory answer, and one came to the conclusion that she was one -of the fair family (Tylwyth Teg). "Certainly," replied Einion, "there -can be no doubt that she comes from a very fair family; for she has -two sisters who are as fair as she, and, if you saw them together, -you would admit that name to be a most fitting one." This, then, -is the reason why the remarkable family in the Land of Enchantment -and Glamour (Hud a Lledrith) is called the fair family.' - -The two next tales of Glasynys' appear in Cymru Fu, at pp. 478-9; -the first of them is to be compared with one already related (pp. 99, -100), while the other is unlike anything that I can now recall:-- - -(5) 'Cwmllan was the principal resort of the fair family, and the -shepherds of Hafod Llan used to see them daily in the ages of faith -gone by. Once, on a misty afternoon, one of them had been searching -for sheep towards Nant y Bettws. When he had crossed Bwlch Cwmllan, -and was hastening laboriously down, he saw an endless number of little -folks singing and dancing in a lively and light-footed fashion, while -the handsomest girls he had ever seen anywhere were at it preparing -a banquet. He went to them and had a share of their dainties, and it -seemed to him that he had never in his life tasted anything approaching -their dishes. When the twilight came, they spread their tents, and -the man never before saw such beauty and ingenuity. They gave him -a soft bed of yielding down, with sheets of the finest linen, and -he went to rest as proud as if he had been a prince. But, alas! next -morning, after all the jollity and sham splendour, the poor man, when -he opened his eyes, found that his bed was but a bush of bulrushes, -and his pillow a clump of moss. Nevertheless, he found silver money -in his shoes, and afterwards he continued for a long time to find, -every week, a piece of coined money between two stones near the spot -where he had slept. One day, however, he told a friend of his the -secret respecting the money, and he never found any more.' - -(6) 'Another of these shepherds was one day urging his dog at the -sheep in Cwmllan, when he heard a kind of low noise in the cleft -of a rock. He turned to look, when he found there some kind of a -creature weeping plenteously. He approached, and drew out a wee lass; -very shortly afterwards two middle-aged men came to him to thank him -for his kindness, and, when about to part, one of them gave him a -walking-stick, as a souvenir of his good deed. The year after this, -every sheep in his possession had two ewe-lambs; and so his sheep -continued to breed for some years. But he had stayed one evening in -the village until it was rather late, and there hardly ever was a -more tempestuous night than that: the wind howled, and the clouds -shed their contents in sheets of rain, while the darkness was such -that next to nothing could be seen. As he was crossing the river that -comes down from Cwmllan, where its flood was sweeping all before it -in a terrible current, he somehow let go the walking-stick from his -hand; and when one went next morning up the Cwm, it was found that -nearly all the sheep had been swept away by the flood, and that the -farmer's wealth had gone almost as it came--with the walking-stick.' - -The shorter versions given by Glasynys are probably more nearly given -as he heard them, than the longer ones, which may be suspected of -having been a good deal spun out by him; but there is probably very -little in any of them of his own invention, though the question whence -he got his materials in each instance may be difficult to answer. In -one this is quite clear, though he does not state it, namely the -story of the sojourn of Elfod the Shepherd in Fairyland, as given -in Cymru Fu, p. 477: it is no other than a second or third-hand -reproduction of that recorded by Giraldus concerning a certain -Eliodorus, a twelfth-century cleric in the diocese of St. David's -[40]. But the longest tale published by Glasynys is the one about -a mermaid: see Cymru Fu, pp. 434-44. Where he got this from I have -not been able to find out, but it has probably been pieced together -from various sources. I feel sure that some of the materials at least -were Welsh, besides the characters known to Welsh mythology as Nefyd -Naf Neifion, Gwyn ab Nud, Gwydion ab Dôn, Dylan, and Ceridwen, who -have been recklessly introduced into it. He locates it, apparently, -somewhere on the coast of Carnarvonshire, the chief scene being -called Ogof Deio or David's Cave, which so far as I know is not an -actual name, but one suggested by 'David Jones' locker' as sailors' -slang for the sea. In hopes that somebody will communicate to me any -bits of this tale that happen to be still current on the Welsh coast, -I give an abstract of it here:-- - -'Once upon a time, a poor fisherman made the acquaintance of a mermaid -in a cave on the sea-coast; at first she screeched wildly, but, when -she got a little calmer, she told him to go off out of the way of -her brother, and to return betimes the day after. In getting away, -he was tossed into the sea, and tossed out on the land with a rope, -which had got wound about his waist; and on pulling at this he got -ashore a coffer full of treasure, which he spent the night in carrying -home. He was somewhat late in revisiting the cave the next day, and -saw no mermaid come there to meet him according to her promise. But -the following night he was roused out of his sleep by a visit from her -at his home, when she told him to come in time next day. On his way -thither, he learnt from some fishermen that they had been labouring in -vain during the night, as a great big mermaid had opened their nets -in order to pick the best fish, while she let the rest escape. When -he reached the cave he found the mermaid there combing her hair: -she surprised him by telling him that she had come to live among the -inhabitants of the land, though she was, according to her own account, -a king's daughter. She was no longer stark naked, but dressed like a -lady: in one hand she held a diadem of pure gold, and in the other a -cap of wonderful workmanship, the former of which she placed on her -head, while she handed the latter to Ifan Morgan, with the order that -he should keep it. Then she related to him how she had noticed him -when he was a ruddy boy, out fishing in his father's white boat, and -heard him sing a song which made her love him, and how she had tried -to repeat this song at her father's court, where everybody wanted -to get it. Many a time, she said, she had been anxiously listening -if she might hear it again, but all in vain. So she had obtained -permission from her family to come with her treasures and see if he -would not teach it her; but she soon saw that she would not succeed -without appearing in the form in which she now was. After saying -that her name was Nefyn, daughter of Nefyd Naf Neifion, and niece -to Gwyn son of Nud, and Gwydion son of Dôn, she calmed his feelings -on the subject of the humble cottage in which he lived. Presently he -asked her to be his wife, and she consented on the condition that he -should always keep the cap she had given him out of her sight and -teach her the song. They were married and lived happily together, -and had children born them five times, a son and a daughter each time; -they frequently went to the cave, and no one knew what treasures they -had there; but once on a time they went out in a boat pleasuring, as -was their wont, with six or seven of the children accompanying them, -and when they were far from the land a great storm arose; besides -the usual accompaniments of a storm at sea, most unearthly screeches -and noises were heard, which frightened the children and made their -mother look uncomfortable; but presently she bent her head over the -side of the boat, and whispered something they did not catch: to their -surprise the sea was instantly calm. They got home comfortably, but -the elder children were puzzled greatly by their mother's influence -over the sea, and it was not long after this till they so teased -some ill-natured old women, that the latter told them all about the -uncanny origin of their mother. The eldest boy was vexed at this, -and remembered how his mother had spoken to somebody near the boat -at sea, and that he was never allowed to go with his parents to -Ogof Deio. He recalled, also, his mother's account of the strange -countries she had seen. Once there came also to Ifan Morgan's home, -which was now a mansion, a visitor whom the children were not even -allowed to see; and one night, when the young moon had sunk behind -the western horizon, Ifan and his wife went quietly out of the house, -telling a servant that they would not return for three weeks or a -month: this was overheard by the eldest son. So he followed them very -quietly until he saw them on the strand, where he beheld his mother -casting a sort of leather mantle round herself and his father, and -both of them threw themselves into the hollow of a billow that came -to fetch them. The son went home, broke his heart, and died in nine -days at finding out that his mother was a mermaid; and, on seeing her -brother dead, his twin sister went and threw herself into the sea; -but, instead of being drowned, she was taken up on his steed by a -fine looking knight, who then galloped away over the waves as if they -had been dry and level land. The servants were in doubt what to do, -now that Nefyd Morgan was dead and Eilonwy had thrown herself into -the sea; but Tegid, the second son, who feared nothing, said that -Nefyd's body should be taken to the strand, as somebody was likely to -come to fetch it for burial among his mother's family. At midnight a -knight arrived, who said the funeral was to be at three that morning, -and told them that their brother would come back to them, as Gwydion -ab Dôn was going to give him a heart that no weight could break, -that Eilonwy was soon to be wedded to one of the finest and bravest -of the knights of Gwerdonau Llion, and that their parents were with -Gwyn ab Nud in the Gwaelodion. The body was accordingly taken to the -beach, and, as soon as the wave touched it, out of his coffin leaped -Nefyd like a porpoise. He was seen then to walk away arm in arm with -Gwydion ab Dôn to a ship that was in waiting, and most enchanting -music was heard by those on shore; but soon the ship sailed away, -hardly touching the tops of the billows. After a year and a day had -elapsed Ifan Morgan, the father, came home, looking much better and -more gentlemanly than he had ever done before; he had never spoken of -Nefyn, his wife, until Tegid one day asked him what about his mother; -she had gone, he said, in search of Eilonwy, who had run away from her -husband in Gwerdonau Llion, with Glanfryd ab Gloywfraint. She would -be back soon, he thought, and describe to them all the wonders they -had seen. Ifan Morgan went to bed that night, and was found dead in -it in the morning; it was thought that his death had been caused by -a Black Knight, who had been seen haunting the place at midnight for -some time, and always disappearing, when pursued, into a well that -bubbled forth in a dark recess near at hand. The day of Ifan Morgan's -funeral, Nefyn, his wife, returned, and bewailed him with many tears; -she was never more seen on the dry land. Tegid had now the charge of -the family, and he conducted himself in all things as behoved a man -and a gentleman of high principles and great generosity. He was very -wealthy, but often grieved by the thought of his father's murder. One -day, when he and two of his brothers were out in a boat fishing in the -neighbouring bay, they were driven by the wind to the most wonderful -spot they had ever seen. The sea there was as smooth as glass, and -as bright as the clearest light, while beneath it, and not far from -them, they saw a most splendid country with fertile fields and dales -covered with pastures, with flowery hedges, groves clad in their green -foliage, and forests gently waving their leafy luxuriance, with rivers -lazily contemplating their own tortuous courses, and with mansions -here and there of the most beautiful and ingenious description; and -presently they saw that the inhabitants amused themselves with all -kinds of merriment and frolicking, and that here and there they had -music and engaged themselves in the most energetic dancing; in fact, -the rippling waves seemed to have absorbed their fill of the music, -so that the faint echo of it, as gently given forth by the waves, -never ceased to charm their ears until they reached the shore. That -night the three brothers had the same dream, namely that the Black -Knight who had throttled their father was in hiding in a cave on the -coast: so they made for the cave in the morning, but the Black Knight -fled from them and galloped off on the waves as if he had been riding -for amusement over a meadow. That day their sisters, on returning home -from school, had to cross a piece of sea, when a tempest arose and sunk -the vessel, drowning all on board, and the brothers ascribed this to -the Black Knight. About this time there was great consternation among -the fishermen on account of a sea-serpent that twined itself about -the rocks near the caves, and nothing would do but that Tegid and his -brothers should go forth to kill it; but when one day they came near -the spot frequented by it, they heard a deep voice saying to them, -"Do not kill your sister," so they wondered greatly and suddenly went -home. But that night Tegid returned there alone, and called his sister -by her name, and after waiting a long while she crept towards him in -the shape of a sea-serpent, and said that she must remain some time in -that form on account of her having run away with one who was not her -husband; she went on to say that she had seen their sisters walking -with their mother, and their father would soon be in the cave. But all -of a sudden there came the Black Knight, who unsheathed a sword that -looked like a flame of fire, and began to cut the sea-serpent into a -thousand bits, which united, however, as fast as he cut it, and became -as whole as before. The end was that the monster twisted itself in -a coil round his throat and bit him terribly in his breast. At this -point a White Knight comes and runs him through with his spear, so -that he fell instantly, while the White Knight went off hurriedly -with the sea-serpent in a coil round his neck. Tegid ran away for -his life, but not before a monster more terrible than anything he -had ever seen had begun to attack him. It haunted him in all kinds of -ways: sometimes it would be like a sea, but Tegid was able to swim: -sometimes it would be a mountain of ice, but Tegid was able to climb -it: and sometimes it was like a furnace of intense fire, but the heat -had no effect on him. But it appeared mostly as a combination of the -beast of prey and the venomous reptile. Suddenly, however, a young -man appeared, taking hold of Tegid's arm and encouraging him, when -the monster fled away screeching, and a host of knights in splendid -array and on proudly prancing horses came to him: among them he found -his brothers, and he went with them to his mother's country. He was -especially welcome there, and he found all happy and present save -his father only, whom he thought of fetching from the world above, -having in fact got leave to do so from his grandfather. His mother -and his brothers went with him to search for his father's body, and -with him came Gwydion ab Dôn and Gwyn ab Nud, but he would not be -wakened. So Tegid, who loved his father greatly, asked leave to remain -on his father's grave, where he remains to this day. His mother is -wont to come there to soothe him, and his brothers send him gifts, -while he sends his gifts to Nefyd Naf Neifion, his grandfather; -it is also said that his twin-sister, Ceridwen, has long since come -to live near him, to make the glad gladder and the pretty prettier, -and to maintain her dignity and honour in peace and tranquillity.' - -The latter part of this tale, the mention of Ceridwen, invoked by -the bards as the genius presiding over their profession, and of -Tegid remaining on his father's grave, is evidently a reference -to Llyn Tegid, or Bala Lake, and to the legend of Taliessin in the -so-called Hanes or history of Taliessin, published at the end of the -third volume of Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion. So the story has -undoubtedly been pieced together, but not all invented, as is proved -by the reference to the curious cap which the husband was to keep -out of the sight of his mermaid wife. In Irish legends this cap has -particular importance attached to it, of which Glasynys cannot have -been aware, for he knew of no use to make of it. The teaching of -the song to the wife is not mentioned after the marriage; and the -introduction of it at all is remarkable: at any rate I have never -noticed anything parallel to it in other tales. The incident of the -tempest, when the mermaid spoke to somebody by the side of the boat, -reminds one of Undine during the trip on the Danube. It is, perhaps, -useless to go into details till one has ascertained how much of the -story has been based on genuine Welsh folklore. But, while I am on -this point, I venture to append here an Irish tale, which will serve -to explain the meaning of the mermaid's cap, as necessary to her -comfort in the water world. I am indebted for it to the kindness of -Dr. Norman Moore, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, who tells me, in a -letter dated March 7, 1882, that he and the Miss Raynells of Killynon -heard it from an old woman named Mrs. Dolan, who lived on the property -of the late Mr. Cooke of Cookesborough, in Westmeath. The following -was her tale:--'There was a man named Mahon had a farm on the edge of -Loch Owel. He noticed that his corn was trampled, and he sat up all -night to watch it. He saw horses, colts and fillies rather, come up -out of the lake and trample it. He chased them, and they fled into the -lake. The next night he saw them again, and among them a beautiful girl -with a cap of salmon skin on her head, and it shone in the moonlight; -and he caught her and embraced her, and carried her off to his house -and married her, and she was a very good housewife, as all those -lake people are, and kept his house beautifully; and one day in the -harvest, when the men were in the fields, she went into the house, -and there she looked on the hurdle for some lard to make colcannon -[41] for the men, and she saw her old cap of fish skin, and she put -it on her head and ran straight down into the lake and was never seen -any more, and Mahon he was terribly grieved, and he died soon after -of a decline. She had had three children, and I often saw them in -the Mullingar market. They were farmers, too, on Loch Owel.' - - - - -IV. - -Let me now return to the fresh-water fairies of Snowdon and give -a reference to Pennant's Tours in Wales: in the edition published -at Carnarvon in 1883 we are told, ii. 326, how Mr. Pennant learned -'that, in fairy days, those diminutive gentry kept their revels' on the -margins of the Snowdon lake, called Llyn Coch. There is no legend now -extant, so far as I can ascertain, about the Llyn Coch fairies. So -I proceed to append a legend differing considerably from all the -foregoing: I owe it to the kindness of my friend Mr. Howell Thomas, -of the Local Government Board. It was written out by Mr. G. B. Gattie, -and I take the liberty of prefixing to it his letter to Mr. Thomas, -dated Walham Grove, London, S.W., April 27, 1882. The letter runs -as follows:-- - -'I had quite forgotten the enclosed, which I had jotted down during -my recent illness, and ought to have sent you long ago. Of course, the -wording is very rough, as no care has been taken on that point. It is -interesting, as being another version of a very pretty old legend which -my mother used to repeat. She was descended from a very old north Welsh -family; indeed, I believe my esteemed grandfather went so far as to -trace his descent from the great patriot, Owen Glendower himself! My -mother delighted not only in the ancient folklore legends and fairy -tales of the Principality, with which she was perfectly familiar, -but especially in the lovely national melodies, all of which she -knew by heart; and, being highly accomplished, would never tire of -playing or singing them. You will see the legend is, in the main, -much as related by Professor Rhys, though differing somewhat in the -singular terms of the marriage contract. The scene of the legend, -as related by my late mother, was, of course, a lake, the Welsh name -of which I have, unfortunately, forgotten, but it was somewhere, -I think, near Llanberis, and the hero a stalwart young farmer.' - -The legend itself reads as follows:-- - -'One hot day, the farmer, riding by the lake, took his horse into the -water to drink, and, whilst looking straight down over his horse's -ears into the smooth surface, he became aware of a most lovely face, -just beneath the tide, looking up archly at him. Quite bewildered, -he earnestly beckoned, and by degrees the head and shoulders which -belonged to the face emerged from the water. Overcome with emotion, -and nearly maddened by the blaze of beauty so suddenly put before -him, he leaped from his horse and rushed wildly into the lake to try -to clasp the lovely vision to his heart. As this was a clear case -of "love at first sight," the poor young man was not, of course, -answerable for his actions. But the vision had vanished beneath the -waves, to instantly reappear, however, a yard or two off, with the most -provoking of smiles, and holding out her beautiful white hands towards -her admirer, but slipping off into deep water the moment he approached. - -'For many days the young farmer frequented the lake, but without -again seeing the beautiful Naiad, until one day he sat down by the -margin hoping that she would appear, and yet dreading her appearance, -for this latter to him simply meant loss of all peace. Yet he rushed -on his fate, like the love-sick shepherd in the old Italian romance, -who watched the sleeping beauty, yet dreaded her awakening:--Io -perderò la pace, quando si sveglierà! - -'The young man had brought the remains of his frugal dinner with -him, and was quietly munching, by way of dessert, an apple of rare -and delicious quality, from a tree which grew upon a neighbouring -estate. Suddenly the lady appeared in all her rare beauty almost -close to him, and begged him to "throw" her one of his apples. This -was altogether too much, and he replied by holding out the tempting -morsel, exhibiting its beautiful red and green sides, saying that, -if she really wanted it, she must fetch it herself. Upon this she -came up quite close, and, as she took the apple from his left hand, -he dexterously seized tight hold of her with his right, and held -her fast. She, however, nothing daunted, bawled lustily, at the top -of her voice, for help, and made such an outrageous noise, that at -length a most respectable looking old gentleman appeared suddenly -out of the midst of the lake. He had a superb white beard, and was -simply and classically attired merely in a single wreath of beautiful -water-lilies wound round his loins, which was possibly his summer -costume, the weather being hot. He politely requested to know what was -the matter, and what the young farmer wanted with his daughter. The -case was thereupon explained, but not without the usual amount of -nervous trepidation which usually happens to love-sick swains when -called into the awful presence of "Papa" to "explain their intentions!" - -'After a long parley the lady, at length, agreed to become the young -man's wife on two conditions, which he was to solemnly promise to -keep. These conditions were that he was never to strike her with -steel or clay (earth), conditions to which the young man very readily -assented. As these were primitive days, when people were happy and -honest, there were no lawyers to encumber the Holy Estate with lengthy -settlements, and to fill their own pockets with heavy fees; matters -were therefore soon settled, and the lady married to the young farmer -on the spot by the very respectable old lake deity, her papa. - -'The story goes on to say that the union was followed by two sons and -two daughters. The eldest son became a great physician, and all his -descendants after him were celebrated for their great proficiency -in the noble healing art. The second son was a mighty craftsman -in all works appertaining to the manufacture and use of iron and -metals. Indeed it has been hinted that, his little corracle of bull's -hide having become old and unsafe, he conceived the brilliant idea of -making one of thin iron. This he actually accomplished, and, to the -intense amazement of the wondering populace, he constantly used it -for fishing, or other purposes, on the lake, where he paddled about in -perfect security. This important fact ought to be more generally known, -as it gives him a fair claim to the introduction of iron ship-building, -pace the shades of Beaufort and Brunel. - -'Of the two daughters, one is said to have invented the small -ten-stringed harp, and the other the spinning-wheel. Thus were -introduced the arts of medicine, manufactures, music, and woollen work. - -'As the old ballad says, applying the quotation to the father and -mother:-- - - - They lived for more than forty year - Right long and happilie! - - -'One day it happened that the wife expressed a great wish for some -of those same delicious apples of which she was so fond, and of -which their neighbour often sent them a supply. Off went the farmer, -like a good husband that he was, and brought back, not only some -apples, but a beautiful young sapling, seven or eight feet high, -bearing the same apple, as a present from their friend. This they -at once proceeded to set, he digging and she holding; but the hole -not being quite deep enough he again set to work, with increased -energy, with his spade, and stooping very low threw out the last -shovelful over his shoulder--alas! without looking--full into the -breast of his wife. She dropped the sapling and solemnly warned him -that one of the two conditions of their marriage contract had been -broken. Accident was pleaded, but in vain; there was the unfortunate -fact--he had struck her with clay! Looking upon the sapling as the -cause of this great trouble he determined to return it forthwith to -his kind neighbour. Taking a bridle in his hand he proceeded to the -field to catch his horse, his wife kindly helping him. They both -ran up, one on each side, and, as the unruly steed showed no signs -of stopping, the husband attempted to throw the bridle over his -head. Not having visited Mexico in his travels, and thereby learned -the use of the lasso, he missed his horse's head and--misfortune -of misfortunes--struck his wife in the face with the iron bit, thus -breaking the second condition. He had struck her with steel. She no -sooner received the blow than--like Esau--she "cried with a great -and exceeding bitter cry," and bidding her husband a last farewell, -fled down the hill with lightning speed, dashed into the lake, and -disappeared beneath the smooth and glassy waters! Thus, it may be -said that, if an apple--indirectly--occasioned the beginning of her -married life, so an apple brought about its sad termination.' - -Such is Mr. Gattie's tale, and to him probably is to be traced its -literary trimming; but even when it is stripped of that accessory, -it leaves us with difficulties of somewhat the same order as those -attaching to some of the stories which have passed through the hands -of Glasynys. However, the substance of it seems to be genuine, and -to prove that there has been a Northwalian tradition which traced the -medical art to a lake lady like the Egeria of the Physicians of Mydfai. - - - - -V. - -Allusion has already been made to the afanc story, and it is convenient -to give it before proceeding any further. The Cambrian Journal for -1859, pp. 142-6, gives it in a letter of Edward Llwyd's dated 1693, -and contributed to that periodical by the late Canon Robert Williams, -of Rhyd y Croesau, who copied it from the original letter in his -possession [42], and here follows a translation into English of the -part of it which concerns Llyn yr Afanc [43], a pool on the river -Conwy, above Bettws y Coed and opposite Capel Garmon:-- - -'I suppose it very probable that you have heard speak of Llyn yr Afanc, -"the Afanc's Pool," and that I therefore need not trouble to inform -you where it stands. I think, also, that you know, if one may trust -what the country people say, that it was a girl that enticed the -afanc to come out of his abode, namely the pool, so as to be bound -with iron chains, whilst he slumbered with his head on her knees, -and with the grip of one hand on her breast. When he woke from his -nap and perceived what had been done to him, he got up suddenly -and hurried to his old refuge, taking with him in his claw the -breast of his sweetheart. It was then seen that it was well the -chain was long enough to be fastened to oxen that pulled him out of -the pool. Thereupon a considerable dispute arose among some of the -people, each asserting that he had taken a great weight on himself and -pulled far harder than anybody else. "No," said another, "it was I," -&c. And whilst they were wrangling in this way, the report goes that -the afanc answered them, and silenced their discontent by saying-- - - - Oni bae y dai ag a dyn - Ni dactha'r afanc byth o'r llyn. - - Had it not been for the oxen pulling, - The afanc had never left the pool. - - -'You must understand that some take the afanc to be a corporeal -demon; but I am sufficiently satisfied that there is an animal of the -same name, which is called in English a bever, seeing that the term -ceillie'r afanc signifies bever stones. I know not what kind of oxen -those in question were, but it is related that they were twins; nor -do I know why they were called Ychain Mannog or Ychain Bannog. But -peradventure they were called Ychain Bannog in reference to their -having had many a fattening, or fattening on fattening (having been -for many a year fattened). Yet the word bannog is not a good, suitable -word to signify fattened, as bannog is nought else than what has been -made exceeding thick by beating [or fulling], as one says of a thick -blanket made of coarse yarn (y gwrthban tew-bannog), the thick bannog -[44] blanket. Whilst I was dawdling behind talking about this, the oxen -had proceeded very far, and I did not find their footmarks as they came -through portions of the parish of Dolyd-Elan (Luedog) until I reached -a pass called ever since Bwlch Rhiw'r Ychen, "the Pass of the Slope -of the Oxen," between the upper parts of Dolydelan and the upper part -of Nanhwynen. In coming over this pass one of the oxen dropped one -of its eyes on an open spot, which for that reason is called Gwaun -Lygad Ych, "the Moor of the Ox's Eye." The place where the eye fell -has become a pool, which is by this time known as Pwll Llygad Ych, -"the Pool of the Ox's Eye," which is at no time dry, though no water -rises in it or flows into it except when rain falls; nor is there any -flowing out of it during dry weather. It is always of the same depth; -that is, it reaches about one's knee-joint, according to those who -have paid attention to that for a considerable number of years. There -is a harp melody, which not all musicians know: it is known as the -Ychain Mannog air, and it has a piteous effect on the ear, being as -plaintive as were the groanings of these Ychain under the weight of -the afanc, especially when one of the pair lost an eye. They pulled -him up to Llyn Cwm Ffynnon Las, "the Lake of the Dingle of the Green -Well," to which he was consigned, for the reason, peradventure, that -some believed that there were in that lake uncanny things already in -store. In fact, it was but fitting that he should be permitted to -go to his kind. But whether there were uncanny things in it before -or not, many think that there is nothing good in it now, as you will -understand from what follows. There is much talk of Llyn Cwm Ffynnon -Las besides the fact that it is always free from ice, except in one -corner where the peat water of clear pools comes into it, and that it -has also a variety of dismal hues. The cause of this is, as I suppose, -to be sought in the various hues of the rocks surrounding it; and the -fact that a whirlwind makes its water mixed, which is enough to give -any lake a disagreeable colour. Nothing swims on it without danger, -and I am not sure that it would be very safe for a bird to fly across -it or not. Throw a rag into its water and it will go to the bottom, -and I have with my own ears heard a man saying that he saw a goat -taking to this lake in order to avoid being caught, and that as soon -as the animal went into the water, it turned round and round, as if -it had been a top, until it was drowned.... Some mention that, as -some great man was hunting in the Snowdon district (Eryri), a stag, -to avoid the hounds when they were pressing on him, and as is the -habit of stags to defend themselves, made his escape into this lake: -the hunters had hardly time to turn round before they saw the stag's -antlers (mwnglws) coming to the surface, but nothing more have they -ever seen.... A young woman has been seen to come out of this lake -to wash clothes, and when she had done she folded the clothes, and -taking them under her arm went back into the lake. One man, whose -brother is still alive and well, beheld in a canoe, on this same lake -still, an angler with a red cap on his head; but the man died within -a few days, having not been in his right mind during that time. Most -people regard this as the real truth, and, as for myself, I cannot -refuse to believe that such a vision might not cause a man to become -so bewildered as to force on a disease ending with his death....' - -The name Llyn Cwm Ffynnon Las would have led one to suppose that -the pool meant is the one given in the ordnance maps as Llyn y -Cwm Ffynnon, and situated in the mountains between Pen y Gwryd and -the upper valley of Llanberis; but from the writer on the parish of -Bedgelert in the Brython for 1861, pp. 371-2, it appears that this is -not so, and that the tarn meant was in the upper reach of Cwm Dyli, -and was known as Llyn y Ffynnon Las, 'Lake of the Green Well,' about -which he has a good deal to say in the same strain as that of Llwyd in -the letter already cited. Among other things he remarks that it is a -very deep tarn, and that its bottom has been ascertained to be lower -than the surface of Llyn Llydaw, which lies 300 feet lower. And as -to the afanc, he remarks that the inhabitants of Nant Conwy and the -lower portions of the parish of Dolwydelan, having frequent troubles -and losses inflicted on them by a huge monster in the river Conwy, -near Bettws y Coed, tried to kill it but in vain, as no harpoon, no -arrow or spear made any impression whatsoever on the brute's hide; -so it was resolved to drag it away as in the Llwyd story. I learn from -Mr. Pierce (Elis o'r Nant), of Dolwydelan, that the lake is variously -known as Llyn (Cwm) Ffynnon Las, and Llyn Glas or Glaslyn: this last -is the form which I find in the maps. It is to be noticed that the -Nant Conwy people, by dragging the afanc there, got him beyond their -own watershed, so that he could no more cause floods in the Conwy. - -Here, as promised at p. 74, I append Lewis Glyn Cothi's words as to -the afanc in Llyn Syfadon. The bard is dilating in the poem, where -they occur, on his affection for his friend Llywelyn ab Gwilym ab -Thomas Vaughan, of Bryn Hafod in the Vale of Towy, and averring that -it would be as hard to induce him to quit his friend's hospitable home, -as it was to get the afanc away from the Lake of Syfadon, as follows:-- - - - Yr avanc er ei ovyn - Wyv yn llech ar vin y llyn; - O dòn Llyn Syfadon vo - Ni thynwyd ban aeth yno: - Ni'm tyn mèn nag ychain gwaith, - Odiyma hedyw ymaith. [45] - - The afanc am I, who, sought for, bides - In hiding on the edge of the lake; - Out of the waters of Syfadon Mere - Was he not drawn, once he got there. - So with me: nor wain nor oxen wont to toil - Me to-day will draw from here forth. - - -From this passage it would seem that the Syfadon story contemplated -the afanc being taken away from the lake in a cart or waggon drawn by -oxen; but whether driven by Hu, or by whom, one is not told. However, -the story must have represented the undertaking as a failure, and -the afanc as remaining in his lake: had it been otherwise it would -be hard to see the point of the comparison. - - - - -VI. - -The parish of Llanfachreth and its traditions have been the subject -of some contributions to the first volume of the Taliesin published -at Ruthin in 1859-60, pp. 132-7, by a writer who calls himself -Cofiadur. It was Glasynys, I believe, for the style seems to be his: -he pretends to copy from an old manuscript of Hugh Bifan's--both the -manuscript and its owner were fictions of Glasynys' as I am told. These -jottings contain two or three items about the fairies which seem to -be genuine:-- - -'The bottom of Llyn Cynnwch, on the Nannau estate, is level with the -hearth-stone of the house of Dôl y Clochyd. Its depth was found out -owing to the sweetheart of one of Siwsi's girls having lost his way -to her from Nannau, where he was a servant. The poor man had fallen -into the lake, and gone down and down, when he found it becoming -clearer the lower he got, until at last he alighted on a level spot -where everybody and everything looked much as he had observed on -the dry land. When he had reached the bottom of the lake, a short -fat old gentleman came to him and asked his business, when he told -him how it happened that he had come. He met with great welcome, -and he stayed there a month without knowing that he had been there -three days, and when he was going to leave, he was led out to his -beloved by the inhabitants of the lake bottom. He asserted that the -whole way was level except in one place, where they descended about -a fathom into the ground; but, he added, it was necessary to ascend -about as much to reach the hearth-stone of Dôl y Clochyd. The most -wonderful thing, however, was that the stone lifted itself as he came -up from the subterranean road towards it. It was thus the sweetheart -arrived there one evening, when the girl was by the fire weeping for -him. Siwsi had been out some days before, and she knew all about it -though she said nothing to anybody. This, then, was the way in which -the depth of Llyn Cynnwch came to be known.' - -Then he has a few sentences about an old house called -Ceimarch:--'Ceimarch was an old mansion of considerable repute, -and in old times it was considered next to Nannau in point of -importance in the whole district. There was a deep ditch round it, -which was always kept full of water, with the view of keeping off -vagabonds and thieves, as well as other lawless folks, that they -might not take the inmates by surprise. But, in distant ages, this -place was very noted for the frequent visits paid it by the fair -family. They used to come to the ditch to wash themselves, and to -cross the water in boats made of the bark of the rowan-tree [46], -or else birch, and they came into the house to pay their rent for -trampling the ground around the place. They always placed a piece -of money under a pitcher, and the result was that the family living -there became remarkably rich. But somehow, after the lapse of many -years, the owner of the place offended them, by showing disrespect -for their diminutive family: soon the world began to go against him, -and it was not long before he got low in life. Everything turned -against him, and in times past everybody believed that he incurred -all this because he had earned the displeasure of the fair family.' - -In the Brython for the year 1862, p. 456, in the course of an essay -on the history of the Lordship of Mawdwy in Merioneth, considered the -best in a competition at an Eistedfod held at Dinas Mawdwy, August -2, 1855, Glasynys gives the following bit about the fairies of that -neighbourhood:--'The side of Aran Fawdwy is a great place for the fair -family: they are ever at it playing their games on the hillsides about -this spot. It is said that they are numberless likewise about Bwlch y -Groes. Once a boy crossed over near the approach of night, one summer -eve, from the Gadfa to Mawdwy, and on his return he saw near Aber -Rhiwlech a swarm of the little family dancing away full pelt. The boy -began to run, with two of the maidens in pursuit of him, entreating -him to stay; but Robin, for that was his name, kept running, and the -two elves failed altogether to catch him, otherwise he would have been -taken a prisoner of love. There are plenty of their dancing-rings to -be seen on the hillsides between Aber Rhiwlech and Bwlch y Groes.' - -Here I would introduce two other Merionethshire tales, which I have -received from Mr. E. S. Roberts, master of the Llandysilio School, -near Llangollen. He has learnt them from one Abel Evans, who lives -at present in the parish of Llandysilio: he is a native of the parish -of Llandrillo on the slopes of the Berwyn, and of a glen in the same, -known as Cwm Pennant, so called from its being drained by the Pennant -on its way to join the Dee. Now Cwm Pennant was the resort of fairies, -or of a certain family of them, and the occurrence, related in the -following tale, must have taken place no less than seventy years ago: -it was well known to the late Mrs. Ellen Edwards of Llandrillo:-- - -Ryw diwrnod aeth dau gyfaill i hela dwfrgwn ar hyd lannau afon Pennant, -a thra yn cyfeirio eu camrau tuagat yr afon gwelsant ryw greadur -bychan lliwgoch yn rhedeg yn gyflym iawn ar draws un o'r dolyd yn -nghyfeiriad yr afon. Ymaeth a nhw ar ei ol. Gwelsant ei fod wedi myned -oditan wraid coeden yn ochr yr afon i ymgudio. Yr oed y dau dyn yn -medwl mae dwfrgi ydoed, ond ar yr un pryd yn methu a deall paham yr -ymdanghosai i'w llygaid yn lliwgoch. Yr oedynt yn dymuno ei dal yn -fyw, ac ymaith yr aeth un o honynt i ffarmdy gerllaw i ofyn am sach, -yr hon a gafwyd, er mwyn rhoi y creadur yndi. Yr oed yno dau dwll -o tan wraid y pren, a thra daliai un y sach yn agored ar un twll -yr oed y llall yn hwthio ffon i'r twll arall, ac yn y man aeth y -creadur i'r sach. Yr oed y dau dyn yn medwl eu bod wedi dal dwfrgi, -yr hyn a ystyrient yn orchest nid bychan. Cychwynasant gartref yn -llawen ond cyn eu myned hyd lled cae, llefarod lletywr y sach mewn -ton drist gan dywedyd--'Y mae fy mam yn galw am danaf, O, mae fy mam -yn galw am danaf,' yr hyn a rodod fraw mawr i'r dau heliwr, ac yn -y man taflasant y sach i lawr, a mawr oed eu rhyfedod a'u dychryn -pan welsant dyn bach mewn gwisg goch yn rhedeg o'r sach tuagat yr -afon. Fe a diflannod o'i golwg yn mysg y drysni ar fin yr afon. Yr -oed y dau wedi eu brawychu yn dirfawr ac yn teimlo mae doethach oed -myned gartref yn hytrach nag ymyrraeth yn mhellach a'r Tylwyth Teg. - -'One day, two friends went to hunt otters on the banks of the -Pennant, and when they were directing their steps towards the river, -they beheld some small creature of a red colour running fast across -the meadows in the direction of the river. Off they ran after it, -and saw that it went beneath the roots of a tree on the brink of -the river to hide itself. The two men thought it was an otter, but, -at the same time, they could not understand why it seemed to them -to be of a red colour. They wished to take it alive, and off one of -them went to a farm house that was not far away to ask for a sack, -which he got, to put the creature into it. Now there were two holes -under the roots of the tree, and while one held the sack with its mouth -open over one of them, the other pushed his stick into the other hole, -and presently the creature went into the sack. The two men thought they -had caught an otter, which they looked upon as no small feat. They set -out for home, but before they had proceeded the width of one field, -the inmate of the sack spoke to them in a sad voice, and said, "My -mother is calling for me; oh, my mother is calling for me!" This gave -the two hunters a great fright, so that they at once threw down the -sack; and great was their surprise to see a little man in a red dress -running out of the sack towards the river. He disappeared from their -sight in the bushes by the river. The two men were greatly terrified, -and felt that it was more prudent to go home than meddle any further -with the fair family.' So far as I know, this story stands alone in -Welsh folklore; but it has an exact parallel in Lancashire [47]. - -The other story, which I now reproduce, was obtained by Mr. Roberts -from the same Abel Evans. He learnt it from Mrs. Ellen Edwards, and -it refers to a point in her lifetime, which Abel Evans fixes at ninety -years ago. Mr. Roberts has not succeeded in recovering the name of the -cottager of whom it speaks; but he lived on the side of the Berwyn, -above Cwm Pennant, where till lately a cottage used to stand, near -which the fairies had one of their resorts:-- - -Yr oed perchen y bwthyn wedi amaethu rhyw ran fychan o'r mynyd ger llaw -y ty er mwyn plannu pytatws yndo. Felly y gwnaeth. Mewn coeden yn agos -i'r fan canfydod nyth bran. Fe fedyliod mae doeth fuasai ido dryllio y -nyth cyn amlhau o'r brain. Fe a esgynnod y goeden ac a drylliod y nyth, -ac wedi disgyn i lawr canfydod gylch glas (fairy ring) odiamgylch y -pren, ac ar y cylch fe welod hanner coron er ei fawr lawenyd. Wrth -fyned heibio yr un fan y boreu canlynol fe gafod hanner coron yn -yr un man ag y cafod y dyd o'r blaen. Hynna fu am amryw dydiau. Un -diwrnod dywedod wrth gyfaill am ei hap da a dangosod y fan a'r lle -y cawsai yr hanner coron bob boreu. Wel y boreu canlynol nid oed yno -na hanner coron na dim arall ido, oherwyd yr oed wedi torri rheolau -y Tylwythion trwy wneud eu haelioni yn hysbys. Y mae y Tylwythion -o'r farn na dylai y llaw aswy wybod yr hyn a wna y llaw dehau. - -'The occupier of the cottage had tilled a small portion of the -mountain side near his home in order to plant potatoes, which he -did. He observed that there was a rook's nest on a tree which was -not far from this spot, and it struck him that it would be prudent -to break the nest before the rooks multiplied. So he climbed the tree -and broke the nest, and, after coming down, he noticed a green circle -(a fairy ring) round the tree, and on this circle he espied, to his -great joy, half a crown. As he went by the same spot the following -morning, he found another half a crown in the same place as before. So -it happened for several days; but one day he told a friend of his -good luck, and showed him the spot where he found half a crown every -morning. Now the next morning there was for him neither half a crown -nor anything else, because he had broken the rule of the fair folks -by making their liberality known, they being of opinion that the left -hand should not know what the right hand does.' - -So runs this short tale, which the old lady, Mrs. Edwards, and the -people of the neighbourhood explained as an instance of the gratitude -of the fairies to a man who had rendered them a service, which in this -case was supposed to have consisted in ridding them of the rooks, -that disturbed their merry-makings in the green ring beneath the -branches of the tree. - - - - -VII. - -It would be unpardonable to pass away from Merioneth without alluding -to the stray cow of Llyn Barfog. The story appears in Welsh in -the Brython for 1860, pp. 183-4, but the contributor, who closely -imitates Glasynys' style, says that he got his materials from a paper -by the late Mr. Pughe of Aberdovey, by which he seems to have meant -an article contributed by the latter to the Archæologia Cambrensis, -and published in the volume for 1853, pp. 201-5. Mr. Pughe dwells in -that article a good deal on the scenery of the corner of Merioneth -in the rear of Aberdovey; but the chief thing in his paper is the -legend connected with Llyn Barfog, which he renders into English -as the Bearded Lake [48]. It is described as a mountain lake in a -secluded spot in the upland country behind Aberdovey; but I shall -let Mr. Pughe speak for himself:-- - -'The lovers of Cambrian lore are aware that the Triads in their record -of the deluge affirm that it was occasioned by a mystic Afanc y Llyn, -crocodile [49] of the lake, breaking the banks of Llyn Llion, the -lake of waters; and the recurrence of that catastrophe was prevented -only by Hu Gadarn, the bold man of power, dragging away the afanc -by aid of his Ychain Banawg, or large horned oxen. Many a lakelet -in our land has put forward its claim to the location of Llyn Llion; -amongst the rest, this lake. Be that as it may, King Arthur and his -war-horse have the credit amongst the mountaineers here of ridding -them of the monster, in place of Hu the Mighty, in proof of which is -shown an impression on a neighbouring rock bearing a resemblance to -those made by the shoe or hoof of a horse, as having been left there by -his charger when our British Hercules was engaged in this redoubtable -act of prowess, and this impression has been given the name of Carn -March Arthur, the hoof of Arthur's horse, which it retains to this -day. It is believed to be very perilous to let the waters out of -the lake, and recently an aged inhabitant of the district informed -the writer that she recollected this being done during a period of -long drought, in order to procure motive power for Llyn Pair Mill, -and that long-continued heavy rains followed. No wonder our bold but -superstitious progenitors, awe-struck by the solitude of the spot--the -dark sepial tint of its waters, unrelieved by the flitting apparition -of a single fish, and seldom visited by the tenants of the air--should -have established it as a canon in their creed of terror that the lake -formed one of the many communications between this outward world of -ours and the inner or lower one of Annwn--the unknown world [50]--the -dominion of Gwyn ap Nud, the mythic king of the fabled realm, peopled -by those children of mystery, Plant Annwn; and the belief is still -current amongst the inhabitants of our mountains in the occasional -visitations of the Gwraged Annwn, or dames of Elfin land, to this upper -world of ours. A shrewd old hill farmer (Thomas Abergraes by name), -well skilled in the folk-lore of the district, informed me that, in -years gone by, though when, exactly, he was too young to remember, -those dames were wont to make their appearance, arrayed in green, in -the neighbourhood of Llyn Barfog, chiefly at eventide, accompanied by -their kine and hounds, and that on quiet summer nights in particular, -these ban-hounds were often to be heard in full cry pursuing their -prey--the souls of doomed men dying without baptism and penance--along -the upland township of Cefnrhosucha. Many a farmer had a sight of -their comely milk-white kine; many a swain had his soul turned to -romance and poesy by a sudden vision of themselves in the guise of -damsels arrayed in green, and radiant in beauty and grace; and many a -sportsman had his path crossed by their white hounds of supernatural -fleetness and comeliness, the Cwn Annwn; but never had any one been -favoured with more than a passing view of either, till an old farmer -residing at Dyssyrnant, in the adjoining valley of Dyffryn Gwyn, -became at last the lucky captor of one of their milk-white kine. The -acquaintance which the Gwartheg y Llyn, the kine of the lake, had -formed with the farmer's cattle, like the loves of the angels for -the daughters of men, became the means of capture; and the farmer -was thereby enabled to add the mystic cow to his own herd, an event -in all cases believed to be most conducive to the worldly prosperity -of him who should make so fortunate an acquisition. Never was there -such a cow, never such calves, never such milk and butter, or cheese, -and the fame of the Fuwch Gyfeiliorn, the stray cow, was soon spread -abroad through that central part of Wales known as the district of -Rhwng y dwy Afon, from the banks of the Mawdach to those of the Dofwy -[51]--from Aberdiswnwy [52] to Abercorris. The farmer, from a small -beginning, rapidly became, like Job, a man of substance, possessed of -thriving herds of cattle--a very patriarch among the mountains. But, -alas! wanting Job's restraining grace, his wealth made him proud, his -pride made him forget his obligation to the Elfin cow, and fearing -she might soon become too old to be profitable, he fattened her for -the butcher, and then even she did not fail to distinguish herself, -for a more monstrously fat beast was never seen. At last the day of -slaughter came--an eventful day in the annals of a mountain farm--the -killing of a fat cow, and such a monster of obesity! No wonder all -the neighbours were gathered together to see the sight. The old farmer -looked upon the preparations in self-pleased importance--the butcher -felt he was about no common feat of his craft, and, baring his arms, -he struck the blow--not now fatal, for before even a hair had been -injured, his arm was paralysed--the knife dropped from his hand, and -the whole company was electrified by a piercing cry that awakened -echo in a dozen hills, and made the welkin ring again; and lo and -behold! the whole assemblage saw a female figure clad in green, with -uplifted arms, standing on one of the craigs overhanging Llyn Barfog, -and heard her calling with a voice loud as thunder:-- - - - Dere di velen Einion, - Cyrn Cyveiliorn--braith y Llyn, - A'r voel Dodin, - Codwch, dewch adre. - - Come yellow Anvil, stray horns, - Speckled one of the lake, - And of the hornless Dodin, - Arise, come home [53]. - - -And no sooner were these words of power uttered than the original lake -cow and all her progeny, to the third and fourth generations, were -in full flight towards the heights of Llyn Barfog, as if pursued by -the evil one. Self-interest quickly roused the farmer, who followed in -pursuit, till breathless and panting he gained an eminence overlooking -the lake, but with no better success than to behold the green attired -dame leisurely descending mid-lake, accompanied by the fugitive cows -and their calves formed in a circle around her, they tossing their -tails, she waving her hands in scorn as much as to say, "You may -catch us, my friend, if you can," as they disappeared beneath the -dark waters of the lake, leaving only the yellow water-lily to mark -the spot where they vanished, and to perpetuate the memory of this -strange event. Meanwhile the farmer looked with rueful countenance upon -the spot where the Elfin herd disappeared, and had ample leisure to -deplore the effects of his greediness, as with them also departed the -prosperity which had hitherto attended him, and he became impoverished -to a degree below his original circumstances; and, in his altered -circumstances, few felt pity for one who in the noontide flow of -prosperity had shown himself so far forgetful of favours received, -as to purpose slaying his benefactor.' - -Mr. Pughe did a very good thing in saving this legend from oblivion, -but it would be very interesting to know how much of it is still -current among the inhabitants of the retired district around Llyn -Barfog, and how the story would look when stripped of the florid -language in which Mr. Pughe thought proper to clothe it. Lastly, -let me add a reference to the Iolo Manuscripts, pp. 85, 475, where -a short story is given concerning a certain Milkwhite Sweet-milk Cow -(y Fuwch Laethwen Lefrith) whose milk was so abundant and possessed -of such virtues as almost to rival the Holy Grail. Like the Holy -Grail also this cow wandered everywhere spreading plenty, until she -chanced to come to the Vale of Towy, where the foolish inhabitants -wished to kill and eat her: the result was that she vanished in their -hands and has never since been heard of. - - - - -VIII. - -Here I wish to add some further stories connected with Merionethshire -which have come under my notice lately. I give them chiefly on the -authority of Mr. Owen M. Edwards of Lincoln College, who is a native of -Llanuwchllyn, and still spends a considerable part of his time there; -and partly on that of Hywel's essay on the folklore of the county, -which was awarded the prize at the National Eistedfod of 1898 [54]. A -story current at Llanuwchllyn, concerning a midwife who attends on a -fairy mother, resembles the others of the same group: for one of them -see p. 63 above. In the former, however, one misses the ointment, -and finds instead of it that the midwife was not to touch her eyes -with the water with which she washed the fairy baby. But as might be -expected one of her eyes happened to itch, and she touched it with -her fingers straight from the water. It appears that thenceforth -she was able to see the fairies with that eye; at any rate she -is represented some time afterwards recognizing the father of the -fairy baby at a fair at Bala, and inquiring of him kindly about his -family. The fairy asked with which eye she saw him, and when he had -ascertained this, he at once blinded it, so that she never could see -with it afterwards. Hywel also has it that the Tylwyth Teg formerly -used to frequent the markets at Bala, and that they used to swell -the noise in the market-place without anybody being able to see them: -this was a sign that prices were going to rise. - -The shepherds of Ardudwy are familiar, according to Hywel, with a -variant of the story in which a man married a fairy on condition -that he did not touch her with iron. They lived on the Moelfre and -dwelt happily together for years, until one fine summer day, when -the husband was engaged in shearing his sheep, he put the gwelle, -'shears,' in his wife's hand: she then instantly disappeared. The -earlier portions of this story are unknown to me, but they are not -hard to guess. - -Concerning Llyn Irdyn, between the western slopes of the Llawllech, -Hywel has a story the like of which I am not acquainted with: walking -near that lake you shun the shore and keep to the grass in order to -avoid the fairies, for if you take hold of the grass no fairy can -touch you, or dare under any circumstances injure a blade of grass. - -Lastly, Hywel speaks of several caves containing treasure, as for -instance a telyn aur, or golden harp, hidden away in a cave beneath -Castell Carn Dochan in the parish of Llanuwchllyn. Lewis Morris, -in his Celtic Remains, p. 100, calls it Castell Corndochen, and -describes it as seated on the top of a steep rock at the bottom of -a deep valley: it appears to have consisted of a wall surrounding -three turrets, and the mortar seems composed of cockle-shells: see -also the Archæologia Cambrensis for 1850, p. 204. Hywel speaks also -of a cave beneath Castell Dinas Brân, near Llangollen, as containing -much treasure, which will only be disclosed to a boy followed by a -white dog with llygaid arian, 'silver eyes,' explained to mean light -eyes: every such dog is said to see the wind. So runs this story, -but it requires more exegesis than I can supply. One may compare it -at a distance with Myrdin's arrangement that the treasure buried by -him at Dinas Emrys should only be found by a youth with yellow hair -and blue eyes, and with the belief that the cave treasures of the -Snowdon district belong to the Gwydyl or Goidels, and that Goidels -will eventually find them: see chapter viii. - -The next three stories are from Mr. Owen Edwards' Cymru for 1897, -pp. 188-9, where he has published them from a collection made for a -literary competition or local Eistedfod by his friend J. H. Roberts, -who died in early manhood. The first is a blurred version of the -story of the Lake Lady and her dowry of cattle, but enough of the -story remains to show that, had we got it in its original form, -it would be found to differ somewhat on several points from all the -other versions extant. I summarize the Welsh as follows:--In ages gone -by, as the shepherd of Hafod y Garreg was looking after his sheep on -the shores of the Arennig Lake, he came across a young calf, plump, -sleek, and strong, in the rushes. He could not guess whence the beast -could have come, as no cattle were allowed to approach the lake at -that time of the year. He took it home, however, and it was reared -until it was a bull, remarkable for his fine appearance. In time -his offspring were the only cattle on the farm, and never before had -there been such beasts at Hafod y Garreg. They were the wonder and -admiration of the whole country. But one summer afternoon in June, -the shepherd saw a little fat old man playing on a pipe, and then he -heard him call the cows by their names-- - - - Mulican, Molican, Malen, Mair, - Dowch adre'r awrhon ar fy ngair. - - Mulican, Molican, Malen and Mair, - Come now home at my word. - - -He then beheld the whole herd running to the little man and going -into the lake. Nothing more was heard of them, and it was everybody's -opinion that they were the Tylwyth Teg's cattle. - -The next is a quasi fairy tale, the outcome of which recalls the -adventure of the farmer of Drws y Coed on his return from Bedgelert -Fair, p. 99 above. It is told of a young harpist who was making his -way across country from his home at Yspyty Ifan to the neighbourhood -of Bala, that while crossing the mountain he happened in the mist -to lose his road and fall into the Gors Fawr, 'the big bog.' There -he wallowed for hours, quite unable to extricate himself in spite -of all his efforts. But when he was going to give up in despair, -he beheld close to him, reaching him her hand, a little woman who -was wondrous fair beyond all his conception of beauty, and with her -help he got out of the Gors. The damsel gave him a jolly sweet kiss -that flashed electricity through his whole nature: he was at once over -head and ears in love. She led him to the hut of her father and mother: -there he had every welcome, and he spent the night singing and dancing -with Olwen, for that was her name. Now, though the harpist was a mere -stripling, he thought of wedding at once--he was never before in such -a heaven of delight. But next morning he was waked, not by a kiss -from Olwen, but by the Plas Drain shepherd's dog licking his lips: -he found himself sleeping against the wall of a sheepfold (corlan), -with his harp in a clump of rushes at his feet, without any trace to -be found of the family with whom he had spent such a happy night. - -The next story recalls Glasynys' Einion Las, as given at pp. 111-5 -above: its peculiarity is the part played by the well introduced. The -scene was a turbary near the river called Afon Mynach, so named from -Cwm Tir Mynach, behind the hills immediately north of Bala:--Ages -ago, as a number of people were cutting turf in a place which was -then moorland, and which is now enclosed ground forming part of a -farm called Nant Hir, one of them happened to wash his face in a -well belonging to the fairies. At dinner-time in the middle of the -day they sat down in a circle, while the youth who had washed his -face went to fetch the food, but suddenly both he and the box of -food were lost. They knew not what to do, they suspected that it was -the doing of the fairies; but the wise man (gwr hyspys) came to the -neighbourhood and told them, that, if they would only go to the spot on -the night of full moon in June, they would behold him dancing with the -fairies. They did as they were told, and found the moor covered with -thousands of little agile creatures who sang and danced with all their -might, and they saw the missing man among them. They rushed at him, -and with a great deal of trouble they got him out. But oftentimes was -Einion missed again, until at the time of full moon in another June he -returned home with a wondrously fair wife, whose history or pedigree -no one knew. Everybody believed her to be one of the Tylwyth Teg. - - - - -IX. - -There is a kind of fairy tale of which I think I have hitherto not -given the reader a specimen: a good instance is given in the third -volume of the Brython, at p. 459, by a contributor who calls himself -Idnerth ab Gwgan, who, I learn from the Rev. Chancellor Silvan Evans, -the editor, was no other than the Rev. Benjamin Williams, best known -to Welsh antiquaries by his bardic name of Gwynionyd. The preface -to the tale is also interesting, so I am tempted to render the whole -into English, as follows:-- - -'The fair family were wonderful creatures in the imaginary world: -they encamped, they walked, and they capered a great deal in former -ages in our country, according to what we learn from some of our old -people. It may be supposed that they were very little folks like the -children of Rhys Dwfn; for the old people used to imagine that they -were wont to visit their hearths in great numbers in ages gone by. The -girls at the farm houses used to make the hearths clean after supper, -and to place a cauldron full of water near the fire; and so they -thought that the fair family came there to play at night, bringing -sweethearts for the young women, and leaving pieces of money on the -hob for them in the morning. Sometimes they might be seen as splendid -hosts exercising themselves on our hills. They were very fond of the -mountains of Dyfed; travellers between Lampeter and Cardigan used to -see them on the hill of Llanwenog, but by the time they had reached -there the fairies would be far away on the hills of Llandyssul, and -when one had reached the place where one expected to see the family -together in tidy array, they would be seen very busily engaged on the -tops of Crug y Balog; when one went there they would be on Blaen Pant -ar Fi, moving on and on to Bryn Bwa, and, finally, to some place or -other in the lower part of Dyfed. Like the soldiers of our earthly -world, they were possessed of terribly fascinating music; and in -the autumnal season they had their rings, still named from them, -in which they sang and danced. The young man of Llech y Derwyd [55] -was his father's only son, as well as heir to the farm; so he was -very dear to his father and his mother, indeed he was the light of -their eyes. Now, the head servant and the son were bosom friends: -they were like brothers together, or rather twin brothers. As the -son and the servant were such friends, the farmer's wife used to get -exactly the same kind of clothes prepared for the servant as for her -son. The two fell in love with two handsome young women of very good -reputation in the neighbourhood. The two couples were soon joined in -honest wedlock, and great was the merry-making on the occasion. The -servant had a suitable place to live in on the farm of Llech y Derwyd; -but about half a year after the son's marriage, he and his friend went -out for sport, when the servant withdrew to a wild and retired corner -to look for game. He returned presently for his friend, but when he -got there he could not see him anywhere: he kept looking around for -some time for him, shouting and whistling, but there was no sign of his -friend. By-and-by, he went home to Llech y Derwyd expecting to see him, -but no one knew anything about him. Great was the sorrow of his family -through the night; and next day the anxiety was still greater. They -went to see the place where his friend had seen him last: it was hard -to tell whether his mother or his wife wept the more bitterly; but -the father was a little better, though he also looked as if he were -half mad with grief. The spot was examined, and, to their surprise, -they saw a fairy ring close by, and the servant recollected that -he had heard the sound of very fascinating music somewhere or other -about the time in question. It was at once agreed that the man had -been unfortunate enough to have got into the ring of the Tylwyth, -and to have been carried away by them, nobody knew whither. Weeks and -months passed away, and a son was born to the heir of Llech y Derwyd, -but the young father was not there to see his child, which the old -people thought very hard. However, the little one grew up the very -picture of his father, and great was his influence over his grandfather -and grandmother; in fact he was everything to them. He grew up to be a -man, and he married a good-looking girl in that neighbourhood; but her -family did not enjoy the reputation of being kind-hearted people. The -old folks died, and their daughter-in-law also. One windy afternoon -in the month of October, the family of Llech y Derwyd beheld a tall -thin old man, with his beard and hair white as snow, coming towards -the house, and they thought he was a Jew. The servant maids stared -at him, and their mistress laughed at the "old Jew," at the same time -that she lifted the children up one after another to see him. He came -to the door and entered boldly enough, asking about his parents. The -mistress answered him in an unusually surly and contemptuous tone, -wondering why the "drunken old Jew had come there," because it was -thought he had been drinking, and that he would otherwise not have -spoken so. The old man cast wondering and anxious looks around on -everything in the house, feeling as he did greatly surprised; but it -was the little children about the floor that drew his attention most: -his looks were full of disappointment and sorrow. He related the -whole of his account, saying that he had been out the day before and -that he was now returning. The mistress of the house told him that -she had heard a tale about her husband's father, that he had been -lost years before her birth while out sporting, whilst her father -maintained that it was not true, but that he had been killed. She -became angry, and quite lost her temper at seeing "the old Jew" -not going away. The old man was roused, saying that he was the owner -of the house, and that he must have his rights. He then went out to -see his possessions, and presently went to the house of the servant, -where, to his surprise, things had greatly changed; after conversing -with an aged man, who sat by the fire, the one began to scrutinize -the other more and more. The aged man by the fire told him what had -been the fate of his old friend, the heir of Llech y Derwyd. They -talked deliberately of the events of their youth, but it all seemed -like a dream; in short, the old man in the corner concluded that his -visitor was his old friend, the heir of Llech y Derwyd, returning -from the land of the Tylwyth Teg after spending half a hundred years -there. The other old man, with the snow-white beard, believed in his -history, and much did they talk together and question one another for -many hours. The old man by the fire said that the master of Llech y -Derwyd was away from home that day, and he induced his aged visitor -to eat some food, but, to the horror of all, the eater fell down dead -on the spot [56]. There is no record that an inquest was held over -him, but the tale relates that the cause of it was, that he ate food -after having been so long in the world of the fair family. His old -friend insisted on seeing him buried by the side of his ancestors; -but the rudeness of the mistress of Llech y Derwyd to her father-in-law -brought a curse on the family that clung to it to distant generations, -and until the place had been sold nine times.' - -A tale like this is to be found related of Idwal of Nantclwyd, in -Cymru Fu, p. 85. I said 'a tale like this,' but, on reconsidering -the matter, I should think it is the very same tale passed through -the hands of Glasynys or some one of his imitators. Another of this -kind will be found in the Brython, ii. 170, and several similar -ones also in Wirt Sikes' book, pp. 65-90, either given at length, -or merely referred to. There is one kind of variant which deserves -special notice, as making the music to which the sojourner in Faery -listens for scores of years to be that of a bird singing on a tree. A -story of the sort is located by Howells, in his Cambrian Superstitions, -pp. 127-8, at Pant Shon Shencin, near Pencader, in Cardiganshire. This -latter kind of story leads easily up to another development, namely, -to substituting for the bird's warble the song and felicity of heaven, -and for the simple shepherd a pious monk. In this form it is located at -a place called Llwyn y Nef, or 'Heaven's Grove,' near Celynnog Fawr, -in Carnarvonshire. It is given by Glasynys in Cymru Fu, pp. 183-4, -where it was copied from the Brython, iii. 111, in which he had -previously published it. Several versions of it in rhyme came down -from the eighteenth century, and Silvan Evans has brought together -twenty-six stanzas in point in St. David's College Magazine for 1881, -pp. 191-200, where he has put into a few paragraphs all that is known -about the song of the Hen Wr o'r Coed, or the Old Man of the Wood, -in his usually clear and lucid style. - -A tale from the other end of the tract of country once occupied -by a sprinkling, perhaps, of Celts among a population of Picts, -makes the man, and not the fairies, supply the music. I owe it to -the kindness of the Rev. Andrew Clark, Fellow of Lincoln College, -Oxford, who heard it from the late sexton of the parish of Dollar, -in the county of Clackmannan. The sexton died some twelve years ago, -aged seventy: he had learnt the tale from his father. The following -are Mr. Clark's words:-- - -'Glendevon is a parish and village in the Ochils in County Perth, -about five miles from Dollar as you come up Glen Queich and down by -Gloomhill. Glen Queich is a narrowish glen between two grassy hills--at -the top of the glen is a round hill of no great height, but very neat -shape, the grass of which is always short and trim, and the ferns on -the shoulder of a very marked green. This, as you come up the glen, -seems entirely to block the way. It is called the "Maiden Castle." Only -when you come quite close do you see the path winding round the foot -of it. A little further on is a fine spring bordered with flat stones, -in the middle of a neat, turfy spot, called the "Maiden's Well." This -road, till the new toll-road was made on the other side of the hills, -was the thoroughfare between Dollar and Glendevon.' - -The following is the legend, as told by the 'Bethrel':--'A piper, -carrying his pipes, was coming from Glendevon to Dollar in the grey -of the evening. He crossed the Garchel (a little stream running into -the Queich burn), and looked at the "Maiden Castle," and saw only the -grey hillside and heard only the wind soughing through the bent. He had -got beyond it when he heard a burst of lively music: he turned round, -and instead of the dark knoll saw a great castle, with lights blazing -from the windows, and heard the noise of dancing issuing from the open -door. He went back incautiously, and a procession issuing forth at that -moment, he was caught and taken into a great hall ablaze with lights, -and people dancing on the floor. He had to pipe to them for a day or -two, but he got anxious, because he knew his people would be wondering -why he did not come back in the morning as he had promised. The fairies -seemed to sympathize with his anxiety, and promised to let him go -if he played a favourite tune of his, which they seemed fond of, -to their satisfaction. He played his very best, the dance went fast -and furious, and at its close he was greeted with loud applause. On -his release he found himself alone, in the grey of the evening, beside -the dark hillock, and no sound was heard save the purr of the burn and -the soughing of the wind through the bent. Instead of completing his -journey to Dollar, he walked hastily back to Glendevon to relieve his -folk's anxiety. He entered his father's house and found no kent face -there. On his protesting that he had gone only a day or two before, -and waxing loud in his bewildered talk, a grey old man was roused from -a doze behind the fire; and told how he had heard when a boy from -his father that a piper had gone away to Dollar on a quiet evening, -and had never been heard or seen since, nor any trace of him found. He -had been in the "castle" for a hundred years.' - -The term Plant Rhys Dwfn has already been brought before the reader: -it means 'the Children of Rhys Dwfn,' and Rhys Dwfn means literally -Rhys the Deep, but the adjective in Welsh connotes depth of character -in the sense of shrewdness or cunning. Nay, even the English deep is -often borrowed for use in the same sense, as when one colloquially says -un dîp iawn yw e, 'he is a very calculating or cunning fellow.' The -following account of Rhys and his progeny is given by Gwynionyd -in the first volume of the Brython, p. 130, which deserves being -cited at length:--'There is a tale current in Dyfed, that there is, -or rather that there has been, a country between Cemmes, the northern -Hundred of Pembrokeshire, and Aberdaron in Lleyn. The chief patriarch -of the inhabitants was Rhys Dwfn, and his descendants used to be -called after him the Children of Rhys Dwfn. They were, it is said, -a handsome race enough, but remarkably small in size. It is stated -that certain herbs of a strange nature grew in their land, so that -they were able to keep their country from being seen by even the most -sharp sighted of invaders. There is no account that these remarkable -herbs grew in any other part of the world excepting on a small spot, -about a square yard in area, in a certain part of Cemmes. If it chanced -that a man stood alone on it, he beheld the whole of the territory -of Plant Rhys Dwfn; but the moment he moved he would lose sight of -it altogether, and it would have been utterly vain for him to look -for his footprints. In another story, as will be seen presently, -the requisite platform was a turf from St. David's churchyard. The -Rhysians had not much land--they lived in towns. So they were wont in -former times to come to market to Cardigan, and to raise the prices -of things terribly. They were seen of no one coming or going, but only -seen there in the market. When prices happened to be high, and the corn -all sold, however much there might have been there in the morning, -the poor used to say to one another on the way home, "Oh! they were -there to-day," meaning Plant Rhys Dwfn. So they were dear friends in -the estimation of Siôn Phil Hywel, the farmer; but not so high in the -opinion of Dafyd, the labourer. It is said, however, that they were -very honest and resolute men. A certain Gruffyd ab Einon was wont to -sell them more corn than anybody else, and so he was a great friend -of theirs. He was honoured by them beyond all his contemporaries by -being led on a visit to their home. As they were great traders like -the Phoenicians of old, they had treasures from all countries under -the sun. Gruffyd, after feasting his eyes to satiety on their wonders, -was led back by them loaded with presents. But before taking leave -of them, he asked them how they succeeded in keeping themselves safe -from invaders, as one of their number might become unfaithful, and go -beyond the virtue of the herbs that formed their safety. "Oh!" replied -the little old man of shrewd looks, "just as Ireland has been blessed -with a soil on which venomous reptiles cannot live, so with our land: -no traitor can live here. Look at the sand on the sea-shore: perfect -unity prevails there, and so among us. Rhys, the father of our race, -bade us, even to the most distant descendant, honour our parents -and ancestors; love our own wives without looking at those of our -neighbours; and do our best for our children and grandchildren. And -he said that if we did so, no one of us would ever prove unfaithful -to another, or become what you call a traitor. The latter is a wholly -imaginary character among us; strange pictures are drawn of him with -his feet like those of an ass, with a nest of snakes in his bosom, -with a head like the devil's, with hands somewhat like a man's, while -one of them holds a large knife, and the family lies dead around the -figure. Good-bye!" When Gruffyd looked about him he lost sight of the -country of Plant Rhys, and found himself near his home. He became very -wealthy after this, and continued to be a great friend of Plant Rhys -as long as he lived. After Gruffyd's death they came to market again, -but such was the greed of the farmers, like Gruffyd before them, -for riches, and so unreasonable were the prices they asked for their -corn, that the Rhysians took offence and came no more to Cardigan to -market. The old people used to think that they now went to Fishguard -market, as very strange people were wont to be seen there.' On the -other hand, some Fishguard people were lately of opinion that it was -at Haverfordwest the fairies did their marketing: I refer to a letter -of Mr. Ferrar Fenton's, in the Pembroke County Guardian of October 31, -1896, in which he mentions a conversation he had with a Fishguard woman -as to the existence of fairies: 'There are fairies,' she asserted, -'for they came to Ha'rfordwest market to buy things, so there must be.' - -With this should be compared pp. 9-10 of Wirt Sikes' British Goblins, -where mention is made of sailors on the coast of Pembrokeshire and -Carmarthenshire, 'who still talk of the green meadows of enchantment -lying in the Irish Channel to the west of Pembrokeshire,' and of -men who had landed on them, or seen them suddenly vanishing. The -author then proceeds to abstract from Howells' Cambrian Superstitions, -p. 119, the following paragraph:--'The fairies inhabiting these islands -are said to have regularly attended the markets at Milford Haven and -Laugharne. They made their purchases without speaking, laid down their -money and departed, always leaving the exact sum required, which they -seemed to know without asking the price of anything. Sometimes they -were invisible; but they were often seen by sharp-eyed persons. There -was always one special butcher at Milford Haven upon whom the fairies -bestowed their patronage instead of distributing their favours -indiscriminately. The Milford Haven folk could see the green Fairy -Islands distinctly, lying out a short distance from land; and the -general belief was that they were densely peopled with fairies. It -was also said that the latter went to and fro between the islands and -the shore, through a subterranean gallery under the bottom of the sea.' - -Another tale given in the Brython, ii. 20, by a writer who gives -his name as B. Davies [57], will serve to show, short though it be, -that the term Plant Rhys Dwfn was not confined to those honestly -dealing fairies, but was used in a sense wholly synonymous with that -of Tylwyth Teg, as understood in other parts of Wales. The story -runs as follows, and should be compared with the Dyffryn Mymbyr one -given above, pp. 100-3:--'One calm hot day, when the sun of heaven was -brilliantly shining, and the hay in the dales was being busily made by -lads and lasses, and by grown-up people of both sexes, a woman in the -neighbourhood of Emlyn placed her one-year-old infant in the gader, -or chair, as the cradle is called in these parts, and out she went -to the field for a while, intending to return, when her neighbour, -an old woman overtaken by the decrepitude of eighty summers, should -call to her that her darling was crying. It was not long before she -heard the old woman calling to her; she ran hurriedly, and as soon as -she set foot on the kitchen floor she took her little one in her arms -as usual, saying to him, "O my little one! thy mother's delight art -thou! I would not take the world for thee, &c." But to her surprise -he had a very old look about him, and the more the tender-hearted -mother gazed at his face, the stranger it seemed to her, so that at -last she placed him in the cradle and told her trouble and sorrow to -her relatives and acquaintances. And after this one and the other had -given his opinion, it was agreed at last that it was one of Rhys Dwfn's -children that was in the cradle, and not her dearly loved baby. In this -distress there was nothing to do but to fetch a sorcerer, as fast as -the fastest horse could gallop. He said, when he saw the child, that -he had seen his like before, and that it would be a hard job to get -rid of him, though not such a very hard job this time. The shovel was -made red hot in the fire by one of the Cefnarth [58] boys, and held -before the child's face; and in an instant the short little old man -took to his heels, and neither he nor his like was seen afterwards -from Aber Cuch to Aber Bargoed at any rate. The mother, it is said, -found her darling unscathed the next moment. I remember also hearing -that the strange child was as old as the grandfather of the one that -had been lost.' - -As I see no reason to make any profound distinction between lake -maidens and sea maidens, I now give Gwynionyd's account of the mermaid -who was found by a fisherman from Llandydoch or St. Dogmael's [59], -near Cardigan: see the Brython, i. 82:-- - -'One fine afternoon in September, in the beginning of the last century, -a fisherman, whose name was Pergrin [60], went to a recess in the -rock near Pen Cemmes, where he found a sea maiden doing her hair, -and he took the water lady prisoner to his boat.... We know not -what language is used by sea maidens ... but this one, this time at -any rate, talked, it is said, very good Welsh; for when she was in -despair in Pergrin's custody, weeping copiously, and with her tresses -all dishevelled, she called out: 'Pergrin, if thou wilt let me go, -I will give thee three shouts in the time of thy greatest need.' So, -in wonder and fear, he let her go to walk the streets of the deep, -and visit her sweethearts there. Days and weeks passed without -Pergrin seeing her after this; but one hot afternoon, when the sea -was pretty calm, and the fishermen had no thought of danger, behold -his old acquaintance showing her head and locks, and shouting out in a -loud voice: 'Pergrin! Pergrin! Pergrin! take up thy nets, take up thy -nets, take up thy nets!' Pergrin and his companion instantly obeyed -the message, and drew their nets in with great haste. In they went, -past the bar, and by the time they had reached the Pwll Cam the most -terrible storm had overspread the sea, while he and his companion were -safe on land. Twice nine others had gone out with them, but they were -all drowned without having the chance of obeying the warning of the -water lady.' Perhaps it is not quite irrelevant to mention here the -armorial bearings which Drayton ascribes to the neighbouring county -of Cardigan in the following couplet in his Battaile of Agincourt -(London, 1631), p. 23:-- - - - As Cardigan the next to them that went, - Came with a Mermayd sitting on a Rock. - - -A writer in the Brython, iv. 194, states that the people of Nefyn -in Lleyn claim the story of the fisher and the mermaid as belonging -to them, which proves that a similar legend has been current there: -add to this the fact mentioned in the Brython, iii. 133, that a red -mermaid with yellow hair, on a white field, figures in the coat of -arms of the family resident at Glasfryn in the parish of Llangybi, -in Eifionyd or the southern portion of Carnarvonshire; and we have -already suggested that Glasynys' story (pp. 117-25) was made up, to a -certain extent, of materials found on the coasts of Carnarvonshire. A -small batch of stories about South Wales mermaids is given by a writer -who calls himself Ab Nadol [61], in the Brython, iv. 310, as follows:-- - -'A few rockmen are said to have been working, about eighty years -ago, in a quarry near Porth y Rhaw, when the day was calm and clear, -with nature, as it were, feasting, the flowers shedding sweet scent -around, and the hot sunshine beaming into the jagged rocks. Though an -occasional wave rose to strike the romantic cliffs, the sea was like -a placid lake, with its light coverlet of blue attractive enough to -entice one of the ladies of Rhys Dwfn forth from the town seen by -Daniel Huws off Trefin as he was journeying between Fishguard and -St. David's in the year 1858, to make her way to the top of a stone -and to sit on it to disentangle her flowing silvery hair. Whilst -she was cleaning herself, the rockmen went down, and when they got -near her they perceived that, from her waist upwards, she was like -the lasses of Wales, but that, from her waist downwards, she had the -body of a fish. And, when they began to talk to her, they found she -spoke Welsh, though she only uttered the following few words to them: -"Reaping in Pembrokeshire and weeding in Carmarthenshire." Off she -then went to walk in the depth of the sea towards her home. Another -tale is repeated about a mermaid, said to have been caught by men -below the land of Llanwnda, near the spot, if not on the spot, where -the French made their landing afterwards, and three miles to the west -of Fishguard. It then goes on to say that they carried her to their -home, and kept her in a secure place for some time; before long, she -begged to be allowed to return to the brine land, and gave the people -of the house three bits of advice; but I only remember one of them,' -he writes, 'and this is it: "Skim the surface of the pottage before -adding sweet milk to it: it will be whiter and sweeter, and less of -it will do." I was told that this family follow the three advices to -this day.' A somewhat similar advice to that about the pottage is -said to have been given by a mermaid, under similar circumstances, -to a Manxman. - -After putting the foregoing bits together, I was favoured by -Mr. Benjamin Williams with notes on the tales and on the persons from -whom he heard them: they form the contents of two or three letters, -mostly answers to queries of mine, and the following is the substance -of them:--Mr. Williams is a native of the valley of Troed yr Aur -[62], in the Cardiganshire parish of that name. He spent a part of -his youth at Verwig, in the angle between the northern bank of the -Teifi and Cardigan Bay. He heard of Rhys Dwfn's Children first from -a distant relative of his father's, a Catherine Thomas, who came to -visit her daughter, who lived not far from his father's house: that -would now be from forty-eight to fifty years ago. He was very young -at the time, and of Rhys Dwfn's progeny he formed a wonderful idea, -which was partly due also to the talk of one James Davies or Siàms -Mocyn, who was very well up in folklore, and was one of his father's -next-door neighbours. He was an old man, and nephew to the musician, -David Jenkin Morgan. The only spot near Mr. Williams' home, that -used to be frequented by the fairies, was Cefn y Ceirw, 'the Stag's -Ridge,' a large farm, so called from having been kept as a park for -their deer by the Lewises of Aber Nant Bychan. He adds that the late -Mr. Philipps, of Aberglasney, was very fond of talking of things -in his native neighbourhood, and of mentioning the fairies at Cefn -y Ceirw. It was after moving to Verwig that Mr. Williams began to -put the tales he heard on paper: then he came in contact with three -brothers, whose names were John, Owen, and Thomas Evans. They were -well-to-do and respectable bachelors, living together on the large -farm of Hafod Ruffyd. Thomas was a man of very strong common sense, -and worth consulting on any subject: he was a good arithmetician, -and a constant reader of the Baptist periodical, Seren Gomer, from -its first appearance. He thoroughly understood the bardic metres, -and had a fair knowledge of music. He was well versed in Scripture, -and filled the office of deacon at the Baptist Chapel. His death took -place in the year 1864. Now, the eldest of the three brothers, the -one named John, or Siôn, was then about seventy-five years of age, -and he thoroughly believed in the tales about the fairies, as will -be seen from the following short dialogue:-- - -Siôn: Williams bach, ma'n rhaid i bod nhw'i gâl: yr w i'n cofio yn -amser Bone fod marchnad Aberteifi yn llawn o lafir yn y bore--digon -yno am fis--ond cin pen hanner awr yr ôd y cwbwl wedi darfod. Nid ôd -possib i gweld nhwi: mâ gida nhwi faint a fynnon nhwi o arian. - -Williams: Siwt na fyse dynion yn i gweld nhwi ynte, Siôn? - -Siôn: O mâ gida nhwi dynion fel ninne yn pryni drostyn nhwi; ag y mâ -nhwi fel yr hen siówmin yna yn gelli gneid pob tric. - -John: 'My dear Williams, it must be that they exist: I remember -Cardigan market, in the time of Bonaparte, full of corn in the -morning--enough for a month--but in less than half an hour it was -all gone. It was impossible to see them: they have as much money as -they like.' - -Williams: 'How is it, then, that men did not see them, John?' - -John: 'Oh, they have men like us to do the buying for them; and they -can, like those old showmen, do every kind of trick.' - -At this kind of display of simplicity on the part of his brother, -Thomas used to smile and say: 'My brother John believes such things -as those;' for he had no belief in them himself. Still it is from -his mouth that Mr. Williams published the tales in the Brython, which -have been reproduced here, that of 'Pergrin and the Mermaid,' and all -about the 'Heir of Llech y Derwyd,' not to mention the ethical element -in the account of Rhys Dwfn's country and its people, the product -probably of his mind. Thomas Evans, or as he was really called, -Tommos Ifan, was given rather to grappling with the question of -the origin of such beliefs; so one day he called Mr. Williams out, -and led him to a spot about four hundred yards from Bol y Fron, -where the latter then lived: he pointed to the setting sun, and -asked Mr. Williams what he thought of the glorious sunset before -them. 'It is all produced,' he then observed, 'by the reflection -of the sun's rays on the mist: one might think,' he went on to say, -'that there was there a paradise of a country full of fields, forests, -and everything that is desirable.' And before they had moved away the -grand scene had disappeared, when Thomas suggested that the idea of -the existence of the country of Rhys Dwfn's Children arose from the -contemplation of that phenomenon. One may say that Thomas Evans was -probably far ahead of the Welsh historians who try to extract history -from the story of Cantre'r Gwaelod, 'the Bottom Hundred,' beneath the -waves of Cardigan Bay; but what was seen was probably an instance of -the mirage to be mentioned presently. Lastly, besides Mr. Williams' -contributions to the Brython, and a small volume of poetry, entitled -Briallen glan Ceri, some tales of his were published by Llallawg -in Bygones some years ago, and he had the prize at the Cardigan -Eistedfod of 1866 for the best collection in Welsh of the folklore -of Dyfed: his recollection was that it contained in all thirty-six -tales of all kinds; but since the manuscript, as the property of the -Committee of that Eistedfod, was sold, he could not now consult it: -in fact he is not certain as to who the owner of it may now be, -though he has an idea that it is either the Rev. Rees Williams, -vicar of Whitchurch, near Solva, Pembrokeshire, or R. D. Jenkins, -Esq., of Cilbronnau, Cardiganshire. Whoever the owner may be, he -would probably be only too glad to have it published, and I mention -this merely to call attention to it. The Eistedfod is to be commended -for encouraging local research, and sometimes even for burying the -results in obscurity, but not always. - - - - -X. - -Before leaving Dyfed I wish to revert to the extract from Mr. Sikes, -p. 161 above. He had been helped partly by the article on Gavran, -in the Cambrian Biography, by William Owen, better known since as -William Owen Pughe and Dr. Pughe, and partly by a note of Southey's -on the following words in his Madoc (London, 1815), i. III:-- - - - Where are the sons of Gavran? where his tribe, - The faithful? following their beloved Chief, - They the Green Islands of the Ocean sought; - Nor human tongue hath told, nor human ear, - Since from the silver shores they went their way, - Hath heard their fortunes. - - -The Gavran story, I may premise, is based on one of the Welsh -Triads--i. 34, ii. 41, iii. 80--and Southey cites the article in the -Cambrian Biography; but he goes on to give the following statements -without indicating on what sources he was drawing--the reader has, -however, been made acquainted already with the virtue of a blade of -grass, by the brief mention of Llyn Irdyn above, p. 148:-- - -'Of these Islands, or Green Spots of the Floods, there are some -singular superstitions. They are the abode of the Tylwyth Teg, or -the fair family, the souls of the virtuous Druids, who, not having -been Christians, cannot enter the Christian heaven, but enjoy this -heaven of their own. They however discover a love of mischief, neither -becoming happy spirits, nor consistent with their original character; -for they love to visit the earth, and, seizing a man, inquire whether -he will travel above wind, mid wind, or below wind; above wind is -a giddy and terrible passage, below wind is through bush and brake, -the middle is a safe course. But the spell of security is, to catch -hold of the grass, for these Beings have not power to destroy a blade -of grass. In their better moods they come over and carry the Welsh in -their boats. He who visits these Islands imagines on his return that -he has been absent only a few hours, when, in truth, whole centuries -have passed away. If you take a turf from St. David's churchyard, -and stand upon it on the sea shore, you behold these Islands. A man -once, who thus obtained sight of them, immediately put to sea to find -them; but they disappeared, and his search was in vain. He returned, -looked at them again from the enchanted turf, again set sail, and -failed again. The third time he took the turf into his vessel, and -stood upon it till he reached them.' - -A correspondent signing himself 'the Antient Mariner,' and writing, -in the Pembroke County Guardian, from Newport, Pembrokeshire, Oct. 26, -1896, cites Southey's notes, and adds to them the statement, that -some fifty years ago there was a tradition amongst the inhabitants of -Trevine (Trefin) in his county, that these Islands could be seen from -Llan Non, or Eglwys Non, in that neighbourhood. To return to Madoc, -Southey adds to the note already quoted a reference to the inhabitants -of Arran More, on the coast of Galway, to the effect that they think -that they can on a clear day see Hy-Breasail, the Enchanted Island -supposed to be the Paradise of the Pagan Irish: compare the Phantom -City seen in the same sea from the coast of Clare. Then he asks a -question suggestive of the explanation, that all this is due to 'that -very extraordinary phenomenon, known in Sicily by the name of Morgaine -le Fay's works.' In connexion with this question of mirage I venture -to quote again from the Pembroke County Guardian. Mr. Ferrar Fenton, -already mentioned, writes in the issue of Nov. 1, 1896, giving a report -which he had received one summer morning from Captain John Evans, -since deceased. It is to the effect 'that once when trending up the -Channel, and passing Grasholm Island, in what he had always known -as deep water, he was surprised to see to windward of him a large -tract of land covered with a beautiful green meadow. It was not, -however, above water, but just a few feet below, say two or three, -so that the grass waved and swam about as the ripple flowed over it, -in a most delightful way to the eye, so that as watched it made one -feel quite drowsy. You know, he continued, I have heard old people -say there is a floating island off there, that sometimes rises to the -surface, or nearly, and then sinks down again fathoms deep, so that -no one sees it for years, and when nobody expects it comes up again -for a while. How it may be, I do not know, but that is what they say.' - -Lastly, Mr. E. Perkins, of Penysgwarne, near Fishguard, wrote on -Nov. 2, 1896, as follows, of a changing view to be had from the top -of the Garn, which means the Garn Fawr, one of the most interesting -prehistoric sites in the county, and one I have had the pleasure of -visiting more than once in the company of Henry Owen and Edward Laws, -the historians of Pembrokeshire:-- - -'May not the fairy islands referred to by Professor Rhys have -originated from mirages? During the glorious weather we enjoyed -last summer, I went up one particularly fine evening to the top of -the Garn behind Penysgwarne to view the sunset. It would have been -worth a thousand miles' travel to go to see such a scene as I saw -that evening. It was about half an hour before sunset--the bay was -calm and smooth as the finest mirror. The rays of the sun made - - - A golden path across the sea, - - -and a picture indescribable. As the sun neared the horizon the rays -broadened until the sheen resembled a gigantic golden plate prepared -to hold the brighter sun. No sooner had the sun set than I saw a -striking mirage. To the right I saw a stretch of country similar -to a landscape in this country. A farmhouse and out-buildings were -seen, I will not say quite as distinct as I can see the upper part -of St. David's parish from this Garn, but much more detailed. We -could see fences, roads, and gateways leading to the farmyard, but -in the haze it looked more like a panoramic view than a veritable -landscape. Similar mirages may possibly have caused our old tadau to -think these were the abode of the fairies.' - -To return to Mr. Sikes, the rest of his account of the Pembrokeshire -fairies and their green islands, of their Milford butcher, and -of the subterranean gallery leading into their home, comes, as -already indicated, for the most part from Howells. But it does not -appear on what authority Southey himself made departed druids of -the fairies. One would be glad to be reassured on this last point, -as such a hypothesis would fit in well enough with what we are told -of the sacrosanct character of the inhabitants of the isles on the -coast of Britain in ancient times. Take, for instance, the brief -account given by Plutarch of one of the isles explored by a certain -Demetrius in the service of the Emperor of Rome: see chapter viii. - - - - -XI. - -Mr. Craigfryn Hughes, the author of a Welsh novelette [63] with its -scene laid in Glamorgan, having induced me to take a copy, I read it -and found it full of local colouring. Then I ventured to sound the -author on the question of fairy tales, and the reader will be able -to judge how hearty the response has been. Before reproducing the -tale which Mr. Hughes has sent me, I will briefly put into English -his account of himself and his authorities. Mr. Hughes lives at the -Quakers' Yard in the neighbourhood of Pontyprid, in Glamorganshire. His -father was not a believer [64] in tales about fairies or the like, -and he learned all he knows of the traditions about them in his -father's absence, from his grandmother and other old people. The old -lady's name was Rachel Hughes. She was born at Pandy Pont y Cymmer, -near Pontypool, or Pont ap Hywel as Mr. Hughes analyses the name, -in the year 1773, and she had a vivid recollection of Edmund Jones of -the Tranch, of whom more anon, coming from time to time to preach to -the Independents there. She came, however, to live in the parish of -Llanfabon, near the Quakers' Yard, when she was only twelve years -of age; and there she continued to live to the day of her death, -which took place in 1864, so that she was about ninety-one years of -age at the time. Mr. Hughes adds that he remembers many of the old -inhabitants besides his grandmother, who were perfectly familiar with -the story he has put on record; but only two of them were alive when -he wrote to me in 1881, and these were both over ninety years old, -with their minds overtaken by the childishness of age; but it was -only a short time since the death of another, who was, as he says, -a walking library of tales about corpse candles, ghosts, and Bendith -y Mamau [65], or 'The Mothers' Blessing,' as the fairies are usually -called in Glamorgan. Mr. Hughes' father tried to prevent his children -being taught any tales about ghosts, corpse candles, or fairies; -but the grandmother found opportunities of telling them plenty, and -Mr. Hughes vividly describes the effect on his mind when he was a -boy, how frightened he used to feel, how he pulled the clothes over -his head in bed, and how he half suffocated himself thereby under -the effects of the fear with which the tales used to fill him. Then, -as to the locality, he makes the following remarks:--'There are few -people who have not heard something or other about the old graveyard -of the Quakers, which was made by Lydia Phil, a lady who lived at a -neighbouring farm house, called Cefn y Fforest. This old graveyard lies -in the eastern corner of the parish of Merthyr Tydfil, on land called -Pantannas, as to the meaning of which there is much controversy. Some -will have it that it is properly Pant yr Aros, or the Hollow of the -Staying, because travellers were sometimes stopped there overnight -by the swelling of the neighbouring river; others treat it as Pant -yr Hanes, the Hollow of the Legend, in allusion to the following -story. But before the graveyard was made, the spot was called -Rhyd y Grug, or the Ford of the Heather, which grows thereabouts in -abundance. In front of the old graveyard towards the south the rivers -Taff and Bargoed, which some would make into Byrgoed or Short-Wood, -meet with each other, and thence rush in one over terrible cliffs of -rock, in the recesses of which lie huge cerwyni or cauldron-like pools, -called respectively the Gerwyn Fach, the Gerwyn Fawr, and the Gerwyn -Ganol, where many a drowning has taken place. As one walks up over -Tarren y Crynwyr, "the Quakers' Rift," until Pantannas is reached, -and proceeds northwards for about a mile and a half, one arrives at a -farm house called Pen Craig Daf [66], "the Top of the Taff Rock." The -path between the two houses leads through fertile fields, in which -may be seen, if one has eyes to observe, small rings which are greener -than the rest of the ground. They are, in fact, green even as compared -with the greenness around them--these are the rings in which Bendith -y Mamau used to meet to sing and dance all night. If a man happened -to get inside one of these circles when the fairies were there, he -could not be got out in a hurry, as they would charm him and lead -him into some of their caves, where they would keep him for ages, -unawares to him, listening to their music. The rings vary greatly in -size, but in point of form they are all round or oval. I have heard -my grandmother,' says Mr. Hughes, 'reciting and singing several of the -songs which the fairies sang in these rings. One of them began thus:-- - - - Canu, canu, drwy y nos, - Dawnsio, dawnsio, ar Waen y Rhos - Y' ngoleuni'r lleuad dlos: - Hapus ydym ni! - - Pawb ohonom syd yn llon - Heb un gofid dan ei fron: - Canu, dawnsio, ar y ton [67]-- - Dedwyd ydym ni! - - - Singing, singing, through the night, - Dancing, dancing with our might, - Where the moon the moor doth light, - Happy ever we! - - One and all of merry mien, - Without sorrow are we seen, - Singing, dancing on the green, - Gladsome ever we! - - -Here follows, in Mr. Hughes' own Welsh, a remarkable story of revenge -exacted by the fairies:-- - -Yn un o'r canrifoed a aethant heibio, preswyliai amaethwr yn nhydyn -Pantannas, a'r amser hwnnw yr oed bendith y mamau yn ymwelwyr aml ag -amryw gaeau perthynol ido ef, a theimlai yntau gryn gasineb yn ei -fynwes at yr 'atras fwstrog, leisiog, a chynllwynig,' fel y galwai -hwynt, a mynych yr hiraethai am allu dyfod o hyd i ryw lwybr er cael -eu gwared odiyno. O'r diwed hysbyswyd ef gan hen reibwraig, fod y -fford i gael eu gwared yn digon hawd, ac ond ido ef rodi godro un -hwyr a boreu idi hi, yr hysbysai y fford ido gyrraed yr hyn a fawr -dymunai. Bodlonod i'w thelerau a derbyniod yntau y cyfarwydyd, yr -hyn ydoed fel y canlyn:--Ei fod i aredig yr holl gaeau i ba rai yr -oed eu hoff ymgyrchfan, ac ond idynt hwy unwaith golli y ton glas, -y digient, ac na deuent byth mwy i'w boeni drwy eu hymweliadau a'r lle. - -Dilynod yr amaethwr ei chyfarwydyd i'r llythyren, a choronwyd ei waith -a llwydiant. Nid oed yr un o honynt i'w weled odeutu y caeau yn awr; -ac yn lle sain eu caniadau soniarus, a glywid bob amser yn dyrchu -o Waen y Rhos, nid oed dim ond y distawrwyd trylwyraf yn teyrnasu o -gylch eu hen a'u hoff ymgyrchfan. - -Hauod yr amaethwr wenith, &c., yn y caeau, ac yr oed y gwanwyn gwyrdlas -wedi gwthio y gauaf odiar ei sed, ac ymdangosai y maesyd yn arderchog -yn eu llifrai gwyrdleision a gwanwynol. - -Ond un prydnawn, ar ol i'r haul ymgilio i yst felloed y gorllewin, -tra yr oed amaethwr Pantannas yn dychwelyd tua ei gartref cyfarfydwyd -ag ef gan fod bychan ar ffurf dyn, yn gwisgo hugan goch; a phan daeth -gyferbyn ag ef dadweiniod ei gled bychan, gan gyfeirio ei flaen at -yr amaethwr, a dywedyd, - - - Dial a daw, - Y mae gerllaw. - - -Ceisiod yr amaethwr chwerthin, ond yr oed rhywbeth yn edrychiad sarrug -a llym y gwr bychan ag a barod ido deimlo yn hynod o annymunol. - -Ychydig o nosweithiau yn diwedarach, pan oed y teulu ar ymneillduo i'w -gorphwysleoed, dychrynwyd hwy yn fawr iawn gan drwst, fel pe bydai y -ty yn syrthio i lawr bendramwnwgl, ac yn union ar ol i'r twrf beidio, -clywent y geiriau bygythiol a ganlyn--a dim yn rhagor--yn cael eu -parablu yn uchel, - - - Daw dial. - - -Pan oed yr yd wedi cael ei fedi ac yn barod i gael ei gywain i'r -ysgubor, yn sydyn ryw noswaith llosgwyd ef fel nad oed yr un dywysen -na gwelltyn i'w gael yn un man o'r caeau, ac nis gallasai neb fod -wedi gosod yr yd ar dan ond Bendith y Mamau. - -Fel ag y mae yn naturiol i ni fedwl teimlod yr amaethwr yn fawr -oherwyd y tro, ac edifarhaod yn ei galon darfod ido erioed wrando -a gwneuthur yn ol cyfarwydyd yr hen reibwraig, ac felly dwyn arno -digofaint a chasineb Bendith y Mamau. - -Drannoeth i'r noswaith y llosgwyd yr yd fel yr oed yn arolygu y difrod -achoswyd gan y tan, wele'r gwr bychan ag ydoed wedi ei gyfarfod -ychydig o diwrnodau yn flaenorol yn ei gyfarfod eilwaith a chyda -threm herfeidiol pwyntiod ei gledyf ato gan dywedyd, - - - Nid yw ond dechreu. - - -Trod gwyneb yr amaethwr cyn wynned a'r marmor, a safod gan alw y gwr -bychan yn ol, ond bu y còr yn hynod o wydn ac anewyllysgar i droi ato, -ond ar ol hir erfyn arno trod yn ei ol gan ofyn yn sarrug beth yr oed -yr amaethwr yn ei geisio, yr hwn a hysbysod ido ei fod yn berffaith -fodlon i adael y caeau lle yr oed eu hoff ymgyrchfan i dyfu yn don -eilwaith, a rhodi caniatad idynt i dyfod idynt pryd y dewisent, -ond yn unig idynt beidio dial eu llid yn mhellach arno ef. - -'Na,' oed yr atebiad penderfynol, 'y mae gair y brenin wedi ei roi -y byd ido ymdial arnat hyd eithaf ei allu ac nid oes dim un gallu ar -wyneb y greadigaeth a bair ido gael ei dynnu yn ol.' - -Dechreuod yr amaethwr wylo ar hyn, ond yn mhen ychydig hysbysod y gwr -bychan y bydai ido ef siarad a'i bennaeth ar y mater, ac y cawsai -efe wybod y canlyniad ond ido dyfod i'w gyfarfod ef yn y fan honno -amser machludiad haul drennyd. - -Adawod yr amaethwr dyfod i'w gyfarfod, a phan daeth yr amser -apwyntiedig o amgylch ido i gyfarfod a'r bychan cafod ef yno yn -ei aros, ac hysbysod ido fod y pennaeth wedi ystyried ei gais yn -difrifol, ond gan fod ei air bob amser yn anghyfnewidiol y buasai y -dialed bygythiedig yn rhwym o gymeryd lle ar y teulu, ond ar gyfrif -ei edifeirwch ef na chawsai digwyd yn ei amser ef nac eido ei blant. - -Llonydod hynny gryn lawer ar fedwl terfysglyd yr amaethwr, a dechreuod -Bendith y Mamau dalu eu hymweliadau a'r lle eilwaith a mynych y clywid -sain eu cerdoriaeth felusber yn codi o'r caeau amgylchynol yn ystod -y nos. - - - -Pasiod canrif heibio heb i'r dialed bygythiedig gael ei gyflawni, -ac er fod teulu Pantannas yn cael eu hadgofio yn awr ac eilwaith, -y buasai yn sicr o digwyd hwyr neu hwyrach, eto wrth hir glywed y waed, - - - Daw dial, - - -ymgynefinasant a hi nes eu bod yn barod i gredu na fuasai dim yn -dyfod o'r bygythiad byth. - -Yr oed etifed Pantannas yn caru a merch i dirfediannyd cymydogaethol -a breswyliai mewn tydyn o'r enw Pen Craig Daf. Yr oed priodas y -par dedwyd i gymeryd lle yn mhen ychydig wythnosau ac ymdangosai -rhieni y cwpl ieuanc yn hynod o fodlon i'r ymuniad teuluol ag oed ar -gymeryd lle. - -Yr oed yn amser y Nadolig--a thalod y darpar wraig ieuanc ymweliad a -theulu ei darpar wr, ac yr oed yno wled o wyd rostiedig yn baratoedig -gogyfer a'r achlysur. - -Eistedai y cwmni odeutu y tan i adrod rhyw chwedlau difyrrus er mwyn -pasio yr amser, pryd y cawsant eu dychrynu yn fawr gan lais treidgar -yn dyrchafu megis o wely yr afon yn gwaedi - - - Daeth amser ymdïal. - - -Aethant oll allan i wrando a glywent y lleferyd eilwaith, ond nid oed -dim i'w glywed ond brochus drwst y dwfr wrth raiadru dros glogwyni -aruthrol y cerwyni. Ond ni chawsant aros i wrando yn hir iawn cyn -idynt glywed yr un lleferyd eilwaith yn dyrchafu i fyny yn uwch na -swn y dwfr pan yn bwrlymu dros ysgwydau y graig, ac yn gwaedi, - - - Daeth yr amser. - - -Nis gallent dyfalu beth yr oed yn ei arwydo, a chymaint ydoed eu -braw a'u syndod fel nad allent lefaru yr un gair a'u gilyd. Yn mhen -ennyd dychwelasant i'r ty a chyn idynt eisted credent yn dios fod yr -adeilad yn cael ei ysgwyd id ei sylfeini gan ryw dwrf y tu allan. Pan -yr oed yr oll wedi cael eu parlysio gan fraw, wele fenyw fechan yn -gwneuthur ei hymdangosiad ar y bwrd o'u blaen, yr hwn oed yn sefyll -yn agos i'r ffenestr. - -'Beth yr wyt yn ei geisio yma, y peth bychan hagr?' holai un o'r -gwydfodolion. - -'Nid oes gennyf unrhyw neges a thi, y gwr hir dafod,' oed atebiad y -fenyw fechan. 'Ond yr wyf wedi cael fy anfon yma i adrod rhyw bethau -ag syd ar digwyd i'r teulu hwn, a theulu arall o'r gymydogaeth ag a -dichon fod o dydordeb idynt, ond gan i mi derbyn y fath sarhad odiar -law y gwr du ag syd yn eisted yn y cornel, ni fyd i mi godi y llen -ag oed yn cudio y dyfodol allan o'u golwg.' - -'Atolwg os oes yn dy fediant ryw wybodaeth parth dyfodol rhai o -honom ag a fydai yn dydorol i ni gael ei glywed, dwg hi allan,' -ebai un arall o'r gwydfodolion. - -'Na wnaf, ond yn unig hysbysu, fod calon gwyryf fel llong ar y traeth -yn methu cyrraed y porthlad oherwyd digalondid y pilot.' - -A chyda ei bod yn llefaru y gair diwedaf diflannod o'u gwyd, na wydai -neb i ba le na pha fod! - -Drwy ystod ci hymweliad hi, peidiod y waed a godasai o'r afon, ond -yn fuan ar ol idi diflannu, dechreuod eilwaith a chyhoedi - - - Daeth amser dial, - - -ac ni pheidiod am hir amser. Yr oed y cynulliad wedi cael eu mediannu -a gormod o fraw i fedru llefaru yr un gair, ac yr oed llen o brudder -yn daenedig dros wyneb pob un o honynt. Daeth amser idynt i ymwahanu, -ac aeth Rhyderch y mab i hebrwng Gwerfyl ei gariadferch tua Phen -Craig Daf, o ba siwrnai ni dychwelod byth. - -Cyn ymadael a'i fun dywedir idynt dyngu bythol ffydlondeb i'w gilyd, -pe heb weled y naill y llall byth ond hynny, ac nad oed dim a allai -beri idynt anghofio eu gilyd. - -Mae yn debygol i'r llanc Rhyderch pan yn dychwelyd gartref gael ei -hun odifewn i un o gylchoed Bendith y Mamau, ac yna idynt ei hud-denu -i mewn i un o'u hogofau yn Nharren y Cigfrain, ac yno y bu. - - - -Y mae yn llawn bryd i ni droi ein gwynebau yn ol tua Phantannas a Phen -Craig Daf. Yr oed rhieni y bachgen anffodus yn mron gwallgofi. Nid -oed gandynt yr un drychfedwl i ba le i fyned i chwilio am dano, ac -er chwilio yn mhob man a phob lle methwyd yn glir a dyfod o hyd ido, -na chael gair o'i hanes. - -Ychydig i fyny yn y cwm mewn ogof dandaearol trigfannai hen feudwy -oedrannus, yr hwn hefyd a ystyrrid yn dewin, o'r enw Gweiryd. Aethant -yn mhen ychydig wythnosau i ofyn ido ef, a fedrai rodi idynt ryw -wybodaeth parthed i'w mab colledig--ond i ychydig bwrpas. Ni wnaeth -yr hyn a adrodod hwnnw wrthynt ond dyfnhau y clwyf a rhoi golwg fwy -anobeithiol fyth ar yr amgylchiad. Ar ol idynt ei hysbysu ynghylch -ymdangosiad y fenyw fechan ynghyd a'r llais wylofus a glywsent -yn dyrchafu o'r afon y nos yr aeth ar goll, hysbysod efe idynt -mai y farn fygythiedig ar y teulu gan Fendith y Mamau oed wedi -godiwedid y llanc, ac nad oed o un diben idynt fedwl cael ei weled -byth mwyach! Ond feallai y gwnelai ei ymdangosiad yn mhen oesau, -ond dim yn eu hamser hwy. - -Pasiai yr amser heibio, a chwydod yr wythnosau i fisoed, a'r misoed -i flynydoed, a chasglwyd tad a mam Rhyderch at eu tadau. Yr oed y -lle o hyd yn parhau yr un, ond y preswylwyr yn newid yn barhaus, -ac yr oed yr adgofion am ei golledigaeth yn darfod yn gyflym, ond -er hynny yr oed un yn disgwyl ei dychweliad yn ol yn barhaus, ac -yn gobeithio megis yn erbyn gobaith am gael ei weled eilwaith. Bob -boreu gyda bod dorau y wawr yn ymagor dros gaerog fynydoed y dwyrain -gwelid hi bob tywyd yn rhedeg i ben bryn bychan, a chyda llygaid yn -orlawn o dagrau hiraethlon syllai i bob cyfeiriad i edrych a ganfydai -ryw argoel fod ei hanwylyd yn dychwelyd; ond i dim pwrpas. Canol dyd -gwelid hi eilwaith yn yr un man, a phan ymgollai yr haul fel pelen -eiriasgoch o dân dros y terfyngylch, yr oed hi yno. - -Edrychai nes yn agos bod yn dall, ac wylai ei henaid allan o dyd i -dyd ar ol anwyldyn ei chalon. O'r diwed aeth y rhai syd yn edrych -drwy y ffenestri i omed eu gwasanaeth idi, ac yr oed y pren almon -yn coroni ei phen a'i flagur gwyryfol, ond parhai hi i edrych, ond -nid oed neb yn dod. Yn llawn o dydiau ac yn aedfed i'r bed rhodwyd -terfyn ar ei holl obeithion a'i disgwyliadau gan angeu, a chludwyd -ei gwedillion marwol i fynwent hen Gapel y Fan. - -Pasiai blynydoed heibio fel mwg, ac oesau fel cysgodion y boreu, ac -nid oed neb yn fyw ag oed yn cofio Rhyderch, ond adrodid ei golliad -disymwyth yn aml. Dylasem fynegu na welwyd yr un o Fendith y Mamau -odeutu y gymydogaeth wedi ei golliad, a pheidiod sain eu cerdoriaeth -o'r nos honno allan. - -Yr oed Rhyderch wedi cael ei hud-denu i fyned gyda Bendith y Mamau--ac -aethant ag ef i ffwrd i'w hogof. Ar ol ido aros yno dros ychydig o -diwrnodau fel y tybiai, gofynnod am ganiatad i dychwelyd, yr hyn a rwyd -ganiatawyd ido gan y brenin. Daeth allan o'r ogof, ac yr oed yn ganol -dyd braf, a'r haul yn llewyrchu odiar fynwes ffurfafen digwmwl. Cerdod -yn mlaen o Darren y Cigfrain hyd nes ido dyfod i olwg Capel y Fan, -ond gymaint oed ei syndod pan y gwelod nad oed yr un capel yno! Pa -le yr oed wedi bod, a pha faint o amser? Gyda theimladau cymysgedig -cyfeiriod ei gamrau tua Phen Craig Daf, cartref-le ei anwylyd, ond -nid oed hi yno, ac nid oed yn adwaen yr un dyn ag oed yno chwaith. Ni -fedrai gael gair o hanes ei gariad a chymerod y rhai a breswylient -yno mai gwallgofdyn ydoed. - -Prysurod eilwaith tua Phantannas, ac yr oed ei syndod yn fwy fyth -yno! Nid oed yn adwaen yr un o honynt, ac ni wydent hwythau dim am dano -yntau. O'r diwed daeth gwr y ty i fewn, ac yr oed hwnnw yn cofio clywed -ei dad cu yn adrod am lanc ag oed wedi myned yn disymwyth i goll er ys -peth cannoed o flynydoed yn ol, ond na wydai neb i ba le. Rywfod neu -gilyd tarawod gwr y ty ei ffon yn erbyn Rhyderch, pa un a diflannod -mewn cawod o lwch, ac ni chlywyd air o son beth daeth o hono mwyach. - -'In one of the centuries gone by, there lived a husbandman on the farm -of Pantannas; and at that time the fairies used to pay frequent visits -to several of the fields which belonged to him. He cherished in his -bosom a considerable hatred for the "noisy, boisterous, and pernicious -tribe," as he called them, and often did he long to be able to discover -some way to rid the place of them. At last he was told by an old witch -that the way to get rid of them was easy enough, and that she would -tell him how to attain what he so greatly wished, if he gave her one -evening's milking [68] on his farm, and one morning's. He agreed to her -conditions, and from her he received advice, which was to the effect -that he was to plough all the fields where they had their favourite -resorts, and that, if they found the green sward gone, they would take -offence, and never return to trouble him with their visits to the spot. - -'The husbandman followed the advice to the letter, and his work was -crowned with success. Not a single one of them was now to be seen -about the fields, and, instead of the sound of their sweet music, -which used to be always heard rising from the Coarse Meadow Land, -the most complete silence now reigned over their favourite resort. - -'He sowed his land with wheat and other grain; the verdant spring had -now thrust winter off its throne, and the fields appeared splendid -in their vernal and green livery. - -'But one evening, when the sun had retired to the chambers of the west, -and when the farmer of Pantannas was returning home, he was met by -a diminutive being in the shape of a man, with a red coat on. When -he had come right up to him, he unsheathed his little sword, and, -directing the point towards the farmer, he said:-- - - - Vengeance cometh, - Fast it approacheth. - - -'The farmer tried to laugh, but there was something in the surly -and stern looks of the little fellow which made him feel exceedingly -uncomfortable. - -'A few nights afterwards, as the family were retiring to rest, they -were very greatly frightened by a noise, as though the house was -falling to pieces; and, immediately after the noise, they heard a -voice uttering loudly the threatening words--and nothing more:-- - - - Vengeance cometh. - - -'When, however, the corn was reaped and ready to be carried to the -barn, it was, all of a sudden, burnt up one night, so that neither -an ear nor a straw of it could be found anywhere in the fields; -and now nobody could have set the corn on fire but the fairies. - -'As one may naturally suppose, the farmer felt very much on account -of this event, and he regretted in his heart having done according -to the witch's direction, and having thereby brought upon him the -anger and hatred of the fairies. - -'The day after the night of the burning of the corn, as he was -surveying the destruction caused by the fire, behold the little -fellow, who had met him a few days before, met him again, and, with -a challenging glance, he pointed his sword towards him, saying:-- - - - It but beginneth. - - -The farmer's face turned as white as marble, and he stood calling the -little fellow to come back; but the dwarf proved very unyielding and -reluctant to turn to him; but, after long entreaty, he turned back, -asking the farmer, in a surly tone, what he wanted, when he was told -by the latter that he was quite willing to allow the fields, in which -their favourite resorts had been, to grow again into a green sward, -and to let them frequent them as often as they wished, provided they -would no further wreak their anger on him. - -'"No," was the determined reply, "the word of the king has been given, -that he will avenge himself on thee to the utmost of his power; -and there is no power on the face of creation that will cause it to -be withdrawn." - -'The farmer began to weep at this, and, after a while, the little -fellow said that he would speak to his lord on the matter, and that -he would let him know the result, if he would come there to meet him -at the hour of sunset on the third day after. - -'The farmer promised to meet him; and, when the time appointed for -meeting the little man came, he found him awaiting him, and he was told -by him that his lord had seriously considered his request, but that, -as the king's word was ever immutable, the threatened vengeance was -to take effect on the family. On account, however, of his repentance, -it would not be allowed to happen in his time or that of his children. - -'That calmed the disturbed mind of the farmer a good deal. The fairies -began again to pay frequent visits to the place, and their melodious -singing was again heard at night in the fields around. - - - -'A century passed by without seeing the threatened vengeance carried -into effect; and, though the Pantannas family were reminded now and -again that it was certain sooner or later to come, nevertheless, -by long hearing the voice that said-- - - - Vengeance cometh, - - -they became so accustomed to it, that they were ready to believe that -nothing would ever come of the threat. - -'The heir of Pantannas was paying his addresses to the daughter of a -neighbouring landowner who lived at the farm house called Pen Craig -Daf, and the wedding of the happy pair was to take place in a few -weeks, and the parents on both sides appeared exceedingly content -with the union that was about to take place between the two families. - -'It was Christmas time, and the intended wife paid a visit to the -family of her would-be husband. There they had a feast of roast goose -prepared for the occasion. - -'The company sat round the fire to relate amusing tales to pass the -time, when they were greatly frightened by a piercing voice, rising, -as it were, from the bed of the river [69], and shrieking:-- - - - The time for revenge is come. - - -'They all went out to listen if they could hear the voice a second -time, but nothing was to be heard save the angry noise of the water as -it cascaded over the dread cliffs of the kerwyni; they had not long, -however, to wait till they heard again the same voice rising above the -noise of the waters, as they boiled over the shoulders of the rock, -and crying:-- - - - The time is come. - - -'They could not guess what it meant, and so great was their fright -and astonishment, that no one could utter a word to another. Shortly -they returned to the house, when they believed that beyond doubt -the building was being shaken to its foundations by some noise -outside. When all were thus paralysed by fear, behold a little woman -made her appearance on the table, which stood near the window. - -'"What dost thou, ugly little thing, want here?" asked one of those -present. - -'"I have nothing to do with thee, O man of the meddling tongue," said -the little woman, "but I have been sent here to recount some things -that are about to happen to this family and another family in the -neighbourhood, things that might be of interest to them; but, as I have -received such an insult from the black fellow that sits in the corner, -the veil that hides them from their sight shall not be lifted by me." - -'"Pray," said another of those present, "if thou hast in thy possession -any knowledge with regard to the future of any one of us that would -interest us to hear, bring it forth." - -'"No, I will but merely tell you that a certain maiden's heart is -like a ship on the coast, unable to reach the harbour because the -pilot has lost heart." - -'As soon as she had cried out the last word, she vanished, no one -knew whither or how. - -'During her visit, the cry rising from the river had stopped, but -soon afterwards it began again to proclaim:-- - - - The time of vengeance is come; - - -nor did it cease for a long while. The company had been possessed by -too much terror for one to be able to address another, and a sheet -of gloom had, as it were, been spread over the face of each. The -time for parting came, and Rhyderch the heir went to escort Gwerfyl, -his lady-love, home towards Pen Craig Daf, a journey from which he -never returned. - -'Before bidding one another "Good-bye," they are said to have sworn -to each other eternal fidelity, even though they should never see one -another from that moment forth, and that nothing should make the one -forget the other. - -'It is thought probable that the young man Rhyderch, on his way back -towards home, got into one of the rings of the fairies, that they -allured him into one of their caves in the Ravens' Rift, and that -there he remained. - - - -'It is high time for us now to turn back towards Pantannas and -Pen Craig Daf. The parents of the unlucky youth were almost beside -themselves: they had no idea where to go to look for him, and, though -they searched every spot in the place, they failed completely to find -him or any clue to his history. - -'A little higher up the country, there dwelt, in a cave underground, an -aged hermit called Gweiryd, who was regarded also as a sorcerer. They -went a few weeks afterwards to ask him whether he could give them any -information about their lost son; but it was of little avail. What that -man told them did but deepen the wound and give the event a still more -hopeless aspect. When they had told him of the appearance of the little -woman, and the doleful cry heard rising from the river on the night -when their son was lost, he informed them that it was the judgement -threatened to the family by the fairies that had overtaken the youth, -and that it was useless for them to think of ever seeing him again: -possibly he might make his appearance after generations had gone by, -but not in their lifetime. - -'Time rolled on, weeks grew into months, and months into years, until -Rhyderch's father and mother were gathered to their ancestors. The -place continued the same, but the inhabitants constantly changed, -so that the memory of Rhyderch's disappearance was fast dying -away. Nevertheless there was one who expected his return all the while, -and hoped, as it were against hope, to see him once more. Every morn, -as the gates of the dawn opened beyond the castellated heights of the -east, she might be seen, in all weathers, hastening to the top of a -small hill, and, with eyes full of the tears of longing, gazing in -every direction to see if she could behold any sign of her beloved's -return; but in vain. At noon, she might be seen on the same spot again; -she was also there at the hour when the sun was wont to hide himself, -like a red-hot ball of fire, below the horizon. She gazed until she -was nearly blind, and she wept forth her soul from day to day for -the darling of her heart. At last they that looked out at the windows -began to refuse their service, and the almond tree commenced to crown -her head with its virgin bloom. She continued to gaze, but he came -not. Full of days, and ripe for the grave, death put an end to all -her hopes and all her expectations. Her mortal remains were buried -in the graveyard of the old Chapel of the Fan [70]. - -'Years passed away like smoke, and generations like the shadows of -the morning, and there was no longer anybody alive who remembered -Rhyderch, but the tale of his sudden missing was frequently in -people's mouths. And we ought to have said that after the event no -one of the fairies was seen about the neighbourhood, and the sound -of their music ceased from that night. - -'Rhyderch had been allured by them, and they took him away into their -cave. When he had stayed there only a few days, as he thought, he asked -for permission to return, which was readily granted him by the king. He -issued from the cave when it was a fine noon, with the sun beaming -from the bosom of a cloudless firmament. He walked on from the Ravens' -Rift until he came near the site of the Fan Chapel; but what was his -astonishment to find no chapel there! Where, he wondered, had he been, -and how long away? So with mixed feelings he directed his steps towards -Pen Craig Daf, the home of his beloved one, but she was not there nor -any one whom he knew either. He could get no word of the history of -his sweetheart, and those who dwelt in the place took him for a madman. - -'He hastened then to Pantannas, where his astonishment was still -greater. He knew nobody there, and nobody knew anything about him. At -last the man of the house came in, and he remembered hearing his -grandfather relating how a youth had suddenly disappeared, nobody -knew whither, some hundreds of years previously. Somehow or other the -man of the house chanced to knock his walking-stick against Rhyderch, -when the latter vanished in a shower of dust. Nothing more was ever -heard of him.' - -Before leaving Glamorgan, I may add that Mr. Sikes associates fairy -ladies with Crymlyn Lake, between Briton Ferry and Swansea; but, -as frequently happens with him, he does not deign to tell us whence -he got the legend. 'It is also believed,' he says at p. 35, 'that a -large town lies swallowed up there, and that the Gwraged Annwn have -turned the submerged walls to use as the superstructure of their fairy -palaces. Some claim to have seen the towers of beautiful castles -lifting their battlements beneath the surface of the dark waters, -and fairy bells are at times heard ringing from those towers.' So -much by the way: we shall return to Crymlyn in chapter vii. - - - - -XII. - -The other day, as I was going to Gwent, I chanced to be in the Golden -Valley in Herefordshire, where the names in the churchyards seem -largely to imply a Welsh population, though the Welsh language has -not been heard there for ages. Among others I noticed Joneses and -Williamses in abundance at Abbey Dore, Evanses and Bevans, Morgans, -Prossers and Prices, not to mention Sayces--that is to say, Welshmen of -English extraction or education--a name which may also be met with in -Little England in Pembrokeshire, and probably on other English-Welsh -borders. Happening to have to wait for a train at the Abbey Dore -station, I got into conversation with the tenants of a cottage hard -by, and introduced the subject of the fairies. The old man knew -nothing about them, but his wife, Elizabeth Williams, had been a -servant girl at a place called Pen Pôch, which she pronounced with -the Welsh guttural ch: she said that it is near Llandeilo Cressenny -in Monmouthshire. It was about forty years ago when she served at -Pen Pôch, and her mistress' name was Evans, who was then about fifty -years of age. Now Mrs. Evans was in the habit of impressing on her -servant girls' minds, that, unless they made the house tidy before -going to bed, and put everything in its place overnight, the little -people--the fairies, she thinks she called them--would leave them -no rest in bed at night, but would come and 'pinch them like.' If -they put everything in its place, and left the house 'tidy like,' it -would be all right, and 'nobody would do anything to them like.' That -is all I could get from her without prompting her, which I did at -length by suggesting to her that the fairies might leave the tidy -servants presents, a shilling 'on the hearth or the hob like.' Yes, -she thought there was something of that sort, and her way of answering -me suggested that this was not the first time she had heard of the -shilling. She had never been lucky enough to have had one herself, -nor did she know of anybody else that 'had got it like.' - -During a brief but very pleasant sojourn at Llanover in May, 1883, -I made some inquiries about the fairies, and obtained the following -account from William Williams, who now, in his seventieth year, works -in Lady Llanover's garden:--'I know of a family living a little way -from here at ----, or as they would now call it in English ----, -whose ancestors, four generations ago, used to be kind to Bendith -y Mamau, and always welcomed their visits by leaving at night a -basinful of bread and milk for them near the fire. It always used to -be eaten up before the family got up in the morning. But one night -a naughty servant man gave them instead of milk a bowlful of urine -[71]. They, on finding it out, threw it about the house and went -away disgusted. But the servant watched in the house the following -night. They found him out, and told him that he had made fools of -them, and that in punishment for his crime there would always be a -fool, i.e. an idiot, in his family. As a matter of fact, there was -one among his children afterwards, and there is one in the family -now. They have always been in a bad way ever since, and they never -prosper. The name of the man who originally offended the fairies -was ----; and the name of the present fool among his descendants is -----.' For evident reasons it is not desirable to publish the names. - -Williams spoke also of a sister to his mother, who acted as servant -to his parents. There were, he said, ten stepping stones between his -father's house and the well, and on every one of these stones his -aunt used to find a penny every morning, until she made it known to -others, when, of course, the pennies ceased coming. He did not know -why the fairies gave money to her, unless it was because she was a -most tidy servant. - -Another Llanover gardener remembered that the fairies used to -change children, and that a certain woman called Nani Fach in that -neighbourhood was one of their offspring; and he had been told that -there were fairy rings in certain fields not far away in Llanover -parish. - -A third gardener, who is sixty-eight years of age, and is likewise in -Lady Llanover's employ, had heard it said that servant girls about -his home were wont to sweep the floor clean at night, and to throw -crumbs of bread about on it before going to bed. - -Lastly, Mrs. Gardner of Ty Uchaf Llanover, who is ninety years of age, -remembers having a field close to Capel Newyd near Blaen Afon, in -Llanover Uchaf, pointed out to her as containing fairy rings; and she -recollects hearing, when she was a child, that a man had got into one -of them. He remained away from home, as they always did, she said, a -whole year and a day; but she has forgotten how he was recovered. Then -she went on to say that her father had often got up in the night to -see that his horses were not taken out and ridden about the fields -by Bendith y Mamau; for they were wont to ride people's horses late -at night round the four corners of the fields, and thereby they often -broke the horses' wind. This, she gave me to understand, was believed -in the parish of Llanover and that part of the country generally. So -here we have an instance probably of confounding fairies with witches. - -I have not the means at my command of going at length into the folklore -of Gwent, so I will merely mention where the reader may find a good -deal about it. I have already introduced the name of the credulous -old Christian, Edmund Jones of the Tranch: he published at Trefecca -in the year 1779 a small volume entitled, A Geographical, Historical, -and Religious Account of the Parish of Aberystruth in the County of -Monmouth, to which are added Memoirs of several Persons of Note who -lived in the said Parish. In 1813, by which time he seems to have left -this world for another, where he expected to understand all about the -fairies and their mysterious life, a small volume of his was published -at Newport, bearing the title, A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits -in the County of Monmouth and the Principality of Wales, with other -notable Relations from England, together with Observations about -them, and Instructions from them, designed to confute and to prevent -the Infidelity of denying the Being and Apparition of Spirits, which -tends to Irreligion and Atheism. By the late Rev. Edmund Jones, of the -Tranch. Naturally those volumes have been laid under contribution by -Mr. Sikes, though the tales about apparitions in them are frequently -of a ghastly nature, and sometimes loathsome: on the whole, they -remind me more than anything else I have ever read of certain Breton -tales which breathe fire and brimstone: all such begin to be now out -of fashion in Protestant countries. I shall at present only quote a -passage of quite a different nature from the earlier volume, p. 72--it -is an interesting one, and it runs thus:--'It was the general opinion -in times past, when these things were very frequent, that the fairies -knew whatever was spoken in the air without the houses, not so much -what was spoken in the houses. I suppose they chiefly knew what -was spoken in the air at night. It was also said that they rather -appeared to an uneven number of persons, to one, three, five, &c.; -and oftener to men than to women. Thomas William Edmund, of Havodavel, -an honest pious man, who often saw them, declared that they appeared -with one bigger than the rest going before them in the company.' With -the notion that the fairies heard everything uttered out of doors -may be compared the faculty attributed to the great magician king, -Math ab Mathonwy, of hearing any whisper whatsoever that met the wind: -see the Oxford Mabinogion, p. 60, and Guest's Mabinogion, iii. 219; see -also respectively pp. 94, 96, and pp. 308, 310, as to the same faculty -belonging to the fairy people of the Corannians, and the strange -precautions taken against them by the brothers Llûd and Llevelys. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER III - -FAIRY WAYS AND WORDS - - Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy! - - Shakespeare. - - -In the previous chapters, the fairy lore of the Principality was -hastily skimmed without any method; and I fear that, now I have to -reproduce some of the things which I gleaned somewhat later, there -will be, if possible, still less method. The general reader, in case -he chances on these pages, will doubtless feel that, as soon as he -has read a few of the tales, the rest seem to be familiar to him, -and exceedingly tiresome. It may be, however, presumed that all men -anxious to arrive at an idea as to the origin among us of the belief -in fairies, will agree that we should have as large and exhaustive a -collection as possible of facts on which to work. If we can supply -the data without stint, the student of anthropology may be trusted -in time to discover their value for his inductions, and their place -in the history of the human race. - - - - -I. - -In the course of the summer of 1882 [72] I was a good deal in Wales, -especially Carnarvonshire, and I made notes of a great many scraps -of legends about the fairies, and other bits of folklore. I will now -string some of them together as I found them. I began at Trefriw [73], -in Nant Conwy, where I came across an old man, born and bred there, -called Morris Hughes. He appears to be about seventy years of age: -he formerly worked as a slater, but now he lives at Llanrwst, and -tries to earn a livelihood by angling. He told me that fairies came a -long while ago to Cowlyd Farm, near Cowlyd Lake, with a baby to dress, -and asked to be admitted into the house, saying that they would pay -well for it. Their request was granted, and they used to leave money -behind them. One day the servant girl accidentally found they had -also left some stuff they were in the habit of using in washing their -children. She examined it, and, one of her eyes happening to itch, she -rubbed it with the finger that had touched the stuff; so when she went -to Llanrwst Fair she saw the same fairy folks there stealing cakes from -a standing, and asked them why they did that. They inquired with what -eye she saw them: she put her hand to the eye, and one of the fairies -quickly rubbed it, so that she never saw any more of them. They were -also very fond of bringing their children to be dressed in the houses -between Trefriw and Llanrwst; and on the flat land bordering on the -Conwy they used to dance, frolic, and sing every moonlight night. Evan -Thomas of Sgubor Gerrig used to have money from them. He has been dead, -Morris Hughes said, over sixty years: he had on his land a sort of -cowhouse where the fairies had shelter, and hence the pay. - -Morris, when a boy, used to be warned by his parents to take care -lest he should be stolen by the fairies. He knew Thomas Williams -of Bryn Syllty, or, as he was commonly called, Twm Bryn Syllty, who -was a changeling. He was a sharp, small man, afraid of nothing. He -met his death some years ago by drowning near Eglwys Fach, when he -was about sixty-three years of age. There are relatives of his about -Llanrwst still: that is, relatives of his mother, if indeed she was -his mother (os oed hi'n fam ido fo, ynté). Lastly, Morris had a tale -about a mermaid cast ashore by a storm near Conway. She entreated -the fishermen who found her to help her back into her native element; -and on their refusing to comply she prayed them to place her tail at -least in the water. A very crude rhyme describes her dying of exposure -to the cold, thus:-- - - - Y forforwyn ar y traeth, - Crio gwaedu'n arw wnaeth, - Ofn y deuai drycin drannoeth: - Yr hin yn oer a rhewi wnaeth. - - The stranded mermaid on the beach - Did sorely cry and sorely screech, - Afraid to bide the morrow's breeze: - The cold it came, and she did freeze. - - -But before expiring, the mermaid cursed the people of Conway to be -always poor, and Conway has ever since, so goes the tale, laboured -under the curse; so that when a stranger happens to bring a sovereign -there, the Conway folk, if silver is required, have to send across -the water to Llansanffraid for change. - -My next informant was John Duncan Maclaren, who was born in 1812, -and lives at Trefriw. His father was a Scotsman, but Maclaren is in -all other respects a Welshman. He also knew the Sgubor Gerrig people, -and that Evan Thomas and Lowri his wife had exceeding great trouble to -prevent their son Roger from being carried away by the fairies. For -the fairy maids were always trying to allure him away, and he was -constantly finding fairy money. The fairy dance, and the playing -and singing that accompanied it, used to take place in a field in -front of his father's house; but Lowri would never let her son go -out after the sun had gone to his battlements (ar ol i'r haul fyn'd -i lawr i gaera). The most dangerous nights were those when the moon -shone brightly, and pretty wreaths of mist adorned the meadows by the -river. Maclaren had heard of a man, whom he called Siôn Catrin of Tyn -Twll, finding a penny every day at the pistyll or water-spout near -the house, when he went there to fetch water. The flat land between -Trefriw and Llanrwst had on it a great many fairy rings, and some of -them are, according to Maclaren, still to be seen. There the fairies -used to dance, and when a young man got into one of the rings the -fairy damsels took him away; but he could be got out unharmed at the -end of a year and a day, when he would be found dancing with them in -the same ring: he must then be dexterously touched by some one of his -friends with a piece of iron and dragged out at once. This is the -way in which a young man whom my notes connect with a place called -Bryn Glas was recovered. He had gone out with a friend, who lost him, -and he wandered into a fairy ring. He had new shoes on at the time, -and his friends brought him out at the end of the interval of a year -and a day; but he could not be made to understand that he had been away -more than five minutes, until he was asked to look at his new shoes, -which were by that time in pieces. Maclaren had also something to -say concerning the history and habitat of the fairies. Those of Nant -Conwy dress in green; and his mother, who died about sixty-two years -ago, aged forty-seven, had told him that they lived seven years on -the earth, seven years in the air, and seven years underground. He -also had a mermaid tale, like that of Pergrin from Dyfed, p. 163. A -fisherman from Llandrillo yn Rhos, between Colwyn and Llandudno, -had caught a mermaid in his net. She asked to be set free, promising -that she would, in case he complied, do him a kindness. He consented, -and one fine day, a long while afterwards, she suddenly peeped out -of the water near him, and shouted: Siôn Ifan, cwyd dy rwyda' a thyn -tua'r lan, 'John Evans, take up thy nets and make for the shore.' He -obeyed, and almost immediately there was a terrible storm, in which -many fishermen lost their lives. The river Conwy is the chief haunt of -the mysterious afanc, already mentioned, p. 130, and Maclaren stated -that its name used to be employed within his memory to frighten girls -and children: so much was it still dreaded. Perhaps I ought to have -stated that Maclaren is very fond of music, and that he told me of -a gentleman at Conway who had taken down in writing a supposed fairy -tune. I have made inquiries of the latter's son, Mr. Hennessy Hughes -of Conway; but his father's papers seem to have been lost, so that -he cannot find the tune in question, though he has heard of it. - -Whilst on this question of music let me quote from the Llwyd letter -in the Cambrian Journal for 1859, pp. 145-6, on which I have already -drawn, pp. 130-3, above. The passage in point is to the following -effect:-- - -'I will leave these tales aside whilst I go as far as the Ogo Du, -"the Black Cave," which is in the immediate vicinity of Crigcieth [74], -and into which the musicians entered so far that they lost their way -back. One of them was heard to play on his pipe, and another on his -horn, about two miles from where they went in; and the place where -the piper was heard is called Braich y Bib, and where the man with -the horn was heard is called Braich y Cornor. I do not believe that -even a single man doubts but that this is all true, and I know not -how the airs called Ffarwel Dic y Pibyd, "Dick the Piper's Farewell," -and Ffarwel Dwm Bach, "Little Tom's Farewell," had those names, unless -it was from the musicians above mentioned. Nor do I know that Ned Puw -may not have been the third, and that the air called Ffarwel Ned Puw, -"Ned Pugh's Farewell," may not have been the last he played before -going into the cave. I cannot warrant this to be true, as I have only -heard it said by one man, and he merely held it as a supposition, -which had been suggested by this air of Ffarwel Dic y Pibyd.' - -A story, however, mentioned by Cyndelw in the Brython for 1860, p. 57, -makes Ned Pugh enter the cave of Tal y Clegyr, which the writer in -his article identifies with Ness Cliff, near Shrewsbury. In that -cave, which was regarded as a wonderful one, he says the musician -disappeared, while the air he was playing, Ffarwel Ned Puw, "Ned Pugh's -Farewell," was retained in memory of him. Some account of the departure -of Ned Pugh and of the interminable cave into which he entered, will be -found given in a rambling fashion in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine -(London, 1829), vol. i, pp. 40-5, where the minstrel's Welsh name -is given as Iolo ap Huw. There we are told that he was last seen in -the twilight of a misty Halloween, and the notes of the tune he was -last heard to play are duly given. One of the surmises as to Iolo's -ultimate fate is also recorded, namely, that in the other world he has -exchanged his fiddle for a bugle, and become huntsman-in-chief to Gwyn -ab Nûd, so that every Halloween he may be found cheering Cwn Annwn, -'the Hounds of the Other World,' over Cader Idris [75]. - -The same summer I fell in with Mr. Morris Evans, of Cerrig Mân, near -Amlwch. He is a mining agent on the Gwydir Estate in the Vale of Conwy, -but he is a native of the neighbourhood of Parys Mountain, in Anglesey, -where he acquired his knowledge of mining. He had heard fairy tales -from his grandmother, Grace Jones, of Llwyn Ysgaw near Mynyd Mechell, -between Amlwch and Holyhead. She died, nearly ninety years of age, -over twenty years ago. She used to relate how she and others of her -own age were wont in their youth to go out on bright moonlight nights -to a spot near Llyn y Bwch. They seldom had to wait there long before -they would hear exquisite music and behold a grand palace standing -on the ground. The diminutive folks of fairyland would then come -forth to dance and frolic. The next morning the palace would be found -gone, but the grandmother used to pick up fairy money on the spot, -and this went on regularly so long as she did not tell others of her -luck. My informant, who is himself a man somewhat over fifty-two, -tells me that at a place not far from Llyn y Bwch there were plenty -of fairy rings to be seen in the grass; and it is in them the fairies -were supposed to dance [76]. - -From Llanrwst I went up to see the bard and antiquary, Mr. Gethin -Jones. His house was prettily situated on the hillside on the left -of the road as you approach the village of Penmachno. I was sorry to -find that his memory had been considerably impaired by a paralytic -stroke from which he had suffered not long before. However, from his -room he pointed out to me a spot on the other side of the Machno, -called Y Werdon, which means 'The Green Land,' or more literally, -'The Greenery,' so to say. It was well known for its green, grassy -fairy rings, formerly frequented by the Tylwyth Teg; and he said he -could distinguish some of the rings even then from where he stood. The -Werdon is on the Bennar, and the Bennar is the high ground between -Penmachno and Dolwydelan. The spot in question is on the part nearest -to the Conwy Falls. This name, Y Werdon, is liable to be confounded -with Iwerdon, 'Ireland,' which is commonly treated as if it began with -the definite article, so that it is made into Y Werdon and Werdon. The -fairy Werdon, in the radical form Gwerdon, not only recalls to my mind -the Green Isles called Gwerdonau Llïon, but also the saying, common -in North Wales, that a person in great anxiety 'sees Y Werdon.' Thus, -for instance, a man who fails to return to his family at the hour -expected, and believes his people to be in great anxiety about him, -expresses himself by saying that they will have 'seen the Werdon on my -account' (mi fydan' wedi gwel'd y Werdon am dana'i). Is that Ireland, -or is it the land of the fairies, the other world, in fact? If the -latter, it might simply mean they will have died of anxiety; but I -confess I have not so far been able to decide. I am not aware that -the term occurs in any other form of expression than the one I have -given; if it had, and if the Werdon were spoken of in some other way, -that might possibly clear up the difficulty. If it refers to Ireland, -it must imply that sighting Ireland is equivalent to going astray at -sea, meaning in this sort of instance, getting out of one's senses; -but the Welsh are not very much given to nautical expressions. It -reminds me somewhat of Gerald Griffin's allusion to the Phantom City, -and the penalty paid by those who catch a glimpse of its turrets as -the dividing waves expose them for a moment to view on the western -coast of Ireland:-- - - - Soon close the white waters to screen it, - And the bodement, they say, of the wonderful sight, - Is death to the eyes that have seen it. - - -The Fairy Glen above Bettws y Coed is called in Welsh Ffos 'Nodyn, -'the Sink of the Abyss'; but Mr. Gethin Jones told me that it was -also called Glyn y Tylwyth Teg, which is very probable, as some -such a designation is required to account for the English name, 'the -Fairy Glen.' People on the Capel Garmon side used to see the Tylwyth -playing there, and descending into the Ffos or Glen gently and lightly -without occasioning themselves the least harm. The Fairy Glen was, -doubtless, supposed to contain an entrance to the world below. This -reminds one of the name of the pretty hollow running inland from the -railway station at Bangor. Why should it be called Nant Uffern, or -'The Hollow of Hell'? Can it be that there was a supposed entrance -to the fairy world somewhere there? In any case, I am quite certain -that Welsh place-names involve allusions to the fairies much oftener -than has been hitherto supposed; and I should be inclined to cite, as -a further example, Moel Eilio [77] or Moel Eilian, from the personal -name Eilian, to be mentioned presently. Moel Eilian is a mountain under -which the fairies were supposed to have great stores of treasure. But -to return to Mr. Gethin Jones, I had almost forgotten that I have -another instance of his in point. He showed me a passage in a paper -which he wrote in Welsh some time ago on the antiquities of Yspyty -Ifan. He says that where the Serw joins the Conwy there is a cave, -to which tradition asserts that a harpist was once allured by the -Tylwyth Teg. He was, of course, not seen afterwards, but the echo of -the music made by him and them on their harps is still to be heard -a little lower down, under the field called to this day Gweirglod y -Telynorion, 'The Harpers' Meadow': compare the extract from Edward -Llwyd's correspondence at p. 202 above. - -Mr. Gethin Jones also spoke to me of the lake called Llyn Pencraig, -which was drained in hopes of finding lead underneath it, an -expectation not altogether doomed to disappointment, and he informed -me that its old name was Llyn Llifon; so the moor around it was called -Gwaen Llifon. It appears to have been a large lake, but only in wet -weather, and to have no deep bed. The names connected with the spot -are now Nant Gwaen Llifon and the Gwaith (or Mine) of Gwaen Llifon: -they are, I understand, within the township of Trefriw. The name Llyn -Llifon is of great interest when taken in connexion with the Triadic -account of the cataclysm called the Bursting of Llyn Llifon. Mr. Gethin -Jones, however, believed himself that Llyn Llïon was no other than -Bala Lake, through which the Dee makes her way. - - - - -II. - -One day in August of the same year, I arrived at Dinas Station, and -walked down to Llandwrog in order to see Dinas Dinlle, and to ascertain -what traditions still existed there respecting Caer Arianrhod, -Llew Llawgyffes, Dylan Eilton, and other names that figure in the -Mabinogi of Math ab Mathonwy. I called first on the schoolmaster, -and he kindly took me to the clerk, Hugh Evans, a native of the -neighbourhood of Llangefni, in Anglesey. He had often heard people -talk of some women having once on a time come from Tregar Anthreg -to Cae'r 'Loda', a place near the shore, to fetch food or water, and -that when they looked back they beheld the town overflowed by the sea: -the walls can still be seen at low water. Gwennan was the name of one -of the women, and she was buried at the place now called Bed Gwennan, -or Gwennan's Grave. He had also heard the fairy tales of Waen Fawr -and Nant y Bettws, narrated by the antiquary, Owen Williams of the -former place. For instance, he had related to him the tale of the man -who slept on a clump of rushes, and thought he was all the while in -a magnificent mansion; see p. 100, above. Now I should explain that -Tregar Anthreg is to be seen at low water from Dinas Dinlle as a -rock not far from the shore. The Caranthreg which it implies is one -of the modern forms to which Caer Arianrhod has been reduced; and to -this has been prefixed a synonym of caer, namely, tref, reduced to -tre', just as Carmarthen is frequently called Tre' Gaerfyrdin. Cae'r -'Loda' is explained as Cae'r Aelodau', 'The Field of the Limbs'; but -I am sorry to say that I forgot to note the story explanatory of the -name. It is given, I think, to a farm, and so is Bed Gwennan likewise -the name of a farm house. The tenant of the latter, William Roberts, -was at home when I visited the spot. He told me the same story, -but with a variation: three sisters had come from Tregan Anrheg to -fetch provisions, when their city was overflowed. Gwen fled to the -spot now called Bed Gwennan, Elan to Tydyn Elan, or Elan's Holding, -and Maelan to Rhos Maelan, or Maelan's Moor; all three are names of -places in the immediate neighbourhood. - -From Dinas Dinlle I was directed across Lord Newborough's grounds at -Glynllifon to Pen y Groes Station; but on my way I had an opportunity -of questioning several of the men employed at Glynllifon. One of -these was called William Thomas Solomon, an intelligent middle-aged -man, who works in the garden there. He said that the three women -who escaped from the submerged city were sisters, and that he had -learned in his infancy to call them Gwennan bi Dôn, Elan bi Dôn, -and Maelan bi Dôn. Lastly, the name of the city, according to him, -was Tregan Anthrod. I had the following forms of the name that -day:--Tregar Anrheg, Tregar Anthreg, Tregan Anrheg, Tregan Anthreg, -and Tregan Anthrod. All these are attempts to reproduce what might -be written Tre'-Gaer-Arianrhod. The modification of nrh into nthr -is very common in North Wales, and Tregar Anrheg seems to have been -fashioned on the supposition that the name had something to do with -anrheg, 'a gift.' Tregan Anthrod is undoubtedly the Caer Arianrhod, -or 'fortress of Arianrhod,' in the Mabinogi, and it is duly marked -as such in a map of Speede's at the spot where it should be. Now the -Arianrhod of the Mabinogi of Math could hardly be called a lady of -rude virtue, and it is the idea in the neighbourhood that the place -was inundated on account of the wickedness of the inhabitants. So -it would appear that Gwennan, Elan, and Maelan, Arianrhod's sisters, -were the just ones allowed to escape. Arianrhod was probably drowned as -the principal sinner in possession; but I did not find, as I expected, -that the crime which called for such an expiation was in this instance -that of playing cards on Sunday. In fact, this part of the legend -does not seem to have been duly elaborated as yet. - -I must now come back to Solomon's bi Dôn, which puzzles me not -a little. Arianrhod was daughter of Dôn, and so several other -characters in the same Mabinogi were children of Dôn. But what is bi -Dôn? I have noticed that all the Welsh antiquaries who take Don out -of books invariably call that personage Dòn or Donn with a short o, -which is wrong, and this has saved me from being deceived once or -twice: so I take it that bi Dôn is, as Solomon asserted, a local -expression of which he did not know the meaning. I can only add, -in default of a better explanation, that bi Dôn recalled to my mind -what I had shortly before heard on my trip from Aberdaron to Bardsey -Island. My wife and I, together with two friends, engaged, after much -eloquent haggling, a boat at the former place, but one of the men who -were to row us insinuated a boy of his, aged four, into the boat, an -addition which did not exactly add to the pleasures of that somewhat -perilous trip amidst incomprehensible currents. But the Aberdaron -boatmen always called that child bi Donn, which I took to have been -a sort of imitation of an infantile pronunciation of 'baby John,' for -his name was John, which Welsh infants as a rule first pronounce Donn: -I can well remember the time when I did. This, applied to Gwennan bi -Dôn, would imply that Solomon heard it as a piece of nursery lore when -he was a child, and that it meant simply--Gwennan, baby or child of -Dôn. Lastly, the only trace of Dylan I could find was in the name of -a small promontory, called variously by the Glynllifon men Pwynt Maen -Tylen, which was Solomon's pronunciation, and Pwynt Maen Dulan. It is -also known, as I was given to understand, as Pwynt y Wig: I believe -I have seen it given in maps as Maen Dylan Point. - -Solomon told me the following fairy tale, and he was afterwards kind -enough to have it written out for me. I give it in his own words, -as it is peculiar in some respects:-- - -Mi'r oed gwr a gwraig yn byw yn y Garth Dorwen [78] ryw gyfnod maith yn -ol, ag aethant i Gaer'narfon i gyflogi morwyn ar dyd ffair G'langaeaf, -ag yr oed yn arferiad gan feibion a merched y pryd hynny i'r rhai oed -yn sefyll allan am lefyd aros yn top y maes presennol wrth boncan las -oed yn y fan y lle saif y Post-office presennol; aeth yr hen wr a'r -hen wraig at y fan yma a gwelent eneth lan a gwallt melyn yn sefyll -'chydig o'r neilldu i bawb arall; aeth yr hen wraig ati a gofynnod i'r -eneth oed arni eisiau lle. Atebod fod, ag felly cyflogwyd yr eneth -yn dioed a daeth i'w lle i'r amser penodedig. Mi fydai yn arferiad -yr adeg hynny o nydu ar ol swper yn hirnos y gauaf, ag fe fydai y -forwyn yn myn'd i'r weirglod i nydu wrth oleu y lloer; ag fe fydai -tylwyth teg yn dwad ati hi i'r weirglod i ganu a dawnsio. A ryw bryd -yn y gwanwyn pan esdynnod y dyd diangod Eilian gyd a'r tylwythion teg -i ffwrd, ag ni welwyd 'mo'ni mwyach. Mae y cae y gwelwyd hi diwethaf -yn cael ei alw hyd y dyd hedyw yn Gae Eilian a'r weirglod yn Weirglod -y Forwyn. Mi'r oed hen wraig y Garth Dorwen yn arfer rhoi gwraged yn -eu gwlâu, a bydai pawb yn cyrchu am dani o bob cyfeiriad; a rhyw bryd -dyma wr bonedig ar ei geffyl at y drws ar noswaith loergan lleuad, -a hithau yn glawio 'chydig ag yn niwl braid, i 'nol yr hen wreigan at -ei wraig; ag felly aeth yn sgil y gwr dïarth ar gefn y march i Ros y -Cowrt. Ar ganol y Rhos pryd hynny 'r oed poncan lled uchel yn debyg i -hen amdiffynfa a llawer o gerrig mawrion ar ei phen a charned fawr o -gerrig yn yr ochor ogledol idi, ag mae hi i'w gwel'd hyd y dyd hedyw -dan yr enw Bryn y Pibion. Pan gyrhaedasan' y lle aethan' i ogo' fawr -ag aethan' i 'stafell lle'r oed y wraig yn ei gwely, a'r lle crandia' -a welod yr hen wraig yrioed. Ag fe roth y wraig yn ei gwely ag aeth at -y tan i drin y babi; ag ar ol idi orphen dyna y gwr yn dod a photel -i'r hen wraig i hiro llygaid y babi ag erfyn arni beidio a'i gyffwr' -a'i llygaid ei hun. Ond ryw fod ar ol rhoi y botel heibio fe daeth -cosfa ar lygaid yr hen wraig a rhwbiod ei llygaid â'r un bys ag oed -wedi bod yn rhwbio llygaid y baban a gwelod hefo 'r llygad hwnnw -y wraig yn gorfed ar docyn o frwyn a rhedyn crinion mewn ogo' fawr -o gerrig mawr o bob tu idi a 'chydig bach o dan mewn rhiw gornel, -a gwelod mai Eilian oed hi, ei hen forwyn, ag hefo'r llygad arall yn -gwel'd y lle crandia' a welod yrioed. Ag yn mhen ychydig ar ol hynny -aeth i'r farchnad i Gaer'narfon a gwelod y gwr a gofynnod ido--'Pa -sud mae Eilian?' 'O y mae hi yn bur da,' medai wrth yr hen wraig: 'a -pha lygad yr ydych yn fy ngwel'd?' 'Hefo hwn,' medai hithau. Cymerod -babwyren ag a'i tynod allan ar unwaith. - -'An old man and his wife lived at the Garth Dorwen in some period -a long while ago. They went to Carnarvon to hire a servant maid at -the Allhallows' [79] fair; and it was the custom then for young men -and women who stood out for places to station themselves at the top -of the present Maes, by a little green eminence which was where the -present Post-office stands. The old man and his wife went to that -spot, and saw there a lass with yellow hair, standing a little apart -from all the others; the old woman went to her and asked her if she -wanted a place. She replied that she did, and so she hired herself at -once and came to her place at the time fixed. In those times it was -customary during the long winter nights that spinning should be done -after supper. Now the maid servant would go to the meadow to spin by -the light of the moon, and the Tylwyth Teg used to come to her to sing -and dance. But some time in the spring, when the days had grown longer, -Eilian escaped with the Tylwyth Teg, so that she was seen no more. The -field where she was last seen is to this day called Eilian's Field, -and the meadow is known as the Maid's Meadow. The old woman of Garth -Dorwen was in the habit of putting women to bed, and she was in great -request far and wide. Some time after Eilian's escape there came a -gentleman on horseback to the door one night when the moon was full, -while there was a slight rain and just a little mist, to fetch the -old woman to his wife. So she rode off behind the stranger on his -horse, and came to Rhos y Cowrt. Now there was at that time, in the -centre of the rhos, somewhat of a rising ground that looked like an -old fortification, with many big stones on the top, and a large cairn -of stones on the northern side: it is to be seen there to this day, -and it goes by the name of Bryn y Pibion, but I have never visited the -spot. When they reached the spot, they entered a large cave, and they -went into a room where the wife lay in her bed; it was the finest place -the old woman had seen in her life. When she had successfully brought -the wife to bed, she went near the fire to dress the baby; and when she -had done, the husband came to the old woman with a bottle of ointment -[80] that she might anoint the baby's eyes; but he entreated her not -to touch her own eyes with it. Somehow after putting the bottle by, -one of the old woman's eyes happened to itch, and she rubbed it with -the same finger that she had used to rub the baby's eyes. Then she -saw with that eye how the wife lay on a bundle of rushes and withered -ferns in a large cave, with big stones all round her, and with a little -fire in one corner; and she saw also that the lady was only Eilian, -her former servant girl, whilst, with the other eye, she beheld the -finest place she had ever seen. Not long afterwards the old midwife -went to Carnarvon to market, when she saw the husband, and said to -him, "How is Eilian?" "She is pretty well," said he to the old woman, -"but with what eye do you see me?" "With this one," was the reply; -and he took a bulrush and put her eye out at once.' - -That is exactly the tale, my informant tells me, as he heard it from -his mother, who heard it from an old woman who lived at Garth Dorwen -when his mother was a girl, about eighty-four years ago, as he guessed -it to have been; but in his written version he has omitted one thing -which he told me at Glynllifon, namely, that, when the servant girl -went out to the fairies to spin, an enormous amount of spinning used to -be done. I mention this as it reminds me of the tales of other nations, -where the girl who cannot spin straw into gold is assisted by a fairy, -on certain conditions which are afterwards found very inconvenient. It -may be guessed that in the case of Eilian the conditions involved her -becoming a fairy's wife, and that she kept to them. Lastly, I should -like the archæologists of Carnarvonshire to direct their attention to -Bryn y Pibion; for they might be expected to come across the remains -there of a barrow or of a fort. - - - - -III. - -The same summer I happened to meet the Rev. Robert Hughes, of Uwchlaw'r -Ffynnon, near Llanaelhaearn, a village on which Tre'r Ceiri, or the -Town of the Keiri, looks down in its primitive grimness from the -top of one of the three heights of the Eifl, or Rivals as English -people call them. The district is remarkable for the longevity of its -inhabitants, and Mr. Hughes counted fifteen farmers in his immediate -neighbourhood whose average age was eighty-three; and four years -previously the average age of eighteen of them was no less than -eighty-five. He himself was, when I met him, seventy-one years of -age, and he considered that he represented the traditions of more -than a century and a half, as he was a boy of twelve when one of his -grandfathers died at the age of ninety-two: the age reached by one -of his grandmothers was all but equal, while his father died only a -few years ago, after nearly reaching his ninety-fifth birthday. - -Story-telling was kept alive in the parish of Llanaelhaearn by the -institution known there as the pilnos, or peeling night, when the -neighbours met in one another's houses to spend the long winter -evenings dressing hemp and carding wool, though I guess that a -pilnos was originally the night when people met to peel rushes for -rushlights. When they left these merry meetings they were ready, as -Mr. Hughes says, to see anything. In fact, he gives an instance of some -people coming from a pilnos across the mountain from Nant Gwrtheyrn -to Llithfaen, and finding the fairies singing and dancing with all -their might: they were drawn in among them and found themselves left -alone in the morning on the heather. Indeed, Mr. Hughes has seen the -fairies himself: it was on the Pwllheli road, as he was returning in -the grey of the morning from the house of his fiancée when he was -twenty-seven. The fairies he saw came along riding on wee horses: -his recollection is that he now and then mastered his eyes and -found the road quite clear, but the next moment the vision would -return, and he thought he saw the diminutive cavalcade as plainly -as possible. Similarly, a man of the name of Solomon Evans, when, -thirty years ago, making his way home late at night through Glynllifon -Park, found himself followed by quite a crowd of little creatures, -which he described as being of the size of guinea pigs and covered -with red and white spots. He was an ignorant man, who knew no better -than to believe to the day of his death, some eight or nine years -ago, that they were demons. This is probably a blurred version of -a story concerning Cwn Annwn, 'Hell hounds,' such as the following, -published by Mr. O. M. Edwards in his Cymru for 1897, p. 190, from -Mr. J. H. Roberts' essay mentioned above at p. 148:--'Ages ago as -a man who had been engaged on business, not the most creditable in -the world, was returning in the depth of night across Cefn Creini, -and thinking in a downcast frame of mind over what he had been -doing, he heard in the distance a low and fear-inspiring bark; then -another bark, and another, and then half a dozen and more. Ere long -he became aware that he was being pursued by dogs, and that they were -Cwn Annwn. He beheld them coming: he tried to flee, but he felt quite -powerless and could not escape. Nearer and nearer they came, and he -saw the shepherd with them: his face was black and he had horns on -his head. They had come round him and stood in a semicircle ready to -rush upon him, when he had a remarkable deliverance: he remembered -that he had in his pocket a small cross, which he showed them. They -fled in the greatest terror in all directions, and this accounts for -the proverb, Mwy na'r cythraul at y groes (Any more than the devil -to the cross).' That is Mr. Roberts' story; but several allusions -have already been made to Cwn Annwn. It would be right probably to -identify them in the first instance with the pack with which Arawn, -king of Annwn, is found hunting by Pwyll, king of Dyfed, when the -latter happens to meet him in Glyn Cuch in his own realm. Then in a -poem in the Black Book of Carmarthen we find Gwyn ab Nûd with a pack -led by Dormarth, a hound with a red snout which he kept close to the -ground when engaged in the chase; similarly in the story of Iolo ab -Huw the dogs are treated as belonging to Gwyn. But on the whole the -later idea has more usually been, that the devil is the huntsman, -that his dogs give chase in the air, that their quarry consists of -the souls of the departed, and that their bark forebodes a death, -since they watch for the souls of men about to die. This, however, -might be objected to as pagan; so I have heard the finishing touch -given to it in the neighbourhood of Ystrad Meurig, by one who, like -Mr. Pughe, explained that it is the souls only of notoriously wicked -men and well-known evil livers. With this limitation the pack [81] -seems in no immediate danger of being regarded as poaching. - -To return to Llanaelhaearn, it is right to say that good spirits too, -who attend on good Calvinists, are there believed in. Morris Hughes, -of Cwm Corryn, was the first Calvinistic Methodist at Llanaelhaearn; -he was great-grandfather to Robert Hughes' wife; and he used to be -followed by two pretty little yellow birds. He would call to them, -'Wryd, Wryd!' and they would come and feed out of his hand, and -when he was dying they came and flapped their wings against his -window. This was testified to by John Thomas, of Moelfre Bach, who -was present at the time. Thomas died some twenty-five years ago, at -the age of eighty-seven. I have heard this story from other people, -but I do not know what to make of it, though I may add that the little -birds are believed to have been angels. In Mr. Rees' Welsh Saints, -pp. 305-6, Gwryd is given as the name of a friar who lived about the -end of the twelfth century, and has been commemorated on November 1; -and the author adds a note referring to the Cambrian Register for -1800, vol. iii. p. 221, where it is said that Gwryd relieved the bard -Einion ab Gwalchmai of some oppression, probably mental, which had -afflicted him for seven years. Is one to suppose that Gwryd sent two -angels in the form of little birds to protect the first Llanaelhaearn -Methodist? The call 'Wryd, Wryd,' would seem to indicate that the -name was not originally Gwryd, but Wryd, to be identified possibly -with the Pictish name Uoret in an inscription at St. Vigean's, -near Arbroath, and to be distinguished from the Welsh word gwryd, -'valour,' and from the Welsh name Gwriad, representing what in its -Gaulish form was Viriatus. We possibly have the name Wryd in Hafod -Wryd, a place in the Machno Valley above Bettws y Coed; otherwise one -would have expected Hafod y Gwryd, making colloquially, Hafod Gwryd. - -Mr. Hughes told me a variety of things about Nant Gwrtheyrn, one of the -spots where the Vortigern story is localized. The Nant is a sort of a -cul de sac hollow opening to the sea at the foot of the Eifl. There is -a rock there called Y Farches, and the angle of the sea next to the -old castle, which seems to be merely a mound, is called Y Llynclyn, -or 'The Whirlpool'; and this is perhaps an important item in the -localizing of Vortigern's city there. I was informed by Mr. Hughes -that the grave of Olfyn is in this Nant, with a razed church close by: -both are otherwise quite unknown to me. Coming away from this weird -spot to the neighbourhood of Celynnog, one finds that the Pennard -of the Mabinogi of Math is now called Pennarth, and has on it a -well-known cromlech. Of course, I did not leave Mr. Hughes without -asking him about Caer Arianrhod, and I found that he called it Tre' -Gaer Anrheg: he described it as a stony patch in the sea, and it can, -he says, be reached on foot when the ebb is at its lowest in spring -and autumn. The story he had heard about it when he was a boy at school -with David Thomas, better known by his bardic name of Dafyd Du Eryri, -was the following:-- - -'Tregaer Anrheg was inhabited by a family of robbers, and among -other things they killed and robbed a man at Glyn Iwrch, near the -further wall of Glynnllifon Park: this completed the measure of -their lawlessness. There was one woman, however, living with them at -Tregaer Anrheg, who was not related to them, and as she went out one -evening with her pitcher to fetch water, she heard a voice crying out, -Dos i ben y bryn i wel'd rhyfedod, that is, Go up the hill to see a -wonder. She obeyed, and as soon as she got to the top of the hill, -whereby was meant Dinas Dinlle, she beheld Tregaer Anrheg sinking in -the sea.' - -As I have wandered away from the fairies I may add the following -curious bit of legend which Mr. Hughes gave me:--'When St. Beuno -lived at Celynnog, he used to go regularly to preach at Llandwyn on -the opposite side of the water, which he always crossed on foot. But -one Sunday he accidentally dropped his book of sermons into the water, -and when he had failed to recover it a gylfin-hir, or curlew, came -by, picked it up, and placed it on a stone out of the reach of the -tide. The saint prayed for the protection and favour of the Creator -for the gylfin-hir: it was granted, and so nobody ever knows where -that bird makes its nest.' - - - - -IV. - -One day in August of the same summer I went to have another look -at the old inscribed stone at Gesail Gyfarch [82], near Tremadoc, -and, instead of returning the same way, I walked across to Criccieth -Station; but on my way I was directed to call at a farm house called -Llwyn y Mafon Uchaf, where I was to see Mr. Edward Llewelyn, a bachelor -then seventy-six years of age. He is a native of the neighbourhood, -and has always lived in it; moreover, he has now been for some time -blind. He had heard a good many fairy tales. Among others he mentioned -John Roberts, a slater from the Garn, that is Carn Dolbenmaen, as -having one day, when there was a little mist and a drizzling rain, -heard a crowd of fairies talking together in great confusion, near -a sheepfold on Llwytmor Mountain; but he was too much afraid to look -at them. He also told me of a man at Ystum Cegid, a farm not far off, -having married a fairy wife on condition that he was not to touch her -with any kind of iron on pain of her leaving him for ever. Then came -the usual accident in catching a horse in order to go to a fair at -Carnarvon, and the immediate disappearance of the wife. At this point -Mr. Llewelyn's sister interposed to the effect that the wife did once -return and address her husband in the rhyme, Os byd anwyd ar fy mab, -&c.: see pp. 44, 55 above. Then Mr. Llewelyn enumerated several people -who are of this family, among others a girl, who is, according to him, -exactly like the fairies. This made me ask what the fairies are like, -and he answered that they are small unprepossessing creatures, with -yellow skin and black hair. Some of the men, however, whom he traced -to a fairy origin are by no means of this description. The term there -for men of fairy descent is Belsiaid, and they live mostly in the -neighbouring parish of Pennant, where it would never do for me to -go and collect fairy tales, as I am told; and Mr. Llewelyn remembers -the fighting that used to take place at the fairs at Penmorfa if the -term Belsiaid once began to be heard. Mr. Llewelyn was also acquainted -with the tale of the midwife that went to a fairy family, and how the -thieving husband had deprived her of the use of one eye. He also spoke -of the fairies changing children, and how one of these changelings, -supposed to be a baby, expressed himself to the effect that he had -seen the acorn before the oak, and the egg before the chick, but -never anybody who brewed ale in an egg-shell: see p. 62 above. As to -modes of getting rid of the changelings, a friend of Mr. Llewelyn's -mentioned the story that one was once dropped into the Glaslyn river, -near Bedgelert. The sort of children the fairies liked were those -that were unlike their own; that is, bairns whose hair was white, or -inclined to yellow, and whose skin was fair. He had a great deal to say -of a certain Elis Bach of Nant Gwrtheyrn, who used to be considered -a changeling. With the exception of this changing of children the -fairies seemed to have been on fairly good terms with the inhabitants, -and to have been in the habit of borrowing from farm houses a padell -and gradell for baking. The gradell is a sort of round flat iron, -on which the dough is put, and the padell is the patella or pan put -over it: they are still commonly used for baking in North Wales. Well, -the fairies used to borrow these two articles, and by way of payment -to leave money on the hob at night. All over Lleyn the Tylwyth are -represented as borrowing padell a gradell. They seem to have never -been very strong in household furniture, especially articles made of -iron. Mr. Llewelyn had heard that the reason why people do not see -fairies nowadays is that they have been exorcised (wedi eu hoffrymu) -for hundreds of years to come. - -About the same time I was advised to try the memory of Miss Jane -Williams, who lives at the Graig, Tremadoc: she was then, as I was -told, seventy-five, very quick-witted, but by no means communicative -to idlers. The most important information she had for me was to the -effect that the Tylwyth Teg had been exorcised away (wedi 'ffrymu) -and would not be back in our day. When she was about twelve she served -at the Gelli between Tremadoc and Pont Aberglaslyn. Her master's -name was Siôn Ifan, and his wife was a native of the neighbourhood -of Carnarvon; she had many tales to tell them about the Tylwyth, -how they changed children, how they allured men to the fairy rings, -and how their dupes returned after a time in a wretched state, with -hardly any flesh on their bones. She heard her relate the tale of -a man who married a fairy, and how she left him; but before going -away from her husband and children she asked the latter by name which -they would like to have, a dirty cow-yard (buches fudur) or a clean -cow-yard (buches lân). Some gave the right answer, a dirty cow-yard, -but some said a clean cow-yard: the lot of the latter was poverty, -for they were to have no stock of cattle. The same question is asked in -a story recorded by the late Rev. Elias Owen, in his Welsh Folk-lore, -p. 82 [83]: his instance belongs to the neighbourhood of Pentrevoelas, -in Denbighshire. - - - - -V. - -When I was staying at Pwllheli the same summer, I went out to the -neighbouring village of Four Crosses, and found a native of the place, -who had heard a great many curious things from his mother. His name -was Lewis Jones: he was at the time over eighty, and he had formerly -been a saddler. Among other things, his mother often told him that her -grandmother had frequently been with the fairies, when the latter was -a child. She lived at Plâs Du, and once she happened to be up near Carn -Bentyrch when she saw them. She found them resembling little children, -and playing in a brook that she had to cross. She was so delighted with -them, and stayed so long with them, that a search was made for her, -when she was found in the company of the fairies. Another time, they -met her as she was going on an errand across a large bog on a misty -day, when there was a sort of a drizzle, which one might call either -dew or rain, as it was not decidedly either, but something between the -two, such as the Welsh would call gwlithlaw, 'dew-rain.' She loitered -in their company until a search was made for her again. Lewis Jones -related to me the story of the midwife--he pronounced it in Welsh -'midwaith'--who attended on a fairy. As in the other versions, -she lost the sight of one eye in consequence of her discovering -the gentleman fairy thieving; but the fair at which this happened -was held in this instance at Nefyn. He related also how a farmer at -Pennant had wedded a fairy called Bella. This tale proceeded like the -other versions, and did not even omit the fighting at Penmorfa: see -pp. 89, 93, 220. He had likewise the tale about the two youths who had -gone out to fetch some cattle, and came, while returning about dusk, -across a party of fairies dancing. The one was drawn into the circle, -and the other was suspected at length of having murdered him, until, -at the suggestion of a wizard, he went to the same place at the end -of a year and a day: then he found him dancing, and managed to get -him out. He had been reduced to a mere skeleton, but he inquired at -once if the cattle he was driving were far ahead. Jones had heard of -a child changed by the fairies when its mother had placed it in some -hay while she worked at the harvest. She discovered he was not her -own by brewing in an egg-shell, as usual. Then she refused to take any -notice of him, and she soon found her own baby returned; but the latter -looked much the worse for its sojourn in the land of the Tylwyth Teg. - -My informant described to me Elis Bach of Nant Gwrtheyrn, already -mentioned, p. 221, who died somewhat more than forty years ago. His -father was a farmer there, and his children, both boys and girls, -were like ordinary folks, excepting Elis, who was deformed, his legs -being so short that his body seemed only a few inches from the ground -when he walked. His voice was also small and squeaky. However, he was -very sharp, and could find his way among the rocks pretty well when -he went in quest of his father's sheep and goats, of which there used -to be plenty there formerly. Everybody believed Elis to have been a -changeling, and one saying of his is still remembered in that part of -the country. When strangers visited Nant Gwrtheyrn, a thing which did -not frequently happen, and when his parents asked them to their table, -and pressed them to eat, he would squeak out drily, Buta 'nynna buta'r -cwbwl, that is to say, 'Eating that means eating all we have.' - -He told me further that the servant girls used formerly to take care -to bring a supply of water indoors at the approach of night, that the -fairies might find plenty in which to bathe their children, for fear -that they might use the milk instead, if water was wanting. Moreover, -when they had been baking, they took care to leave the fairies both -padell and gradell, that they might do their baking in the night. The -latter used to pay for this kindness by leaving behind them a cake of -fairy bread and sometimes money on the hob. I have, however, not been -able to learn anything about the quality or taste of this fairy food. - -He had also a great deal to say about the making of bonfires about the -beginning of winter. A bonfire was always kindled on the farm called -Cromlech on the eve of the Winter Calends or Nos Galan Gaeaf, as it -is termed in Welsh; and the like were to be seen in abundance towards -Llithfaen, Carnguwch, and Llanaelhaearn, as well as on the Merioneth -side of the bay. Besides fuel, each person present used to throw into -the fire a small stone, with a mark whereby he should know it again. If -he succeeded in finding the stone on the morrow, the year would be a -lucky one for him, but the contrary if he failed to recover it. Those -who assisted at the making of the bonfire watched until the flames were -out, and then somebody would raise the usual cry, when each ran away -for his life, lest he should be found last. This cry, which is a sort -of equivalent, well known over Carnarvonshire, of the English saying, -'The devil take the hindmost,' was in the Welsh of that county-- - - - Yr hwch du gwta [84] A gipio'r ola'; - - -that is to say, 'May the black sow without a tail seize the hindmost.' - -The cutty black sow is often alluded to nowadays to frighten children -in Arfon, and it is clearly the same creature that is described in -some parts of North Wales as follows:-- - - - Hwch du gwta A cutty black sow - Ar bob camfa On every stile, - Yn nydu a chardio Spinning and carding - Bob nos G'langaea'. Every Allhallows' Eve. - - -In Cardiganshire this is reduced to the words:-- - - - Nos Galan Gaea', On Allhallows' Eve - Bwbach ar bob camfa. A bogie on every stile. - - -Welsh people speak of only three Calends--Calan-mai, or the first of -May; Calan-gaeaf, the Calends of Winter, or Allhallows; and Y Calan, -or The Calends par excellence, that is to say, the first day of -January, which last is probably not Celtic but Roman. The other two -most certainly are, and it is one of their peculiarities that all -uncanny spirits and bogies are at liberty the night preceding each -of them. The Hwch du gwta is at large on Allhallows' Eve, and the -Scottish Gaels have the name 'Samhanach' for any Allhallows' demon, -formed from the word Samhain, Allhallows. The eve of the first of May -may be supposed to have been the same, as may be gathered from the -story of Rhiannon's baby and of Teyrnon's colt, both of which were -stolen by undescribed demons that night--I allude to the Mabinogi of -Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed. - - - - -VI. - -At Nefyn, in Lleyn [85], I had some stories about the Tylwyth Teg from -Lowri Hughes, the widow of John Hughes, who lives in a cottage at Pen -Isa'r Dref, and is over seventy-four years of age. An aunt of hers, -who knew a great many tales, had died about six years before my visit, -at the advanced age of ninety-six. She used to relate to Lowri how the -Tylwyth were in the habit of visiting Singrug, a house now in ruins -on the land of Pen Isa'r Dref, and how they had a habit of borrowing -a padell and gradell for baking: they paid for the loan of them by -giving their owners a loaf. Her grandmother, who died not long ago -at a very advanced age, remembered a time when she was milking in a -corner of the land of Carn Bodüan, and how a little dog came to her -and received a blow from her that sent it rolling away. Presently, -she added, the dog reappeared with a lame man playing on a fiddle; -but she gave them no milk. If she had done so, there was no knowing, -she said, how much money she might have got. But, as it was, such -singing and dancing were indulged in by the Tylwyth around the lame -fiddler that she ran away as fast as her feet could carry her. Lowri's -husband had also seen the Tylwyth at the break of day, near Madrun -Mill, where they seem to have been holding a sort of conversazione; -but presently one of them observed that he had heard the voice of the -hen's husband, and off they went instantly then. The fairies were in -the habit also of dancing and singing on the headland across which lie -the old earthworks called Dinllaen. When they had played and enjoyed -themselves enough, they used to lift a certain bit of sod and descend -to their own land. My informant had also heard the midwife story, -and she was aware that the fairies changed people's children; in -fact, she mentioned to me a farm house not far off where there was a -daughter of this origin then, not to mention that she knew all about -Elis Bach. Another woman whom I met near Porth Dinllaen said, that the -Dinllaen fairies were only seen when the weather was a little misty. - -At Nefyn, Mr. John Williams (Alaw Lleyn) got from his mother the -tale of the midwife. It stated that the latter lost the sight of her -right eye at Nefyn Fair, owing to the fairy she there recognized, -pricking her eye with a green rush. During my visit to Aberdaron, -my wife and I went to the top of Mynyd Anelog, and on the way up -we passed a cottage, where a very illiterate woman told us that the -Tylwyth Teg formerly frequented the mountain when there was mist on -it; that they changed people's children if they were left alone on the -ground; and that the way to get the right child back was to leave the -fairy urchin without being touched or fed. She also said that, after -baking, people left the gradell for the fairies to do their baking: -they would then leave a cake behind them as pay. As for the fairies -just now, they have been exorcised (wedi'ffrymu) for some length of -time. Mrs. Williams, of Pwll Defaid, told me that the rock opposite, -called Clip y Gylfinir, on Bodwydog mountain, a part of Mynyd y Rhiw, -was the resort of the Tylwyth Teg, and that they revelled there -when it was covered with mist; she added that a neighbouring farm, -called Bodermud Isa', was well known at one time as a place where -the fairies came to do their baking. But the most remarkable tale I -had in the neighbourhood of Aberdaron was from Evan Williams, a smith -who lives at Yr Ard Las, on Rhos Hirwaen. If I remember rightly, he -is a native of Llaniestin, and what he told me relates to a farmer's -wife who lived at the Nant, in that parish. Now this old lady was -frequently visited by a fairy who used to borrow padell a gradell from -her. These she used to get, and she returned them with a loaf borne -on her head in acknowledgement. But one day she came to ask for the -loan of her troell bach, or wheel for spinning flax. When handing her -this, the farmer's wife wished to know her name, as she came so often, -but she refused to tell her. However, she was watched at her spinning, -and overheard singing to the whir of the wheel:-- - - - Bychan a wyda' hi Little did she know - Mai Sìli go Dwt That Silly go Dwt - Yw f'enw i. Is my name. - - -This explains to some extent the sìli ffrit sung by a Corwrion fairy -when she came out of the lake to spin: see p. 64 above. At first I -had in vain tried to make out the meaning of that bit of legend; but -since then I have also found the Llaniestin rhyme a little varied -at Llanberis: it was picked up there, I do not exactly know how, -by my little girls this summer. The words as they have them run thus:-- - - - Bychan a wyda' hi - Mai Trwtyn-Tratyn - Yw f'enw i. - - -Here, instead of Sìli go Dwt or Sìli ffrit, the name is Trwtyn-Tratyn, -and these doggerels at once remind one of the tale of Rumpelstiltzchen; -but it is clear that we have as yet only the merest fragments of the -whole, though I have been thus far unable to get any more. So one -cannot quite say how far it resembled the tale of Rumpelstiltzchen: -there is certainly one difference, which is at once patent, namely, -that while the German Rumpelstiltzchen was a male fairy, our Welsh Sìli -ffrit or Sìli go Dwt is of the other sex. Probably, in the Llaniestin -tale, the borrowing for baking had nothing to do with the spinning, -for all fairies in Lleyn borrow a padell and a gradell, while they -do not usually appear to spin. Then may we suppose that the spinning -was in this instance done for the farmer's wife on conditions which -she was able to evade by discovering the fairy helper's name? At -any rate one expects a story representing the farmer's wife laid -under obligation by the fairy, and not the reverse. I shall have an -opportunity of returning to this kind of tale in chapter x. - -The smith told me another short tale, about a farmer who lived not long -ago at Deunant, close to Aberdaron. The latter used, as is the wont -of country people, to go out a few steps in front of his house every -night to ---- before going to bed; but once on a time, while he was -standing there, a stranger stood by him and spoke to him, saying that -he had no idea how he and his family were annoyed by him. The farmer -asked how that could be, to which the stranger replied that his house -was just below where they stood, and if he would only stand on his -foot he would see that what he said was true. The farmer complying, -put his foot on the other's foot, and then he could clearly see that -all the slops from his house went down the chimney of the other's -house, which stood far below in a street he had never seen before. The -fairy then advised him to have his door in the other side of his house, -and that if he did so his cattle would never suffer from the clwy' byr -[86]. The result was that the farmer obeyed, and had his door walled -up and another made in the other side of the house: ever after he was -a most prosperous man, and nobody was so successful as he in rearing -stock in all that part of the country. To place the whole thing beyond -the possibility of doubt, Evan Williams assured me that he had often -seen the farmer's house with the front door in the back. I mention this -strange story in order to compare it, in the matter of standing on the -fairy's foot, with that of standing with one's foot just inside a fairy -ring. Compare also standing on a particular sod in Dyfed in order to -behold the delectable realm of Rhys Dwfn's Children: see p. 158 above. - - - - -VII. - -Soon afterwards I went to the neighbourhood of Aber Soch and Llanengan, -where I was lucky enough to find Professor Owen of St. David's College, -Lampeter, since appointed Bishop of St. David's, on a visit to his -native place. He took me round to those of the inhabitants who were -thought most likely to have tales to tell; but I found nothing about -the fairies except the usual story of their borrowing padell a gradell, -and of their changing children. However, one version I heard of the -process of recovering the stolen child differs from all others known -to me: it was given us by Margaret Edwards, of Pentre Bach, whose -age was then eighty-seven. It was to the effect that the mother, -who had been given a fairy infant, was to place it on the floor, -and that all those present in the house should throw a piece of iron -at it. This she thought was done with the view of convincing the -Tylwyth Teg of the intention to kill the changeling, and in order to -induce them to bring the right child back. The plan was, we are told, -always successful, and it illustrates, to my thinking, the supposed -efficacy of iron against the fairies. - -On the way to Aber Soch I passed by an old-fashioned house which -has all the appearance of having once been a place of considerable -importance; and on being told that its name is Castellmarch, I began -thinking of March ab Meirchion mentioned in the Triads. He, I had long -been convinced, ought to be the Welsh reflex of Labhraidh Lorc, or the -Irish king with horse's ears; and the corresponding Greek character -of Midas with ass's ears is so well known that I need not dwell on -it. So I undertook to question various people in the neighbourhood -about the meaning of the name of Castellmarch. Most of them analysed -it into Castell y March, the 'Castle of the Steed,' and explained -that the knight of the shire or some other respectable obscurity kept -his horses there. This treatment of the word is not very decidedly -countenanced by the pronunciation, which makes the name into one word -strongly accented on the middle syllable. It was further related to me -how Castellmarch was once upon a time inhabited by a very wicked and -cruel man, one of whose servants, after being very unkindly treated -by him, ran away and went on board a man-of-war. Some time afterwards -the man-of-war happened to be in Cardigan Bay, and the runaway servant -persuaded the captain of the vessel to come and anchor in the Tudwal -Roads. Furthermore he induced him to shell his old master's mansion; -and the story is regarded as proved by the old bullets now and then -found at Castellmarch. It has since been suggested to me that the -bullets are evidence of an attack on the place during the Civil War, -which is not improbable. But having got so far as to find that there -was a wicked, cruel man associated with Castellmarch, I thought I -should at once hear the item of tradition which I was fishing for; -but not so: it was not to be wormed out in a hurry. However, after -tiring a very old blacksmith, whose memory was far gone, with my -questions, and after he had in his turn tired me with answers of the -kind I have already described, I ventured to put it to him at last -whether he had never heard some very silly tale about the lord of -Castellmarch, to the effect that he was not quite like other men. He -at once admitted that he had heard it said that he had horse's ears, -but that he would never have thought of repeating such nonsense to -me. This is not a bad instance of the difficulty which one has in -eliciting this sort of tradition from the people. It is true that, as -far as regards Castellmarch, nothing, as it happens, would have been -lost if I had failed at Aber Soch, for I got the same information later -at Sarn Fyllteyrn; not to mention that after coming back to my books, -and once more turning over the leaves of the Brython, I was delighted -to find the tale there. It occurs at p. 431 of the volume for 1860. It -is given with several other interesting bits of antiquity, and at the -end the editor has put 'Edward Llwyd, 1693'; so I suppose the whole -comes from letters emanating from the great Lhwyd, for so, or rather -Lhuyd, he preferred to write his name. It is to the following effect:-- - -One of Arthur's warriors, whose name was March (or Parch) Amheirchion -[87], was lord of Castellmarch in Lleyn. This man had horse's ears -(resembling Midas), and lest anybody should know it, he used to kill -every man he sought to shave his beard, for fear lest he should not -be able to keep the secret; and on the spot where he was wont to -bury the bodies there grew reeds, one of which somebody cut to make -a pipe. The pipe would give no other sound than 'March Amheirchion -has horse's ears.' When the warrior heard this, he would probably -have killed the innocent man on that account, if he had not himself -failed to make the pipe produce any other sound. But after hearing -where the reed had grown, he made no further effort to conceal either -the murders or his ears. This story of Edward Llwyd's clearly goes -back to a time when some kind of a pipe was the favourite musical -instrument in North Wales, and not the harp. - - - - -VIII. - -Some time ago I was favoured with a short but interesting tale -by Mr. Evan Lloyd Jones, of Dinorwig, near Llanberis. Mr. Lloyd -Jones, I may here mention, published not long ago, in Llais y Wlad -(Bangor, North Wales), and in the Drych (Utica, United States of -North America), a series of articles entitled Llen y Werin yn Sir -Gaernarfon, or the Folklore of Carnarvonshire. I happened to see -it at a friend's house, and I found at once that the writer was -passionately fond of antiquities, and in the habit of making use -of the frequent opportunities he has in the Dinorwig quarries for -gathering information as to what used to be believed by the people of -Arfon and Anglesey. The tale about to be given relates to a lake called -Marchlyn Mawr, or the Great Horse-lake, for there are two lakes called -Marchlyn: they lie near one another, between the Fronllwyd, in the -parish of Llandegai, and the Elidyr, in the parishes of Llandeiniolen -and Llanberis. Mr. Lloyd Jones shall tell his tale in his own words:-- - -Amgylchynir y Marchlyn Mawr gan greigiau erchyll yr olwg arnynt; -a dywed tradodiad darfod i un o feibion y Rhiwen [88] unwaith tra yn -cynorthwyo dafad oed wedi syrthio i'r creigiau i dod odiyno, darganfod -ogof anferth: aeth i fewn idi a gwelod ei bod yn llawn o drysorau ac -arfau gwerthfawr; ond gan ei bod yn dechreu tywyllu, a dringo i fynu yn -orchwyl anhawd hyd yn nod yn ngoleu'r dyd, aeth adref y noswaith honno, -a boreu drannoeth ar lasiad y dyd cychwynnod eilwaith i'r ogof, ac heb -lawer o drafferth daeth o hyd idi: aeth i fewn, a dechreuod edrych o'i -amgylch ar y trysorau oed yno:--Ar ganol yr ogof yr oed bwrd enfawr -o aur pur, ac ar y bwrd goron o aur a pherlau: deallod yn y fan mai -coron a thrysorau Arthur oedynt--nesaod at y bwrd, a phan oed yn estyn -ei law i gymeryd gafael yn y goron dychrynwyd ef gan drwst erchyll, -trwst megys mil o daranau yn ymrwygo uwch ei ben ac aeth yr holl le -can dywylled a'r afagdu. Ceisiod ymbalfalu odiyno gynted ag y gallai; -pan lwydod i gyrraed i ganol y creigiau taflod ei olwg ar y llyn, -yr hwn oed wedi ei gynhyrfu drwydo a'i donnau brigwynion yn cael eu -lluchio trwy daned ysgythrog y creigiau hyd y man yr oed efe yn sefyll -arno; ond tra yr oed yn parhau i syllu ar ganol y llyn gwelai gwrwgl -a thair o'r benywod prydferthaf y disgynod llygad unrhyw dyn arnynt -erioed yndo yn cael ei rwyfo yn brysur tuag at enau yr ogof. Ond -och! yr oed golwg ofnadwy yr hwn oed yn rhwyfo yn digon i beri iasau -o fraw trwy y dyn cryfaf. Gallod y llanc rywfod dianc adref ond ni -fu iechyd yn ei gyfansodiad ar ol hynny, a bydai hyd yn nod crybwyll -enw y Marchlyn yn ei glywedigaeth yn digon i'w yrru yn wallgof. - -'The Marchlyn Mawr is surrounded by rocks terrible to look at, and -tradition relates how one of the sons of the farmer of Rhiwen, once -on a time, when helping a sheep that had fallen among the rocks to -get away, discovered a tremendous cave there; he entered, and saw -that it was full of treasures and arms of great value; but, as it -was beginning to grow dark, and as clambering back was a difficult -matter even in the light of day, he went home that evening, and next -morning with the grey dawn he set out again for the cave, when he -found it without much trouble. He entered, and began to look about -him at the treasures that were there. In the centre of the cave stood -a huge table of pure gold, and on the table lay a crown of gold and -pearls. He understood at once that they were the crown and treasures -of Arthur. He approached the table, and as he stretched forth his -hand to take hold of the crown he was frightened by an awful noise, -the noise, as it were, of a thousand thunders bursting over his head, -and the whole place became as dark as Tartarus. He tried to grope -and feel his way out as fast as he could. When he had succeeded in -reaching to the middle of the rocks, he cast his eye on the lake, -which had been stirred all through, while its white-crested waves -dashed through the jagged teeth of the rocks up to the spot on which -he stood. But as he continued looking at the middle of the lake he -beheld a coracle containing three women, the fairest that the eye of -man ever fell on. They were being quickly rowed to the mouth of the -cave; but the dread aspect of him who rowed was enough to send thrills -of horror through the strongest of men. The youth was able somehow to -escape home, but no health remained in his constitution after that, -and even the mere mention of the Marchlyn in his hearing used to be -enough to make him insane.' - -Mr. Lloyd Jones appends to the tale a note to the following -effect:--There is a small eminence on the shore of the Marchlyn -Mawr, in the parish of Llandegai, called Bryn Cwrwgl, or the 'Hill -of the Coracle'; and Ogof y Marchlyn, or the 'Marchlyn Cave,' is a -name familiar enough to everybody in these neighbourhoods. There -were some--unless he ought to say that there still are some--who -believed that there was abundance of treasure in the cave. Several -young men from the quarries, both of the Cae and of Dinorwig, have -been in the midst of the Marchlyn rocks, searching for the cave, -and they succeeded in making their way into a cave. They came away, -however, without the treasures. One old man, Robert Edwards (Iorwerth -Sardis), used to tell him that he and several others had brought -ropes from the quarry to go into the cave, but that they found no -treasure. So far, I have given the substance of Mr. Jones' words, -to which I would add the following statement, which I have from a -native of Dinorwig:--About seventy years ago, when the gentry were -robbing the poor of these districts of their houses and of the lands -which the latter had enclosed out of the commons, an old woman called -Siân William of the Garned was obliged to flee from her house with -her baby--the latter was known later in life as the Rev. Robert Ellis, -of Ysgoldy--in her arms. It was in one of the Marchlyn caves that she -found refuge for a day and night. Another kind of tale connected with -the Marchlyn Mawr is recorded in the Powys-land Club's Collections, -Hist. and Arch., vol. xv. p. 137, by the Rev. Elias Owen, to the effect -that 'a man who was fishing in the lake found himself enveloped in the -clouds that had descended from the hills to the water. A sudden gust -of wind cleared a road through the mist that hung over the lake, and -revealed to his sight a man busily engaged in thatching a stack. The -man, or rather the fairy, stood on a ladder. The stack and ladder -rested on the surface of the lake.' - - - - -IX. - -Mr. E. S. Roberts, of Llandysilio School, near Llangollen (p. 138), -has sent me more bits of legends about the fairies. He heard the -following from Mr. Thomas Parry, of Tan y Coed Farm, who had heard -it from his father, the late Evan Parry, and the latter from Thomas -Morris, of Eglwyseg, who related it to him more than once:--Thomas -Morris happened to be returning home from Llangollen very late on one -Saturday night in the middle of the summer, and by the time he reached -near home the day had dawned, when he saw a number of the Tylwyth -Teg with a dog walking about hither and thither on the declivity of -the Eglwyseg Rocks, which hung threateningly overhead. When he had -looked at them for some minutes, he directed his steps towards them; -but as they saw him approaching they hid themselves, as he thought, -behind a large stone. On reaching the spot, he found under the stone -a hole by which they had made their way into their subterranean -home. So ends the tale as related to Mr. Roberts. It is remarkable -as representing the fairies looking rather like poachers; but there -are not wanting others which speak of their possessing horses and -greyhounds, as all gentlemen were supposed to. - -One of Mr. Roberts' tales is in point: he had it from Mr. Hugh -Francis [89], of Holyhead House, Ruthin, and the latter heard it -from Robert Roberts, of Amlwch, who has now been dead about thirty -years:--About 105 years ago there lived in the parish of Llandyfrydog, -near Llannerch y Med, in Anglesey, a man named Ifan Gruffyd, whose cow -happened to disappear one day. Ifan Gruffyd was greatly distressed, -and he and his daughter walked up and down the whole neighbourhood -in search of her. As they were coming back in the evening from their -unsuccessful quest, they crossed the field called after the Dyfrydog -thief, Cae Lleidr Dyfrydog, where they saw a great number of little -men on ponies quickly galloping in a ring. They both drew nigh to -look on; but Ifan Gruffyd's daughter, in her eagerness to behold the -little knights more closely, got unawares within the circle in which -their ponies galloped, and did not return to her father. The latter -now forgot all about the loss of the cow, and spent some hours in -searching for his daughter; but at last he had to go home without her, -in the deepest sadness. A few days afterwards he went to Mynadwyn to -consult John Roberts, who was a magician of no mean reputation. That -'wise man' told Ifan Gruffyd to be no longer sad, since he could get -his daughter back at the very hour of the night of the anniversary of -the time when he lost her. He would, in fact, then see her riding round -in the company of the Tylwyth Teg whom he had seen on that memorable -night. The father was to go there accompanied by four stalwart men, -who were to aid him in the rescue of his daughter. He was to tie a -strong rope round his waist, and by means of this his friends were to -pull him out of the circle when he entered to seize his daughter. He -went to the spot, and in due time he beheld his daughter riding round -in great state. In he rushed and snatched her, and, thanks to his -friends, he got her out of the fairy ring before the little men had -time to think of it. The first thing Ifan's daughter asked him was, -if he had found the cow, for she had not the slightest reckoning of -the time she had spent with the fairies. - -Whilst I am about it, I may as well go through Mr. Roberts' -contributions. The next is also a tale related to him by Mr. Hugh -Francis, and, like the last, it comes from Anglesey. Mr. Francis' -great-grandfather was called Robert Francis, and he had a mill at -Aberffraw about 100 years ago; and the substance of the following tale -was often repeated in the hearing of Mr. Roberts' informant by his -father and his grandfather:--In winter Robert Francis used to remain -very late at work drying corn in his kiln. As it was needful to keep -a steady fire going, he used to go backwards and forwards from the -house, looking after it not unfrequently until it was two o'clock -in the morning. Once on a time he happened to leave a cauldron full -of water on the floor of the kiln, and great was his astonishment on -returning to find two little people washing themselves in the water. He -abstained from entering to disturb them, and went back to the house to -tell his wife of it. 'Oh,' said she, 'they are fairies.' He presently -went back to the kiln and found that they were gone. He fancied they -were man and wife. However, they had left the place very clean, and -to crown all, he found a sum of money left by them to pay him, as he -supposed, for the water and the use of the kiln. The ensuing night many -more fairies came to the kiln, for the visitors of the previous night -had brought their children with them; and the miller found them busy -bathing them and looking very comfortable in the warm room where they -were. The pay that night was also more considerable than the night -before, as the visitors were more numerous. After this the miller -never failed to leave a vessel full of water in the kiln every night, -and the fairies availed themselves of it for years, until, in fact, -they took offence at the miller telling the neighbours of the presents -of money which had been left him in the kiln. Thenceforth no fairies -were known to frequent the kiln belonging to the Aberffraw mill. - -The last tale communicated to me by Mr. Roberts is the following, -which he elicited from Margaret Davies, his housekeeper, by reading -to her some of the fairy legends published in the Cymmrodor a short -while ago--probably the Corwrion series, one of which bears great -resemblance to hers. Mrs. Davies, who is sixty-one years of age, says -that when her parents, Edward and Ann Williams, lived at Rhoslydan, -near Bryneglwys, in Yale, some seventy-five years ago, the servant -man happened one day in the spring to be ploughing in a field near -the house. As he was turning his team back at one end of the field, -he heard some one calling out from the other end, Y mae eisieu hoelen -yn y pìl, or 'The peel wants a nail'; for pìl is the English peel, -a name given to a sort of shovel provided with a long handle for -placing loaves in an oven, and for getting them out again. When at -length the ploughman had reached the end of the field whence he guessed -the call to have proceeded, he there saw a small peel, together with -a hammer and a nail, under the hedge. He saw that the peel required -a nail to keep it together, and as everything necessary for mending -it were there ready to hand, he did as it had been suggested. Then -he followed at the plough-tail until he came round again to the same -place, and there he this time saw a cake placed for him on the spot -where he had previously found the peel and the other things, which -had now disappeared. When the servant related this to his master, he -told him at once that it was one of the Tylwyth Teg of that locality -that had called out to him. With this should be compared the story -of the man who mended a fairy's plough vice: see p. 64 above. - - - - -X. - -Early this year I had occasion to visit the well-known Hengwrt Library -at Peniarth, and during my stay there Mr. Wynne very kindly took -me to see such of the Llanegryn people as were most likely to have -somewhat to say about the fairies. Many of the inhabitants had heard -of them, but they had no long tales about them. One man, however, -told me of a William Pritchard, of Pentre Bach, near Llwyngwryl, -who died at sixty, over eighty years ago, and of a Rhys Williams, the -clerk of Llangelynin, how they were going home late at night from a -cock-fight at Llanegryn, and how they came across the fairies singing -and dancing on a plot of ground known as Gwastad Meirionyd, 'the Plain -of Merioneth,' on the way from Llwyngwryl to Llanegryn. It consists, -I am told by Mr. Robert Roberts of Llanegryn, of no more than some -twenty square yards, outside which one has a good view of Cardigan -Bay and the heights of Merioneth and Carnarvonshire, while from the -Gwastad itself neither sea nor mountain is visible. On this spot, -then, the belated cockfighters were surrounded by the fairies. They -swore at the fairies and took to their heels, but they were pursued -as far as Clawd Du. Also I was told that Elen Egryn, the authoress, -some sixty years ago, of some poetry called Telyn Egryn, had also seen -fairies in her youth, when she used to go up the hills to look after -her father's sheep. This happened near a little brook, from which she -could see the sea when the sun was in the act of sinking in it; then -many fairies would come out dancing and singing, and also crossing -and re-crossing the little brook. It was on the side of Rhiwfelen, -and she thought the little folks came out of the brook somewhere. She -had been scolded for talking about the fairies, but she firmly believed -in them to the end of her life. This was told me by Mr. W. Williams, -the tailor, who is about sixty years of age; and also by Mr. Rowlands, -the ex-bailiff of Peniarth, who is about seventy-five. I was moreover -much interested to discover at Llanegryn a scrap of kelpie story, -which runs as follows, concerning Llyn Gwernen, situated close to -the old road between Dolgelley and Llanegryn:-- - -As a man from the village of Llanegryn was returning in the dusk of -the evening across the mountain from Dolgelley, he heard, when hard -by Llyn Gwernen, a voice crying out from the water:-- - - - Daeth yr awr ond ni daeth y dyn! - - The hour is come but the man is not! - - -As the villager went on his way a little distance, what should meet -him but a man of insane appearance, and with nothing on but his -shirt. As he saw the man making full pelt for the waters of the lake, -he rushed at him to prevent him from proceeding any further. But as -to the sequel there is some doubt: one version makes the villager -conduct the man back about a mile from the lake to a farm house -called Dyffrydan, which was on the former's way home. Others seem to -think that the man in his shirt rushed irresistibly into the lake, -and this I have no doubt comes nearer the end of the story in its -original form. Lately I have heard a part of a similar story about -Llyn Cynnwch, which has already been mentioned, p. 135, above. My -informant is Miss Lucy Griffith, of Glynmalden, near Dolgelley, -a lady deeply interested in Welsh folklore and Welsh antiquities -generally. She obtained her information from a Dolgelley ostler, -formerly engaged at the Ship Hotel, to the effect that on Gwyl Galan, -'the eve of New Year's Day,' a person is seen walking backwards and -forwards on the strand of Cynnwch Lake, crying out:-- - - - Mae'r awr wedi dyfod a'r dyn heb dyfod! - - The hour is come while the man is not! - - -The ostler stated also that lights are to be seen on Cader Idris -on the eve of New Year's Day, whatever that statement may mean. The -two lake stories seem to suggest that the Lake Spirit was entitled -to a victim once a year, whether the sacrifice was regarded as the -result of accident or design. By way of comparison, one may mention -the notion, not yet extinct, that certain rivers in various parts -of the kingdom regularly claim so many victims: for some instances -at random see an article by Mr. J. M. Mackinlay, on Traces of River -Worship in Scottish Folklore, a paper published in the Proceedings -of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1895-6, pp. 69-76. Take -for example the following rhyme:-- - - - Blood-thirsty Dee - Each year needs three; - - But bonny Don - She needs none. - - -Or this:-- - - - Tweed said to Till - 'What gars ye rin sae still?' - Till said to Tweed - 'Though ye rin wi' speed - - An' I rin slaw, - Yet whar ye droon ae man - I droon twa.' - - - - -XI. - -In the neighbourhood of Ystrad Meurig, between the Teifi and the -Ystwyth basins, almost everybody can relate tales about the fairies, -but not much that is out of the ordinary run of such stories -elsewhere. Among others, Isaac Davies, the smith living at Ystrad -Meurig, had heard a great deal about fairies, and he said that there -were rings belonging to them in certain fields at Tan y Graig and -at Llanafan. Where the rings were, there the fairies danced until -the ground became red and bare of grass. The fairies were, according -to him, all women, and they dressed like foreigners, in short cotton -dresses reaching only to the knee-joint. This description is somewhat -peculiar, as the idea prevalent in the country around is, that the -fairy ladies had very long trains, and that they were very elegantly -dressed; so that it is a common saying there, that girls who dress -in a better or more showy fashion than ordinary look like Tylwyth -Teg, and the smith confessed he had often heard that said. Similarly -Howells, pp. 113, 121-2, finds the dresses of the fairies dancing -on the Freni, in the north-east of Pembrokeshire, represented as -indescribably elegant and varying in colour; and those who, in the -month of May, used to frequent the prehistoric encampment of Moedin -[90] or Moydin--from which a whole cantred takes its name in Central -Cardiganshire--as fond of appearing in green; while blue petticoats -are said, he says, to have prevailed in the fairy dances in North Wales -[91]. - -Another showed me a spot on the other side of the Teifi, where the -Tylwyth Teg had a favourite spot for dancing; and at the neighbouring -village of Swyd Ffynnon, another meadow was pointed out as their resort -on the farm of Dôl Bydyë. According to one account I had there, the -fairies dressed themselves in very long clothes, and when they danced -they took hold of one another's enormous trains. Besides the usual -tales concerning men enticed into the ring and retained in Faery for a -year and a day, and concerning the fairies' dread of pren cerdingen or -mountain ash, I had the midwife tale in two or three forms, differing -more or less from the versions current in North Wales. For the most -complete of them I am indebted to one of the young men studying at -the Grammar School, Mr. D. Lledrodian Davies. It used to be related -by an old woman who died some thirty years ago at the advanced age of -about 100. She was Pàli, mother of old Rachel Evans, who died seven or -eight years ago, when she was about eighty. The latter was a curious -character, who sometimes sang maswed, or rhymes of doubtful propriety, -and used to take the children of the village to see fairy rings. She -also used to see the Tylwyth, and had many tales to tell of them. But -her mother, Pàli, had actually been called to attend at the confinement -of one of them. The beginning of the tale is not very explicit; but, -anyhow, Pàli one evening found herself face to face with the fairy -lady she was to attend upon. She appeared to be the wife of one of -the princes of the country. She was held in great esteem, and lived -in a very grand palace. Everything there had been arranged in the -most beautiful and charming fashion. The wife was in her bed with -nothing about her but white, and she fared sumptuously. In due time, -when the baby had been born, the midwife had all the care connected -with dressing it and serving its mother. Pàli could see or hear nobody -in the whole place but the mother and the baby. She had no idea who -attended on them, or who prepared all the things they required, for -it was all done noiselessly and secretly. The mother was a charming -person, of an excellent temper and easy to manage. Morning and evening, -as she finished washing the baby, Pàli had a certain ointment given -her to rub the baby with. She was charged not to touch it but with -her hand, and especially not to put any near her eyes. This was -carried out for some time, but one day, as she was dressing the baby, -her eyes happened to itch, and she rubbed them with her hand. Then -at once she saw a great many wonders she had not before perceived; -and the whole place assumed a new aspect to her. She said nothing, -and in the course of the day she saw a great deal more. Among other -things, she observed small men and small women going in and out, -following a variety of occupations. But their movements were as light -as the morning breeze. To move about was no trouble to them, and they -brought things into the room with the greatest quickness. They prepared -dainty food for the confined lady with the utmost order and skill, -and the air of kindness and affection with which they served her -was truly remarkable. In the evening, as she was dressing the baby, -the midwife said to the lady, 'You have had a great many visitors -to-day.' To this she replied, 'How do you know that? Have you been -putting the ointment to your eyes?' Thereupon she jumped out of bed, -and blew into her eyes, saying, 'Now you will see no more.' She never -afterwards could see the fairies, however much she tried, nor was -the ointment entrusted to her after that day. According, however, -to another version which I heard, she was told, on being found out, -not to apply the ointment to her eyes any more. She promised she -would not; but the narrator thought she broke that promise, as she -continued to see the fairies as long as she lived. - -Mr. D. Ll. Davies has also a version like the North Wales ones. He -obtained it from a woman of seventy-eight at Bronnant, near -Aberystwyth, who had heard it from one of her ancestors. According to -her, the midwife went to the fair called Ffair Rhos, which was held -between Ystrad Meurig and Pont Rhyd Fendigaid [92]. There she saw a -great many of the Tylwyth very busily engaged, and among others the -lady she had been attending upon. That being so, she walked up to -her and saluted her. The fairy lady angrily asked how she saw her, -and spat in her face, which had the result of putting an end for ever -to her power of seeing her or anybody of her race. - -The same aged woman at Bronnant has communicated to Mr. D. Ll. Davies -another tale which differs from all those of the same kind that I -happen to know of. On a certain day in spring the farmer living at ---- -(Mr. Davies does not remember the name of the farm) lost his calves; -and the servant man and the servant girl went out to look for them, -but as they were both crossing a marshy flat, the man suddenly missed -the girl. He looked for her, and as he could not see her he concluded -that she was playing a trick on him. However, after much shouting and -searching about the place, he began to think that she must have found -her way home, so he turned back and asked if the girl had come in, -when he found to his surprise that nobody had seen her come back. The -news of her being lost caused great excitement in the country around, -since many suspected that he had for some reason put an end to her -life: some accounted for it in this way, and some in another. But as -nothing could be found out about her, the servant man was taken into -custody on the charge of having murdered her. He protested with all -his heart, and no evidence could be produced that he had killed the -girl. Now, as some had an idea that she had gone to the fairies, it -was resolved to send to 'the wise man' (Y dyn hysbys). This was done, -and he found out that the missing girl was with the fairies: the trial -was delayed, and he gave the servant man directions of the usual kind -as to how to get her out. She was watched at the end of the period of -twelve months and a day coming round in the dance in the fairy ring -at the place where she was lost, and she was successfully drawn out -of the ring; but the servant man had to be there in the same clothes -as he had on when she left him. As soon as she was released and saw -the servant she asked about the calves. On the way home she told her -master, the servant man, and the others, that she would stay with them -until her master should strike her with iron, but they went their way -home in great joy at having found her. One day, however, when her -master was about to start from home, and whilst he was getting the -horse and cart ready, he asked the girl to assist him, which she did -willingly; but as he was bridling the horse, the bit touched the girl -and she disappeared instantly, and was never seen from that day forth. - -I cannot explain this story, unless we regard it as made up of pieces -of two different stories which had originally nothing to do with -one another; consistency, however, is not to be expected in such -matters. Mr. D. Ll. Davies has kindly given me two more tales like -the first part of the one I have last summarized, also one in which -the missing person, a little boy sent by his mother to fetch some barm -for her, comes home of himself after being away a year or more playing -with the Tylwyth Teg, whom he found to be very nice, pleasant people; -they had been exceedingly kind to him, and they even allowed him to -take the bottle with the barm home at the last. This was somewhere -between Swyd Ffynnon and Carmarthen. - -Mr. D. Ll. Davies finds, what I have not found anywhere else, -that it was a common idea among the old people in Cardiganshire, -that once you came across one of the fairies you could not easily be -rid of him; since the fairies were little beings of a very devoted -nature. Once a man had become friendly with one of them, the latter -would be present with him almost everywhere he went, until it became -a burden to him. However, popular belief did not adopt this item of -faith without another to neutralize it if necessary: so if one was -determined to get rid of the fairy companion, one had in the last -resort only to throw a piece of rusty iron at him to be quit of him -for ever. Nothing was a greater insult to the fairies. But though they -were not difficult to make friends of, they never forgave those who -offended them: forgiveness was not an element in their nature. The -general account my informant gives of the outward appearance of the -fairies as he finds them in the popular belief, is that they were -a small handsome race, and that their women dressed gorgeously in -white, while the men were content with garments of a dark grey colour, -usually including knee-breeches. As might be expected, the descriptions -differ very much in different neighbourhoods, and even in different -tales from the same neighbourhood: this will surprise no one. It was -in the night they came out, generally near water, to sing and dance, -and also to steal whatever took their fancy; for thieving was always -natural to them; but no one ever complained of it, as it was supposed -to bring good luck. - - - - -XII. - -Mr. Richard L. Davies, teacher of the Board School at Ystalyfera, in -the Tawë Valley, has been kind enough to write out for me a budget of -ideas about the Cwm Tawë Fairies, as retailed to him by a native who -took great delight in the traditions of his neighbourhood, John Davies -(Shôn o'r Bont), who was a storekeeper at Ystalyfera. He died an old -man about three years ago. I give his stories as transmitted to me by -Mr. Davies, but the reader will find them a little hazy now and then, -as when the fairies are made into ordinary conjurer's devils:-- - -Rhywbeth rhyfed yw yr hen Gastell yna (gan olygu Craig Ynys Geinon): -yr wyf yn cofio yr amser pan y bydai yn dychryn gan bobl fyned yn -agos ato--yn enwedig y nos: yr oed yn dra pheryglus rhag i dyn gael -ei gymeryd at Bendith eu Mamau. Fe dywedir fod wmred o'r rheiny yna, -er na wn i pa le y maent yn cadw. 'R oed yr hen bobl yn arferol o -dweyd fod pwll yn rhywle bron canol y Castell, tua llathen o led, -ac yn bump neu chwech llath o dyfnder, a charreg tua thair tynnell o -bwysau ar ei wyneb e', a bod fford dan y daear gandynt o'r pwll hynny -bob cam i ogof Tan yr Ogof, bron blaen y Cwm (yn agos i balas Adelina -Patti, sef Castell Craig y Nos), mai yno y maent yn treulio eu hamser -yn y dyd, ac yn dyfod lawr yma i chwareu eu pranciau yn y nos. - -Mae gandynt, mede nhw, ysgol aur, o un neu dwy ar hugain o ffyn; ar -hyd honno y maent yn tramwy i fyny ac i lawr. Mae gandynt air bach, -a dim ond i'r blaenaf ar yr ysgol dywedyd y gair hynny, mae y garreg -yn codi o honi ei hunan; a gair arall, ond i'r olaf wrth fyned i lawr -ei dywedyd, mae yn cauad ar eu hol. - -Dywedir i was un o'r ffermyd cyfagos wrth chwilio am wningod yn y -graig, dygwyd dyweyd y gair pan ar bwys y garreg, idi agor, ac ido -yntau fyned i lawr yr ysgol, ond am na wydai y gair i gauad ar ei ol, -fe adnabu y Tylwyth wrth y draught yn diffod y canwyllau fod rhywbeth o -le, daethant am ei draws, cymerasant ef atynt, a bu gyda hwynt yn byw -ac yn bod am saith mlyned; ymhen y saith mlyned fe diangod a llon'd -ei het o guineas gando. - -Yr oed efe erbyn hyn wedi dysgu y dau air, ac yn gwybod llawer am eu -cwtches nhw. Fe dywedod hwn y cwbl wrth ffarmwr o'r gymdogaeth, fe -aeth hwnnw drachefn i lawr, ac yr oed rhai yn dyweyd ido dyfod a thri -llon'd cawnen halen o guineas, hanner guineas, a darnau saith-a-chwech, -odiyno yr un diwrnod. Ond fe aeth yn rhy drachwantus, ac fel llawer -un trachwantus o'i flaen, bu ei bechod yn angeu ido. - -Canys fe aeth i lawr y bedwared waith yngwyll y nos, ond fe daeth y -Tylwyth am ei ben, ac ni welwyd byth o hono. Dywedir fod ei bedwar -cwarter e' yn hongian mewn ystafell o dan y Castell, ond pwy fu yno -i'w gwel'd nhw, wn i dim. - -Mae yn wir ei wala i'r ffarmwr crybwylledig fyned ar goll, ac na -chlybuwyd byth am dano, ac mor wir a hynny i'w dylwyth dyfod yn abl -iawn, bron ar unwaith yr amser hynny. A chi wydoch gystal a finnau, -eu bod nhw yn dywedyd fod ffyrd tandaearol gandynt i ogofau Ystrad -Fellte, yn agos i Benderyn. A dyna y Garn Goch ar y Drum (Onllwyn yn -awr) maent yn dweyd fod canoed o dynelli o aur yn stôr gandynt yno; -a chi glywsoch am y stori am un o'r Gethings yn myned yno i glodio yn -y Garn, ac ido gael ei drawsffurfio gan y Tylwyth i olwyn o dân, ac ido -fethu cael llonyd gandynt, hyd nes ido eu danfon i wneyd rhaff o sand! - -Fe fu gynt hen fenyw yn byw mewn ty bychan gerllaw i Ynys Geinon, -ac yr oed hi yn gallu rheibo, mede nhw, ac yr oed sôn ei bod yn -treulio saith diwrnod, saith awr, a saith mynyd gyda y Tylwyth Teg -bob blwydyn yn Ogof y Castell. Yr oed y gred yn lled gyffredinol -ei bod hi yn cael hyn a hyn o aur am bob plentyn a allai hi ladrata -idynt hwy, a dodi un o'i hen grithod hwy yn ei le: 'doed hwnnw byth -yn cynydu. Y fford y bydai hi yn gwneyd oed myned i'r ty dan yr esgus -o ofyn cardod, a hen glogyn llwyd-du mawr ar ei chefn, ac o dan hwn, -un o blant Bendith y Mamau; a bob amser os bydai plentyn bach gwraig -y ty yn y cawell, hi gymerai y swyd o siglo y cawell, a dim ond i'r -fam droi ei chefn am fynyd neu dwy, hi daflai y lledrith i'r cawell, -ai ymaith a'r plentyn yn gyntaf byth y gallai hi. Fe fu plentyn gan dyn -o'r gym'dogaeth yn lingran am flynydau heb gynydu dim, a barn pawb oed -mai wedi cael ei newid gan yr hen wraig yr oed; fe aeth tad y plentyn -i fygwth y gwr hysbys arni: fe daeth yr hen wraig yno am saith niwrnod -i esgus bado y bachgen bach mewn dwfr oer, a'r seithfed bore cyn ei -bod yn oleu, hi a gas genad i fyned ag ef dan rhyw bistyll, mede hi, -ond medai'r cym'dogion, myned ag ef i newid a wnaeth. Ond, beth bynag, -fe wellod y plentyn fel cyw yr wyd o hynny i maes. Ond gorfu i fam e' -wneyd cystal a llw wrth yr hen wraig, y gwnai ei dwco mewn dwfr oer -bob bore dros gwarter blwydyn, ac yn mhen y chwarter hynny 'doed dim -brafach plentyn yn y Cwm. - -'That is a wonderful thing, that old castle there, he would say, -pointing to the Ynys Geinon Rock. I remember a time when people would -be terrified to go near it, especially at night. There was considerable -danger that one might be taken to Bendith eu Mamau. It is said that -there are a great many of them there, though I know not where they -abide. The old folks used to say that there was a pit somewhere about -the middle of the Castle, about a yard wide and some five or six yards -deep, with a stone about three tons in weight over the mouth of it, -and that they had a passage underground from that pit all the way -to the cave of Tan yr Ogof, near the top of the Cwm, that is, near -Adelina Patti's residence at Craig y Nos Castle: there, it was said, -they spent their time during the day, while they came down here to -play their tricks at night. They have, they say, a gold ladder of -one or two and twenty rungs, and it is along that they pass up and -down. They have a little word; and it suffices if the foremost on -the ladder merely utters that word, for the stone to rise of itself; -while there is another word, which it suffices the hindmost in going -down to utter so that the stone shuts behind him. It is said that a -servant from one of the neighbouring farms, when looking for rabbits -in the rock, happened to say the word as he stood near the stone, -that it opened for him, and that he went down the ladder; but that -because he was ignorant of the word to make it shut behind him, -the fairies discovered by the draught putting out their candles that -there was something wrong. So they found him out and took him with -them. He remained living with them for seven years, but at the end -of the seven years he escaped with his hat full of guineas. He had by -this time learnt the two words, and got to know a good deal about the -hiding places of their treasures. He told everything to a farmer in -the neighbourhood, so the latter likewise went down, and some used to -say that he brought thence thrice the fill of a salt-chest of guineas, -half-guineas, and seven-and-sixpenny pieces in one day. But he got too -greedy, and like many a greedy one before him his crime proved his -death; for he went down the fourth time in the dusk of the evening, -when the fairies came upon him, and he was never seen any more. It -is said that his four quarters hang in a room under the Castle; -but who has been there to see them I know not. It is true enough -that the above-mentioned farmer got lost, and that nothing was heard -respecting him; and it is equally true that his family became very -well to do almost at once at that time. You know as well as I do that -they say, that the fairies have underground passages to the caves of -Ystradfellte, near Penderyn. There is the Garn Goch also on the Drum -(now called Onllwyn); they say there are hundreds of tons of gold -accumulated by them there, and you have heard the story about one of -the Gethings going thither to dig in the Garn, and how he [sic] was -transformed by the fairies into a wheel of fire, and that he could -get no quiet from them until he sent them to manufacture a rope of -sand!'--A more intelligible version of this story has been given at -pp. 19-20 above. - -'There was formerly an old woman living in a small house near Ynys -Geinon; and she had the power of bewitching, people used to say: -there was a rumour that she spent seven days, seven hours, and seven -minutes with the fairies every year in the cave at the Castle. It -was a pretty general belief that she got such and such a quantity of -gold for every child she could steal for them, and that she put one -of those old urchins of theirs in its place: the latter never grew -at all. The way she used to do it was to enter people's houses with -the excuse of asking for alms, having a large dark-grey old cloak on -her back, and the cloak concealed one of the children of Bendith eu -Mamau. Whenever she found the little child of the good woman of the -house in its cradle, she would take upon herself to rock the cradle, -so that if the mother only turned her back for a minute or two, she -would throw the sham child into the cradle and hurry away as fast -as she could with the baby. A man in the neighbourhood had a child -lingering for years without growing at all, and it was the opinion of -all that it had been changed by the old woman. The father at length -threatened to call in the aid of "the wise man," when the old woman -came there for seven days, pretending that it was in order to bathe the -little boy in cold water; and on the seventh day she got permission -to take him, before it was light, under a certain spout of water: so -she said, but the neighbours said it was to change him. However that -was, the boy from that time forth got on as fast as a gosling. But -the mother had all but to take an oath to the old woman, that she -would duck him in cold water every morning for three months, and by -the end of that time there was no finer infant in the Cwm.' - -Mr. Davies has given me some account also of the annual pilgrimage -to the Fan mountains to see the Lake Lady: these are his words on -the subject--they recall pp. 15-16 above:-- - -'It has been the yearly custom (for generations, as far as I can find) -for young as well as many people further advanced in years to make a -general excursion in carts, gambos, and all kinds of vehicles, to Llyn -y Fan, in order to see the water nymph (who appeared on one day only, -viz. the first Sunday in August). This nymph was said to have the -lower part of her body resembling that of a dolphin, while the upper -part was that of a beautiful lady: this anomalous form appeared on -the first Sunday in August (if the lake should be without a ripple) -and combed her tresses on the reflecting surface of the lake. The -yearly peregrination to the abode of the Fan deity is still kept up in -this valley--Cwmtawë; but not to the extent that it used to formerly.' - - - - -XIII. - -Mr. Craigfryn Hughes has sent me another tale about the fairies: it -has to do with the parish of Llanfabon, near the eastern border of -Glamorganshire. Many traditions cluster round the church of Llanfabon, -beginning with its supposed building by Saint Mabon, but which of the -Mabons of Welsh legend he was, is not very certain. Not very far is -a place called Pant y Dawns, or the Dance Hollow, in allusion to the -visits paid to the spot by Bendith y Mamau, as the fairies are there -called. In the same neighbourhood stand also the ruins of Castell -y Nos, or the Castle of the Night [93], which tradition represents -as uninhabitable because it had been built of stones from Llanfabon -Church, and on account of the ghosts that used to haunt it. However, -one small portion of it was usually tenanted formerly by a 'wise man' -or by a witch. In fact, the whole country round Llanfabon Church -teemed with fairies, ghosts, and all kinds of uncanny creatures:-- - -Mewn amaethdy ag syd yn aros yn y plwyf a elwir y Berth Gron, -trigiannai gwedw ieuanc a'i phlentyn bychan. Yr oed wedi colli ei gwr, -a'i hunig gysur yn ei hamdifadrwyd a'i hunigrwyd oed Gruff, ei mab. Yr -oed ef yr amser hwn odeutu tair blwyd oed, ac yn blentyn braf ar ei -oedran. Yr oed y plwyf, ar y pryd, yn orlawn o 'Fendith y Mamau'; ac, -ar amser llawn lloer, bydent yn cadw dynion yn effro a'u cerdoriaeth -hyd doriad gwawr. Rhai hynod ar gyfrif eu hagrwch oed 'Bendith' -Llanfabon, ac yr un mor hynod ar gyfrif eu castiau. Lladrata plant -o'r cawellau yn absenoldeb eu mamau, a denu dynion trwy eu swyno -a cherdoriaeth i ryw gors afiach a diffaith, a ymdangosai yn gryn -difyrrwch idynt. Nid rhyfed fod y mamau beunyd ar eu gwyliadwriaeth -rhag ofn colli eu plant. Yr oed y wedw o dan sylw yn hynod ofalus am -ei mab, gymaint nes tynnu rhai o'r cymydogion i dywedyd wrthi ei bod -yn rhy orofalus, ac y bydai i ryw anlwc ordiwes ei mab. Ond ni thalai -unrhyw sylw i'w dywediadau. Ymdangosai fod ei holl hyfrydwch a'i chysur -ynghyd a'i gobeithion yn cydgyfarfod yn ei mab. Mod bynnag, un diwrnod, -clywod ryw lais cwynfannus yn codi o gymydogaeth y beudy; a rhag bod -rhywbeth wedi digwyd i un o'r gwartheg rhedod yn orwyllt tuag yno, -gan adael y drws heb ei gau, a'i mab bychan yn y ty. Ond pwy a fedr -desgrifio ei gofid ar ei gwaith yn dyfod i'r ty wrth weled eisiau ei -mab? Chwiliod bob man am dano, ond yn aflwydiannus. Odeutu machlud -haul, wele lencyn bychan yn gwneuthur ei ymdangosiad o'i blaen, ac -yn dywedyd, yn groyw, 'Mam!' Edrychod y fam yn fanwl arno, a dywedod -o'r diwed, 'Nid fy mhlentyn i wyt ti!' 'Ië, yn sicr,' atebai y bychan. - -Nid ymdangosai y fam yn fodlon, na'i bod yn credu mai ei phlentyn hi -ydoed. Yr oed rhywbeth yn sisial yn barhaus wrthi mai nid ei mab hi -ydoed. Ond beth bynnag, bu gyda hi am flwydyn gyfan, ac nid ymdangosai -ei fod yn cynydu dim, tra yr oed Gruff, ei mab hi, yn blentyn cynydfawr -iawn. Yr oed gwr bychan yn myned yn fwy hagr bob dyd hefyd. O'r diwed -penderfynod fyned at y 'dyn hysbys,' er cael rhyw wybodaeth a goleuni -ar y mater. Yr oed yn digwyd bod ar y pryd yn trigfannu yn Nghastell y -Nos, wr ag oed yn hynod ar gyfrif ei ymwybydiaeth drwyadl o 'gyfrinion -y fall.' Ar ol idi osod ei hachos ger ei fron, ac yntau ei holi, -sylwod, 'Crimbil ydyw, ac y mae dy blentyn di gyd a'r hen Fendith -yn rhywle; ond i ti dilyn fy nghyfarwydiadau i yn ffydlon a manwl, -fe adferir dy blentyn i ti yn fuan. Yn awr, odeutu canol dyd y foru, -tor wy yn y canol, a thafl un hanner ymaith odiwrthyt, a chadw y -llall yn dy law, a dechreu gymysg ei gynwysiad yn ol a blaen. Cofia -fod y gwr bychan gerllaw yn gwneuthur sylw o'r hyn ag a fydi yn ei -wneuthur. Ond cofia di a pheidio galw ei sylw--rhaid ennill ei sylw -at y weithred heb ei alw: ac odid fawr na ofynna i ti beth fydi yn -ei wneuthur. A dywed wrtho mai cymysg pastai'r fedel yr wyt. A rho -wybod i mi beth fyd ei ateb.' - -Dychwelod y wraig, a thrannoeth dilynod gyfarwydyd y 'dyn cynnil' -i'r llythyren. Yr oed y gwr bychan yn sefyll yn ei hymyl, ac yn -sylwi arni yn fanwl. Ym mhen ychydig, gofynnod, 'Mam, beth 'i ch'i -'neuthur?' 'Cymysg pastai'r fedel, machgen i.' 'O felly. Mi glywais -gan fy nhad, fe glywod hwnnw gan ei dad, a hwnnw gan ei dad yntau, fod -mesen cyn derwen, a derwen mewn dâr [94]; ond ni chlywais i na gweled -neb yn un man yn cymysg pastai'r fedel mewn masgal wy iar.' Sylwod y -wraig ei fod yn edrych yn hynod o sarug arni pan yn siarad, ac yr oed -hynny yn ychwanegu at ei hagrwch, nes ei wneuthur yn wrthun i'r pen. - -Y prydnawn hwnnw aeth y wraig at y 'dyn cynnil' er ei hysbysu o'r hyn -a lefarwyd gan y còr. 'O,' ebai hwnnw, 'un o'r hen frid ydyw!' 'Yn awr, -byd y llawn lloer nesaf ym mhen pedwar diwrnod; mae yn rhaid i ti fyned -i ben y pedair heol syd yn cydgyfarfod wrth ben Rhyd y Gloch; am deudeg -o'r gloch y nos y byd y lleuad yn llawn. Cofia gudio dy hun mewn man -ag y cei lawn olwg ar bennau y croesffyrd, ac os gweli rywbeth a bair -i ti gynhyrfu, cofia fod yn llonyd, ac ymatal rhag rhodi ffrwyn i'th -deimladau, neu fe distrywir y cynllun, ac ni chei dy fab yn ol byth.' - -Nis gwydai y fam anffodus beth oed i'w deall wrth ystori ryfed y -'dyn cynnil.' Yr oed mewn cymaint o dywyllwch ag erioed. O'r diwed -daeth yr amser i ben; ac ar yr awr apwyntiedig yr oed yn ymgudio yn -ofalus tu cefn i lwyn mawr yn ymyl, o ba le y caffai olwg ar bob peth o -gylch. Bu am hir amser yno yn gwylio heb dim i'w glywed na'i weled--dim -ond distawrwyd dwfn a phrudglwyfus yr hanner nos yn teyrnasu. O'r diwed -clywai sain cerdoriaeth yn dynesu ati o hirbell. Nês, nês yr oed y sain -felusber yn dyfod o hyd; a gwrandawai hithai gyda dydordeb arni. Cyn -hir yr oed yn ei hymyl, a deallod mai gorymdaith o 'Fendith y Mamau' -oedynt yn myned i rywle. Yr oedynt yn gannoed mewn rhif. Tua chanol -yr orymdaith canfydod olygfa ag a drywanod ei chalon, ac a berod i'w -gwaed sefyll yn ei rhedwelïau. Yn cerded rhwng pedwar o'r 'Bendith' -yr oed ei phlentyn bychan anwyl ei hun. Bu bron a llwyr anghofio -ei hun, a llamu tuag ato er ei gipio ymaith odiarnynt trwy drais os -gallai. Ond pan ar neidio allan o'i hymgudfan i'r diben hwnnw medyliod -am gynghor y 'dyn cynnil,' sef y bydai i unrhyw gynhyrfiad o'i heido -distrywio y cwbl, ac na bydai idi gael ei phlentyn yn ol byth. - -Ar ol i'r orymdaith dirwyn i'r pen, ac i sain eu cerdoriaeth distewi -yn y pellder, daeth allan o'i hymgudfan, gan gyfeirio ei chamrau tua -'i chartref. Os oed yn hiraethol o'r blaen ar ol ei mab, yr oed yn -llawer mwy erbyn hyn; a'i hadgasrwyd at y còr bychan oed yn hawlio -ei fod yn fab idi wedi cynydu yn fawr iawn, waith yr oed yn sicr yn -awr yn ei medwl mai un o'r hen frid ydoed. Nis gwydai pa fod i'w odef -am fynud yn hwy yn yr un ty a hi, chwaithach godef ido alw 'mam' arni -hi. Ond beth bynnag, cafod digon o ras ataliol i ymdwyn yn wedaid at y -gwr bychan hagr oed gyda hi yn y ty. Drannoeth aeth ar ei hunion at y -'dyn cynnil' i adrod yr hyn yr oed wedi bod yn llygad dyst o hono y -noson gynt, ac i ofyn am gyfarwydyd pellach. Yr oedd y 'gwr cynnil' -yn ei disgwyl, ac ar ei gwaith yn dyfod i'r ty adnabydod wrthi ei -bod wedi gweled rhywbeth oed wedi ei chyffroi. Adrodod wrtho yr hyn -ag oed wedi ei ganfod ar ben y croesffyrd; ac wedi ido glywed hynny, -agorod lyfr mawr ag oed gando, ac wedi hir syllu arno hysbysod hi -'fod yn angenrheidiol idi cyn cael ei phlentyn yn ol gael iâr du heb -un plufyn gwyn nac o un lliw arall arni, a'i llad; ac ar ol ei lladd, -ei gosod o flaen tan coed, pluf a chwbl, er ei phobi. Mor gynted ag -y buasai yn ei gosod o flaen y tan, idi gau pob twll a mynedfa yn -yr adeilad ond un, a pheidio a dal sylw manwl ar ol y 'crimbil,' hyd -nes bydai y iâr yn digon, a'r pluf i syrthio ymaith oddiarni bob un, -ac yna i edrych ym mha le yr oed ef. - -Er mor rhyfed oed cyfarwydyd y 'gwr,' penderfynod ei gynnyg; -a thrannoeth aeth i chwilio ym mhlith y ieir oed yno am un o'r -desgrifiad angenrheidiol; ond er ei siomedigaeth method a chael yr -un. Aeth o'r naill ffermdy i'r llall i chwilio, ond ymdangosai ffawd -fel yn gwgu arni--waith method a chael yr un. Pan ym mron digaloni -gan ei haflwydiant daeth ar draws un mewn amaethdy yng nghwr y plwyf a -phrynod hi yn dioedi. Ar ol dychwelyd adref gosodod y tan mewn trefn, -a lladod yr iâr, gan ei gosod o flaen y tan disglaer a losgai ar yr -alch. Pan yn edrych arni yn pobi, anghofiod y 'crimbil' yn hollol, -ac yr oed wedi syrthio i rywfath o brudlewyg, pryd y synnwyd hi gan -sain cerdoriaeth y tu allan i'r ty, yn debyg i'r hyn a glywod ychydig -nosweithiau cyn hynny ar ben y croesffyrd. Yr oed y pluf erbyn hyn wedi -syrthio ymaith odiar y iâr, ac erbyn edrych yr oed y 'crimbil' wedi -diflannu. Edrychai y fam yn wyllt o'i deutu, ac er ei llawenyd clywai -lais ei mab colledig yn galw arni y tu allan. Rhedod i'w gyfarfod, -gan ei gofleidio yn wresog; a phan ofynod ym mha le yr oed wedi bod -cyhyd, nid oed gando gyfrif yn y byd i'w rodi ond mai yn gwrando ar -ganu hyfryd yr oed wedi bod. Yr oed yn deneu a threuliedig iawn ei -wed pan adferwyd ef. Dyna ystori 'Y Plentyn Colledig.' - -'At a farm house still remaining in the parish of Llanfabon, which -is called the Berth Gron, there lived once upon a time a young widow -and her infant child. After losing her husband her only comfort in -her bereavement and solitary state was young Griff, her son. He was -about three years old and a fine child for his age. The parish was -then crammed full of Bendith y Mamau, and when the moon was bright -and full they were wont to keep people awake with their music till -the break of day. The fairies of Llanfabon were remarkable on account -of their ugliness, and they were equally remarkable on account of the -tricks they played. Stealing children from their cradles during the -absence of their mothers, and luring men by means of their music into -some pestilential and desolate bog, were things that seemed to afford -them considerable amusement. It was no wonder then that mothers used -to be daily on the watch lest they should lose their children. The -widow alluded to was remarkably careful about her son, so much so, -that it made some of the neighbours say that she was too anxious about -him and that some misfortune would overtake her child. But she paid no -attention to their words, as all her joy, her comfort, and her hopes -appeared to meet together in her child. However, one day she heard a -moaning voice ascending from near the cow-house, and lest anything had -happened to the cattle, she ran there in a fright, leaving the door -of the house open and her little son in the cradle. Who can describe -her grief on her coming in and seeing that her son was missing? She -searched everywhere for him, but it was in vain. About sunset, behold -a little lad made his appearance before her and said to her quite -distinctly, "Mother." She looked minutely at him, and said at last, -"Thou art not my child." "I am truly," said the little one. But the -mother did not seem satisfied about it, nor did she believe it was -her child. Something whispered to her constantly, as it were, that -it was not her son. However, he remained with her a whole year, but -he did not seem to grow at all, whereas Griff, her son, was a very -growing child. Besides, the little fellow was getting uglier every -day. At last she resolved to go to the "wise man," in order to have -information and light on the matter. There happened then to be living -at Castell y Nos, "Castle of the Night," a man who was remarkable for -his thorough acquaintance with the secrets of the evil one. When she -had laid her business before him and he had examined her, he addressed -the following remark to her: "It is a crimbil [95], and thy own child -is with those old Bendith somewhere or other: if thou wilt follow -my directions faithfully and minutely thy child will be restored to -thee soon. Now, about noon to-morrow cut an egg through the middle; -throw the one half away from thee, but keep the other in thy hand, and -proceed to mix it backwards and forwards. See that the little fellow -be present paying attention to what thou art doing, but take care not -to call his attention to it--his attention must be drawn to it without -calling to him--and very probably he will ask what thou wouldst be -doing. Thou art to say that it is mixing a pasty for the reapers that -thou art. Let me know what he will then say." The woman returned, -and on the next day she followed the cunning man's [96] advice to -the letter: the little fellow stood by her and watched her minutely; -presently he asked, "Mother, what are you doing?" "Mixing a pasty for -the reapers, my boy." "Oh, that is it. I heard from my father--he had -heard it from his father and that one from his father--that an acorn -was before the oak, and that the oak was in the earth; but I have -neither heard nor seen anybody mixing the pasty for the reapers in an -egg-shell." The woman observed that he looked very cross as he spoke, -and that it so added to his ugliness that it made him highly repulsive. - -'That afternoon the woman went to the cunning man in order to inform -him of what the dwarf had said. "Oh," said he, "he is of that old -breed; now the next full moon will be in four days--thou must go where -the four roads meet above Rhyd y Gloch [97], at twelve o'clock the -night the moon is full. Take care to hide thyself at a spot where -thou canst see the ends of the cross-roads; and shouldst thou see -anything that would excite thee take care to be still and to restrain -thyself from giving way to thy feelings, otherwise the scheme will -be frustrated and thou wilt never have thy son back." The unfortunate -mother knew not what to make of the strange story of the cunning man; -she was in the dark as much as ever. At last the time came, and by the -appointed hour she had concealed herself carefully behind a large bush -close by, whence she could see everything around. She remained there -a long time watching; but nothing was to be seen or heard, while the -profound and melancholy silence of midnight dominated over all. At -last she began to hear the sound of music approaching from afar; -nearer and nearer the sweet sound continued to come, and she listened -to it with rapt attention. Ere long it was close at hand, and she -perceived that it was a procession of Bendith y Mamau going somewhere -or other. They were hundreds in point of number, and about the middle -of the procession she beheld a sight that pierced her heart and made -the blood stop in her veins--walking between four of the Bendith she -saw her own dear little child. She nearly forgot herself altogether, -and was on the point of springing into the midst of them violently to -snatch him from them if she could; but when she was on the point of -leaping out of her hiding place for that purpose, she thought of the -warning of the cunning man, that any disturbance on her part would -frustrate all, so that she would never get her child back. When the -procession had wound itself past, and the sound of the music had died -away in the distance, she issued from her concealment and directed -her steps homewards. Full of longing as she was for her son before, -she was much more so now; and her disgust at the little dwarf who -claimed to be her son had very considerably grown, for she was now -certain in her mind that he was one of the old breed. She knew not -how to endure him for a moment longer under the same roof with her, -much less his addressing her as "mother." However, she had enough -restraining grace to behave becomingly towards the ugly little fellow -that was with her in the house. On the morrow she went without delay -to the "wise man" to relate what she had witnessed the previous night, -and to seek further advice. The cunning man expected her, and as she -entered he perceived by her looks that she had seen something that had -disturbed her. She told him what she had beheld at the cross-roads, -and when he had heard it he opened a big book which he had; then, after -he had long pored over it, he told her, that before she could get her -child back, it was necessary for her to find a black hen without a -single white feather, or one of any other colour than black: this she -was to place to bake before a wood [98] fire with its feathers and all -intact. Moreover, as soon as she placed it before the fire, she was to -close every hole and passage in the walls except one, and not to look -very intently after the crimbil until the hen was done enough and the -feathers had fallen off it every one: then she might look where he was. - -'Strange as the advice of the wise man sounded, she resolved to try -it; so she went the next day to search among the hens for one of the -requisite description; but to her disappointment she failed to find -one. She then walked from one farm house to another in her search; -but fortune appeared to scowl at her, as she seemed to fail in her -object. When, however, she was nearly disheartened, she came across -the kind of hen she wanted at a farm at the end of the parish. She -bought it, and after returning home she arranged the fire and killed -the hen, which she placed in front of the bright fire burning on -the hearth. Whilst watching the hen baking she altogether forgot the -crimbil; and she fell into a sort of swoon, when she was astonished -by the sound of music outside the house, similar to the music she had -heard a few nights before at the cross-roads. The feathers had by this -time fallen off the hen, and when she came to look for the crimbil -he had disappeared. The mother cast wild looks about the house, and -to her joy she heard the voice of her lost son calling to her from -outside. She ran to meet him, and embraced him fervently. But when -she asked him where he had been so long, he had no account in the -world to give but that he had been listening to pleasant music. He -was very thin and worn in appearance when he was restored. Such is -the story of the Lost Child.' - -Let me remark as to the urchin's exclamation concerning the cooking -done in the egg-shell, that Mr. Hughes, as the result of further -inquiry, has given me what he considers a more correct version; -but it is no less inconsequent, as will be seen:-- - - - Mi glywais gan fy nhad ac yntau gan ei dad, a hwnnw gan ei - dad yntau, - Fod mesen cyn derwen a'i phlannu mwn dár: - Ni chlywais yn unman am gymysg y bastai yn masgal wy iâr. - - I heard from my father and he from his father, and that one from - his father, - That the acorn exists before the oak and the planting of it in - the ground: - Never anywhere have I heard of mixing the pasty in the shell of - a hen's egg. - - -In Dewi Glan Ffrydlas' story from the Ogwen Valley, in Carnarvonshire, -p. 62 above, it is not the cooking of a pasty but the brewing of beer -in an egg-shell. However what is most remarkable is that the egg-shell -is similarly used in stories from other lands. Mr. Hartland cites one -from Mecklenburg and another from Scandinavia. He also mentions stories -in which the imp measures his own age by the number of forests which -he has seen growing successively on the same soil, the formula being -of the following kind: 'I have seen the Forest of Ardennes burnt seven -times,' 'Seven times have I seen the wood fall in Lessö Forest,' or -'I am so old, I was already in the world before the Kamschtschen Wood -(in Lithuania) was planted, wherein great trees grew, and that is -now laid waste again [99].' From these and the like instances it is -clear that the Welsh versions here in question are partially blurred, -as the fairy child's words should have been to the effect that he -was old enough to remember the oak when it was yet but an acorn; -and an instance of this explicit kind is given by Howells--it comes -from Llandrygarn in Anglesey--see p. 139, where his words run thus: -'I can remember yon oak an acorn, but I never saw in my life people -brewing in an egg-shell before.' I may add that I have been recently -fortunate enough to obtain from Mr. Llywarch Reynolds another kind -of estimate of the fairy urchin's age. He writes that his mother -remembers a very old Merthyr woman who used to tell the story of the -egg-shell cookery, but in words differing from all the other versions -known to him, thus:-- - - - Wy'n hén y dyd hedy, - Ag yn byw cyn 'y ngeni: - Eriôd ni welas i ferwi - Bwyd i'r fedal mwn cwcwll [100] wy iâr. - - I call myself old this day, - And living before my birth: - Never have I seen food boiled - For the reapers in an egg-shell. - - -As to the urchin's statement that he was old and had lived before, it -is part of a creed of which we may have something to say in a later -chapter. At this point let it suffice to call attention to the same -idea in the Book of Taliessin, poem ix:-- - - - Hynaf uyd dyn pan anher - A ieu ieu pop amser. - - A man is wont to be oldest when born, - And younger and younger all the time. - - - - -XIV. - -Before closing this chapter, I wish to touch on the question of the -language of the fairies, though fairy tales hardly ever raise it, -as they usually assume the fairies to speak the same language as the -mortals around them. There is, however, one well-known exception, -namely, the story of Eliodorus, already mentioned, p. 117, as recorded -by Giraldus Cambrensis, who relates how Eliodorus, preferring at the -age of twelve to play the truant to undergoing a frequent beating -by his teacher, fasted two days in hiding in the hollow of a river -bank, and how he was then accosted by two little men who induced -him to follow them to a land of sports and other delights. There he -remained long enough to be able, years later, to give his diocesan, -the second Menevian bishop named David [101], a comprehensive account -of the people and realm of Faery. After Eliodorus had for some time -visited and revisited that land of twilight, his mother desired him -to bring her some of the gold of the fairies. So one day he tried to -bring away the gold ball with which the fairy king's son used to play; -but he was not only unsuccessful, but subjected to indignities also, -and prevented from evermore finding his way back to fairyland. So he -had to go again to school and to the studies which he so detested; -but in the course of time he learned enough to become a priest; -and when, stricken in years, he used to be entreated by Bishop -David to relate this part of his early history, he never could be -got to unfold his tale without shedding tears. Among other things -which he said of the fairies' mode of living, he stated that they -ate neither flesh nor fish, but lived for the most part on various -kinds of milk food cooked after the fashion of stirabout, flavoured -as it were with saffron [102]. But one of the most curious portions -of Eliodorus' yarn was that relating to the language of the fairies; -for he pretended to have learnt it and to have found it to resemble his -own Britannica Lingua, 'Brythoneg, or Welsh.' In the words instanced -Giraldus perceived a similarity to Greek [103], which he accounted for -by means of the fabulous origin of the Welsh from the Trojans and the -supposed sojourn made in Greece by those erring Trojans on their way -to Britain. Giraldus displays quite a pretty interest in comparative -philology, and talks glibly of the Lingua Britannica; but one never -feels certain that he knew very much more about it than the author -of the Germania, the first to refer to it under that name. Tacitus, -however, had the excuse that he lived at a distance and some eleven -centuries before the advent of Gerald the Welshman. - -Giraldus' words prove, on close examination, to be of no help to us -on the question of language; but on the other hand I have but recently -begun looking out for stories bearing on it. It is my impression that -such are not plentiful; but I proceed to subjoin an abstract of a -phantom funeral tale in point from Ystên Sioned (Aberystwyth, 1882), -pp. 8-16. Ystên Sioned, I ought to explain, consists of a number of -stories collected and edited in Welsh by the Rev. Chancellor Silvan -Evans, though he has not attached his name to it:--The harvest of 1816 -was one of the wettest ever known in Wales, and a man and his wife who -lived on a small farm in one of the largest parishes in the Hundred -of Moedin (see p. 245 above) in the Demetian part of Cardiganshire -went out in the evening of a day which had been comparatively dry -to make some reaped corn into sheaves, as it had long been down. It -was a beautiful night, with the harvest moon shining brightly, and -the field in which they worked had the parish road passing along -one of its sides, without a hedge or a ditch to separate it from the -corn. When they had been busily at work binding sheaves for half an -hour or more, they happened to hear the hum of voices, as if of a -crowd of people coming along the road leading into the field. They -stopped a moment, and looking in the direction whence the sounds -came, they saw in the light of the moon a number of people coming -into sight and advancing in their direction. They bent then again to -their work without thinking much about what they had seen and heard; -for they fancied it was some belated people making for the village, -which was about a mile off. But the hum and confused sounds went on -increasing, and when the two binders looked up again, they beheld a -large crowd of people almost opposite and not far from them. As they -continued looking on they beheld quite clearly a coffin on a bier -carried on the shoulders of men, who were relieved by others in turns, -as usual in funeral processions in the country. 'Here is a funeral,' -said the binders to one another, forgetting for the moment that it was -not usual for funerals to be seen at night. They continued looking -on till the crowd was right opposite them, and some of them did not -keep to the road, but walked over the corn alongside of the bulk -of the procession. The two binders heard the talk and whispering, -the noise and hum as if of so many real men and women passing by, -but they did not understand a word that was said: not a syllable -could they comprehend, not a face could they recognize. They -kept looking at the procession till it went out of sight on the -way leading towards the parish church. They saw no more of them, -and now they began to feel uneasy and went home leaving the corn -alone as it was; but further on the funeral was met by a tailor at a -point in the road where it was narrow and bounded by a fence (clawd) -on either side. The procession filled the road from hedge to hedge, -and the tailor tried to force his way through it, but such was the -pressure of the throng that he was obliged to get out of their way by -crossing the hedge. He also failed to understand a word of the talk -which he heard. In about three weeks after this sham funeral [104], -there came a real one down that way from the upper end of the parish. - -Such, in brief, is the story so charmingly told by Silvan Evans, -which he got from the mouths of the farmer and his wife, whom he -considered highly honest and truthful persons, as well as comparatively -free from superstition. The last time they talked to him about the -incident they were very advanced in years, and both died within a -few weeks of one another early in the year 1852. Their remains, -he adds, lie in the churchyard towards which they had seen the -toeli slowly making its way. For toeli is the phonetic spelling in -Ystên Sioned of the word which is teulu in North Cardiganshire and -in North Wales, for Old Welsh toulu. The word now means 'family,' -though literally it should mean 'house-army' or 'house-troops,' -and it is practically a synonym for tylwyth, 'family or household,' -literally 'house-tribe.' Now the toeli or toulu is such an important -institution in Demetian Cardiganshire and some parts of Dyfed proper, -that the word has been confined to the phantom, and for the word -family in its ordinary significations one has there to have recourse -to the non-dialect form teulu [105]. In North Cardiganshire and North -Wales the toeli is called simply a cladedigaeth, 'burial,' or anglad, -'funeral'; in the latter also cynhebrwng is a funeral. I may add that -when I was a child in the neighbourhood of Ponterwyd, on the upper -course of the Rheidol, hardly a year used to pass without somebody -or other meeting a phantom funeral. Sometimes one got entangled in -the procession, and ran the risk of being carried off one's feet by -the throng. There is, however, one serious difference between our -phantom funerals and the Demetian toeli, namely, that we recognize -our neighbours' ghosts as making up the processions, and we have no -trouble in understanding their talk. At this point a question of some -difficulty presents itself as to the toeli, namely, what family does it -mean?--is it the family and friends of the departed on his way to the -grave, or does it mean the family in the sense of Tylwyth Teg, 'Fair -Family,' as applied to the fairies? I am inclined to the latter view, -but I prefer thinking that the distinction itself does not penetrate -very deeply, seeing that a certain species of the Tylwyth Teg, or -fairies, may, in point of origin, be regarded as deceased friends and -ancestors of the tylwyth, in the ordinary sense of the word. In fact -all this kind of rehearsal of events seems to have been once looked -at as friendly to the men and women whom it concerned. This will be -seen, for instance, in the Demetian account of the canwyll gorff, or -corpse candle, as granted through the intercession of St. David to the -people of his special care, as a means of warning each to get ready -in time for his death; that is to say, to prevent death finding him -unprepared. It is hard to guess why it was assumed that the canwyll -gorff was unknown in other parts of Wales. One or two instances in -point occur in Owen's Welsh Folklore, pp. 298-301; and I have myself -heard of them being seen in Anglesey, while they were quite well known -to members of Mrs. Rhys' mother's family, who lived in the parish -of Waen Fawr, in the neighbourhood of Carnarvon. Nor does it appear -that phantom funerals were at all confined to South Wales. Proof to -the contrary is supplied to some extent in Owen's Folklore, p. 301; -but there is no doubt that in recent times the belief in them, as -well as in the canwyll gorff, has been more general and more vivid -in South Wales than in North Wales, especially Gwyned. - -I have not been fortunate enough to come across anything systematic -or comprehensive on the origin and meaning of ghostly rehearsals -like the Welsh phantom funeral or coffin making. But the subject -is an interesting one which deserves the attention of our leading -folklore philosophers, as does also the cognate one of second sight, -by which it is widely overlapped. - -Quite recently--at the end of 1899 in fact--I received three brief -stories, for which I am indebted to the further kindness of Alaw Lleyn -(p. 228), who lives at Bynhadlog near Edern in Lleyn, and two out of -the three touch on the question of language. But as the three belong -to one and the same district, I give the substance of all in English -as follows:-- - -(1) There were at a small harbour belonging to Nefyn some houses in -which several families formerly lived; the houses are there still, -but nobody lives in them now. There was one family there to which -a little girl belonged: they used to lose her for hours every day; -so her mother was very angry with her for being so much away. 'I must -know,' said she, 'where you go for your play.' The girl answered that -it was to Pin y Wig, 'The Wig Point,' which meant a place to the west -of the Nefyn headland: it was there, she said, she played with many -children. 'Whose children?' asked the mother. 'I don't know,' she -replied; 'they are very nice children, much nicer than I am.' 'I must -know whose children they are,' was the reply; and one day the mother -went with her little girl to see the children: it was a distance of -about a quarter of a mile to Pin y Wig, and after climbing the slope -and walking a little along the top they came in sight of the Pin. It -is from this Pin that the people of Pen yr Allt got water, and it -is from there they get it still. Now after coming near the Pin the -little girl raised her hands with joy at the sight of the children. 'O -mother,' said she, 'their father is with them to-day: he is not with -them always, it is only sometimes that he is.' The mother asked the -child where she saw them. 'There they are, mother, running down to -the Pin, with their father sitting down.' 'I see nobody, my child,' -was the reply, and great fear came upon the mother: she took hold of -the child's hand in terror, and it came to her mind at once that they -were the Tylwyth Teg. Never afterwards was the little girl allowed to -go to Pin y Wig: the mother had heard that the Tylwyth Teg exchanged -people's children. - -Such is the first story, and it is only remarkable, perhaps, for its -allusion to the father of the fairy children. - -(2) There used to be at Edern an old woman who occupied a small -farm called Glan y Gors: the same family lives there still. One day -this old woman had gone to a fair at Criccieth, whence she returned -through Pwllheli. As she was getting above Gors Geirch, which was then -a turbary and a pretty considerable bog, a noise reached her ears: -she stopped and heard the sound of much talking. By-and-by she beheld -a great crowd of men and women coming to meet her. She became afraid -and stepped across the fence to let them go by. There she remained -a while listening to their chatter, and when she thought that they -had gone far enough she returned to the road and began to resume -her way home. But before she had gone many steps she heard the same -sort of noise again, and saw again the same sort of crowd coming; -so she recrossed the fence in great fear, saying to herself, 'Here -I shall be all night!' She remained there till they also had gone, -and she wondered what they could be, and whether they were people who -had been to visit Plas Madrun--afterwards, on inquiry, she found that -no such people had been there that day. Now the old woman was near -enough to the passers-by to hear them talking (clebran) and chattering -(bregliach), but not a word could she understand of what they uttered: -it was not Welsh and she did not think that it was English--it is, -however, not supposed that she knew English. She related further that -the last crowd shouted all together to the other crowd in advance of -them Wi, and that the latter replied Wi Wei or something like that. - -This account Alaw Lleyn has got, he says, from a great-granddaughter -of the old woman, and she heard it all from her father, Bard Llechog, -who always had faith in the fairies, and believed that they will -come again to be seen of men and women. For he thought that they had -their periods, a belief which I have come across elsewhere, and more -especially in Carnarvonshire [106]. Now what are we to make of such a -story? I recollect reading somewhere of a phantom wedding in Scotland, -but in Wales we seem to have nothing more closely resembling this -than a phantom funeral. Nevertheless what the old woman of Glan y Gors -thought she saw looks by no means unlike a Welsh wedding marching on -foot, especially when, as I have seen done, one party tried--seemingly -in good earnest--to escape the other and to take the bride away from -it. Moreover, that the figures making up the two crowds in her story -are to be regarded as fairies is rendered probable by the next story, -which describes the phantoms therein expressly as little men and -little women. - -(3) The small farm of Perth y Celyn in Edern used to be held by an -old man named Griffith Griffiths. In his best days he stood six foot, -and he has left behind him a double reputation for bodily strength -and great piety. My informant can well remember him walking to chapel -with the aid of his two sticks. The story goes that one day, when -he was in his prime, he set out from Perth y Celyn at two in the -morning to walk to Carnarvon to pay his rent: there was no talk in -those days of a carriage for anybody. After passing through Nefyn and -Pistyll, he came in due time to Bwlch Trwyn Swncwl [107]: he writes -this name also Bwlch Drws Wncwl, with the suggestion that it ought to -be Bwlch Drws Encil, and that the place must have been of importance -in the wars of the ancient Kymry. The high-road, he goes on to say, -runs through the Bwlch, and as Griffith was entering this gap what -should he hear but a great deal of talking. He stopped and listened, -when to his surprise he saw coming towards him, devoid of all fear, -a crowd of little men and little women. They talked aloud, but he could -not understand a single word they said: he thought that it was neither -Welsh nor English. They passed by him on the road, but he moved aside -to the ditch lest they should knock against him; but no feeling of fear -came upon him. The old man believed them to have been the Tylwyth Teg. - -In the story of the Moedin funeral the language of the toeli was -not intelligible to the farmer and his wife, or to the tailor, and -here in two stories from Lleyn we have it clearly stated that it was -neither Welsh nor, probably, English. Since the fairies are always -represented as old-fashioned in their ways, it is quite possible -that they were once regarded as talking a more ancient language of -the country. Which was it? An early version of these legends might -perhaps have supplied the answer, and told us that it was Gwydelig -or Goidelic, if not an earlier idiom, to wit that of the Aborigines -before they learnt Goidelic from the Celts of the first wave of Aryan -invasion, whether it was in the region of the Eifl or in the Demetian -half of Keredigion. As to the former it is worthy of note that when -Griffith had reached Bwlch Trwyn Swncwl he was in the outskirts of -the Eifl Mountains, on one of whose heights, not very far off, is -the extensive prehistoric fortress of Tre'r Ceiri, or the Town of the -Keiri, a vocable which may be provisionally rendered by 'giants.' In -any case it dissociates that stronghold from the Brythonic people of -Wales. We shall find, however, that a Goidel, or Pict, buried in a -cairn on Snowdon, is known as Rhita Gawr, 'Rhita the Giant'; and it is -possible that in the Keiri of Tre'r Ceiri we have no other race than -that of mixed Goidels and Picts whom the encroaching Brythons found -in possession of the west of our island. Nay, one may say that this -is rendered probable by the use made of the word ceiri in medieval -Welsh: thus in some poetry composed by a certain Dafyd Offeiriad, -and copied by Thomas Williams of Trefriw, we have a line alluding to -Britain in the words:-- - - - Coron ynys y Ceûri [108]. - - The Crown of the Giants' Island. - - -Here Ynys y Ceûri inevitably recalls the fact that Britain is called -Ynys y Kedyrn, or Island of the Mighty, in the Mabinogion, and also, -in effect, in the story of Kulhwch and Olwen. But such stories as -these, which enabled Geoffrey to say, i. 16, when he introduced his -banal brood of Trojans, that up to that time Britain had only been -inhabited by a few giants, are the legends, as will be pointed out -later, of the Brythonicized Goidels of Wales. So one may infer that -their ancestors had given this country the name of the Island of the -Mighty, unless it should prove more accurate to suppose them to have -somehow derived the term from the Aborigines. - -This last surmise is countenanced by the fact that in the Kulhwch -story, the British Isles as a group are called Islands of the -Mighty. The words are Teir ynys y kedyrn ae their rac ynys; that is, -the Three Islands of the Mighty and their Three outpost Islands. That -is not all, for in the same story the designation is varied thus: -Teir ynys prydein ae their rac ynys [109], or Prydain's Three Islands -and Prydain's Three outpost Islands; and the substantial antiquity of -the designation 'the Islands of Prydain,' is proved by its virtual -identity with that used by ancient Greek authors like Ptolemy, who -calls both Britain and Ireland a nêsos Pretanikê, where Pretanic and -Prydain are closely related words. Now our Prydain had in medieval -Welsh the two forms Prydein and Prydyn. But some time or other there -set in a tendency to desynonymize them, so as to make Ynys Prydein, -'the Picts' Island,' mean Great Britain, and Prydyn mean the Pictland -of the North. But just as Cymry meant the plural Welshmen and the -singular Wales, so Prydyn meant Picts [110] and the country of the -Picts. Now the plural Prydyn has its etymological Goidelic equivalent -in the vocable Cruithni, which is well known to have meant the Picts -or the descendants of the Picti of Roman historians. Further, this -last name cannot be severed from that of the Pictones [111] in Gaul, -and it is usually supposed to have referred to their habit of tattooing -themselves. At all events this agrees with the apparent meaning of the -names Prydyn and Cruithni, from pryd and cruth, the words in Welsh and -Irish respectively for form or shape, the designation being supposed -to refer to the forms or pictures of various animals punctured on the -skins of the Picts. So much as to the practical identity of the terms -Prydyn, Cruithni, and the Greeks' Pretanic; but how could Cedyrn and -Prydein correspond in the terms Ynys y Kedyrn and Ynys Prydein? This -one is enabled to understand by means of ceûri or ceiri as a middle -term. Now cadarn means strong or valiant, and makes the plural cedyrn; -but there is another Welsh word cadr [112] which has also the meaning -of valiant or powerful, and may have yielded some such a medieval form -as ceidyr in the plural. Now this cadr is proved by its cognates [113] -not to have always had the meaning of valiant or strong: its original -signification was more nearly 'fine, beautiful, or beautified.' Thus -what seems to have happened is, that cadarn, 'strong, powerful, -mighty,' influenced the meaning of cadr, 'beautiful,' and eventually -usurped its place in the name of the island, which from being Ynys -y Ceidyr became Ynys y Cedyrn. But the former meant the 'Island of -the fine or beautiful men,' which was closely enough the meaning -also of the words Prydain, Cruithni, and Picts, as names of a people -who delighted to beautify their persons by tattooing their skins and -making themselves distingué in that savage fashion. That is not all, -for on examination it turns out that the word ceiri, which has been -treated up to this point as meaning giants, is but a double, so to -say, of the word cadr in the plural, both as to etymology and original -meaning of beautiful. It is a word in constant use in Carnarvonshire, -where it is ironically applied to pretentious men fond of showing -themselves off, especially in the matter of clothes. 'D ydi nhw -'n geiri! 'Aren't they swells!' Dyna i ch'i gawr! 'There's a fine -fellow for you!' and so also with the feminine cawres. Of course the -cawr of standard Welsh is familiar enough in the sense of giant to -Carnarvonshire people, so the meaning can be best ascertained in the -case of the plural ceiri, which they hardly ever meet with in print; -and, so far as I have been able to ascertain, by ceiri they mean--in an -ironical sense it is true--fine fellows, with reference not to great -stature or strength but to their get-up. Thus one arrives at the true -interpretation of the name Tre'r Ceiri as the Town of the Prydyn or -Cruithni; that is to say, the Town of the Picts or the Aborigines, who -showed themselves off decorated with pictures. So far also from Ynys -y Ceiri being an echo of Ynys y Cedyrn, it turns out to be really the -more original of the two. Such names, when they are closely examined, -are apt to prove old beyond all hastily formed expectation. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -MANX FOLKLORE - - -Be it remembrid that one Manaman Mack Clere, a paynim, was the first -inhabitour of the ysle of Man, who by his Necromancy kept the same, -that when he was assaylid or invaded he wold rayse such mystes by land -and sea that no man might well fynde owte the ysland, and he would make -one of his men seeme to be in nombre a hundred.--The Landsdowne MSS. - - -The following paper exhausts no part of the subject: it simply -embodies the substance of my notes of conversations which I have -had with Manx men and Manx women, whose names, together with such -other particulars as I could get, are in my possession. I have mostly -avoided reading up the subject in printed books; but those who wish to -see it exhaustively treated may be directed to Mr. Arthur W. Moore's -book on The Folklore of the Isle of Man, to which may now be added -Mr. C. Roeder's Contributions to the Folklore of the Isle of Man in -the Lioar Manninagh for 1897, pp. 129-91. - -For the student of folklore the Isle of Man is very fairly stocked -with inhabitants of the imaginary order. She has her fairies and her -giants, her mermen and brownies, her kelpies and water-bulls. - -The water-bull or tarroo ushtey, as he is called in Manx, is a creature -about which I have not been able to learn much, but he is described -as a sort of bull disporting himself about the pools and swamps. For -instance, I was told at the village of Andreas, in the flat country -forming the northern end of the island, and known as the Ayre, that -there used to be a tarroo ushtey between Andreas and the sea to the -west: it was before the ground had been drained as it is now. And an -octogenarian captain at Peel related to me how he had once when a boy -heard a tarroo ushtey: the bellowings of the brute made the ground -tremble, but otherwise the captain was unable to give me any very -intelligible description. This bull is by no means of the same breed as -the bull that comes out of the lakes of Wales to mix with the farmers' -cattle, for there the result used to be great fertility among the -stock, and an overflow of milk and dairy produce, but in the Isle of -Man the tarroo ushtey only begets monsters and strangely formed beasts. - -The kelpie, or, rather, what I take to be a kelpie, was called by my -informants a glashtyn; and Kelly, in his Manx Dictionary, describes -the object meant as 'a goblin, an imaginary animal which rises out of -the water.' One or two of my informants confused the glashtyn with -the Manx brownie. On the other hand, one of them was very definite -in his belief that it had nothing human about it, but was a sort of -grey colt, frequenting the banks of lakes at night, and never seen -except at night. - -Mermen and mermaids disport themselves on the coasts of Man, but -I have to confess that I have made no careful inquiry into what is -related about them; and my information about the giants of the island -is equally scanty. To confess the truth, I do not recollect hearing -of more than one giant, but that was a giant: I have seen the marks -of his huge hands impressed on the top of two massive monoliths. They -stand in a field at Balla Keeill Pherick, on the way down from the -Sloc to Colby. I was told there were originally five of these stones -standing in a circle, all of them marked in the same way by the same -giant as he hurled them down there from where he stood, miles away on -the top of the mountain called Cronk yn Irree Laa. Here I may mention -that the Manx word for a giant is foawr, in which a vowel-flanked -m has been spirited away, as shown by the modern Irish spelling, -fomhor. This, in the plural in old Irish, appears as the name of -the Fomori, so well known in Irish legend, which, however, does -not always represent them as giants, but rather as monsters. I have -been in the habit of explaining the word as meaning submarini; but no -more are they invariably connected with the sea. So another etymology -recommends itself, namely, one which comes from Dr. Whitley Stokes, -and makes the mor in fomori to be of the same origin as the mare in -the English nightmare, French cauchemar, German mahr, 'an elf,' and -cognate words. I may mention that with the Fomori of mythic origin have -doubtless been confounded and identified certain invaders of Ireland, -especially the Dumnonians from the country between Galloway and the -mouth of the Clyde, some of whom may be inferred to have coasted -the north of Ireland and landed in the west, for example in Erris, -the north-west of Mayo, called after them Irrus (or Erris) Domnann. - -The Manx brownie is called the fenodyree, and he is described as a -hairy and apparently clumsy fellow, who would, for instance, thrash -a whole barnful of corn in a single night for the people to whom he -felt well disposed; and once on a time he undertook to bring down for -the farmer his wethers from Snaefell. When the fenodyree had safely -put them in an outhouse, he said that he had some trouble with the -little ram, as it had run three times round Snaefell that morning. The -farmer did not quite understand him, but on going to look at the -sheep, he found, to his infinite surprise, that the little ram was -no other than a hare, which, poor creature, was dying of fright and -fatigue. I need scarcely point out the similarity between this and -the story of Peredur, who, as a boy, drove home two hinds with his -mother's goats from the forest: he owned to having had some trouble -with the goats that had so long run wild as to have lost their horns, -a circumstance which had greatly impressed him [114]. To return to the -fenodyree, I am not sure that there were more than one in Man--I have -never heard him spoken of in the plural; but two localities at least -are assigned to him, namely, a farm called Ballachrink, in Colby, -in the south, and a farm called Lanjaghan, in the parish of Conchan, -near Douglas. Much the same stories, however, appear to be current -about him in the two places, and one of the most curious of them is -that which relates how he left. The farmer so valued the services -of the fenodyree, that one day he took it into his head to provide -clothing for him. The fenodyree examined each article carefully, -and expressed his idea of it, and specified the kind of disease it -was calculated to produce. In a word, he found that the clothes would -make head and foot sick, and he departed in disgust, saying to the -farmer, 'Though this place is thine, the great glen of Rushen is -not.' Glen Rushen is one of the most retired glens in the island, -and it drains down through Glen Meay to the coast, some miles to -the south of Peel. It is to Glen Rushen, then, that the fenodyree -is supposed to be gone; but on visiting that valley in 1890 [115] in -quest of Manx-speaking peasants, I could find nobody there who knew -anything of him. I suspect that the spread of the English language -even there has forced him to leave the island altogether. Lastly, -with regard to the term fenodyree, I may mention that it is the word -used in the Manx Bible of 1819 for satyr in Isaiah xxxiv. 14 [116], -where we read in the English Bible as follows: 'The wild beasts of -the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and -the satyr shall cry to his fellow.' In the Vulgate the latter clause -reads: et pilosus clamabit alter ad alterum. The term fenodyree has -been explained by Cregeen in his Manx Dictionary to mean one who -has hair for stockings or hose. That answers to the description of -the hairy satyr, and seems fairly well to satisfy the phonetics of -the case, the words from which he derives the compound being fynney -[117], 'hair,' and oashyr, 'a stocking'; but as oashyr seems to come -from the old Norse hosur, the plural of hosa, 'hose or stocking,' -the term fenodyree cannot date before the coming of the Norsemen; -and I am inclined to think the idea more Teutonic than Celtic. At any -rate I need not point out to the English reader the counterparts of -this hairy satyr in the hobgoblin 'Lob lie by the Fire,' and Milton's -'Lubber Fiend,' whom he describes as one that - - - Basks at the fire his hairy strength, - And crop-full out of doors he flings, - Ere the first cock his matin rings. - - -Lastly, I may mention that Mr. Roeder has a great deal to say about -the fenodyree under the name of glashtyn; for it is difficult to -draw any hard and fast line between the glashtyn and the fenodyree, -or even the water-bull, so much alike do they seem to have been -regarded. Mr. Roeder's items of folklore concerning the glashtyns -(see the Lioar Manninagh, iii. 139) show that there were male and -female glashtyns, and that the former were believed to have been too -fond of the women at Ballachrink, until one evening some of the men, -dressed as women, arranged to receive some youthful glashtyns. Whether -the fenodyree is of Norse origin or not, the glashtyn is decidedly -Celtic, as will be further shown in chapter vii. Here it will suffice -to mention one or two related words which are recorded in Highland -Gaelic, namely, glaistig, 'a she-goblin which assumes the form of -a goat,' and glaisrig, 'a female fairy or a goblin, half human, -half beast.' - -The fairies claim our attention next, and as the only other fairies -tolerably well known to me are those of Wales, I can only compare or -contrast the Manx fairies with the Welsh ones. They are called in Manx, -sleih beggey, or little people, and ferrishyn, from the English word -fairies, as it would seem. Like the Welsh fairies, they kidnap babies; -and I have heard it related how a woman in Dalby had a struggle with -the fairies over her baby, which they were trying to drag out of the -bed from her. Like Welsh fairies, also, they take possession of the -hearth after the farmer and his family are gone to bed. A man in Dalby -used to find them making a big fire in his kitchen: he would hear -the crackling and burning of the fire when nobody else could have -been there except the fairies and their friends. I said 'friends,' -for they sometimes take a man with them, and allow him to eat with -them at the expense of others. Thus, some men from the northern-most -parish, Kirk Bride, went once on a time to Port Erin, in the south, -to buy a supply of fish for the winter, and with them went a Kirk -Michael man who had the reputation of being a persona grata to the -fairies. Now one of the Port Erin men asked a man from the north who -the Michael man might be: he was curious to know his name, as he had -seen him once before, and on that occasion the Michael man was with -the fairies at his house--the Port Erin man's house--helping himself -to bread and cheese in company with the rest. As the fairies were -regaling themselves in this instance on ordinary bread and cheese -at a living Manxman's expense, the story may perhaps be regarded as -not inconsistent with one mentioned by Cumming [118] to the following -effect:--A man attracted one night as he was crossing the mountains, -by fairy music, entered a fairy hall where a banquet was going on. He -noticed among them several faces which he seemed to know, but no act -of mutual recognition took place till he had some drink offered him, -when one of those whom he seemed to know warned him not to taste of -the drink if he had any wish to make his way home again. If he partook -of it he would become like one of them. So he found an opportunity for -spilling it on the ground and securing the cup; whereupon the hall and -all its inmates instantaneously vanished. On this I may remark that -it appears to have been a widely spread belief, that no one who had -partaken of the food for spirits would be allowed to return to his -former life, and some instances will be found mentioned by Professor -Tylor in his Primitive Culture, ii. 50-2. - -Like the Welsh fairies, the Manx ones take men away with them and -detain them for years. Thus a Kirk Andreas man was absent from his -people for four years, which he spent with the fairies. He could not -tell how he returned, but it seemed as if, having been unconscious, -he woke up at last in this world. The other world, however, in which -he was for the four years was not far away, as he could see what his -brothers and the rest of the family were doing every day, although -they could not see him. To prove this, he mentioned to them how they -were occupied on such and such a day, and, among other things, how -they took their corn on a particular day to Ramsey. He reminded them -also of their having heard a sudden sharp crack as they were passing -by a thorn bush he named, and how they were so startled that one of -them would have run back home. He asked them if they remembered that, -and they said they did, only too well. He then explained to them the -meaning of the noise, namely, that one of the fairies with whom he -had been galloping the whole time was about to let fly an arrow at -his brothers, but that as he was going to do this, he (the missing -brother) raised a plate and intercepted the arrow: that was the sharp -noise they had heard. Such was the account he had to give of his -sojourn in Faery. This representation of the world of the fairies, -as contained within the ordinary world of mortals, is very remarkable; -but it is not a new idea, as we seem to detect it in the Irish story -of the abduction of Conla Rúad [119]: the fairy who comes to fetch -him tells him that the folk of Tethra, whom she represents, behold -him every day as he takes part in the assemblies of his country and -sits among his friends. The commoner way of putting it is simply to -represent the fairies as invisible to mortals at will; and one kind -of Welsh story relates how the mortal midwife accidentally touches -her eyes, while dressing a fairy baby, with an ointment which makes -the fairy world visible to her: see pp. 63, 213, above. - -Like Welsh fairies, the Manx ones had, as the reader will have seen, -horses to ride; they had also dogs, just as the Welsh ones had. This -I learn from another story, to the effect that a fisherman, taking a -fresh fish home, was pursued by a pack of fairy dogs, so that it was -only with great trouble he reached his own door. Then he picked up -a stone and threw it at the dogs, which at once disappeared; but he -did not escape, as he was shot by the fairies, and so hurt that he lay -ill for fully six months from that day. He would have been left alone -by the fairies, I was told, if he had only taken care to put a pinch -of salt in the fish's mouth before setting out, for the Manx fairies -cannot stand salt or baptism. So children that have been baptized are, -as in Wales, less liable to be kidnapped by these elves than those -that have not. I scarcely need add that a twig of cuirn [120] or rowan -is also as effective against fairies in Man as it is in Wales. Manx -fairies seem to have been musical, like their kinsmen elsewhere; for -I have heard of an Orrisdale man crossing the neighbouring mountains -at night and hearing fairy music, which took his fancy so much that -he listened, and tried to remember it. He had, however, to return, -it is said, three times to the place before he could carry it away -complete in his mind, which he succeeded in doing at last just as the -day was breaking and the musicians disappearing. This air, I am told, -is now known by the name of the Bollan Bane, or White Wort. As to -certain Welsh airs similarly supposed to have been derived from the -fairies, see pages 201-2 above. - -So far I have pointed out next to nothing but similarities between -Manx fairies and Welsh ones, and I find very little indicative of a -difference. First, with regard to salt, I am unable to say anything -in this direction, as I do not happen to know how Welsh fairies -regard salt: it is not improbable that they eschew salt as well as -baptism, especially as the Church of Rome has long associated salt -with baptism. There is, however, one point, at least, of difference -between the fairies of Man and of Wales: the latter are, so far as I -can call to mind, never supposed to discharge arrows at men or women, -or to handle a bow [121] at all, whereas Manx fairies are always -ready to shoot. May we, therefore, provisionally regard this trait -of the Manx fairies as derived from a Teutonic source? At any rate -English and Scotch elves were supposed to shoot, and I am indebted -to the kindness of my colleague, Professor Napier, for calling my -attention to the Leechdoms of Early England [122] for cases in point. - -Now that most of the imaginary inhabitants of Man and its coasts have -been rapidly passed in review before the reader, I may say something -of others whom I regard as semi-imaginary--real human beings to whom -impossible attributes are ascribed: I mean chiefly the witches, or, -as they are sometimes called in Manx English, butches [123]. That -term I take to be a variant of the English word witch, produced -under the influence of the verb bewitch, which was reduced in Manx -English to a form butch, especially if one bear in mind the Cumbrian -and Scottish pronunciation of these words, as wutch and bewutch. Now -witches shift their form, and I have heard of one old witch changing -herself into a pigeon; but that I am bound to regard as exceptional, -the regular form into which Manx witches pass at their pleasure being -that of the hare, and such a swift and thick skinned hare that no -greyhound, except a black one without a single white hair, can catch -it, and no shot, except a silver coin, penetrate its body. Both these -peculiarities are also well known in Wales. I notice a difference, -however, between Wales and Man with regard to the hare witches: -in Wales only the women can become hares, and this property runs, -so far as I know, in certain families. I have known many such, and my -own nurse belonged to one of them, so that my mother was reckoned to -be rather reckless in entrusting me to y Gota, or 'the Cutty One,' as -she might run away at any moment, leaving her charge to take care of -itself. But I have never heard of any man or boy of any such family -turning himself into a hare, whereas in the Isle of Man the hare -witches may belong, if I may say so, to either sex. I am not sure, -however, that a man who turns himself into a hare would be called a -wizard or witch; and I recollect hearing in the neighbourhood of Ramsey -of a man nicknamed the gaaue mwaagh, that is to say, 'the hare smith,' -the reason being that this particular smith now and then assumed the -form of a hare. I am not quite sure that gaaue mwaagh is the name of -a class, though I rather infer that it is. If so, it must be regarded -as a survival of the magic skill associated with smiths in ancient -Ireland, as evidenced, for instance, in St. Patrick's Hymn in the -eleventh or twelfth century manuscript at Trinity College, Dublin, -known as the Liber Hymnorum, in which we have a prayer-- - - - Fri brichta ban ocus goband ocus druad. - - Against the spells of women, of smiths and magicians [124]. - - -The persons who had the power of turning themselves into hares were -believed to be abroad and very active, together with the whole demon -world, on the eve of May-day of the Old Style. And a middle-aged -man from the parish of Andreas related to me how he came three or -four times across a woman reputed to be a witch, carrying on her -evil practices at the junction of cross-roads, or the meeting of -three boundaries. This happened once very early on Old May morning, -and afterwards he met her several times as he was returning home from -visiting his sweetheart. He warned the witch that if he found her again -he would kick her: that is what he tells me. Well, after a while he -did surprise her again at work at four cross-roads, somewhere near -Lezayre. She had a circle, he said, as large as that made by horses -in threshing, swept clean around her. He kicked her and took away her -besom, which he hid till the middle of the day. Then he made the farm -boys fetch some dry gorse, and he put the witch's besom on the top of -it. Thereupon fire was set to the gorse, and, wonderful to relate, -the besom, as it burned, crackled and made reports like guns going -off. In fact, the noise could be heard at Andreas Church--that is -to say, miles away. The besom had on it 'seventeen sorts of knots,' -he stated, and the woman herself ought to have been burned: in fact, -he added that she did not long survive her besom. The man who related -this to me is hale and strong, living now in the parish of Michael, -and not in that of Andreas, where he was born. - -There is a tradition at St. John's, which is overlooked by the mountain -called Slieau Whallian, that witches used at one time to be punished -by being set to roll down the steep side of the mountain in spiked -barrels; but, short of putting them to death, there were various ways -of rendering the machinations of witches innocuous, or of undoing the -mischief done by them; for the charmers supply various means of meeting -them triumphantly, and in case an animal is the victim, the burning of -it always proves an effective means of bringing the offender to book: -I shall have occasion to return to this under another heading. There -is a belief that if you can draw blood, however little, from a witch, -or one who has the evil eye, he loses his power of harming you; -and I have been told that formerly this belief was sometimes acted -upon. Thus, on leaving church, for instance, the man who fancied -himself in danger from another would sidle up to him or walk by his -side, and inflict on him a slight scratch, or some other trivial wound, -which elicited blood; but this must have been a course always attended -with more or less danger. - -The persons able to undo the witches' work, and remove the malignant -influence of the evil eye, are known in Manx English as charmers, -and something must now be said of them. They have various ways of -proceeding to their work. A lady of about thirty-five, living at Peel, -related to me how, when she was a child suffering from a swelling -in the neck, she had it charmed away by an old woman. This charmer -brought with her no less than nine pieces of iron, consisting of -bits of old pokers, old nails, and other odds and ends of the same -metal, making in all nine pieces. After invoking the Father, the Son, -and the Holy Ghost, she began to rub the girl's neck with the old -irons; nor was she satisfied with that, for she rubbed the doors, -the walls, and the furniture likewise, with the metal. The result, I -was assured, was highly satisfactory, as she has never been troubled -with a swelling in the throat since that day. Sometimes a passage -from the Bible is made use of in charming, as, for instance, in the -case of bleeding. One of the verses then pronounced is Ezekiel xvi. 6, -which runs thus:--'And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in -thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; -yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.' This was -told me by a Laxey man, who is over seventy years of age. The methods -of charming away warts are various. A woman from the neighbourhood -of St. John's explained to me how a charmer told her to get rid of -the warts on her hands. She was to take a string and make a knot on -it for every wart she had, and then tie the string round her hand, -or fingers--I forget which; and I think my informant, on her part, -forgot to tell me a vital part of the formula, namely, that the string -was to be destroyed. But however that may be, she assured me that the -warts disappeared, and have never returned since. A lady at Andreas has -a still simpler method of getting rid of warts. She rubs a snail on the -warts, and then places the snail on one of the points of a blackthorn, -and, in fact, leaves the snail to die, transfixed by the thorn; and -as the snail dies the warts disappear. She has done this in the case -of her niece with complete success, so far as the wart was concerned; -but she had forgotten to notice whether the snail had also succumbed. - -The lady who in this case applied the remedy cannot be in any sense -called a charmer, however much one may insist on calling what she -did a charm. In fact, the term charmer tends to be associated with a -particular class of charm involving the use of herbs. Thus there used -to be at one time a famous charmer living near Kirk Michael, to whom -the fishermen were in the habit of resorting, and my informant told -me that he had been deputed more than once by his fellow fishermen to -go to him in consequence of their lack of success in the fishing. The -charmer gave him a packet of herbs, cut small, with directions that -they should be boiled, and the water mixed with some spirits--rum, -I think--and partly drunk in the boat by the captain and the crew, -and partly sprinkled over the boat and everything in it. The charmer -clearly defined his position in the matter to my informant. 'I cannot,' -he said, 'put the fish in your nets for you; but if there is any -mischief in the way of your luck, I can remove that for you.' The -fishermen themselves had, however, more exaggerated notions of the -charmer's functions, for once on a time my informant spent on drink -for his boon companions the money which he was to give the charmer, -and then he collected herbs himself--it did not much matter what -herbs--and took them to his captain, who, with the crew, went through -the proper ritual, and made a most successful haul that night. In -fact, the only source of discontent was the charmer's not having -distributed the fish over two nights, instead of endangering their -nets by an excessive haul all in one night. They regarded him as able -to do almost anything he liked in the matter. - -A lady at Andreas gave me an account of a celebrated charmer who -lived between there and the coast. He worked on her husband's farm, -but used to be frequently called away to be consulted. He usually cut -up wormwood for the people who came to him, and if there was none to -be had, he did not scruple to rob the garden of any small sprouts -it contained of cabbage or the like. He would chop them small, -and give directions about boiling them and drinking the water. He -usually charged any one leaving him to speak to nobody on the way, -lest he break the charm, and this mysteriousness was evidently an -important element in his profession. But he was, nevertheless, a -thriftless fellow, and when he went to Peel, and sent the crier round -to announce his arrival, and received a good deal of money from the -fishermen, he seldom so conducted himself as to bring much of his -earnings home. He died miserably some seven or eight years ago at -Ramsey, and left a widow in great poverty. As to the present day, -the daughter of a charmer now dead is married to a man living in a -village on the southern side of the island, and she appears to have -inherited her father's reputation for charming, as the fishermen from -all parts are said to flock to her for luck. Incidentally, I have -heard in the south more than once of her being consulted in cases of -sudden and dangerous illness, even after the best medical advice has -been obtained: in fact, she seems to have a considerable practice. - -In answer to my question, how the charmer who died at Ramsey used -to give the sailors luck in the fishing, my informant at Andreas -could not say, except that he gave them herbs as already described, -and she thought also that he sold them wisps to place under their -pillows. I gather that the charms were chiefly directed to the removal -of supposed impediments to success in the fishing, rather than to any -act of a more positive nature. So far as I have been able to ascertain, -charming is hereditary, and they say that it descends from father -to daughter, and then from daughter to son, and so on--a remarkable -kind of descent, on which I should be glad to learn the opinion of -anthropologists. One of the best Manx scholars in the island related -to me how some fishermen once insisted on his doing the charmer for -them because of his being of such and such a family, and how he made -fools of them. It is my impression that the charming families are -comparatively few in number, and this looks as if they descended from -the family physicians or druids of one or two chieftains in ancient -times. It is very likely a question which could be cleared up by a -local man familiar with the island and all that tradition has to say -on the subject of Manx pedigrees. - -In the case of animals ailing, the herbs were also resorted to; -and, if the beasts happened to be milch cows, the herbs had to be -boiled in some of their milk. This was supposed to produce wonderful -results, described as follows by a man living at a place on the way -from Castletown up South Barrule:--A farmer in his parish had a cow -that milked blood, as he described it, and this in consequence of a -witch's ill-will. He went to the charmer, who gave him some herbs, -which he was to boil in the ailing cow's milk, and the charmer charged -him, whatever he did, not to quit the concoction while it was on the -fire, in spite of any noises he might hear. The farmer went home and -proceeded that night to boil the herbs as directed, but he suddenly -heard a violent tapping at the door, a terrible lowing of the cattle -in the cow-house, and stones coming down the 'chumley': the end of it -was that he suddenly fled and sprang into bed to take shelter behind -his wife. He went to the charmer again, and related to him what had -happened: he was told that he must have more courage the next time, -unless he wished his cow to die. He promised to do his best, and -this time he stood his ground in spite of the noises and the creaking -of the windows--until, in fact, a back window burst into pieces and -bodily let a witch in, who craved his pardon, and promised nevermore -to molest him or his. This all happened at the farm in question -in the time of the present farmer's grandfather. The boiling of -the charmer's herbs in milk always produces a great commotion and -lowing among the cattle, and it invariably cures the ailing ones: -this is firmly believed by respectable farmers whom I could name, -in the north of the island in particular, and I am alluding to men -whom one might consider fairly educated members of their class. - -In the last mentioned instance not only is the requisite cure -effected, but the witch who caused the mischief is brought on the -spot. I have recently heard of a parallel to this in a belief which -appears to be still prevalent in the Channel Islands, more especially -Guernsey. The following incidents have been communicated to me by an -ardent folklorist, who has friends in the islands:-- - -An old woman in Torteval became ill, and her two sons were told that -if they tried one of the charms of divination, such as boiling certain -weeds in a pot, the first person to come to the house would prove -to be the one who had cast a spell over their mother. Accordingly -they made their bouillederie, and who should come to the door but -a poor, unoffending Breton onion seller, and as he was going away -he was waylaid by the two sons, who beat him within an inch of his -life. They were prosecuted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment; -but the charming did not come out in the evidence, though it was -generally known to have been the reason for the assault. This account -was given my informant in 1898, and the incident appears to have -happened not very long before. Another is related thus:--A certain -family suffered from a plague of lice, which they regarded as the -consequence of a spell. They accordingly made their boiling of herbs -and looked for the first comer. He turned out to be a neighbour of -theirs who wished to buy some turnip seeds. The family abused him -roundly. He went away, but he was watched and caught by two of the -sons of the house, who beat him cruelly. They, on being prosecuted, -had to pay him £5 damages. This took place in the summer of 1898, -in the narrator's own parish, in Guernsey. I have also another case -of recent date, to the effect that a young woman, whose churning was -so unsuccessful that the butter would not come, boiled herbs in the -prescribed way. She awaited the first comer, and, being engaged, her -intended husband was not unnaturally the first to arrive. She abused -him so unsparingly that he broke off the engagement. These instances -go far enough to raise the question why the boiling of herbs should -be supposed to bring the culprit immediately on the spot, but they -hardly go any further, namely, to help us to answer it. - -Magic takes us back to a very primitive and loose manner of thinking; -so the marvellously easy way in which it identifies any tie of -association, however flimsy, with the insoluble bond of relationship -which educated men and women regard as connecting cause and effect, -renders even simpler means than I have described quite equal to the -undoing of the evils resulting from the activity of the evil eye. Thus, -let us suppose that a person endowed with the evil eye has just passed -by the farmer's herd of cattle, and a calf has suddenly been seized -with a serious illness, the farmer hurries after the man of the evil -eye to get the dust from under his feet. If he objects, the farmer -may, as has sometimes been actually done, throw him down by force, -take off his shoes, and scrape off the dust adhering to their soles, -and carry it back to throw over the calf. Even that is not always -necessary, as it appears to be quite enough if he takes up dust where -he of the evil eye has just trod the ground. There are innumerable -cases on folk-record of both means proving entirely efficacious, -and they remind one of a story related in the Itinerarium Kambriæ, -i. 11, by Giraldus, as to the archbishop when he was preaching in the -neighbourhood of Haverfordwest. A certain woman had lost her sight, -but had so much faith in that holy man that she sent her son to try and -procure the least bit of the fringe of his clothing. The youth, unable -to make his way through the crowd that surrounded the preacher, waited -till it dispersed, and then took home to his mother the sod on which -he had stood and on which his feet had left their mark. That earth was -applied by her to her face and eyes, with the result that she at once -recovered her sight. A similar question of psychology presents itself -in a practice intended as a preservative against the evil eye rather -than as a cure. I allude to what I have heard about two maiden ladies -living in a Manx village which I know very well: they are natives -of a neighbouring parish, and I am assured that whenever a stranger -enters their house they proceed, as soon as he goes away, to strew a -little dust or sand over the spot where he stood. That is understood -to prevent any malignant influence resulting from his visit. This -tacit identifying of a man with his footprints may be detected in a -more precarious and pleasing form in a quaint conceit familiar to me -in the lyrics of rustic life in Wales, when, for example, a coy maiden -leaves her lovesick swain hotly avowing his perfect readiness to cusanu -ol ei thraed, that is, to do on his knees all the stages of her path -across the meadow, kissing the ground wherever it has been honoured -with the tread of her dainty foot. Let me take another case, in which -the cord of association is not so inconceivably slender, namely, -when two or more persons standing in a close relation to one another -are mistakenly treated a little too much as if mutually independent, -the objection is heard that it matters not whether it is A or B, that -it is, in fact, all the same, as they belong to the same concern. In -Welsh this is sometimes expressed by saying, Yr un yw Huw'r Glyn a'i -glocs, that is, 'Hugh of the Glen and his clogs are all one.' Then, -when you speak in English of a man 'standing in another's shoes,' -I am by no means certain, that you are not employing an expression -which meant something more to those who first used it than it does to -us. Our modern idioms, with all their straining after the abstract, -are but primitive man's mental tools adapted to the requirements of -civilized life, and they often retain traces of the form and shape -which the neolithic worker's chipping and polishing gave them. - -It is difficult to arrange these scraps under any clearly classified -headings, and now that I have led the reader into the midst of matters -magical, perhaps I may just as well go on to the mention of a few -more: I alluded to the boiling of the herbs according to the charmer's -orders, with the result, among other things, of bringing the witch to -the spot. This is, however, not the only instance of the importance -and strange efficacy of fire. For when a beast dies on a farm, of -course it dies, according to the old-fashioned view of things as I -understand it, from the influence of the evil eye or the interposition -of a witch. So if you want to know to whom you are indebted for the -loss of the beast, you have simply to burn its carcase in the open -air and watch who comes first to the spot or who first passes by: -that is the criminal to be charged with the death of the animal, -and he cannot help coming there--such is the effect of the fire. A -Michael woman, who is now about thirty, related to me how she watched -while the carcase of a bewitched colt was burning, how she saw the -witch coming, and how she remembers her shrivelled face, with nose -and chin in close proximity. According to another native of Michael, -a well informed middle-aged man, the animal in question was oftenest -a calf, and it was wont to be burnt whole, skin and all. The object, -according to him, is invariably to bring the bewitcher on the spot, -and he always comes; but I am not clear what happens to him when -he appears. My informant added, however, that it was believed that, -unless the bewitcher got possession of the heart of the burning beast, -he lost all his power of bewitching. He related, also, how his father -and three other men were once out fishing on the west coast of the -island, when one of the three suddenly expressed his wish to land. As -they were fishing successfully some two or three miles from the shore, -they would not hear of it. He, however, insisted that they must put him -ashore at once, which made his comrades highly indignant; but they soon -had to give way, as they found that he was determined to leap overboard -unless they complied. When he got on shore they watched him hurrying -away towards where a beast was burning in the corner of a field. - -Manx stories merge this burning in a very perplexing fashion with what -may be termed a sacrifice for luck. The following scraps of information -will make it clear what I mean:--A respectable farmer from Andreas -told me that he was driving with his wife to the neighbouring parish of -Jurby some years ago, and that on the way they beheld the carcase of a -cow or an ox burning in a field, with a woman engaged in stirring the -fire. On reaching the village to which they were going, they found -that the burning beast belonged to a farmer whom they knew. They -were further told it was no wonder that the said farmer had one of -his cattle burnt, as several of them had recently died. Whether this -was a case of sacrifice or not I cannot say. But let me give another -instance: a man whom I have already mentioned, saw at a farm nearer -the centre of the island a live calf being burnt. The owner bears -an English name, but his family has long been settled in Man. The -farmer's explanation to my informant was that the calf was burnt to -secure luck for the rest of the herd, some of which were threatening -to die. My informant thought there was absolutely nothing the matter -with them, except that they had too little food. Be that as it may, -the one calf was sacrificed as a burnt offering to secure luck for -the rest of the cattle. Let me here also quote Mr. Moore's note in -his Manx Surnames, p. 184, on the place-name Cabbal yn Oural Losht, -or the 'Chapel of the Burnt Sacrifice.' 'This name,' he says, 'records -a circumstance which took place in the nineteenth century, but which, -it is to be hoped, was never customary in the Isle of Man. A farmer, -who had lost a number of his sheep and cattle by murrain, burned a calf -as a propitiatory offering to the Deity on this spot, where a chapel -was afterwards built. Hence the name.' Particulars, I may say, of time, -place, and person, could be easily added to Mr. Moore's statement, -excepting, perhaps, as to the deity in question: on that point I have -never been informed, but Mr. Moore was probably right in the use of -the capital d, as the sacrificer was, according to all accounts, a -devout Christian. I have to thank Sir Frederick Pollock for calling my -attention to a parallel this side of the sea: he refers me to Worth's -History of Devonshire (London, 1886), p. 339, where one reads the -following singular passage:--'Living animals have been burnt alive in -sacrifice within memory to avert the loss of other stock. The burial -of three puppies "brandise-wise" in a field is supposed to rid it -of weeds.' The second statement is very curious, and the first seems -to mean that preventive sacrifices have been performed in Devonshire -within the memory of men living in the author's time. - -One more Manx instance: an octogenarian woman, born in the parish of -Bride, and now living at Kirk Andreas, saw, when she was a 'lump of -a girl' of ten or fifteen years of age, a live sheep being burnt in -a field in the parish of Andreas, on May-day, whereby she meant the -first of May reckoned according to the Old Style. She asserts [125] -very decidedly that it was son oural, 'for a sacrifice,' as she put -it, and 'for an object to the public': those were her words when she -expressed herself in English. Further, she made the statement that -it was a custom to burn a sheep on Old May-day for a sacrifice. I was -fully alive to the interest of this evidence, and cross-examined her -so far as her age allows of it, and I find that she adheres to her -statement with all firmness, but I distinguish two or three points in -her evidence: 1. I have no doubt that she saw, as she was passing by -a certain field on the borders of Andreas parish, a live sheep being -burnt on Old May-day. 2. But her statement that it was son oural, or -as a sacrifice, was probably only an inference drawn by her, possibly -years afterwards, on hearing things of the kind discussed. 3. Lastly, -I am convinced that she did hear the May-day sacrifice discussed, both -in Manx and in English: her words, 'for an object to the public,' are -her imperfect recollection of a phrase used in her hearing by somebody -more ambitious of employing English abstract terms than she is; and -the formal nature of her statement in Manx, that it was customary -on May-day to burn as a sacrifice one head of sheep (Laa Boaldyn va -cliaghtey dy lostey son oural un baagh keyrragh), produces the same -impression on my mind, that she is only repeating somebody else's -words. I mention this more especially as I have failed to find anybody -else in Andreas or Bride, or indeed in the whole island, who will -now confess to having ever heard of the sheep sacrifice on Old May-day. - -The time assigned to the sheep sacrifice, namely May-day, leads -me to make some remarks on the importance of that day among the -Celts. The day meant is, as I have already said, Old May-day, in Manx -Shenn Laa Boaldyn, the belltaine of Cormac's Glossary, Scotch Gaelic -bealtuinn. This was a day when systematic efforts were made to protect -man and beast against elves and witches; for it was then that people -carried crosses of rowan in their hats and placed May flowers over -the tops of their doors and elsewhere as preservatives against all -malignant influences. With the same object in view crosses of rowan -were likewise fastened to the tails of the cattle, small crosses -which had to be made without the help of a knife: I exhibited a tiny -specimen at one of the meetings of the Folk-Lore Society. Early on May -morning one went out to gather the dew as a thing of great virtue, -as in other countries. At Kirk Michael one woman, who had been out -on this errand years ago, told me that she washed her face with the -dew in order to secure luck, a good complexion, and safety against -witches. The break of this day is also the signal for setting the -ling or the gorse on fire, which is done in order to burn out the -witches wont to take the form of the hare; and guns, I am told, -were freely used to shoot any game met with on that morning. With the -proper charge some of the witches were now and then hit and wounded, -whereupon they resumed the human form and remained cripples for the -rest of their lives. Fire, however, appears to have been the chief -agency relied on to clear away the witches and other malignant beings; -and I have heard of this use of fire having been carried so far that -a practice was sometimes observed--as, for example, in Lezayre--of -burning gorse, however little, in the hedge of each field on a farm -in order to drive away the witches and secure luck. - -The man who told me this, on being asked whether he had ever heard -of cattle being driven through fire or between two fires on May-day, -replied that it was not known to him as a Manx custom, but that it was -an Irish one. A cattle-dealer whom he named used on May-day to drive -his cattle through fire so as to singe them a little, as he believed -that would preserve them from harm. He was an Irishman, who came to -the island for many years, and whose children are settled in the island -now. On my asking him if he knew whence the dealer came, he answered, -'From the mountains over there,' pointing to the Mourne Mountains -looming faintly in the mists on the western horizon. The Irish custom -known to my Manx informant is interesting both as throwing light on -the Manx custom, and as being the continuation of a very ancient rite -mentioned by Cormac. That writer, or somebody in his name, says that -belltaine, May-day, was so called from the 'lucky fire,' or the 'two -fires,' which the druids of Erin used to make on that day with great -incantations; and cattle, he adds, used to be brought to those fires, -or to be driven between them, as a safeguard against the diseases of -the year. Cormac [126] says nothing, it will be noticed, as to one of -the cattle or the sheep being sacrificed for the sake of prosperity -to the rest. However, Scottish [127] May-day customs point to a -sacrifice having been once usual, and that possibly of human beings, -and not of sheep as in the Isle of Man. I have elsewhere [128] tried -to equate these Celtic May-day practices with the Thargelia [129] -of the Athenians of antiquity. The Thargelia were characterized by -peculiar rites, and among other things then done, two adult persons -were led about, as it were scapegoats, and at the end they were -sacrificed and burnt, so that their ashes might be dispersed. Here -we seem to be on the track of a very ancient Aryan practice, although -the Celtic season does not quite coincide with the Greek one. Several -items of importance for comparison here will be found passed under -careful review in a most suggestive paper by Mr. Lawrence Gomme, 'On -the Method of determining the Value of Folklore as Ethnological Data,' -in the Fourth Report of the Ethnographical Survey Committee [130]. - -It is probably in some ancient May-day custom that we are to look -for the key to a remarkable place-name occurring several times in -the island: I allude to that of Cronk yn Irree Laa, which probably -means the Hill of the Rise of Day. This is the name of one of the -mountains in the south of the island, but it is also borne by one -of the knolls near the eastern end of the range of low hills ending -abruptly on the coast between Ramsey and Bride parish, and quite a -small knoll bears the name, near the church of Jurby [131]. I have -heard of a fourth instance, which, as I learn from Mr. Philip Kermode, -editor of the Lioar Manninagh, is on Clay Head, near Laxey. It has -been attempted to explain it as meaning the Hill of the Watch by Day, -in reference to the old institution of Watch and Ward on conspicuous -places in the island; but that explanation is inadmissible as doing -violence to the phonetics of the words in question [132]. I am rather -inclined to think that the name everywhere refers to an eminence to -which the surrounding inhabitants resorted for a religious purpose -on a particular day in the year. I should suggest that it was to -do homage to the rising sun on May morning, but this conjecture is -offered only to await a better explanation. - -The next great day in the pagan calendar of the Celts is called in -Manx Laa Lhunys, in Irish Lugnassad, the assembly or fair, which was -associated with the name of the god Lug. This should correspond to -Lammas, but, reckoned as it is according to the Old Style, it falls -on the twelfth of August, which used to be a great day for business -fairs in the Isle of Man as in Wales. But for holiday making the -twelfth only suited when it happened to be a Sunday: when that was -not the case, the first Sunday after the twelfth was fixed upon. It is -known, accordingly, as the first Sunday of Harvest, and it used to be -celebrated by crowds of people visiting the tops of the mountains. The -kind of interference to which I have alluded with regard to an ancient -holiday, is one of the regular results of the transition from Roman -Catholicism to a Protestant system with only one fixed holiday, namely, -Sunday. The same shifting has partly happened in Wales, where Lammas -is Gwyl Awst, or the festival of Augustus, since the birthday of -Augustus, auspiciously for him and the celebrity of his day, fell in -with the great day of the god Lug in the Celtic world. Now the day -for going up the Fan Fach mountain in Carmarthenshire was Lammas, -but under a Protestant Church it became the first Sunday in August; -and even modified in that way it could not long survive under a -vigorous sabbatarian régime either in Wales or Man. As to the latter -in particular, I have heard it related by persons who were present, -how the crowds on the top of South Barrule on the first Sunday of -Harvest were denounced as pagans by a preacher called William Gick, -some seventy years ago; and how another man called Paric Beg, or -Little Patrick, preaching to the crowds on Snaefell in milder terms, -used to wind up the service with a collection, which appears to have -proved a speedier method of reducing the dimensions of these meetings -on the mountain tops. Be that as it may, they seem to have dwindled -since then to comparative insignificance. - -If you ask the reason for this custom now, for it is not yet quite -extinct, you are told, first, that it is merely to gather ling -berries; but now and then a quasi-religious reason is given, namely, -that it is the day on which Jephthah's daughter went forth to bewail -her virginity 'upon the mountains': somehow some Manx people make -believe that they are doing likewise. That is not all, for people -who have never themselves thought of going up the mountains on the -first Sunday of harvest or any other, will be found devoutly reading -at home about Jephthah's daughter on that day. I was told this first -in the south by a clergyman's wife, who, finding a woman in the parish -reading the chapter in question on that day, asked the reason for her -fixing on that particular portion of the Bible. She then had the Manx -view of the matter fully explained to her, and she has since found -more information about it, and so have I. It is needless for me to -say that I do not quite understand how Jephthah's daughter came to be -introduced: perhaps it is vain to look for any deeper reason than that -the mention, of the mountains may have served as a sort of catch-word, -and that as the Manx people began to cease from visiting the tops of -the mountains annually, it struck the women as the next best thing -for them to read at home of one who did 'go up and down upon the -mountains': they are great readers of the Bible generally. In any case -we have here a very curious instance of a practice, originally pagan, -modifying itself profoundly to secure a new lease of life. - -Between May-day and November eve, there was a day of considerable -importance in the island; but the fixing on it was probably -due to influence other than Celtic: I mean Midsummer Eve, or -St. John's. However, some practices connected with it would seem to -have been of Celtic origin, such as 'the bearing of rushes to certain -places called Warrefield and Mame on Midsummer Even.' Warrefield was -made in Manx into Barrule, but Mame, 'the jugum, or ridge,' has not -been identified. The Barrule here in question was South Barrule, and it -is to the top of that mountain the green rushes were carried, according -to Manx tradition, as the only rent or tax which the inhabitants paid, -namely, to Manannán mac Lir (called in Welsh Manawydan ab Llyr), -whom the same tradition treats as father and founder, as king and -chief wizard of the Isle of Man, the same Manannán who is quaintly -referred to in the illiterate passage at the head of this chapter -[133]. As already stated, the payment of the annual rent of rushes is -associated with Midsummer Eve; but it did not prevent the top of South -Barrule from being visited likewise later in the year. Perhaps it may -also be worth while mentioning, with regard to most of the mountains -climbed on the first Sunday of Harvest, that they seem to have near the -summit of each a well of some celebrity, which appears to be the goal -of the visitors' peregrinations. This is the case with South Barrule, -the spring near the top of which cannot, it is said, be found when -sought a second time; also with Snaefell and with Maughold Head, which -boasts one of the most famous springs in the island. When I visited -it last summer in company with Mr. Kermode, we found it to contain -a considerable number of pins, some of which were bent, and many -buttons. Some of the pins were not of a kind usually carried by men, -and most of the buttons decidedly belonged to the dress of the other -sex. Several people who had resorted many years ago to St. Maughold's -Well, told me that the water is good for sore eyes, and that after -using it on the spot, or filling a bottle with it to take home, one -was wont to drop a pin or bead or button into the well. But it had -its full virtue only when visited the first Sunday of Harvest, and -that only during the hour when the books were open at church, which, -shifted back to Roman Catholic times, means doubtless the hour when -the priest was engaged in saying Mass. Compare the passage in the -Mabinogi of Math, where it is said that the spear required for the -slaying of Llew Llawgyffes had to be a whole year in the making: the -work was to be pursued only so long as one was engaged at the sacrifice -on Sunday (ar yr aberth duw sul): see the Oxford Mabinogion, p. 76. -To return to Man, the restriction, as might be expected, is not -peculiar to St. Maughold's Well: I have heard of it in connexion -with other wells, such as Chibbyr Lansh in Lezayre parish, and with -a well on Slieau Maggyl, in which some Kirk Michael people have a -great belief. But even sea water was believed to have considerable -virtues if you washed in it while the books were open at church, as I -was told by a woman who had many years ago repeatedly taken her own -sister to divers wells and to the sea during the service on Sunday, -in order to have her eyes cured of a chronic weakness. - -The remaining great day in the Celtic year is called Sauin or Laa -Houney: in Irish, Samhain, genitive Samhna. The Manx call it in -English Hollantide, a word derived from the English All hallowen tide, -'the Season of All Saints [134].' This day is also reckoned in Man -according to the Old Style, so that it is our twelfth of November. That -is the day when the tenure of land terminates, and when servant men -go to their places. In other words, it is the beginning of a new year; -and Kelly, in his Manx-English Dictionary, has, under the word blein, -'year,' the following note:--'Vallancey says the Celts began their -year with January; yet in the Isle of Man the first of November is -called New Year's day by the Mummers, who, on the eve, begin their -petition in these words: To-night is New Year's night, Hog-unnaa [135], -&c.' It is a pity that Kelly, whilst he was on this subject, did not -give the rhyme in Manx, and all the more so, as the mummers of the -present day, if he is right, must have changed their words into Noght -oie Houney, that is to say, To-night is Sauin Night or Halloween. So -I had despaired of finding anybody who could corroborate Kelly in his -statement, when I happened last summer to find a man at Kirk Michael -who was quite familiar with this way of treating the year. I asked -him if he could explain Kelly's absurd statement--I put my question -designedly in that form. He said he could, but that there was nothing -absurd in it. He then told me how he had heard some old people talk of -it: he is himself now about sixty-seven. He had been a farm servant -from the age of sixteen till he was twenty-six to the same man, near -Regaby, in the parish of Andreas, and he remembers his master and a -near neighbour of his discussing the term New Year's Day as applied to -the first of November, and explaining to the younger men that it had -always been so in old times. In fact, it seemed to him natural enough, -as all tenure of land ends at that time, and as all servant men begin -their service then. I cross-examined him, without succeeding in any -way in shaking his evidence. I should have been glad a few years ago -to have come across this piece of information, or even Kelly's note, -when I was discussing the Celtic year and trying to prove [136] that -it began at the beginning of winter, with May-day as the beginning -of its second half. - -One of the characteristics of the beginning of the Celtic year with -the commencement of winter was the belief that indications can be -obtained on the eve of that day regarding the events of the year; but -with the calendar year gaining ground it would be natural to expect -that the Calends of January would have some of the associations of the -Calends of Winter transferred to them, and vice versa. In fact, this -can, as it were, be watched now going on in the Isle of Man. First, -I may mention that the Manx mummers used to go about singing, in -Manx, a sort of Hogmanay song [137], reminding one of that usual in -Yorkshire and other parts of Great Britain, and now known to be of -Romance origin [138]. The time for it in this country was New Year's -Eve, according to the ordinary calendar, but in the Isle of Man it -has always been Hollantide Eve, according to the Old Style, and this -is the night when boys now go about continuing the custom of the old -mummers. There is no hesitation in this case between Hollantide Eve -and New Year's Eve. But with the prognostications for the year it -is different, and the following practices have been usual. I may, -however, premise that as a rule I have abstained from inquiring too -closely whether they still go on, but here and there I have had the -information volunteered that they do. - -1. I may mention first a salt prognostication, which was described -to me by a farmer in the north, whose wife practises it once a year -regularly. She carefully fills a thimble with salt in the evening -and upsets it in a neat little heap on a plate: she does that for -every member of the family, and every guest, too, if there happen to -be any. The plate is then left undisturbed till the morning, when -she examines the heaps of salt to see if any of them have fallen; -for whoever is found represented by a fallen heap will die during -the year. She does not herself, I am assured, believe in it, but she -likes to continue a custom which she has learned from her mother. - -2. Next may be mentioned the ashes being carefully swept to the -open hearth, and nicely flattened down by the women just before -going to bed. In the morning they look for footmarks on the hearth, -and if they find such footmarks directed towards the door, it means, -in the course of the year, a death in the family, and if the reverse, -they expect an addition to it by marriage [139]. - -3. Then there is an elaborate process of eavesdropping recommended -to young women curious to know their future husbands' names: a girl -would go with her mouth full of water and her hands full of salt -to the door of the nearest neighbour's house, or rather to that -of the nearest neighbour but one--I have been carefully corrected -more than once on that point. There she would listen, and the first -name she caught would prove to be that of her future husband. Once -a girl did so, as I was told by a blind fisherman in the south, and -heard two brothers quarrelling inside the house at whose door she -was listening. Presently the young men's mother exclaimed that the -devil would not let Tom leave John alone. At the mention of that triad -the girl burst into the house, laughing and spilling the mouthful of -water most incontinently. The end of it was that before the year was -out she married Tom, the second person mentioned: the first either -did not count or proved an unassailable bachelor. - -4. There is also a ritual for enabling a girl to obtain other -information respecting her future husband: vessels placed about the -room have various things put into them, such as clean water, earth, -meal, a piece of a net, or any other article thought appropriate. The -candidate for matrimony, with her eyes bandaged, feels her way about -the house until she puts her hand in one of the aforesaid vessels. If -what she lays her hand on is the clean water, her husband will be a -handsome man [140]; if it is the earth, he will be a farmer; if the -meal, a miller; if the net, a fisherman; and so on into as many of -the walks of life as may be thought worthy of consideration. - -5. Lastly, recourse may be had to a ritual of the same nature as that -observed by the druid of ancient Erin, when, burdened with a heavy -meal of the flesh of a red pig, he laid him down for the night in -order to await a prophetic dream as to the manner of man the nobles of -Erin assembled at Tara were to elect to be their king. The incident -is given in the story of Cúchulainn's Sick-bed; and the reader, -doubtless, knows the passage about Brian and the taghairm in the -fourth Canto of Scott's Lady of the Lake. But the Manx girl has only -to eat a salt herring, bones and all, without drinking or uttering -a word, and to retire backwards to bed. When she sleeps and dreams, -she will behold her future husband approaching to give her drink. - -Probably none of the practices which I have enumerated, or similar -ones mentioned to me, are in any sense peculiar to the Isle of Man; -but what interests me in them is the divided opinion as to the proper -night for them in the year. I am sorry to say that I have very -little information as to the blindman's-buff ritual (No. 4); what -information I have, to wit, the evidence of two persons in the south, -fixes it on Hollantide Eve. But as to the others (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5), -they are observed by some on that night, and by others on New Year's -Eve, sometimes according to the Old Style [141] and sometimes the -New. Further, those who are wont to practise the salt heap ritual, -for instance, on Hollantide Eve, would be very indignant to hear -that anybody should think New Year's Eve the proper night, and vice -versa. So by bringing women bred and born in different parishes -to compare notes on this point, I have witnessed arguing hardly -less earnest than that which characterized the ancient controversy -between British and Italian ecclesiastics as to the proper time for -keeping Easter. I have not been able to map the island according to -the practices prevalent at Hollantide and the beginning of January, -but local folklorists could probably do it without much difficulty. My -impression, however, is that January is gradually acquiring the upper -hand. In Wales this must have been decidedly helped by the influence -of Roman rule and Roman ideas; but even there the adjuncts of the -Winter Calends have never been wholly transferred to the Calends -of January. Witness, for instance, the women who used to congregate -in the parish church to discover who of the parishioners would die -during the year [142]. That custom, in the neighbourhoods reported -to have practised it, continued to attach itself to the last, so -far as I know, to the beginning of November. In the Isle of Man -the fact of the ancient Celtic year having so firmly held its own, -seems to point to the probability that the year of the Pagan Norsemen -pretty nearly coincided with that of the Celts [143]. For there are -reasons to think, as I have endeavoured elsewhere to show, that the -Norse Yule was originally at the end of summer or the commencement -of winter, in other words, the days afterwards known as the Feast -of the Winter Nights. This was the favourite date in Iceland for -listening to soothsayers prophesying with regard to the winter then -beginning. The late Dr. Vigfusson had much to say on this subject, -and how the local sibyl, resuming her elevated seat at the opening -of each successive winter, gave the author of the Volospá his plan of -that remarkable poem, which has been described by the same authority -as the highest spiritual effort of the heathen muse of the North. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE FENODYREE AND HIS FRIENDS - - Emoi de hai sai megalai eutychiai ouk areskousi, - to theion epistamenô hôs esti phthoneron..--Herodotus. - - -The last chapter is hardly such as to call for a recapitulation of -its principal contents, and I venture to submit instead of any such -repetition an abstract of some very pertinent notes on it by Miss -M. G. W. Peacock, who compares with the folklore of the Isle of Man -the old beliefs which survive in Lincolnshire among the descendants -of Norse ancestors [144]. She was attracted by the striking affinity -which she noticed between them, and she is doubtless right in regarding -that affinity as due in no small degree to the Scandinavian element -present in the population alike of Man and the East of England. She -is, however, not lavish of theory, but gives us interesting items of -information from an intimate acquaintance with the folklore of the -district of which she undertakes to speak, somewhat in the following -order:-- - -1. Whether the water-bull still inhabits the streams of Lincolnshire -she regards as doubtful, but the deep pools formed, she says, by the -action of the down-flowing water at the bends of the country becks -are still known as bull-holes. - -2. As to the glashtyn, or water-horse, she remarks that the -tatter-foal, tatter-colt, or shag-foal, as he is variously called, -is still to be heard of, although his visits take place less often -than before the fens and carrs were drained and the open fields and -commons enclosed. She describes the tatter-foal as a goblin of the -shape and appearance of a small horse or yearling foal in his rough, -unkempt coat. He beguiles lonely travellers with his numberless tricks, -one of which is to lure them to a stream, swamp, or water-hole. When -he has succeeded he vanishes with a long outburst of mockery, half -neigh, half human laughter. - -3. The fenodyree, one is told, has in Lincolnshire a cousin, but he -is diminutive; and, like the Yorkshire Hob or Robin Round-Cap, and the -Danish Niss, he is used to befriend the house in which he dwells. The -story of his driving the farmer's sheep home is the same practically -as in the Isle of Man, even to the point of bringing in with them the -little grey sheep, as he called the fine hare that had given him more -trouble than all the rest of the flock: see pp. 286-7 above. - -4. The story of this manikin's clothing differs considerably from -that of the fenodyree. The farmer gives him in gratitude for his -services a linen shirt every New Year's Eve; and this went on for -years, until at last the farmer thought a hemp shirt was good enough -to give him. When the clock struck twelve at midnight the manikin -raised an angry wail, saying:-- - - - Harden, harden, harden hemp! - I will neither grind nor stamp! - Had you given me linen gear, - I would have served you many a year! - - -He was no more seen or heard: he vanished for ever. The Cornish -counterpart of this brownie reasons in the opposite way; for when, -in gratitude for his help in threshing, a new suit of clothes is -given him, he hurries away, crying [145]:-- - - - Pisky new coat, and pisky new hood, - Pisky now will do no more good. - - -Here, also, one should compare William Nicholson's account of the -brownie of Blednoch [146], in Galloway, who wore next to no clothing:-- - - - Roun' his hairy form there was naething seen, - But a philabeg o' the rushes green. - - -So he was driven away for ever by a newly married wife wishing him -to wear an old pair of her husband's breeches:-- - - - But a new-made wife, fu' o' rippish freaks, - Fond o' a' things feat for the first five weeks, - Laid a mouldy pair o' her ain man's breeks - By the brose o' Aiken-drum. - - Let the learned decide, when they convene, - What spell was him and the breeks between: - For frae that day forth he was nae mair seen, - And sair missed was Aiken-drum! - - -The only account which I have been able to find of a Welsh counterpart -will be found in Bwca'r Trwyn, in chapter x: he differs in some -important respects from the fenodyree and the brownie. - -5. A twig of the rowan tree, or wicken, as it is called, was effective -against all evil things, including witches. It is useful in many ways -to guard the welfare of the household, and to preserve both the live -stock and the crops, while placed on the churn it prevents any malign -influence from retarding the coming of the butter. I may remark that -Celts and Teutons seem to have been generally pretty well agreed -as to the virtues of the rowan tree. Bits of iron also are lucky -against witches. - -6. Fairies are rare, but witches and wizards abound, and some of them -have been supposed to change themselves into dogs to worry sheep and -cattle, or into toads to poison the swine's troughs. But they do not -seem to change themselves into hares, as in Man and other Celtic lands. - -7. Witchcraft, says Miss Peacock, is often hereditary, passing most -frequently from mother to daughter; but when a witch has no daughter -her power may appear in a son, and then revert to the female line. This -appears far more natural than the Manx belief in its passing from -father to daughter and from daughter to son. But another kind of -succession is mentioned in the Welsh Triads, i. 32, ii. 20, iii. 90, -which speak of Math ab Mathonwy teaching his magic to Gwydion, -who as his sister's son was to succeed him in his kingdom; and of a -certain Rhudlwm Dwarf teaching his magic to Coll, son of Collfrewi, -his nephew. Both instances seem to point to a state of society which -did not reckon paternity but only birth. - -8. Only three years previous to Miss Peacock's writing an old man died, -she says, who had seen blood drawn from a witch because she had, as -was supposed, laid a spell on a team of horses: as soon as she was -struck so as to bleed the horses and their load were free to go on -their way again. Possibly no equally late instance could be specified -in the Isle of Man: see p. 296 above. - -9. Traces of animal sacrifice may still be found in Lincolnshire, -for the heart of a small beast, or of a bird, is necessary, Miss -Peacock says, for the efficient performance of several counter-charms, -especially in torturing a witch by the reversal of her spells, and -warding off evil from houses or other buildings. Apparently Miss -Peacock has not heard of so considerable a victim as a sheep or a -calf being sacrificed, as in the Isle of Man, but the objects of the -sacrifices may be said to be the same. - -10. Several pin and rag wells are said to exist in Lincolnshire, -their waters being supposed to possess healing virtues, especially -as regards eye ailments. - -11. Love-spells and prognostications are mentioned, some of them as -belonging to Allhallows, as they do partly in the Isle of Man: she -mentions the making of dumb cake, and the eating of the salt herring, -followed by dreams of the future husband bringing the thirsting -lass drink in a jug, the quality of which indicates the bearer's -position in life. But other Lincolnshire practices of the kind seem -to oscillate between Allhallows and St. Mark's Eve, while gravitating -decidedly towards the latter date. Here it is preferable to give Miss -Peacock's own words:--'Professor Rhys' mention of the footmark in the -ashes reminds me of a love-spell current in the Wapentake of Manley in -North Lincolnshire. Properly speaking, it should be put in practice -on St. Mark's E'en, that eerie spring-tide festival when those who -are skilled may watch the church porch and learn who will die in the -ensuing twelvemonth; but there is little doubt that the charm is also -used at Hallow E'en, and at other suitable seasons of the year. The -spell consists in riddling ashes on the hearthstone, or beans on the -floor of the barn, with proper ceremonies and at the proper time, -with the result that the girl who works her incantation correctly -finds the footprint of the man she is to marry clearly marked on the -sifted mass the following morning. It is to be supposed that the spirit -of the lover is responsible for the mark, as, according to another -folk-belief, any girl who watches her supper on St. Mark's E'en will -see the spirit of the man she will wed come into the room at midnight -to partake of the food provided. The room must be one with the door -and windows in different walls, and both must be open. The spirit -comes in by the door (and goes out by the window?). Each girl who -undertakes to keep watch must have a separate supper and a separate -candle, and all talking is to end before the clock goes twelve, -for there must not be any speaking before the spirits. From these -superstitions, and from the generally received idea that the spirits -of all the parishioners are to be observed entering the church on -St. Mark's E'en, it may be inferred that the Manx footprint is made -by the wraith of the person doomed to death.' Compare pp. 318-9 above. - -What Miss Peacock alludes to as watching the church porch was formerly -well known in Wales [147], and may be illustrated from a district so -far east as the Golden Valley, in Herefordshire, by the following -story told me in 1892 by Mrs. Powell of Dorstone, on the strength -of what she had learnt from her mother-in-law, the late Mrs. Powell, -who was a native of that parish:-- - -'On Allhallows Eve at midnight, those who are bold enough to look -through the church windows will see the building lighted with an -unearthly light, and the pulpit occupied by his Satanic majesty clothed -in a monk's habit. Dreadful anathemas are the burden of his preaching, -and the names of those who in the coming year are to render up their -souls may be heard by those who have courage to listen. A notorious -evil liver, Jack of France, once by chance passed the church at this -awful moment: looking in he saw the lights and heard the voice, and -his own name in the horrid list; and, according to some versions of -the story, he went home to die of fright. Others say that he repented -and died in good repute, and so cheated the evil one of his prey.' - -I have no list of places in Wales and its marches which have this -sort of superstition associated with them, but it is my impression -that they are mostly referred to Allhallows, as at Dorstone, and that -where that is not the case they have been shifted to the beginning -of the year as at present reckoned; for in Celtic lands, at least, -they seem to have belonged to what was reckoned the beginning of the -year. The old Celtic year undoubtedly began at Allhallows, and the day -next in importance after the Calends of Winter (in Welsh Calangáeaf) -was, among the Celts, the beginning of the summer half of the year, -or the Calends of May (in Welsh Calánmai), which St. Mark's Eve -approaches too nearly for us to regard it as accidental. With this -modified agreement between the Lincolnshire date and the Celtic one -contrast the irreconcilable English date of St. John's Eve; and see -Tylor's Primitive Culture, i. 440, where one reads as follows of 'the -well-known superstition,' 'that fasting watchers on St. John's Eve -may see the apparitions of those doomed to die during the year come -with the clergyman to the church door and knock; these apparitions -are spirits who come forth from their bodies, for the minister has -been noticed to be much troubled in his sleep while his phantom was -thus engaged, and when one of a party of watchers fell into a sound -sleep and could not be roused, the others saw his apparition knock -at the church door.' With an unerring instinct for the intelligent -colligation of facts, Miss Peacock finds the nearest approach to the -yearly review of the moritures, if I may briefly so call them, in the -wraith's footprint in the ashes. Perhaps a more systematic examination -of Manx folklore may result in the discovery of a more exact parallel. - -For want of knowing where else to put it, I may mention here in -reference to the dead, a passage which has been copied for me by -my friend Mr. Gwenogvryn Evans, from Manuscript 163 in the Peniarth -Collection. I understand it to be of the earlier part of the sixteenth -century, and p. 10 has the following passage:-- - -Yn yr ynys honn [Manaw] y kair gweled liw dyd bobyl a vvessynt veirw / -Rrai gwedi tori penav / eraill gwedi torri i haelode / Ac os dieithred -a dissyfynt i gweled hwynt / Sengi ar draed gwyr or tir ac velly -hwynt a gaent weled yr hyn a welssynt hwyntav. - -'In this island [Man] one beholds in the light of day people who have -died, some with their heads cut off and others with their limbs cut -off. And if strangers desire to see them, they have to stand on the -feet of the natives of the land, and in that way they would see what -the latter had seen.' - -A similar instance of the virtue of standing on the feet of another -person has been mentioned in reference to the farmer of Deunant, at -p. 230 above; the foot, however, on which he had to stand in order -to get a glimpse of the fairy world, was a fairy's own foot. - -Lastly, the passage in the Peniarth Manuscript has something more to -say of the Isle of Man, as follows:-- - -Mawr oed arfer o swynion a chyvaredion gynt yn yr ynys honn / Kanys -gwraged a vydynt yno yn gwnevthvr gwynt i longwyr gwedir gav mewn tri -chwlm o edav aphan vai eissie gwynt arnynt dattod kwlm or edav anaynt. - -'Great was the practice formerly of spells and sorceries in this -island; for there used to be there women making wind for sailors, -which wind they confined within three knots made on a thread. And -when they had need of wind they would undo a knot of the thread.' - -This was written in the sixteenth century, and based probably -on Higden's Polychronicon, book I, chap. xliv. (= I. 42-3), but -the same practice of wind making goes on to this day, one of the -principal practitioners being the woman to whom reference was made -at p. 299. She is said to tie the breezes in so many knots which -she makes on the purchasing sailor's pocket-handkerchief. This -reminds one of the sibyl of Warinsey, or the Island of Guernsey, -who is represented by an ancient Norse poet as 'fashioning false -prophecies.' See Vigfusson and Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale, -i. 136; also Mela's first-century account of the virgins of the island -of Sena, which runs to the following effect:--'Sena, in the Britannic -Sea, opposite the coast of the Osismi, is famous for its oracle of a -Gaulish god, whose priestesses, living in the holiness of perpetual -virginity, are said to be nine in number. They call them Gallizenæ, -and they believe them to be endowed with extraordinary gifts to rouse -the sea and the wind by their incantations, to turn themselves into -whatsoever animal form they may choose, to cure diseases which among -others are incurable, to know what is to come and to foretell it. They -are, however, devoted to the service of voyagers only who have set out -on no other errand than to consult them [148].' It is probable that -the sacrosanct [149] inhabitants of the small islands on the coasts of -Gaul and Britain had wellnigh a monopoly of the traffic in wind [150]. - -In the last chapter I made allusion to several wells of greater or less -celebrity in the Isle of Man; but I find that I have a few remarks to -add. Mr. Arthur Moore, in his book on Manx Surnames and Place-Names, -p. 200, mentions a Chibber Unjin, which means the Well of the Ash-tree, -and he states that there grew near it 'formerly a sacred ash-tree, -where votive offerings were hung.' The ash-tree calls to his mind -Scandinavian legends respecting the ash, but in any case one may -suppose the ash was not the usual tree to expect by a well in the Isle -of Man, otherwise this one would scarcely have been distinguished as -the Ash-tree Well. The tree to expect by a sacred well is doubtless -some kind of thorn, as in the case of Chibber Undin in the parish of -Malew. The name means Foundation Well, so called in reference probably -to the foundations of an ancient cell, or keeill as it is called in -Manx, which lie close by, and are found to measure twenty-one feet -long by twelve feet broad. The following is Mr. Moore's account of -the well in his book already cited, p. 181:--'The water of this well -is supposed to have curative properties. The patients who came to it, -took a mouthful of water, retaining it in their mouths till they had -twice walked round the well. They then took a piece of cloth from a -garment which they had worn, wetted it with the water from the well, -and hung it on the hawthorn tree which grew there. When the cloth -had rotted away, the cure was supposed to be effected.' - -I visited the spot a few years ago in the company of the -Rev. E. B. Savage of St. Thomas' Parsonage, Douglas, and we found -the well nearly dried up in consequence of the drainage of the field -around it; but the remains of the old cell were there, and the thorn -bush had strips of cloth or calico tied to its branches. We cut off -one, which is now in the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford. The account -Mr. Savage had of the ritual observed at the well differed a little -from that given by Mr. Moore, especially in the fact that it made the -patient who had been walking round the well with water from the well -in his mouth, empty that water finally into a rag from his clothing: -the rag was then tied to a branch of the thorn. It does not appear that -the kind of tree mattered much; nay, a tree is not, it seems to me, -essential. At any rate, St. Maughold's Well has no tree growing near -it now; but it is right to say, that when Mr. Kermode and I visited -it, we could find no rags left near the spot, nor indeed could we -expect to find any, as there was nothing to which they might be tied -on that windy headland. The absence of the tree does not, however, -prove that the same sort of ritual was not formerly observed at -St. Maughold's Well as at Chibber Undin; and here I must mention -another well which I have visited in the island more than once. It -is on the side of Bradda Hill, a little above the village of Bradda, -and in the direction of Fleshwick: I was attracted to it by the fact -that it had, as I had been told by Mr. Savage, formerly an old cell -or keeill near it, and the name of the saint to which it belonged may -probably be gathered from the name of the well, which, in the Manx of -the south of the island, is Chibbyrt Valtane, pronounced approximately -Chuvurt Voltáne or Oldáne. The personal name would be written in -modern Manx in its radical form as Boltane, and if it occurred in -the genitive in Ogam inscriptions I should expect to find it written -Boltagni or Baltagni [151]. It is, however, unknown to me, though to -be placed possibly by the side of the name of the saint after whom the -parish of Santon is called in the south-east of the island. This is -pronounced in Manx approximately [152] Santane or Sandane, and would -have yielded an early inscriptional nominative SANCTANVS, which, -in fact, occurs on an old stone near Llandudno on the Welsh coast: -see some notes of mine in point in the Archæologia Cambrensis, 1897, -pp. 140-2. To return to the well, it would seem to have been associated -with an old cell, but it has no tree growing by. Mr. Savage and I were -told, nevertheless, that a boy who had searched the well a short time -previously had got some coins out of it, quite recent ones, consisting -of halfpennies or pennies, so far as I remember. On my observing to -one of the neighbours that I saw no rags there, I was assured that -there had been some; and, on my further saying that I saw no tree -there to which they could be tied, I was told that they used to be -attached to the brambles, which grew there in great abundance. Thus -it appears that, in the Isle of Man at any rate, a tree to bear the -rags was not an essential adjunct of a holy well. - -Before leaving these well superstitions the reader may wish to know -how they were understood in Ireland not long ago: so I venture to -quote a passage from a letter by the late Mr. W. C. Borlase on Rag -Offerings and Primitive Pilgrimages in Ireland, as follows:-- - -'Among the MSS. of the late Mr. Windele, of Cork, ... I find a passage -which cannot fail to interest students of folk-lore. It relates to the -custom of affixing shreds of rag to the hawthorn tree, which almost -invariably stands by the brink of the typical Irish "holy well," and -it gives us the meaning of the custom as understood, some half-century -since, by the inhabitants of certain localities in the province of -Munster. The idea is, says the writer, that the putting up these rags -is a putting away of the evils impending or incurred by sin, an act -accompanied by the following ritual words: Air impide an Tiarna mo -chuid teinis do fhagaint air an ait so; i. e. By the intercession of -the Lord I leave my portion of illness on this place. These words, he -adds, should be uttered by whoever performs the round, and they are, -no doubt, of extreme antiquity. Mr. Windele doubtless took down the -words as he heard them locally pronounced, though, to be correct, for -Tiarna should be read Tigerna; for teinis, tinneas; and for fhagaint, -fhagaim [153].' - -From the less known saints Boltane and Santane I wish to pass to the -mention of a more famous one, namely, St. Catherine, and this because -of a fair called after her, and held on the sixth day of December at -the village of Colby in the south of the island. When I heard of this -fair in 1888, it was in temporary abeyance on account of a lawsuit -respecting the plot of ground on which the fair is wont to be held; -but I was told that it usually begins with a procession, in which a -live hen is carried about: this is called St. Catherine's hen. The next -day the hen is carried about dead and plucked, and a rhyme pronounced -at a certain point in the proceedings contemplates the burial of the -hen, but whether that ever takes place I know not. It runs thus:-- - - - Kiark Catrina marroo: - Gows yn kione as goyms ny cassyn, - As ver mayd ee fo'n thalloo. - - Catherine's hen is dead: - The head take thou and I the feet, - We shall put her under the ground. - - -A man who is found to be not wholly sober after the fair is locally -said to have plucked a feather from the hen (T'eh er goaill fedjag -ass y chiark); so it would seem that there must be such a scramble to -get at the hen, and to take part in the plucking, that it requires -a certain amount of drink to allay the thirst of the over zealous -devotees of St. Catherine. But why should this ceremony be associated -with St. Catherine? and what were the origin and meaning of it? These -are questions on which I should be glad to have light shed. - -Manx has a word quaail (Irish comhdháil), meaning a 'meeting,' and -from it we have a derivative quaaltagh or qualtagh, meaning, according -to Kelly's Dictionary, 'the first person or creature one meets going -from home,' whereby the author can have only meant the first met by -one who is going from home. Kelly goes on to add that 'this person is -of great consequence to the superstitious, particularly to women the -first time they go out after lying-in.' Cregeen, in his Dictionary, -defines the qualtagh as 'the first person met on New Year's Day, -or on going on some new work, &c.' Before proceeding to give the -substance of my notes on the qualtagh of the present day I may as -well finish with Cregeen, for he adds the following information:--'A -company of young lads or men generally went in old times on what they -termed the qualtagh, at Christmas or New Year's Day, to the houses -of their more wealthy neighbours; some one of the company repeating -in an audible voice the following rhyme:-- - - - Ollick ghennal erriu as bleïn feer vie, - Seihll as slaynt da'n slane lught thie; - Bea as gennallys en bio ry-cheilley, - Shee as graih eddyr mrane as deiney; - Cooid as cowryn, stock as stoyr, - Palchey phuddase, as skaddan dy-liooar, - Arran as caashey, eeym as roayrt; - Baase, myr lugh, ayns uhllin ny soalt; - Cadley sauchey tra vees shiu ny lhie, - As feeackle y jargan, nagh bee dy mie.' - - -It may be loosely translated as follows:-- - - - A merry Christmas, a happy new year, - Long life and health to all the household here. - Food and mirth to you dwelling together, - Peace and love to all, men and women; - Wealth and distinction, stock and store, - Potatoes enough, and herrings galore; - Bread and cheese, butter and gravy; - Die like a mouse in a barn or haggard; - In safety sleep while you lie to rest, - And by the flea's tooth be not distressed. - - -At present New Year's Day is the time when the qualtagh is of general -interest, and in this case he is, outside the members of one's own -household, practically the first person one sees on the morning of -that day, whether that person meets one out of doors or comes to -one's house. The following is what I have learnt by inquiry as to -the qualtagh: all are agreed that he must not be a woman or girl, -and that he must not be spaagagh or splay footed, while a woman from -the parish of Marown told me that he must not have red hair. The -prevalent belief, however, is that he should be a dark haired man -or boy, and it is of no consequence how rough his appearance may be, -provided he be black haired. However, I was told by one man in Rushen -that the qualtagh or 'first-foot' need not be a black haired person: -he must be a man or boy. But this less restricted view is not the one -held in the central and northern parts of the island, so far as I could -ascertain. An English lady living in the neighbourhood of Castletown -told me that her son, whom I know to be, like his mother, a blond, -not being aware what consequences might be associated with his visit, -called at a house in Castletown on the morning of New Year's Day, and -he chanced to be the qualtagh. The mistress of the house was horrified, -and expressed to the English lady her anticipation of misfortunes; and -as it happened that one of the children of the house died in the course -of the year, the English lady has been reminded of it since. Naturally -the association of these events are not pleasant to her; but, so far -as I can remember, they date only some eight or nine years ago [154]. - -By way of bringing Wales into comparison with Man, I may mention -that, when I was a very small boy, I used to be sent very early on -New Year's morning to call on an old uncle of mine, because, as I -was told, I should be certain to receive a calennig or a calends' -gift from him, but on no account would my sister be allowed to go, -as he would only see a boy on such an occasion as that. I do not -recollect anything being said as to the colour of one's hair or the -shape of one's foot; but that sort of negative evidence is of very -little value, as the qualtagh was fast passing out of consideration. - -The preference here given to a boy over a girl looks like one of the -widely spread superstitions which rule against the fair sex; but, as -to the colour of the hair, I should be predisposed to think that it -possibly rests on racial antipathy, long ago forgotten; for it might -perhaps be regarded as going back to a time when the dark haired -race reckoned the Aryan of fair complexion as his natural enemy, -the very sight of whom brought with it thoughts calculated to make -him unhappy and despondent. If this idea proved to be approximately -correct, one might suggest that the racial distinction in question -referred to the struggles between the inhabitants of Man and their -Scandinavian conquerors; but to my thinking it is just as likely that -it goes much further back. - -Lastly, what is one to say with regard to the spaagagh or splay footed -person, now more usually defined as flat footed or having no instep? I -have heard it said in the south of the island that it is unlucky to -meet a spaagagh in the morning at any time of the year, and not on New -Year's Day alone; but this does not help us in the attempt to find -the genesis of this belief. If it were said that it was unlucky to -meet a deformed person, it would look somewhat more natural; but why -fix on the flat footed especially? For my part I have not been trained -to distinguish flat footed people, so I do not recollect noticing any -in the Isle of Man; but, granting there may be a small proportion of -such people in the island, does it not seem strange that they should -have their importance so magnified as this superstition would seem -to imply? I must confess that I cannot understand it, unless we have -here also some supposed racial characteristic, let us say greatly -exaggerated. To explain myself I should put it that the non-Aryan -aborigines were a small people of great agility and nimbleness, and -that their Aryan conquerors moved more slowly and deliberately, whence -the former, of springier movements, might come to nickname the latter -the flat footed. It is even conceivable that there was some amount of -foundation for it in fact. If I might speak from my own experience, -I might mention a difficulty I have often had with shoes of English -make, namely, that I have always found them, unless made to measure, -apt to have their instep too low for me. It has never occurred to me to -buy ready-made shoes in France or Germany, but I know a lady as Welsh -as I am, who has often bought shoes in France, and her experience is, -that it is much easier for her to get shoes there to fit her than -in England, and for the very reason which I have already suggested, -namely, that the instep in English shoes is lower than in French ones. - -Again, I may mention that one day last term [155], having to address a -meeting of Welsh undergraduates on folklore, I ventured to introduce -this question. They agreed with me that English shoes did not, -as a rule, fit Welsh feet, and this because they are made too low -in the instep: I ought to have said that they all agreed except one -undergraduate, who held his peace. He is a tall man, powerful in the -football field, but of no dark complexion, and I have never dared -to look in the direction of his feet since, lest he should catch -me carrying my comparisons to cruel extremes. Perhaps the flatness -of the feet of the one race is not emphasized so much as the height -of the instep in those of the other. At any rate I find this way of -looking at the question somewhat countenanced by a journalist who -refers his readers to Wm. Henderson's notes on the Folklore of the -Northern Counties, p. 74. The passage relates more particularly to -Northumberland, and runs as follows:--'In some districts, however, -special weight is attached to the "first-foot" being that of a -person with a high-arched instep, a foot that "water runs under." A -flat-footed person would bring great ill-luck for the coming year.' - -These instances do not warrant the induction that Celts are higher -in the instep than Teutons, and that they have inherited that -characteristic from the non-Aryan element in their ancestry. Perhaps -the explanation is, at least in part, that the dwellers in hilly -regions tend to be more springy and to have higher insteps than -the inhabitants of flatter lands. The statement of Dr. Karl Blind -on this point does not help one to a decision when he speaks as -follows in Folk-Lore for 1892, p. 89:--'As to the instep, I can speak -from personal experience. Almost every German finds that an English -shoemaker makes his boots not high enough in the instep. The northern -Germans (I am from the south) have perhaps slightly flatter feet than -the southern Germans.' The first part of the comparison is somewhat -of a surprise to me, but not so the other part, that the southern -Germans inhabiting a hillier country, and belonging to a different -race, may well be higher in the instep than the more northern speakers -of the German language. But on the whole the more one examines the -qualtagh, the less clearly one sees how he can be the representative -of a particular race. More data possibly would enable one to arrive -at greater probability. - -There is one other question which I should like to ask before leaving -the qualtagh, namely, as to the relation of the custom of New Year's -gifts to the belief in the qualtagh. I have heard it related in -the Isle of Man that women have been known to keep indoors on New -Year's Day until the qualtagh comes, which sometimes means their being -prisoners for the greater part of the day, in order to avoid the risk -of first meeting one who is not of the right sex and complexion. On the -other hand, when the qualtagh is of the right description, considerable -fuss is made of him; to say the least, he has to accept food and drink, -possibly more permanent gifts. Thus a tall, black haired native of -Kirk Michael described to me how he chanced on New Year's Day, years -ago, to turn into a lonely cottage in order to light his pipe, and -how he found he was the qualtagh: he had to sit down to have food, -and when he went away it was with a present and the blessings of -the family. Now New Year's Day is the time for gifts in Wales, as -shown by the name for them, calennig, which is derived from calan, -the Welsh form of the Latin calendæ, New Year's Day being in Welsh -Y Calan, 'the Calends.' The same is the day for gifts in Scotland -and in Ireland, except in so far as Christmas boxes have been making -inroads from England: I need not add that the Jour de l'An is the -day for gifts also in France. My question then is this: Is there any -essential connexion of origin between the institution of New Year's -Day gifts and the belief in the first-foot? - -Now that it has been indicated what sort of a qualtagh it is unlucky -to have, I may as well proceed to mention the other things which I -have heard treated as unlucky in the island. Some of them scarcely -require to be noticed, as there is nothing specially Manx about them, -such as the belief that it is unlucky to have the first glimpse of the -new moon through glass. That is a superstition which is, I believe, -widely spread, and, among other countries, it is quite familiar in -Wales, where it is also unlucky to see the moon for the first time -through a hedge or over a house. What this means I cannot guess, -unless it be that it was once considered one's duty to watch the first -appearance of the new moon from the highest point in the landscape -of the district in which one dwelt. Such a point would in that case -become the chief centre of a moon worship now lost in oblivion. - -It is believed in Man, as it used to be in Wales and Ireland, that -it is unlucky to disturb antiquities, especially old burial places -and old churches. This superstition is unfortunately passing away -in all three countries, but you still hear of it, especially in the -Isle of Man, mostly after mischief has been done. Thus a good Manx -scholar told me how a relative of his in the Ronnag, a small valley -near South Barrule, had carted away the earth from an old burial -ground on his farm and used it as manure for his fields, and how his -beasts died afterwards. The narrator said he did not know whether -there was any truth in it, but everybody believed that it was the -reason why the cattle died; and so did the farmer himself at last: -so he desisted from completing his disturbance of the old site. It -is possibly for a similar reason that a house in ruins is seldom -pulled down, or the materials used for other buildings. Where that has -been done misfortunes have ensued; at any rate, I have heard it said -so more than once. I ought to have stated that the non-disturbance -of antiquities in the island is quite consistent with their being -now and then shamefully neglected as elsewhere. This is now met by -an excellent statute recently enacted by the House of Keys for the -preservation of the public monuments of the island. - -Of the other and more purely Manx superstitions I may mention -one which obtains among the Peel fishermen of the present day: -no boat is willing to be third in the order of sailing out from -Peel harbour to the fisheries. So it sometimes happens that after -two boats have departed, the others remain watching each other for -days, each hoping that somebody else may be reckless enough to break -through the invisible barrier of 'bad luck.' I have often asked for -an explanation of this superstition, but the only intelligible answer -I have had was that it has been observed that the third boat has done -badly several years in succession; but I am unable to ascertain how -far that represents the fact. Another of the unlucky things is to -have a white stone in the boat, even in the ballast, and for that I -never could get any explanation at all; but there is no doubt as to -the fact of this superstition, and I may illustrate it from the case -of a clergyman's son on the west side, who took it into his head to -go out with some fishermen several days in succession. They chanced -to be unsuccessful each time, and they gave their Jonah the nickname -of Clagh Vane, or 'White Stone.' Now what can be the origin of this -tabu? It seems to me that if the Manx had once a habit of adorning the -graves of the departed with white stones, that circumstance would be -a reasonable explanation of the superstition in question. Further, -it is quite possible they did, and here Manx archæologists could -probably help as to the matter of fact. In the absence, however, -of information to the point from Man, I take the liberty of citing -some relating to Scotland. It comes from Mr. Gomme's presidential -address to the Folk-Lore Society: see Folk-Lore for 1893, pp. 13-4:-- - -'Near Inverary, it is the custom among the fisher-folk, and has been -so within the memory of the oldest, to place little white stones or -pebbles on the graves of their friends. No reason is now given for -the practice, beyond that most potent and delightful of all reasons -in the minds of folk-lore students, namely, that it has always been -done. Now there is nothing between this modern practice sanctioned -by traditional observance and the practice of the stone-age people -in the same neighbourhood and in others, as made known to us by their -grave-relics. Thus, in a cairn at Achnacrie opened by Dr. Angus Smith, -on entering the innermost chamber "the first thing that struck the eye -was a row of quartz pebbles larger than a walnut; these were arranged -on the ledge of the lower granite block of the east side." Near Crinan, -at Duncraigaig and at Rudie, the same characteristic was observed, -and Canon Greenwell, who examined the cairns, says the pebbles "must -have been placed there with some intention, and probably possessed a -symbolic meaning."' See also Burghead, by Mr. H. W. Young (Inverness, -1899), p. 10, where we read that at Burghead the 'smooth white pebbles, -sometimes five or seven of them, but never more,' have been usually -arranged as crosses on the graves which he has found under the fallen -ramparts. Can this be a Christian superstition with the white stones -of the Apocalypse as its foundation? - -Here I may mention a fact which I do not know where else to put, -namely, that a fisherman on his way in the morning to the fishing, -and chancing to pass by the cottage of another fisherman who is not -on friendly terms with him, will pluck a straw from the thatch of the -latter's dwelling. Thereby he is supposed to rob him of his luck in the -fishing for that day. One would expect to learn that the straw from -the thatch served as the subject of an incantation directed against -the owner of the thatch. I have never heard anything suggested to -that effect; but I conclude that the plucking of the straw is only -a partial survival of what was once a complete ritual for bewitching -one's neighbour, unless getting possession of the straw was supposed -to carry with it possession of everything belonging to the other man, -including his luck in fishing for that day. - -Owing to my ignorance as to the superstitions of other fishermen than -those of the Isle of Man, I will not attempt to classify the remaining -instances to be mentioned, such as the unluckiness of mentioning a -horse or a mouse on board a fishing-boat: I seem, however, to have -heard of similar tabus among Scottish fishermen; and, according to -Dr. Blind, Shetland fishermen will not mention a church or a clergyman -when out at sea, but use quite other names for both when on board a -ship (Folk-Lore for 1892, p. 89). Novices in the Manx fisheries have -to learn not to point to anything with one finger: they have to point -with the whole hand or not at all. This looks as if it belonged to a -code of rules as to the use of the hand, such as prevail among the -Neapolitans and other peoples whose chief article of faith is the -belief in malign influences: see Mr. Elworthy's volume on The Evil Eye. - -Whether the Manx are alone in thinking it unlucky to lend salt from one -boat to another when they are engaged in the fishing, I know not: such -lending would probably be inconvenient, but why it should be unlucky, -as they believe it to be, does not appear. The first of May is a day -on which it is unlucky to lend anything, and especially to give anyone -fire [156]. This looks as if it pointed back to some druidic custom of -lighting all fires at that time from a sacred hearth, but, so far as is -known, this only took place at the beginning of the other half-year, -namely, Sauin or Allhallows, which is sometimes rendered into Manx as -Laa 'll mooar ny Saintsh, 'the Day of the great Feast of the Saints.' - -Lastly, I may mention that it is unlucky to say that you are very well: -at any rate, I infer that it is regarded so, as you will never get a -Manxman to say that he is feer vie, 'very well.' He usually admits that -he is 'middling'; and if by any chance he risks a stronger adjective, -he hastens to qualify it by adding 'now,' or 'just now,' with an -emphasis indicative of his anxiety not to say too much. His habits -of speech point back to a time when the Manx mind was dominated by -the fear of awaking malignant influences in the spirit world around -him. This has had the effect of giving the Manx peasant's character -a tinge of reserve and suspicion, which makes it difficult to gain -his confidence: his acquaintance has, therefore, to be cultivated -for some time before you can say that you know the workings of his -heart. The pagan belief in a Nemesis has doubtless passed away, but not -without materially affecting the Manx idea of a personal devil. Ever -since the first allusion made in my hearing by Manxmen to the devil, -I have been more and more deeply impressed that for them the devil -is a much more formidable being than Englishmen or Welshmen picture -him. He is a graver and, if I may say so, a more respectable being, -allowing no liberties to be taken with his name, so you had better -not call him a devil, the evil one, or like names, for his proper -designation is Noid ny Hanmey, 'the Enemy of the Soul,' and in ordinary -Anglo-Manx conversation he is commonly called 'the Enemy of Souls.' I -well remember getting one day into a conversation with an old soldier -in the south of the island. He was, as I soon discovered, labouring -under a sort of theological monomania, and his chief question was -concerning the Welsh word for 'the Enemy of Souls.' I felt at once -that I had to be careful, and that the reputation of my countrymen -depended on how I answered. As I had no name anything like the one he -used for the devil, I explained to him that the Welsh, though not a -great nation, were great students of theology, and that they had by -no means neglected the great branch of it known as satanology. In -fact that study, as I went on to say, had left its impress on the -Welsh language: on Sunday the ministers of all denominations, the -deacons and elders, and all self-respecting congregations spoke of the -devil trisyllabically as diafol, while on the other days of the week -everybody called him more briefly and forcibly diawl, except bards -concocting an awdl for an Eistedfod, where the devil must always be -called diafl, and excepting also sailors, farm servants, post-boys and -colliers, together with country gentlemen learning Welsh to address -their wouldn't-be constituents--for all these the regulation form -was jawl, with an English j. Thus one could, I pointed out to him, -fix the social standing of a Welshman by the way he named 'the Enemy -of Souls,' as well as appreciate the superiority of Welsh over Greek, -seeing that Welsh, when it borrowed diabolos from Greek, quadrupled -it, while Greek remained sterile. He was so profoundly impressed -that I never was able to bring his attention back to the small fry, -spiritually speaking, of the Isle of Man, to wit, the fairies and -the fenodyree, or even the witches and the charmers, except that he -had some reserve of faith in witches, since the witch of Endor was in -the Bible and had ascribed to her a 'terr'ble' great power of raising -spirits: that, he thought, must be true. I pointed out to him that a -fenodyree (see p. 288) was also mentioned in his Bible: this display -of ready knowledge on my part made a deep impression on his mind. - -The Manx are, as a rule, a sober people, and highly religious; -as regards their tenets, they are mostly members of the Church -of England or Wesleyan Methodists, or else both, which is by no -means unusual. Religious phrases are not rare in their ordinary -conversation; in fact, they struck me as being of more frequent -occurrence than in Wales, even the Wales of my boyhood; and here and -there this fondness for religious phraseology has left its traces -on the native vocabulary. Take, for example, the word for 'anybody, -a person, or human being,' which Cregeen writes py'agh or p'agh: -he rightly regards it as the colloquial pronunciation of peccagh, -'a sinner.' So, when one knocks at a Manx door and calls out, Vel -p'agh sthie? he literally asks, 'Is there any sinner indoors?' The -question has, however, been explained to me, with unconscious irony, -as properly meaning, 'Is there any Christian indoors?' and care -is now taken in reading to pronounce the middle consonants of the -word peccagh, 'sinner,' so as to distinguish it from the word for a -Christian 'anybody': but the identity of origin is unmistakable. - -Lastly, the fact that a curse is a species of prayer, to wit, a prayer -for evil to follow, is well exemplified in Manx by the same words, -gwee [157], plural gwecaghyn, meaning both kinds of prayer. Thus I -found myself stumbling several times, in reading through the Psalms in -Manx, from not bearing in mind the sinister meaning of these words; -for example in Psalm xiv. 6, where we have Ta 'n beeal oc lane dy -ghweeaghyn as dy herriuid, which I mechanically construed to mean -'Their mouth is full of praying and bitterness,' instead of 'cursing -and bitterness'; and so in other cases, such as Ps. x. 7, and cix. 27. - -It occurred to me on various occasions to make inquiries as to the -attitude of religious Manxmen towards witchcraft and the charmer's -vocation. Nobody, so far as I know, accuses them of favouring -witchcraft in any way whatsoever; but as to the reality of witches -and witchcraft they are not likely to have any doubts so long as they -dwell on the Biblical account of the witch of Endor, as I have already -mentioned in the case of the old Crimean soldier. Then as to charmers -I have heard it distinctly stated that the most religious men are -they who have most confidence in charmers and their charms; and a lay -preacher whom I know has been mentioned to me as now and then doing -a little charming in cases of danger or pressing need. On the whole, -I think the charge against religious people of consulting charmers is -somewhat exaggerated; but I believe that recourse to the charmer is -more usual and more openly had than, for example, in Wales, where those -who consult a dyn hyspys or 'wise man' have to do it secretly, and at -the risk of being expelled by their co-religionists from the Seiet or -'Society.' There is somewhat in the atmosphere of Man to remind one -rather of the Wales of a past generation--Wales as it was at the time -when the Rev. Edmund Jones could write a Relation of Apparitions of -Spirits in the County of Monmouth and the Principality of Wales, as -a book 'designed to confute and to prevent the infidelity of denying -the being and apparition of spirits, which tends to irreligion and -atheism': see pp. 174, 195 above. - -The Manx peasantry are perhaps the most independent and prosperous in -the British Isles; but their position geographically and politically -has been favourable to the continuance of ideas not quite up to the -level of the latest papers on Darwinism and Evolution read at our -Church Congresses in this country. This may be thought to be here wide -of the mark; but, after giving, in the previous chapter, specimens of -rather ancient superstitions as recently known in the island, it is but -right that one should form an idea of the surroundings in which they -have lingered into modern times. Perhaps nothing will better serve to -bring this home to the reader's mind than the fact, for which there -is proof, that old people still living remember men and women clad -in white sheets doing penance publicly in the churches of Man. - -The following is the evidence which I was able to find, and I may state -that I first heard in 1888 of the public penance from Mr. Joughin, -who was an aged man and a native of Kirk Bride. He related how a -girl named Mary Dick gave an impertinent answer to the clergyman -when he was catechizing her class, and how she had to do penance -for it at church. She took her revenge on the parson by singing, -while attending in a white sheet, louder than everybody else in the -congregation. This, unless I am mistaken, Mr. Joughin gave me to -understand he had heard from his father. I mentioned the story to a -clergyman, who was decidedly of opinion that no one alive now could -remember anything about public penance. Not long after, however, I got -into conversation with a shoemaker at Kirk Michael, named Dan Kelly, -who was nearly completing his eighty-first year. He was a native of -Ballaugh, and stated that he remembered many successive occupants of -the episcopal see. A long time ago the official called the sumner had, -out of spite he said, appointed him to serve as one of the four of the -chapter jury. It was, he thought, when he was about twenty-five. During -his term of office he saw four persons, of whom two were married -men and two unmarried women, doing penance in the parish church of -Ballaugh for having illegitimate children. They stood in the alley -of the church, and the sumner had to throw white sheets over them; -on the fourth Sunday of their penance they stood inside the chancel -rails, but not to take the communion. The parson, whose name was -Stowell or Stowall, made them thoroughly ashamed of themselves on the -fourth Sunday, as one of the men afterwards admitted. Kelly mentioned -the names of the women and of one of the men, and he indicated to -me some of their descendants as well known in the neighbourhood. I -cross-examined him all the more severely, as I had heard the other -view of the remoteness of the date. But nothing could shake Kelly, -who added that soon after the date of the above mentioned cases the -civil functionary, known as the vicar-general, put an end to the -chapter jury and to public penance: according to his reckoning the -penance he spoke of must have taken place about 1832. Another old -man, named Kewley, living now near Kirk Michael, but formerly in the -parish of Lezayre, had a similar story. He thinks that he was born -in the sixth year of the century, and when he was between eighteen -and twenty he saw a man doing public penance, in Lezayre Church, I -presume, but I have no decided note on that point. However that may -be, he remembered that the penitent, when he had done his penance, -had the audacity to throw the white sheet over the sumner, who, the -penitent remarked, might now wear it himself, as he had had enough -of it. Kewley would bring the date only down to about 1825. - -Lastly, I was in the island again in 1891, and spent the first part of -the month of April at Peel, where I had conversations with a retired -captain who was then about seventy-eight. He is a native of the parish -of Dalby, but he was only 'a lump of a boy' when the last couple of -immorals were forced to do penance in white sheets at church. He gave -me the guilty man's name, and the name of his home in the parish, -and both the captain and his daughter assured me that the man had -only been dead six or seven years; that is, the penitent seems to have -lived till about the year 1884. I may here mention that the parish of -Dalby is the subject of many tales, which go to show that its people -were more old-fashioned in their ways than those of the rest of the -island. It appears to have been the last, also, to be reached by a -cart road; and I was amused by a native's description of the men at -Methodist meetings in Dalby pulling the tappag, or forelock, at the -name of Jesus, while the women ducked a curtsy in a dangerously abrupt -fashion. He and his wife appeared to be quite used to it: the husband -was an octogenarian named Quirc, who was born on the coast near the -low-lying peninsula called the Niarbyl, that is to say 'the Tail.' - -To return to the public penance, it seems to us in this country to -belong, so to say, to ancient history, and it transports us to a state -of things which we find it hard to realize. The lapse of years has -brought about profounder changes in our greater Isle of Britain than -in the smaller Isle of Man, while we ourselves, helpless to escape -the pervading influence of those profounder changes, become living -instances of the comprehensive truth of the German poet's words, - - - Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis. - - - - - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE FOLKLORE OF THE WELLS - - ... Iuvat integros accedere fontes.--Lucretius. - - -It is only recently [158] that I heard for the first time of Welsh -instances of the habit of tying rags and bits of clothing to the -branches of a tree growing near a holy well. Since then I have obtained -several items of information in point: the first is a communication -received in June, 1892, from Mr. J. H. Davies, of Lincoln College, -Oxford--since then of Lincoln's Inn--relating to a Glamorganshire holy -well, situated near the pathway leading from Coychurch to Bridgend. It -is the custom there, he states, for people suffering from any malady -to dip a rag in the water, and to bathe the affected part of the -body, the rag being then placed on a tree close to the well. When -Mr. Davies passed that way, some three years previously, there were, -he adds, hundreds of such shreds on the tree, some of which distinctly -presented the appearance of having been very recently placed there. The -well is called Ffynnon Cae Moch, 'Swine-field Well,' which can hardly -have been its old name; and a later communication from Mr. Davies -summarizes a conversation which he had about the well, on December 16, -1892, with Mr. J. T. Howell, of Pencoed, near Bridgend. His notes run -thus:--'Ffynnon Cae Moch, between Coychurch and Bridgend, is one mile -from Coychurch, one and a quarter from Bridgend, near Tremains. It -is within twelve or fifteen yards of the high-road, just where the -pathway begins. People suffering from rheumatism go there. They -bathe the part affected with water, and afterwards tie a piece of -rag to the tree which overhangs the well. The rag is not put in the -water at all, but is only put on the tree for luck. It is a stunted, -but very old tree, and is simply covered with rags.' A little less -than a year later, I had an opportunity of visiting this well in the -company of Mr. Brynmor-Jones; and I find in my notes that it is not -situated so near the road as Mr. Howell would seem to have stated to -Mr. Davies. We found the well, which is a powerful spring, surrounded -by a circular wall. It is overshadowed by a dying thorn tree, and -a little further back stands another thorn which is not so decayed: -it was on this latter thorn we found the rags. I took off a twig with -two rags, while Mr. Brynmor-Jones counted over a dozen other rags on -the tree; and we noticed that some of them had only recently been -suspended there: among them were portions undoubtedly of a woman's -clothing. At one of the hotels at Bridgend, I found an illiterate -servant who was acquainted with the well, and I cross-examined him -on the subject of it. He stated that a man with a wound, which he -explained to mean a cut, would go and stand in the well within the -wall, and there he would untie the rag that had been used to tie up -the wound and would wash the wound with it: then he would tie up the -wound with a fresh rag and hang the old one on the tree. The more -respectable people whom I questioned talked more vaguely, and only of -tying a rag to the tree, except one who mentioned a pin being thrown -into the well or a rag being tied to the tree. - -My next informant is Mr. D. J. Jones, a native of the Rhonda Valley, -in the same county of Glamorgan. He was an undergraduate of Jesus -College, Oxford, when I consulted him in 1892. His information was to -the effect that he knows of three interesting wells in the county. The -first is situated within two miles of his home, and is known as Ffynnon -Pen Rhys, or the Well of Pen Rhys. The custom there is that the person -who wishes his health to be benefited should wash in the water of the -well, and throw a pin into it afterwards. He next mentions a well at -Llancarvan, some five or six miles from Cowbridge, where the custom -prevails of tying rags to the branches of a tree growing close at -hand. Lastly, he calls my attention to a passage in Hanes Morganwg, -'The History of Glamorgan,' written by Mr. D. W. Jones, known in Welsh -literature as Dafyd Morganwg. In that work, p. 29, the author speaks of -Ffynnon Marcros, 'the Well of Marcros,' to the following effect:--'It -is the custom for those who are healed in it to tie a shred of linen -or cotton to the branches of a tree that stands close by; and there -the shreds are, almost as numerous as the leaves.' Marcros is, I may -say, near Nash Point, and looks on the map as if it were about eight -miles distant from Bridgend. Let me here make it clear that so far -we have had to do with four different wells [159], three of which are -severally distinguished by the presence of a tree adorned with rags by -those who seek health in those waters; but they are all three, as the -reader will have doubtless noticed, in the same district, namely, the -part of Glamorganshire near the main line of the Great Western Railway. - -There is no reason, however, to think that the custom of tying rags -to a well tree was peculiar to that part of the Principality. One -day, in looking through some old notes of mine, I came across an -entry bearing the date of August 7, 1887, when I was spending a few -days with my friend, Chancellor Silvan Evans, at Llanwrin Rectory, -near Machynlleth. Mrs. Evans was then alive and well, and took a -keen interest in Welsh antiquities and folklore. Among other things, -she related to me how she had, some twenty years before, visited -a well in the parish of Llandrillo yn Rhos, namely Ffynnon Eilian, -or Elian's Well, between Abergele and Llandudno, when her attention -was directed to some bushes near the well, which had once been covered -with bits of rags left by those who frequented the well. This was told -Mrs. Evans by an old woman of seventy, who, on being questioned by -Mrs. Evans concerning the history of the well, informed her that the -rags used to be tied to the bushes by means of wool. She was explicit -on the point, that wool had to be used for the purpose, and that even -woollen yarn would not do: it had to be wool in its natural state. The -old woman remembered this to have been the rule ever since she was -a child. Mrs. Evans noticed corks, with pins stuck in them, floating -in the well, and her informant remembered many more in years gone by; -for Elian's Well was once in great repute as a ffynnon reibio, or a -well to which people resorted for the kindly purpose of bewitching -those whom they hated. I infer, however, from what Mrs. Evans was -told of the rags, that Elian's Well was visited, not only by the -malicious, but also by the sick and suffering. My note is not clear on -the point whether there were any rags on the bushes by the well when -Mrs. Evans visited the spot, or whether she was only told of them by -the caretaker. Even in the latter case it seems evident that this -habit of tying rags to trees or bushes near sacred wells has only -ceased in that part of Denbighshire within this century. It is very -possible that it continued in North Wales more recently than this -instance would lead one to suppose; indeed, I should not be in the -least surprised to learn that it is still practised in out of the way -places in Gwyned, just as it is in Glamorgan: we want more information. - -I cannot say for certain whether it was customary in any of the cases -to which I have called attention to tie rags to the well tree as -well as to throw pins or other small objects into the well; but I -cannot help adhering to the view, that the distinction was probably -an ancient one between two orders of things. In other words, I am -inclined to believe that the rag was regarded as the vehicle of the -disease of which the ailing visitor to the well wished to be rid, -and that the bead, button, or coin deposited by him in the well, or in -a receptacle near the well, formed alone the offering. In opposition -to this view Mr. Gomme has expressed himself as follows in Folk-Lore, -1892, p. 89:--'There is some evidence against that, from the fact that -in the case of some wells, especially in Scotland at one time, the -whole garment was put down as an offering. Gradually these offerings -of clothes became less and less till they came down to rags. Also -in other parts, the geographical distribution of rag-offerings -coincides with the existence of monoliths and dolmens.' As to the -monoliths and dolmens, I am too little conversant with the facts to -risk any opinion as to the value of the coincidence; but as to the -suggestion that the rag originally meant the whole garment, that will -suit my hypothesis admirably. In other words, the whole garment was, -as I take it, the vehicle of the disease: the whole was accursed, -and not merely a part. But Mr. Gomme had previously touched on the -question in his presidential address (Folk-Lore for 1892, p. 13); -and I must at once admit that he succeeded then in proving that a -certain amount of confusion occurs between things which I should -regard as belonging originally to distinct categories: witness the -inimitable Irish instance which he quotes:--'To St. Columbkill--I -offer up this button, a bit o' the waistband o' my own breeches, an' -a taste o' my wife's petticoat, in remimbrance of us havin' made this -holy station; an' may they rise up in glory to prove it for us in the -last day.' Here not only the button is treated as an offering, but also -the bits of clothing; but the confusion of ideas I should explain as -being, at least in part, one of the natural results of substituting a -portion of a garment for the entire garment; for thereby a button or -a pin becomes a part of the dress, and capable of being interpreted -in two senses. After all, however, the ordinary practices have not, -as I look at them, resulted in effacing the distinction altogether: -the rag is not left in the well; nor is the bead, button, or pin -attached to a branch of the tree. So, in the main, it seemed to me -easier to explain the facts, taken altogether, on the supposition that -originally the rag was regarded as the vehicle of the disease, and the -bead, button, or coin as the offering. My object in calling attention -to this point was to have it discussed, and I am happy to say that I -have not been disappointed; for, since my remarks were published [160], -a paper entitled Pin-wells and Rag-bushes was read before the British -Association by Mr. Hartland, in 1893, and published in Folk-Lore -for the same year, pp. 451-70. In that paper the whole question is -gone into with searching logic, and Mr. Hartland finds the required -explanation in one of the dogmas of magic. For 'if an article of my -clothing,' he says, 'in a witch's hands may cause me to suffer, the -same article in contact with a beneficent power may relieve my pain, -restore me to health, or promote my general prosperity. A pin that has -pricked my wart ... has by its contact, by the wound it has inflicted, -acquired a peculiar bond with the wart; the rag that has rubbed the -wart has by that friction acquired a similar bond; so that whatever -is done to the pin or the rag, whatever influences the pin or the rag -may undergo, the same influences are by that very act brought to bear, -upon the wart. If, instead of using a rag, or making a pilgrimage to a -sacred well, I rub my warts with raw meat and then bury the meat, the -wart will decay and disappear with the decay and dissolution of the -meat.... In like manner my shirt or stocking, or a rag to represent -it, placed upon a sacred bush, or thrust into a sacred well--my name -written upon the walls of a temple--a stone or a pellet from my hand -cast upon a sacred image or a sacred cairn--is thenceforth in continual -contact with divinity; and the effluence of divinity, reaching and -involving it, will reach and involve me.' Mr. Hartland concludes from -a large number of instances, that as a rule 'where the pin or button is -dropped into the well, the patient does not trouble about the rag, and -vice versa.' This wider argument as to the effluence of the divinity -of a particular spot of special holiness seems to me conclusive. It -applies also, needless to say, to a large category of cases besides -those in question between Mr. Gomme and the present writer. - -So now I would revise my position thus:--I continue to regard the -rag much as before, but treat the article thrown into the well as -the more special means of establishing a beneficial relation with the -well divinity: whether it could also be viewed as an offering would -depend on the value attached to it. Some of the following notes may -serve as illustrations, especially those relating to the wool and -the pin:--Ffynnon Gwynwy, or the Well of Gwynwy, near Llangelynin, -on the river Conwy, appears to be partly in point; for it formerly -used to be well stocked with crooked pins, which nobody would touch -lest he might get from them the warts supposed to attach to them, -whence it would appear that a pin might be regarded as the vehicle -of the disease. There was a well of some repute at Cae Garw, in the -parish of Pistyll, near the foot of Carnguwch, in Lleyn, or West -Carnarvonshire. The water possessed virtues to cure one of rheumatism -and warts; but, in order to be rid of the latter, it was requisite to -throw a pin into the well for each individual wart. For these two items -of information, and several more to be mentioned presently, I have -to thank Mr. John Jones, better known in Wales by his bardic name of -Myrdin Fard, and as an enthusiastic collector of Welsh antiquities, -whether in the form of manuscript or of unwritten folklore. On -the second day of the year 1893 I paid him a visit at Chwilog, on -the Carnarvon and Avon Wen Railway, and asked him many questions: -these he not only answered with the utmost willingness, but he also -showed me the unpublished materials which he had collected. I come -next to a competition on the folklore of North Wales at the London -Eistedfod in 1887, in which, as one of the adjudicators, I observed -that several of the competitors mentioned the prevalent belief, that -every well with healing properties must have its outlet towards the -south (i'r dê). According to one of them, if you wished to get rid of -warts, you should, on your way to the well, look for wool which the -sheep had lost. When you had found enough wool you should prick each -wart with a pin, and then rub the wart well with the wool. The next -thing was to bend the pin and throw it into the well. Then you should -place the wool on the first whitethorn you could find, and as the wind -scattered the wool, the warts would disappear. There was a well of the -kind, the writer went on to say, near his home; and he, with three or -four other boys, went from school one day to the well to charm their -warts away. For he had twenty-three on one of his hands; so that he -always tried to hide it, as it was the belief that if one counted the -warts they would double their number. He forgets what became of the -other boys' warts, but his own disappeared soon afterwards; and his -grandfather used to maintain that it was owing to the virtue of the -well. Such were the words of this writer, whose name is unknown to me; -but I guess him to have been a native of Carnarvonshire, or else of one -of the neighbouring districts of Denbighshire or Merionethshire. To -return to Myrdin Fard, he mentioned Ffynnon Cefn Lleithfan, or the -Well of the Lleithfan Ridge, on the eastern slope of Mynyd y Rhiw, -in the parish of Bryncroes, in the west of Lleyn. In the case of -this well it is necessary, when going to it and coming from it, to be -careful not to utter a word to anybody, or to turn to look back. What -one has to do at the well is to bathe the warts with a rag or clout -which has grease on it. When that is done, the clout with the grease -has to be carefully concealed beneath the stone at the mouth of the -well. This brings to my mind the fact that I noticed more than once, -years ago, rags underneath stones in the water flowing from wells -in Wales, and sometimes thrust into holes in the walls of wells, -but I had no notion how they came there. - -On the subject of pin-wells I had in 1893, from Mr. T. E. Morris, -of Portmadoc, barrister-at-law, some account of Ffynnon Faglan, -or Baglan's Well, in the parish of Llanfaglan, near Carnarvon. The -well is situated in an open field to the right of the road leading -towards the church, and close to it. The church and churchyard form an -enclosure in the middle of the same field, and the former has in its -wall the old stone reading FILI LOVERNII ANATEMORI. My friend derived -information from Mrs. Roberts, of Cefn y Coed, near Carnarvon, as -follows:--'The old people who would be likely to know anything about -Ffynnon Faglan have all died. The two oldest inhabitants, who have -always lived in this parish of Llanfaglan, remember the well being -used for healing purposes. One told me his mother used to take him -to it, when he was a child, for sore eyes, bathe them with the water, -and then drop in a pin. The other man, when he was young, bathed in it -for rheumatism; and until quite lately people used to fetch away the -water for medicinal purposes. The latter, who lives near the well, at -Tan y Graig, said that he remembered it being cleaned out about fifty -years ago, when two basinfuls of pins were taken out, but no coin of -any kind. The pins were all bent, and I conclude the intention was to -exorcise the evil spirit supposed to afflict the person who dropped -them in, or, as the Welsh say, dadwitsio. No doubt some ominous words -were also used. The well is at present nearly dry, the field where it -lies having been drained some years ago, and the water in consequence -withdrawn from it. It was much used for the cure of warts. The wart -was washed, then pricked with a pin, which, after being bent, was -thrown into the well. There is a very large and well-known well of -the kind at C'lynnog, Ffynnon Beuno, "St. Beuno's Well," which was -considered to have miraculous healing powers; and even yet, I believe, -some people have faith in it. Ffynnon Faglan is, in its construction, -an imitation, on a smaller scale, of St. Beuno's Well at C'lynnog.' - -In the cliffs at the west end of Lleyn is a wishing-well called -Ffynnon Fair, or St. Mary's Well, to the left of the site of Eglwys -Fair, and facing Ynys Enlli, or Bardsey. Here, to obtain your wish, -you have to descend the steps to the well and walk up again to the -top with your mouth full of the water; and then you have to go round -the ruins of the church once or more times with the water still in -your mouth. Viewing the position of the well from the sea, I should -be disposed to think that the realization of one's wish at that price -could not be regarded as altogether cheap. Myrdin Fard also told me -that there used to be a well near Criccieth Church. It was known as -Ffynnon y Saint, or the Saints' Well, and it was the custom to throw -keys or pins into it on the morning of Easter Sunday, in order to -propitiate St. Catherine, who was the patron of the well. I should -be glad to know what this exactly meant. - -Lastly, a few of the wells in that part of Gwyned may be grouped -together and described as oracular. One of these, the big well in -the parish of Llanbedrog in Lleyn, as I learn from Myrdin Fard, -required the devotee to kneel by it and avow his faith in it. When -this had been duly done, he might proceed in this wise: to ascertain, -for instance, the name of the thief who had stolen from him, he had -to throw a bit of bread into the well and name the person whom he -suspected. At the name of the thief the bread would sink; so the -inquirer went on naming all the persons he could think of until the -bit of bread sank, when the thief was identified. How far is one to -suppose that we have here traces of the influences of the water ordeal -common in the Middle Ages? Another well of the same kind was Ffynnon -Saethon, in Llanfihangel Bachellaeth parish, also in Lleyn. Here it was -customary, as he had it in writing, for lovers to throw pins (pinnau) -into the well; but these pins appear to have been the points of the -blackthorn. At any rate, they cannot well have been of any kind of -metal, as we are told that, if they sank in the water, one concluded -that one's lover was not sincere in his or her love. - -Next may be mentioned a well, bearing the remarkable name of Ffynnon -Gwyned, or the Well of Gwyned, which is situated near Mynyd Mawr, -in the parish of Abererch: it used to be consulted in the following -manner:--When it was desired to discover whether an ailing person would -recover, a garment of his would be thrown into the well, and according -to the side on which it sank it was known whether he would live or die. - -Ffynnon Gybi, or St. Cybi's Well, in the parish of Llangybi, was the -scene of a somewhat similar practice; for there, girls who wished to -know their lovers' intentions would spread their pocket-handkerchiefs -on the water of the well, and, if the water pushed the handkerchiefs -to the south--in Welsh i'r dê--they knew that everything was right--in -Welsh o dê--and that their lovers were honest and honourable in their -intentions; but, if the water shifted the handkerchiefs northwards, -they concluded the contrary. A reference to this is made by a modern -Welsh poet, as follows:-- - - - Ambell dyn, gwaeldyn, a gyrch - I bant gorís Moel Bentyrch, - Mewn gobaith mai hen Gybi - Glodfawr syd yn llwydaw'r lli. - - Some folks, worthless [161] folks, visit - A hollow below Moel Bentyrch, - In hopes that ancient Kybi - Of noble fame blesses the flood. - - -The spot is not far from where Myrdin Fard lives; and he mentioned, -that adjoining the well is a building which was probably intended -for the person in charge of the well: it has been tenanted within -his memory. Not only for this but also for several of the foregoing -items of information am I indebted to Myrdin; and now I come to -Mrs. Williams-Ellis, of Glasfryn Uchaf, who tells me that one day not -long ago, she met at Llangybi a native who had not visited the place -since his boyhood: he had been away as an engineer in South Wales -nearly all his life, but had returned to see an aged relative. So the -reminiscences of the place filled his mind, and, among other things, -he said that he remembered very well what concern there was one day -in the village at a mischievous person having taken a very large -eel out of the well. Many of the old people, he said, felt that much -of the virtue of the well was probably taken away with the eel. To -see it coiling about their limbs when they went into the water was -a good sign: so he gave one to understand. As a sort of parallel I -may mention that I have seen the fish living in Ffynnon Beris, not -far from the parish church of Llanberis. It is jealously guarded -by the inhabitants, and when it was once or twice taken out by a -mischievous stranger he was forced to put it back again. However, -I never could get the history of this sacred fish, but I found that -it was regarded as very old [162]. I may add that it appears the -well called Ffynnon Fair, 'Mary's Well,' at Llandwyn, in Anglesey, -used formerly to have inhabiting it a sacred fish, whose movements -indicated the fortunes of the love-sick men and maidens who visited -there the shrine of St. Dwynwen [163]. Possibly inquiry would result -in showing that such sacred fish have been far more common once in -the Principality than they are now. - -The next class of wells to claim our attention consists of what I -may call fairy wells, of which few are mentioned in connexion with -Wales; but the legends about them are of absorbing interest. One of -them is in Myrdin Fard's neighbourhood, and I questioned him a good -deal on the subject: it is called Ffynnon Grassi, or Grace's Well, -and it occupies, according to him, a few square feet--he has measured -it himself--of the south-east corner of the lake of Glasfryn Uchaf, -in the parish of Llangybi. It appears that it was walled in, and -that the stone forming its eastern side has several holes in it, -which were intended to let water enter the well and not issue from -it. It had a door or cover on its surface; and it was necessary to -keep the door always shut, except when water was being drawn. Through -somebody's negligence, however, it was once on a time left open: -the consequence was that the water of the well flowed out and formed -the Glasfryn Lake, which is so considerable as to be navigable for -small boats. Grassi is supposed in the locality to have been the name -of the owner of the well, or at any rate of a lady who had something -to do with it. Grassi, or Grace, however, can only be a name which a -modern version of the legend has introduced. It probably stands for -an older name given to the person in charge of the well; to the one, -in fact, who neglected to shut the door; but though the name must be -comparatively modern, the story, as a whole, does not appear to be -at all modern, but very decidedly the contrary. - -So I wrote in 1893; but years after my conversation with Myrdin Fard, -my attention was called to the fact that the Glasfryn family, of which -the Rev. J. C. Williams-Ellis is the head, have in their coat of arms -a mermaid, who is represented in the usual way, holding a comb in her -right hand and a mirror in her left. I had from the first expected -to find some kind of Undine or Liban story associated with the well -and the lake, though I had abstained from trying the risky effects of -leading questions; but when I heard of the heraldic mermaid I wrote -to Mr. Williams-Ellis to ask whether he knew her history. His words, -though not encouraging as regards the mermaid, soon convinced me that -I had not been wholly wrong in supposing that more folklore attached -to the well and lake than I had been able to discover. Since then -Mrs. Williams-Ellis has taken the trouble of collecting on the spot -all the items of tradition which she could find: she communicated them -to me in the month of March, 1899, and the following is an abstract -of them, preceded by a brief description of the ground:-- - -The well itself is at the foot of a very green field-bank at the -head of the lake, but not on the same level with it, as the lake -has had its waters lowered half a century or more ago by the outlet -having been cut deeper. Adjoining the field containing the well is -a larger field, which also slopes down to the lake and extends in -another direction to the grounds belonging to the house. This larger -field is called Cae'r Ladi, 'the Lady's Field,' and it is remarkable -for having in its centre an ancient standing stone, which, as seen -from the windows of the house, presents the appearance of a female -figure hurrying along, with the wind slightly swelling out her veil -and the skirt of her dress. Mr. Williams-Ellis remembers how when -he was a boy the stone was partially white-washed, and how an old -bonnet adorned the top of this would-be statue, and he thinks that -an old shawl used to be thrown over the shoulders. - -Now as to Grassi, she is mostly regarded as a ghostly person somehow -connected with the lake and the house of Glasfryn. One story is to -the effect, that on a certain evening she forgot to close the well, -and that when the gushing waters had formed the lake, poor Grassi, -overcome with remorse, wandered up and down the high ground of Cae'r -Ladi, moaning and weeping. There, in fact, she is still at times to -be heard lamenting her fate, especially at two o'clock in the early -morning. Some people say that she is also to be seen about the lake, -which is now the haunt of some half a dozen swans. But on the whole -her visits appear to have been most frequent and troublesome at -the house itself. Several persons still living are mentioned, who -believe that they have seen her there, and two of them, Mrs. Jones -of Talafon, and old Sydney Griffith of Tydyn Bach, agree in the main -in their description of what they saw, namely, a tall lady with well -marked features and large bright eyes: she was dressed in white silk -and a white velvet bonnet. The woman, Sydney Griffith, thought that -she had seen the lady walking several times about the house and in -Cae'r Ladi. This comes, in both instances, from a young lady born -and bred in the immediate neighbourhood, and studying now at the -University College of North Wales; but Mrs. Williams-Ellis has had -similar accounts from other sources, and she mentions tenants of -Glasfryn who found it difficult to keep servants there, because they -felt that the place was haunted. In fact one of the tenants himself -felt so unsafe that he used to take his gun and his dog with him to -his bedroom at night; not to mention that when the Williams-Ellises -lived themselves, as they do still, in the house, their visitors have -been known to declare that they heard the strange plaintive cry out -of doors at two o'clock in the morning. - -Traces also of a very different story are reported by -Mrs. Williams-Ellis, to the effect that when the water broke forth to -form the lake, the fairies seized Grassi and changed her into a swan, -and that she continued in that form to live on the lake sixscore years, -and that when at length she died, she loudly lamented her lot: that cry -is still to be heard at night. This story is in process apparently of -being rationalized; at any rate the young lady student, to whom I have -referred, remembers perfectly that her grandfather used to explain -to her and the other children at home that Grassi was changed into -a swan as a punishment for haunting Glasfryn, but that nevertheless -the old lady still visited the place, especially when there happened -to be strangers in the house. At the end of September last Mrs. Rhys -and I had the pleasure of spending a few days at Glasfryn, in the hope -of hearing the plaintive wail, and of seeing the lady in white silk -revisiting her familiar haunts. But alas! our sleep was never once -disturbed, nor was our peace once troubled by suspicions of anything -uncanny. This, however, is negative, and characterized by the usual -weakness of all such evidence. - -It is now time to turn to another order of facts: in the first place -may be mentioned that the young lady student's grandmother used to -call the well Ffynnon Grâs Siôn Gruffud, as she had always heard that -Grâs was the daughter of a certain Siôn Gruffyd, 'John Griffith,' -who lived near the well; and Mrs. Williams-Ellis finds that Grâs was -buried, at a very advanced age, on December 14, 1743, at the parish -church of Llangybi, where the register describes her as Grace Jones, -alias Grace Jones Griffith. She had lived till the end at Glasfryn, -but from documents in the possession of the Glasfryn family it is -known that in 1728 Hugh Lloyd of Trallwyn purchased the house and -estate of Glasfryn from a son of Grace's, named John ab Cadwaladr, -and that Hugh Lloyd of Trallwyn's son, the Rev. William Lloyd, -sold them to Archdeacon Ellis, from whom they have descended to the -Rev. J. C. Williams-Ellis. In the light of these facts there is no -reason to connect the old lady's name very closely with the well or -the lake. She was once the dominant figure at Glasfryn, that is all; -and when she died she was as usual supposed to haunt the house and -its immediate surroundings; and if we might venture to suppose that -Glasfryn was sold by her son against her will, though subject to -conditions which enabled her to remain in possession of the place to -the day of her death, we should have a further explanation, perhaps, -of her supposed moaning and lamentation. - -In the background, however, of the story, one detects the possibility -of another female figure, for it may be that the standing stone in -Cae'r Ladi represents a woman buried there centuries before Grace -ruled at Glasfryn, and that traditions about the earlier lady have -survived to be inextricably mixed with those concerning the later -one. Lastly, those traditions may have also associated the subject of -them with the well and the lake; but I wish to attach no importance -to this conjecture, as we have in reserve a third figure of larger -possibilities than either Grace or the stone woman. It needs no better -introduction than Mrs. Williams-Ellis' own words: 'Our younger boys -have a crew of three little Welsh boys who live near the lake, to -join them in their boat sailing about the pool and in camping on the -island, &c. They asked me once who Morgan was, whom the little boys -were always saying they were to be careful against. An old man living -at Tal Llyn, "Lake's End," a farm close by, says that as a boy he was -always told that "naughty boys would be carried off by Morgan into -the lake." Others tell me that Morgan is always held to be ready to -take off troublesome children, and somehow Morgan is thought of as a -bad one.' Now as Morgan carries children off into the pool, he would -seem to issue from the pool, and to have his home in it. Further, he -plays the same part as the fairies against whom a Snowdonian mother -used to warn her children: they were on no account to wander away -from the house when there was a mist, lest the fairies should carry -them to their home beneath Llyn Dwythwch. In other words, Morgan may -be said to act in the same way as the mermaid, who takes a sailor -down to her submarine home; and it explains to my mind a discussion -which I once heard of the name Morgan by a party of men and women -making hay one fine summer's day in the neighbourhood of Ponterwyd, -in North Cardiganshire. I was a child, but I remember vividly how -they teased one of their number whose 'style' was Morgan. They hinted -at dreadful things associated with the name; but it was all so vague -that I could not gather that his great unknown namesake was a thief, -a murderer, or any kind of ordinary criminal. The impression left -on my mind was rather the notion of something weird, uncanny, or -non-human; and the fact that the Welsh version of the Book of Common -Prayer calls the Pelagians Morganiaid, 'Morgans,' does not offer an -adequate explanation. But I now see clearly that it is to be sought -in the indistinct echo of such folklore as that which makes Morgan -a terror to children in the neighbourhood of the Glasfryn Lake. - -The name, however, presents points of difficulty which require some -notice: the Welsh translators of Article IX in the Prayer Book were -probably wrong in making Pelagians into Morganiaid, as the Welsh -for Pelagius seems to have been rather Morien [164], which in its -oldest recorded form was Morgen, and meant sea-born, or offspring of -the sea. In a still earlier form it must have been Morigenos, with -a feminine Morigena, but when the endings came to be dropped both -vocables would become Morgen, later Morien. I do not remember coming -across a feminine Morgen in Welsh, but the presumption is that it -did exist. For, among other things, I may mention that we have it -in Irish as Muirgen, one of the names of the lake lady Liban, who, -when the waters of the neglected well rushed forth to form Lough -Neagh, lived beneath that lake until she desired to be changed into -a salmon. The same conclusion may be drawn from the name Morgain or -Morgan, given in the French romances to one or more water ladies; -for those names are easiest to explain as the Brythonic Morgen -borrowed from a Welsh or Breton source, unless one found it possible -to trace it direct to the Goidels of Wales. No sooner, however, had -the confusion taken place between Morgen and the name which is so -common in Wales as exclusively a man's name, than the aquatic figure -must also become male. That is why the Glasfryn Morgan is now a male, -and not a female like the other characters whose rôle he plays. But -while the name was in Welsh successively Morgen and Morien, the man's -name was Morcant, Morgant, or Morgan [165], so that, phonologically -speaking, no confusion could be regarded as possible between the -two series. Here, therefore, one detects the influence, doubtless, -of the French romances which spoke of a lake lady Morgain, Morgan, -or Morgue. The character varied: Morgain le Fay was a designing -and wicked person; but Morgan was also the name of a well disposed -lady of the same fairy kind, who took Arthur away to be healed at -her home in the Isle of Avallon. We seem to be on the track of the -same confusing influence of the name, when it occurs in the story of -Geraint and Enid; for there the chief physician of Arthur's court is -called Morgan Tut or Morgant Tut, and the word tut has been shown -by M. Loth to have meant the same sort of non-human being whom an -eleventh-century Life of St. Maudez mentions as quidam dæmon quem -Britones Tuthe appellant. Thus the name Morgan Tut is meant as the -Welsh equivalent of the French Morgain le Fay or Morgan la Fée [166]; -but so long as the compiler of the story of Geraint and Enid employed -in his Welsh the form Morgan, he had practically no choice but to treat -the person called Morgan as a man, whether that was or was not the sex -in the original texts on which he was drawing. Of course he could have -avoided the difficulty in case he was aware of it, if he had found -some available formula in use like Mary-Morgant, said to be a common -name for a fairy on the island of Ouessant, off the coast of Brittany. - -Summarizing the foregoing notes, we seem to be right in drawing the -following conclusions:--(1) The well was left in the charge of a woman -who forgot to shut it, and when she saw the water bursting forth, -she bewailed her negligence, as in the case of her counterpart in -the legend of Cantre'r Gwaelod. (2) The original name of the Glasfryn -'Morgan' was Morgen, later Morien. (3) The person changed into a swan -on the occasion of the Glasfryn well erupting was not Grassi, but most -probably Morgen. And (4) the character was originally feminine, like -that of the mermaid or the fairies, whose rôle the Glasfryn Morgan -plays; and more especially may one compare the Irish Muirgen, the -Morgen more usually called Líban. For it is to be noticed that when -the neglected well burst forth she, Muirgen or Líban, was not drowned -like the others involved in the calamity, but lived in her chamber at -the bottom of the lake formed by the overflowing well, until she was -changed into a salmon. In that form she lived on some three centuries, -until in fact she was caught in the net of a fisherman, and obtained -the boon of a Christian burial. However, the change into a swan is also -known on Irish ground: take for instance the story of the Children of -Lir, who were converted into swans by their stepmother, and lived in -that form on Loch Dairbhreach, in Westmeath, for three hundred years, -and twice as long on the open sea, until their destiny closed with -the advent of St. Patrick and the first ringing of a Christian bell -in Erin [167]. - -The next legend was kindly communicated to me by Mr. Wm. Davies already -mentioned at p. 147 above: he found it in Cyfaill yr Aelwyd [168], -"The Friend of the Hearth," where it is stated that it belonged to -David Jones' Storehouse of Curiosities, a collection which does -not seem to have ever assumed the form of a printed book. David -Jones, of Trefriw, in the Conwy Valley, was a publisher and poet -who wrote between 1750 and 1780. This is his story: 'In 1735 I had a -conversation with a man concerning Tegid Lake. He had heard from old -people that near the middle of it there was a well opposite Llangower, -and the well was called Ffynnon Gywer, "Cower's Well," and at that -time the town was round about the well. It was obligatory to place a -lid on the well every night. (It seems that in those days somebody -was aware that unless this was done it would prove the destruction -of the town.) But one night it was forgotten, and by the morning, -behold the town had subsided and the lake became three miles long -and one mile wide. They say, moreover, that on clear days some -people see the chimneys of the houses. It is since then that the -town was built at the lower end of the lake. It is called Y Bala -[169], and the man told me that he had talked with an old Bala man -who had, when he was a youth, had two days' mowing of hay [170] -between the road and the lake; but by this time the lake had spread -over that land and the road also, which necessitated the purchase of -land further away for the road; and some say that the town will yet -sink as far as the place called Llanfor--others call it Llanfawd, -"Drown-church," or Llanfawr, "Great-church," in Penllyn.... Further, -when the weather is stormy water appears oozing through every floor -within Bala, and at other times anybody can get water enough for the -use of his house, provided he dig a little into the floor of it.' - -In reference to the idea that the town is to sink, together with -the neighbouring village of Llanfor, the writer quotes in a note the -couplet known still to everybody in the neighbourhood as follows:-- - - - Y Bala aeth, a'r Bala aiff, - A Llanfor aiff yn Llyn. - - Bala old the lake has had, and Bala new - The lake will have, and Llanfor too. - - -This probably implies that old Bala is beneath the lake, and that the -present Bala is to meet the like fate at some time to come. This kind -of prophecy is not very uncommon: thus there has been one current -as to the Montgomeryshire town of Pool, called, in Welsh, Trallwng -or Trallwm, and in English, Welshpool, to distinguish it from the -English town of Pool. As to Welshpool, a very deep water called Llyn -Du, lying between the town and the Castell Coch or Powys Castle, -and right in the domain of the castle, is suddenly to spread itself, -and one fine market day to engulf the whole place [171]. Further, when -I was a boy in North Cardiganshire, the following couplet was quite -familiar to me, and supposed to have been one of Merlin's prophecies:-- - - - Caer Fyrdin, cei oer fore; - Daear a'th lwnc, dw'r i'th le. - - Carmarthen, a cold morn awaits thee; - Earth gapes, and water in thy place will be. - - -In regard to the earlier half of the line, concerning Bala gone, -the story of Ffynnon Gywer might be said to explain it, but there is -another which is later and far better known. It is of the same kind -as the stories related in Welsh concerning Llynclys and Syfadon; but -I reserve it with these and others of the same sort for chapter vii. - -For the next legend belonging here I have to thank the Rev. J. Fisher, -a native of the parish of Llandybïe, who, in spite of his name, is a -genuine Welshman, and--what is more--a Welsh scholar. The following are -his words:--'Llyn Llech Owen (the last word is locally sounded w-en, -like oo-en in English, as is also the personal name Owen) is on Mynyd -Mawr, in the ecclesiastical parish of Gors Lâs, and the civil parish of -Llanarthney, Carmarthenshire. It is a small lake, forming the source of -the Gwendraeth Fawr. I have heard the tradition about its origin told -by several persons, and by all, until quite recently, pretty much in -the same form. In 1884 I took it down from my grandfather, Rees Thomas -(b. 1809, d. 1892), of Cil Coll Llandebïe--a very intelligent man, -with a good fund of old-world Welsh lore--who had lived all his life -in the neighbouring parishes of Llandeilo Fawr and Llandybïe. - -'The following is the version of the story (translated) as I had -it from him:--There was once a man of the name of Owen living on -Mynyd Mawr, and he had a well, "ffynnon." Over this well he kept a -large flag ("fflagen neu lech fawr": "fflagen" is the word in common -use now in these parts for a large flat stone), which he was always -careful to replace over its mouth after he had satisfied himself or -his beast with water. It happened, however, that one day he went on -horseback to the well to water his horse, and forgot to put the flag -back in its place. He rode off leisurely in the direction of his home; -but, after he had gone some distance, he casually looked back, and, -to his great astonishment, he saw that the well had burst out and -was overflowing the whole place. He suddenly bethought him that he -should ride back and encompass the overflow of the water as fast as -he could; and it was the horse's track in galloping round the water -that put a stop to its further overflow. It is fully believed that, -had he not galloped round the flood in the way he did, the well would -have been sure to inundate the whole district and drown all. Hence -the lake was called the Lake of Owen's Flag, "Llyn Llech Owen." - -'I have always felt interested in this story, as it resembled that -about the formation of Lough Neagh, &c.; and, happening to meet the -Rev. D. Harwood Hughes, B.A., the vicar of Gors Lâs (St. Lleian's), -last August (1892), I asked him to tell me the legend as he had -heard it in his parish. He said that he had been told it, but in -a form different from mine, where the "Owen" was said to have been -Owen Glyndwr. This is the substance of the legend as he had heard -it:--Owen Glyndwr, when once passing through these parts, arrived here -of an evening. He came across a well, and, having watered his horse, -placed a stone over it in order to find it again next morning. He then -went to lodge for the night at Dyllgoed Farm, close by. In the morning, -before proceeding on his journey, he took his horse to the well to give -him water, but found to his surprise that the well had become a lake.' - -Mr. Fisher goes on to mention the later history of the lake: how, -some eighty years ago, its banks were the resort on Sunday afternoons -of the young people of the neighbourhood, and how a Baptist preacher -put an end to their amusements and various kinds of games by preaching -at them. However, the lake-side appears to be still a favourite spot -for picnics and Sunday-school gatherings. Mr. Fisher was quite right in -appending to his own version that of his friend; but, from the point of -view of folklore, I must confess that I can make nothing of the latter: -it differs from the older one as much as chalk does from cheese. It -would be naturally gratifying to the pride of local topography to be -able to connect with the pool the name of Owen Glyndwr; but it is -worthy of note that this highly respectable attempt to rationalize -the legend wholly fails, as it does not explain why there is now a -lake where there was once but a well. In other words, the euhemerized -story is itself evidence corroborative of Mr. Fisher's older version, -which is furthermore kept in countenance by Howells' account, p. 104, -where we are told who the Owen in question was, namely, Owen Lawgoch, -a personage dear, as we shall see later, to the Welsh legend of the -district. He and his men had their abode in a cave on the northern -side of Mynyd Mawr, and while there Owen used, we are informed, to -water his steed at a fine spring covered with a large stone, which it -required the strength of a giant to lift. But one day he forgot to -replace it, and when he next sought the well he found the lake. He -returned to his cave and told his men what had happened. Thereupon -both he and they fell into a sleep, which is to last till it is -broken by the sound of a trumpet and the clang of arms on Rhiw Goch: -then they are to sally forth to conquer. - -Now the story as told by Howells and Fisher provokes comparison, -as the latter suggests, with the Irish legend of the formation of -Lough Ree and of Lough Neagh in the story of the Death of Eochaid -McMaireda [172]. In both of these legends also there is a horse, a -kind of water-horse, who forms the well which eventually overflows and -becomes Lough Ree, and so with the still larger body of water known -as Lough Neagh. In the latter case the fairy well was placed in the -charge of a woman; but she one day left the cover of the well open, -and the catastrophe took place--the water issued forth and overflowed -the country. One of Eochaid's daughters, named Líban, however, was -not drowned, but only changed into a salmon as already mentioned at -p. 376 above. In my Arthurian Legend, p. 361, I have attempted to show -that the name Líban may have its Welsh equivalent in that of Llïon, -occurring in the name of Llyn Llïon, or Llïon's Lake, the bursting -of which is described in the latest series of Triads, iii. 13, 97, -as causing a sort of deluge. I am not certain as to the nature of -the relationship between those names, but it seems evident that the -stories have a common substratum, though it is to be noticed that -no well, fairy or otherwise, figures in the Llyn Llïon legend, which -makes the presence of the monster called the afanc the cause of the -waters bursting forth. So Hu the Mighty, with his team of famous oxen, -is made to drag the afanc out of the lake. - -There is, however, another Welsh legend concerning a great overflow in -which a well does figure: I allude to that of Cantre'r Gwaelod, or the -Bottom Hundred, a fine spacious country supposed to be submerged in -Cardigan Bay. Modern euhemerism treats it as defended by embankments -and sluices, which, we are told, were in the charge of the prince -of the country, named Seithennin, who, being one day in his cups, -forgot to shut the sluices, and thus brought about the inundation, -which was the end of his fertile realm. This, however, is not the -old legend: that speaks of a well, and lays the blame on a woman--a -pretty sure sign of antiquity, as the reader may judge from other old -stories which will readily occur to him. The Welsh legend to which I -allude is embodied in a short poem in the Black Book of Carmarthen -[173]: it consists of eight triplets, to which is added a triplet -from the Englynion of the Graves. The following is the original with -a tentative translation:-- - - - Seithenhin sawde allan. - ac edrychuirde varanres mor. - maes guitnev rytoes. - - Boed emendiceid y morvin - aehellygaut guydi cvin. - finaun wenestir [174] mor terruin. - - Boed emendiceid y vachteith. - ae . golligaut guydi gueith. - finaun wenestir mor diffeith. - - Diaspad mererid y ar vann caer. - hid ar duu y dodir. - gnaud guydi traha trangc hir. - - Diaspad mererid . y ar van kaer hetiv. - hid ar duu y dadoluch. - gnaud guydi traha attreguch. - - Diaspad mererid am gorchuit heno. - ac nimhaut gorlluit. - gnaud guydi traha tramguit. - - Diaspad mererid y ar gwinev kadir - kedaul duv ae gorev. - gnaud guydi gormot eissev. - - Diaspad mererid . am kymhell heno - y urth uyistauell. - gnaud guydi traha trangc pell. - - Bet seithenhin synhuir vann - rug kaer kenedir a glan. - mor maurhidic a kinran. - - - - Seithennin, stand thou forth - And see the vanguard of the main: - Gwydno's plain has it covered. - - Accursed be the maiden - Who let it loose after supping, - Well cup-bearer of the mighty main. - - Accursed be the damsel - Who let it loose after battle, - Well minister of the high sea. - - Mererid's cry from a city's height, - Even to God is it directed: - After pride comes a long pause. - - Mererid's cry from a city's height to-day, - Even to God her expiation: - After pride comes reflection. - - Mererid's cry o'ercomes me to-night, - Nor can I readily prosper: - After pride comes a fall. - - Mererid's cry over strong wines, - Bounteous God has wrought it: - After excess comes privation. - - Mererid's cry drives me to-night - From my chamber away: - After insolence comes long death. - - Weak-witted Seithennin's grave is it - Between Kenedyr's Fort and the shore, - With majestic Mor's and Kynran's. - - -The names in these lines present great difficulties: first comes -that of Mererid, which is no other word than Margarita, 'a pearl,' -borrowed; but what does it here mean? Margarita, besides meaning -a pearl, was used in Welsh, e.g. under the form Marereda [175], as -the proper name written in English Margaret. That is probably how -it is to be taken here, namely, as the name given to the negligent -guardian of the fairy well. It cannot very well be, however, the -name belonging to the original form of the legend; and we have the -somewhat parallel case of Ffynnon Grassi, or Grace's Well; but what -old Celtic name that of Mererid has replaced in the story, I cannot -say. In the next place, nobody has been able to identify Caer Kenedyr, -and I have nothing to say as to Mor Maurhidic, except that a person of -that name is mentioned in another of the Englynion of the Graves. It -runs thus in the Black Book, fol. 33a:-- - - - Bet mor maurhidic diessic unben. - post kinhen kinteic. - mab peredur penwetic. - - The grave of Mor the Grand, ... prince, - Pillar of the ... conflict, - Son of Peredur of Penwedig. - - -The last name in the final triplet of the poem which I have attempted -to translate is Kinran, which is otherwise unknown as a Welsh name; -but I am inclined to identify it with that of one of the three -who escaped the catastrophe in the Irish legend. The name there is -Curnán, which was borne by the idiot of the family, who, like many -later idiots, was at the same time a prophet. For he is represented -as always prophesying that the waters were going to burst forth, -and as advising his friends to prepare boats. So he may be set, -after a fashion, over against our Seithenhin synhuir vann, 'S. of -the feeble mind.' But one might perhaps ask why I do not point out -an equivalent in Irish for the Welsh Seithennin, as his name is now -pronounced. The fact is that no such equivalent occurs in the Irish -story in question, nor exactly, so far as I know, in any other. - -That is what I wrote when penning these notes; but it has occurred to -me since then, that there is an Irish name, an important Irish name, -which looks as if related to Seithenhin, and that is Setanta Beg, 'the -little Setantian,' the first name of the Irish hero Cúchulainn. The nt, -I may point out, makes one suspect that Setanta is a name of Brythonic -origin in Irish; and I have been in the habit of associating it with -that of the people of the Setantii [176], placed by Ptolemy on the -coast of what is now Lancashire. Whether any legend has ever been -current about a country submerged on the coast of Lancashire I cannot -say, but the soundings would make such a legend quite comprehensible. I -remember, however, reading somewhere as to the Plain of Muirthemhne, -of which Cúchulainn, our Setanta Beg, had special charge, that it -was so called because it had once been submarine and become since the -converse, so to say, of Seithennin's country. The latter is beneath -Cardigan Bay, while the other fringed the opposite side of the sea, -consisting as it did of the level portion of County Louth. On the -whole, I am not altogether indisposed to believe that we have here -traces of an ancient legend of a wider scope than is represented by -the Black Book triplets, which I have essayed to translate. I think -that I am right in recognizing that legend in the Mabinogi of Branwen, -daughter of Llyr. There we read that, when Brân and his men crossed -from Wales to Ireland, the intervening sea consisted merely of two -navigable rivers, called Lli and Archan. The story-teller adds words -to the effect, that it is only since then the sea has multiplied its -realms [177] between Ireland and Ynys y Kedyrn, or the Isle of the -Keiri, a name which has already been discussed: see pp. 279-83. - -These are not all the questions which such stories suggest; for -Seithennin is represented in later Welsh literature as the son of -one Seithyn, associated with Dyfed; and the name Seithyn leads off -to the coast of Brittany. For I learn from a paper by the late M. le -Men, in the Revue Archéologique for 1872 (xxiii. 52), that the Île -de Sein is called in Breton Enez-Sun, in which Sun is a dialectic -shortening of Sizun, which is also met with as Seidhun. That being so, -one would seem to be right in regarding Sizun as nearly related to -our Seithyn. That is not all--the tradition reminds one of the Welsh -legend: M. le Men refers to the Vie du P. Maunoir by Boschet (Paris, -1697) p. 126, and adds that, in his own time, the road ending on -the Pointe du Raz opposite the Île de Sein passed 'pour être l'ancien -chemin qui conduisait à la ville d'Is (Kaer-a-Is, la ville de la partie -basse).' It is my own experience, that nobody can go about much in -Brittany without hearing over and over again about the submerged city -of Is. There is no doubt that we have in these names distant echoes of -an inundation story, once widely current in both Britains and perhaps -also in Ireland. With regard to Wales we have an indication to that -effect in the fact, that Gwydno, to whom the inundated region is -treated as having belonged, is associated not only with Cardigan Bay, -but also with the coast of North Wales, especially the part of it -situated between Bangor and Llandudno [178]. Adjoining it is supposed -to lie submerged a once fertile district called Tyno Helig, a legend -about which will come under notice later. This brings the inundation -story nearer to the coast where Ptolemy in the second century located -the Harbour of the Setantii, about the mouth of the river Ribble, -and in their name we seem to have some sort of a historical basis for -that of the drunken Seithennin [179]. I cannot close these remarks -better than by appending what Professor Boyd Dawkins has recently -said with regard to the sea between Britain and Ireland:-- - -'It may be interesting to remark further that during the time of -the Iberian dominion in Wales, the geography of the seaboard was -different to what it is now. A forest, containing the remains of their -domestic oxen that had run wild, and of the indigenous wild animals -such as the bear and the red deer, united Anglesey with the mainland, -and occupied the shallows of Cardigan Bay, known in legend as "the -lost lands of Wales." It extended southwards from the present sea -margin across the estuary of the Severn, to Somerset, Devon, and -Cornwall. It passed northwards across the Irish Sea off the coast -of Cheshire and Lancashire, and occupied Morecambe Bay with a dense -growth of oak, Scotch fir, alder, birch, and hazel. It ranged seawards -beyond the ten-fathom line, and is to be found on most shores beneath -the sand-banks and mud-banks, as for example at Rhyl and Cardiff. In -Cardigan Bay it excited the wonder of Giraldus de Barri [180].' - -To return to fairy wells, I have to confess that I cannot decide what -may be precisely the meaning of the notion of a well with a woman set -carefully to see that the door or cover of the well is kept shut. It -will occur, however, to everybody to compare the well which Undine -wished to have kept shut, on account of its affording a ready access -from her subterranean country to the residence of her refractory knight -in his castle above ground. And in the case of the Glasfryn Lake, the -walling and cover that were to keep the spring from overflowing were, -according to the story, not water-tight, seeing that there were holes -made in one of the stones. This suggests the idea that the cover was -to prevent the passage of some such full-grown fairies as those with -which legend seems to have once peopled all the pools and tarns of -Wales. But, in the next place, is the maiden in charge of the well -to be regarded as priestess of the well? The idea of a priesthood in -connexion with wells in Wales is not wholly unknown. - -I wish, however, before discussing these instances, to call attention -to one or two Irish ones which point in another direction. Foremost -may be mentioned the source of the river Boyne, which is now -called Trinity Well, situated in the Barony of Carbury, in County -Kildare. The following is the Rennes Dindsenchas concerning it, as -translated by Dr. Stokes, in the Revue Celtique, xv. 315-6:--'Bóand, -wife of Nechtán son of Labraid, went to the secret well which was -in the green of Síd Nechtáin. Whoever went to it would not come from -it without his two eyes bursting, unless it were Nechtán himself and -his three cup-bearers, whose names were Flesc and Lám and Luam. Once -upon a time Bóand went through pride to test the well's power, -and declared that it had no secret force which could shatter her -form, and thrice she walked withershins round the well. (Whereupon) -three waves from the well break over her and deprive her of a thigh -[? wounded her thigh] and one of her hands and one of her eyes. Then -she, fleeing her shame, turns seaward, with the water behind her as -far as Boyne-mouth, (where she was drowned).' This is to explain why -the river is called Bóand, 'Boyne.' A version to the same effect in -the Book of Leinster, fol. 191a, makes the general statement that no -one who gazed right into the well could avoid the instant ruin of -his two eyes or otherwise escape with impunity. A similar story is -related to show how the Shannon, in Irish Sinann, Sinand, or Sinend, -is called after a woman of that name. It occurs in the same Rennes -manuscript, and the following is Stokes' translation in the Revue -Celtique, xv. 457:--'Sinend, daughter of Lodan Lucharglan son of Ler -out of Tir Tairngire (Land of Promise, Fairyland), went to Connla's -Well, which is under sea, to behold it. That is a well at which are -the hazels and inspirations (?) of wisdom, that is, the hazels of the -science of poetry, and in the same hour their fruit and their blossom -and their foliage break forth, and these fall on the well in the same -shower, which raises on the water a royal surge of purple. Then the -salmon chew the fruit, and the juice of the nuts is apparent on their -purple bellies. And seven streams of wisdom spring forth and turn there -again. Now Sinend went to seek the inspiration, for she wanted nothing -save only wisdom. She went with the stream till she reached Linn Mna -Feile, "the Pool of the Modest Woman," that is Bri Ele--and she went -ahead on her journey; but the well left its place, and she followed it -[181] to the banks of the river Tarr-cáin, "Fair-back." After this -it overwhelmed her, so that her back (tarr) went upwards, and when -she had come to the land on this side (of the Shannon) she tasted -death. Whence Sinann and Linn Mna Feile and Tarr-cain.' - -In these stories the reader will have noticed that the foremost -punishment on any intruder who looked into the forbidden well was -the instant ruin of his two eyes. One naturally asks why the eyes -are made the special objects of the punishment, and I am inclined to -think the meaning to have originally been that the well or spring was -regarded as the eye of the divinity of the water. Should this prove -well founded it looks natural that the eyes, which transgressed by -gazing into the eye of the divinity, should be the first objects of -that divinity's vengeance. This is suggested to me by the fact that -the regular Welsh word for the source of a river is llygad, Old Welsh -licat, 'eye,' as for instance in the case of Licat Amir mentioned by -Nennius, § 73; of Llygad Llychwr, 'the source of the Loughor river' -in the hills behind Carreg Cennen Castle; and of the weird lake in -which the Rheidol [182] rises near the top of Plinlimmon: it is called -Llyn Llygad y Rheidol, 'the Lake of the Rheidol's Eye.' By the way, -the Rheidol is not wholly without its folklore, for I used to be told -in my childhood, that she and the Wye and the Severn sallied forth -simultaneously from Plinlimmon one fine morning to run a race to the -sea. The result was, one was told, that the Rheidol won great honour -by reaching the sea three weeks before her bigger sisters. Somebody -has alluded to the legend in the following lines:-- - - - Tair afon gynt a rifwyd - Ar dwyfron Pumlumon lwyd, - Hafren a Gwy'n hyfryd ei gwed, - A'r Rheidol fawr ei hanrhyded. - - Three rivers of yore were seen - On grey Plinlimmon's breast, - Severn, and Wye of pleasant mien, - And Rheidol rich in great renown. - - -To return to the Irish legends, I may mention that Eugene O'Curry -has a good deal to say of the mysterious nuts and 'the salmon of -knowledge,' the partaking of which was synonymous with the acquisition -of knowledge and wisdom: see his Manners and Customs of the Ancient -Irish, ii. 142-4. He gives it as his opinion that Connla's Well was -situated somewhere in Lower Ormond; but the locality of this Helicon, -with the seven streams of wisdom circulating out of it and back again -into it, is more intelligible when regarded as a matter of fairy -geography. A portion of the note appended to the foregoing legend by -Stokes is in point here: he traces the earliest mention of the nine -hazels of wisdom, growing at the heads of the chief rivers of Ireland, -to the Dialogue of the Two Sages in the Book of Leinster, fol. 186b, -whence he cites the poet Néde mac Adnai saying whence he had come, -as follows:--a caillib .i. a nói collaib na Segsa ... a caillib -didiu assa mbenaiter clessa na súad tanacsa, 'from hazels, to wit, -from the nine hazels of the Segais ... from hazels out of which are -obtained the feats of the sages, I have come.' The relevancy of this -passage will be seen when I add, that Segais was one of the names -of the mound in which the Boyne rises; so it may be safely inferred -that Bóand's transgression was of the same nature as that of Sinand, -to wit, that of intruding on sacred ground in quest of wisdom and -inspiration which was not permitted their sex: certain sources of -knowledge, certain quellen, were reserved for men alone. - -Before I have done with the Irish instances I must append one in the -form it was told me in the summer of 1894: I was in Meath and went -to see the remarkable chambered cairns on the hill known as Sliabh na -Caillighe, 'the Hag's Mountain,' near Oldcastle and Lough Crew. I had -as my guide a young shepherd whom I picked up on the way. He knew all -about the hag after whom the hill was called except her name: she was, -he said, a giantess, and so she brought there, in three apronfuls, -the stones forming the three principal cairns. As to the cairn on -the hill point known as Belrath, that is called the Chair Cairn from -a big stone placed there by the hag to serve as her seat when she -wished to have a quiet look on the country round. But usually she -was to be seen riding on a wonderful pony she had: that creature was -so nimble and strong that it used to take the hag at a leap from one -hill-top to another. However, the end of it all was that the hag rode -so hard that the pony fell down, and that both horse and rider were -killed. The hag appears to have been Cailleach Bhéara, or Caillech -Bérre, 'the Old Woman of Beare,' that is, Bearhaven, in County Cork -[183]. Now the view from the Hag's Mountain is very extensive, and -I asked the shepherd to point out some places in the distance. Among -other things we could see Lough Ramor, which he called the Virginia -Water, and more to the west he identified Lough Sheelin, about which -he had the following legend to tell:--A long, long time ago there -was no lake there, but only a well with a flagstone kept over it, -and everybody would put the flag back after taking water out of the -well. But one day a woman who fetched water from it forgot to replace -the stone, and the water burst forth in pursuit of the luckless woman, -who fled as hard as she could before the angry flood. She continued -until she had run about seven miles--the estimated length of the -lake at the present day. Now at this point a man, who was busily -mowing hay in the field through which she was running, saw what -was happening and mowed the woman down with his scythe, whereupon -the water advanced no further. Such was the shepherd's yarn, which -partly agrees with the Boyne and Shannon stories in that the woman -was pursued by the water, which only stopped where she died. On -the other hand, it resembles the Llyn Llech Owen legend and that -of Lough Neagh in placing to the woman's charge only the neglect to -cover the well. It looks as if we had in these stories a confusion -of two different institutions, one being a well of wisdom which no -woman durst visit without fatal vengeance overtaking her, and the -other a fairy well which was attended to by a woman who was to keep -it covered, and who may, perhaps, be regarded as priestess of the -spring. If we try to interpret the Cantre'r Gwaelod story from these -two points of view we have to note the following matters:--Though it is -not said that the moruin, or damsel, had a lid or cover on the well, -the word golligaut or helligaut, 'did let run,' implies some such an -idea as that of a lid or door; for opening the sluices, in the sense -of the later version, seems to me out of the question. In two of the -Englynion she is cursed for the action implied, and if she was the -well minister or well servant, as I take finaun wenestir to mean, -we might perhaps regard her as the priestess of that spring. On the -other hand, the prevailing note in the other Englynion is the traha, -'presumption, arrogance, insolence, pride,' which forms the burden -of four out of five of them. This would seem to point to an attitude -on the part of the damsel resembling that of Bóand or Sinand when -prying into the secrets of wells which were tabu to them. The seventh -Englyn alludes to wines, and its burden is gormod, 'too much, excess, -extravagance,' whereby the poet seems to lend countenance to some -such a later story as that of Seithennin's intemperance. - -Lastly, the question of priest or priestess of a sacred well has -been alluded to once or twice, and it may be perhaps illustrated on -Welsh ground by the history of Ffynnon Eilian, or St. Elian's Well, -which has been mentioned in another context, p. 357 above. Of that -well we read as follows, s. v. Llandrillo, in the third edition of -Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Wales:--'Fynnon Elian, ... even in -the present age, is frequently visited by the superstitious, for the -purpose of invoking curses upon the heads of those who have grievously -offended them, and also of supplicating prosperity to themselves; -but the numbers are evidently decreasing. The ceremony is performed by -the applicant standing upon a certain spot near the well, whilst the -owner of it reads a few passages of the sacred Scriptures, and then, -taking a small quantity of water, gives it to the former to drink, -and throws the residue over his head, which is repeated three times, -the party continuing to mutter imprecations in whatever terms his -vengeance may dictate.' Rice Rees, in his Essay on the Welsh Saints -(London, 1836), p. 267, speaks of St. Elian as follows: 'Miraculous -cures were lately supposed to be performed at his shrine at Llanelian, -Anglesey; and near to the church of Llanelian, Denbighshire, is a -well called Ffynnon Elian, which is thought by the peasantry of the -neighbourhood to be endued with miraculous powers even at present.' - -Foulkes, s. v. Elian, in his Enwogion Cymru, published in Liverpool -in 1870, expresses the opinion that the visits of the superstitious -to the well had ceased for some time. The last person supposed to have -had charge of the well was a certain John Evans, but some of the most -amusing stories of the shrewdness of the caretaker refer to a woman -who had charge of the well before Evans' time. A series of articles on -Ffynnon Eilian appeared in 1861 in a Welsh periodical called Y Nofelyd, -printed by Mr. Aubrey at Llanerch y Med, in Anglesey. The articles -in question were afterwards published, I am told, as a shilling book, -which I have not seen, and they dealt with the superstition, with the -history of John Evans, and with his confessions and conversion. I -have searched in vain for any account in Welsh of the ritual -followed at the well. When Mrs. Silvan Evans visited the place, -the person in charge of the well was a woman, and Peter Roberts, -in his Cambrian Popular Antiquities, published in London in 1815, -alludes to her or a predecessor of hers in the following terms, -p. 246:--'Near the Well resided some worthless and infamous wretch, -who officiated as priestess.' He furthermore gives one to understand -that she kept a book in which she registered the name of each evil -wisher for a trifling sum of money. When this had been done, a pin was -dropped into the well in the name of the victim. This proceeding looks -adequate from the magical point of view, though less complicated than -the ritual indicated by Lewis. This latter writer calls the person who -took charge of the well the owner; and I have always understood that, -whether owner or not, he or she used to receive gifts, not only for -placing in the well the names of men who were to be cursed, but also -from those men for taking their names out again, so as to relieve them -from the malediction. In fact, the trade in curses seems to have been -a very thriving one: its influence was powerful and widespread. - -Here there is, I think, very little doubt that the owner or guardian of -the well was, so to say, the representative of an ancient priesthood -of the well. That priesthood dated its origin probably many centuries -before a Christian church was built near the well, and coming down -to later times we have unfortunately no sufficient data to show how -the right to such priesthood was acquired, whether by inheritance or -otherwise; but we know that a woman might have charge of St. Elian's -Well. - -Let me cite another instance, which I unexpectedly discovered -some years ago in the course of a ramble in quest of -early inscriptions. Among other places which I visited was -Llandeilo Llwydarth, near Maen Clochog, in the northern part of -Pembrokeshire. This is one of the many churches bearing the name of -St. Teilo in South Wales: the building is in ruins, but the churchyard -is still used, and contains two of the most ancient post-Roman -inscriptions in the Principality. If you ask now for 'Llandeilo' -in this district, you will be understood to be inquiring after the -farm house of that name, close to the old church; and I learnt from -the landlady that her family had been there for many generations, -though they have not very long been the proprietors of the land. She -also told me of St. Teilo's Well, a little above the house: she -added that it was considered to have the property of curing the -whooping-cough. I asked if there was any rite or ceremony necessary -to be performed in order to derive benefit from the water. Certainly, -I was told: the water must be lifted out of the well and given to the -patient to drink by some member of the family. To be more accurate, I -ought to say that this must be done by somebody born in the house. Her -eldest son, however, had told me previously, when I was busy with the -inscriptions, that the water must be given to the patient by the heir, -not by anybody else. Then came my question how the water was lifted, -or out of what the patient had to drink, to which I was answered -that it was out of the skull. 'What skull?' said I. 'St. Teilo's -skull,' was the answer. 'Where do you get the saint's skull?' I -asked. 'Here it is,' was the answer, and I was given it to handle -and examine. I know next to nothing about skulls; but it struck me -that it was the upper portion of a thick, strong skull, and it called -to my mind the story of the three churches which contended for the -saint's corpse. That story will be found in the Book of Llan Dâv, -pp. 116-7, and according to it the contest became so keen that it -had to be settled by prayer and fasting. So, in the morning, lo and -behold! there were three corpses of St. Teilo--not simply one--and so -like were they in features and stature that nobody could tell which -were the corpses made to order and which the old one. I should have -guessed that the skull which I saw belonged to the former description, -as not having been much thinned by the owner's use of it; but this I -am forbidden to do by the fact that, according to the legend, this -particular Llandeilo was not one of the three contending churches -which bore away in triumph a dead Teilo each. The reader, perhaps, -would like to take another view, namely, that the story has been -edited in such a way as to reduce a larger number of Teilos to three, -in order to gratify the Welsh weakness for triads. - -Since my visit to the neighbourhood I have been favoured with an -account of the well as it is now current there. My informant is -Mr. Benjamin Gibby of Llangolman Mill, who writes mentioning, among -other things, that the people around call the well Ffynnon yr Ychen, -or the Oxen's Well, and that the family owning and occupying the -farm house of Llandeilo have been there for centuries. Their name, -which is Melchior (pronounced Melshor), is by no means a common one in -the Principality, so far as I know; but, whatever may be its history -in Wales, the bearers of it are excellent Kymry. Mr. Gibby informs -me that the current story solves the difficulty as to the saint's -skull as follows:--The saint had a favourite maid servant from the -Pembrokeshire Llandeilo: she was a beautiful woman, and had the -privilege of attending on the saint when he was on his death-bed. As -his end was approaching he gave his maid a strict and solemn command -that in a year's time from the day of his burial at Llandeilo Fawr, -in Carmarthenshire, she was to take his skull to the other Llandeilo, -and to leave it there to be a blessing to coming generations of men, -who, when ailing, would have their health restored by drinking water -out of it. So the belief prevailed that to drink out of the skull -some of the water of Teilo's Well ensured health, especially against -the whooping-cough. The faith of some of those who used to visit -the well was so great in its efficacy, that they were wont to leave -it, he says, with their constitutions wonderfully improved; and he -mentions a story related to him by an old neighbour, Stifyn Ifan, -who has been dead for some years, to the effect that a carriage, -drawn by four horses, came once, more than half a century ago, to -Llandeilo. It was full of invalids coming from Pen Clawd, in Gower, -Glamorganshire, to try the water of the well. They returned, however, -no better than they came; for though they had drunk of the well, they -had neglected to do so out of the skull. This was afterwards pointed -out to them by somebody, and they resolved to make the long journey -to the well again. This time they did the right thing, we are told, -and departed in excellent health. - -Such are the contents of Mr. Gibby's Welsh letter; and I would now -only point out that we have here an instance of a well which was -probably sacred before the time of St. Teilo: in fact, one would -possibly be right in supposing that the sanctity of the well and its -immediate surroundings was one of the causes why the site was chosen by -a Christian missionary. But consider for a moment what has happened: -the well paganism has annexed the saint, and established a belief -ascribing to him the skull used in the well ritual. The landlady and -her family, it is true, neither believe in the efficacy of the well, -nor take gifts from those who visit the well; but they continue, out -of kindness, as they put it, to hand the skull full of water to any -one who perseveres in believing in it. In other words, the faith in -the well continues in a measure intact, while the walls of the church -have long fallen into utter decay. Such is the great persistence of -some primitive beliefs; and in this particular instance we have a -succession which seems to point unmistakably to an ancient priesthood -of a sacred spring. - - - - - - - - -NOTES - - -[1] As to the spelling of Welsh names, it may be pointed out for the -benefit of English readers that Welsh f has the sound of English v, -while the sound of English f is written ff (and ph) in Welsh, and -however strange it may seem to them that the written f should be -sounded v, it is borrowed from an old English alphabet which did -so likewise more or less systematically. Th in such English words -as thin and breath is written th, but the soft sound as in this and -breathe is usually printed in Welsh dd and written in modern Welsh -manuscript sometimes like a small Greek delta: this will be found -represented by d in the Welsh extracts edited by me in this -volume.--J. R. - -[2] 'Blaensawde, or the upper end of the river Sawde, is situate about -three-quarters of a mile south-east from the village of Llandeusant. It -gives its name to one of the hamlets of that parish. The Sawde has -its source in Llyn y Fan Fach, which is nearly two miles distant from -Blaensawde House.' - -[3] The rendering might be more correctly given thus: 'O thou of the -crimped bread, it is not easy to catch me.'--J. R. - -[4] 'Mydfai parish was, in former times, celebrated for its fair -maidens, but whether they were descendants of the Lady of the Lake -or otherwise cannot be determined. An old pennill records the fact -of their beauty thus:-- - - Mae eira gwyn - Ar ben y bryn, - A'r glasgoed yn y Ferdre, - Mae bedw mân - Ynghoed Cwm-brân, - A merched glân yn Mydfe. - -Which may be translated, - - There is white snow - On the mountain's brow, - And greenwood at the Verdre, - Young birch so good - In Cwm-brân wood, - And lovely girls in Mydfe.' - -[5] Similarly this should be rendered: 'O thou of the moist bread, -I will not have thee.'--J. R. - -[6] In the best Demetian Welsh this word would be hwedel, and in the -Gwentian of Glamorgan it is gwedel, mutated wedel, as may be heard -in the neighbourhood of Bridgend.--J. R. - -[7] This is not generally accepted, as some Welsh antiquarians -find reasons to believe that Dafyd ap Gwilym was buried at Strata -Florida.--J. R. - -[8] This is not quite correct, as I believe that Dr. C. Rice Williams, -who lives at Aberystwyth, is one of the Medygon. That means the year -1881, when this chapter was written, excepting the portions concerning -which the reader is apprised of a later date.--J. R. - -[9] Later it will be seen that the triban in the above form was meant -for neither of the two lakes, though it would seem to have adapted -itself to several. In the case of the Fan Fach Lake the town meant -must have been Carmarthen, and the couplet probably ran thus: - - Os na cha'i lonyd yn ym lle, - Fi foda dre' Garfyrdin. - -[10] Llwch is the Goidelic word loch borrowed, and Llyn Cwm y Llwch -literally means the Lake of the Loch Dingle. - -[11] I make no attempt to translate these lines, but I find that -Mr. Llewellyn Williams has found a still more obscure version of them, -as follows:-- - - Prw med, prw med, prw'r gwartheg i dre', - Prw milfach a malfach, pedair llualfach, - Llualfach ac Acli, pedair lafi, - Lafi a chromwen, pedair nepwen, - Nepwen drwynog, brech yn llyn a gwaun dodyn, - Tair bryncethin, tair cyffredin, - Tair caseg du, draw yn yr eithin; - Dewch i gyd i lys y brenin. - -[12] The Ty-fry is a house said to be some 200 years old, and situated -about two miles from Rhonda Fechan: more exactly it is about one-fourth -of a mile from the station of Ystrad Rhonda, and stands at the foot -of Mynyd yr Eglwys on the Treorky side. It is now surrounded by the -cottages of colliers, one of whom occupies it. For this information -I have to thank Mr. Probert Evans. - -[13] It is to be borne in mind that the sound of h is uncertain -in Glamorgan pronunciation, whether the language used is Welsh or -English. The pronunciation indicated, however, by Mr. Evans comes -near enough to the authentic form written Elfarch. - -[14] In the Snowdon district of Gwyned the call is drwi, drwi, drw-i -bach, while in North Cardiganshire it is trwi, trwi, trw-e fach, also -pronounced sometimes with a surd r, produced by making the breath cause -both lips to vibrate--tR'wi, tR'wi, which can hardly be distinguished -from pR'wi, pR'wi. For the more forcibly the lips are vibrated the -more difficult it becomes to start by closing them to pronounce p: -so the tendency with R' is to make the preceding consonant into some -kind of a t. - -[15] This is the Welsh form of the borrowed name Jane, and its -pronunciation in North Cardiganshire is Siân, with si pronounced -approximately like the ti of such French words as nation and the -like; but of late years I find the si made into English sh under -the influence, probably, to some extent of the English taught at -school. This happens in North Wales, even in districts where there -are still plenty of people who cannot approach the English words -fish and shilling nearer than fiss and silling. Siôn and Siân -represent an old importation of English John and Jane, but they are -now considered old-fashioned and superseded by John and Jane, which -I learned to pronounce Dsiòn and Dsiên, except that Siôn survives -as a family name, written Shone, in the neighbourhood of Wrexham. - -[16] This term dafad (or dafaden), 'a sheep,' also used for 'a wart,' -and dafad (or dafaden) wyllt, literally 'a wild sheep,' for cancer -or epithelioma, raises a question which I am quite unable to answer: -why should a wart have been likened to a sheep? - -[17] The name is probably a shortening of Cawellyn, and that perhaps -of Cawell-lyn, 'Creel or Basket Lake.' Its old name is said to have -been Llyn Tardenni. - -[18] Tyn is a shortening of tydyn, which is not quite forgotten in -the case of Tyn Gadlas or Tyn Siarlas (for Tydyn Siarlys), 'Charles' -Tenement,' in the immediate neighbourhood. Similarly the Anglesey -Farm of Tyn yr Onnen used at one time to be Tydyn yr Onnen in the -books of Jesus College, Oxford, to which it belongs. - -[19] That is the pronunciation which I have learnt at Llanberis, -but there is another, which I have also heard, namely Derwenyd. - -[20] Ystrad is the Welsh corresponding to Scotch strath, and it is -nearly related to the English word strand. It means the flat land -near a river. - -[21] Betws (or Bettws) Garmon seems to mean Germanus's Bede-hus or -House of Prayer, but Garmon can hardly have come down in Welsh from -the time of the famous saint in the fifth century, as it would then -have probably yielded Gerfon and not Garmon: it looks as if it had -come through the Goidelic of this country. - -[22] One of the rare merits of our Welsh bards is their habit of -assuming permanent noms de plume, by means of which they prevent a -number of excellent native names from falling into utter oblivion -in the general chaos of Anglo-Hebrew ones, such as Jones, Davies, -and Williams, which cover the Principality. Welsh place-names have -similarly been threatened by Hebrew names of chapels, such as Bethesda, -Rehoboth, and Jerusalem, but in this direction the Jewish mania has -only here and there effected permanent mischief. - -[23] The Brython was a valuable Welsh periodical published by -Mr. Robert Isaac Jones, at Tremadoc, in the years 1858-1863, and -edited by the Rev. Chancellor Silvan Evans, who was then the curate -of Llangïan in Lleyn: in fact he was curate for fourteen years! His -excellent work in editing the Brython earned for him his diocesan's -displeasure, but it is easier to imagine than to describe how hard it -was for him to resign the honorarium of £24 derived from the Brython -when his stipend as a clergyman was only £92, at the same time that -he had dependent on him a wife and six children. However much some -people affect to laugh at the revival of the national spirit in Wales, -we have, I think, got so far as to make it, for some time to come, -impossible for a Welsh clergyman to be snubbed on account of his -literary tastes or his delight in the archæology of his country. - -[24] This parish is called after a saint named Tegái or Tygái, like -Tyfaelog and Tysilio, and though the accent rests on the final syllable -nothing could prevent the grammarian Huw Tegai and his friends from -making it into Tégai in Huw's name. - -[25] For can they now usually put Ann, and Mr. Hughes remembers -hearing it so many years ago. - -[26] I remember seeing a similar mound at Llanfyrnach, in -Pembrokeshire; and the last use made of the hollow on the top of this -also is supposed to have been for cock-fights. - -[27] My attention has also been called to freit, frete, freet, -fret, 'news, inquiry, augury,' corresponding to Anglo-Saxon freht, -'divination.' But the disparity of meaning seems to stand in the way -of our ffrit being referred to this origin. - -[28] The Oxford Mabinogion, p. 63; Guest, iii. 223. - -[29] See the Itinerarium Kambriæ, i. 2 (pp. 33-5), and Celtic Britain, -p. 64. - -[30] As for example in the Archæologia Cambrensis for 1870, pp. 192-8; -see also 1872, pp. 146-8. - -[31] Howells has also an account of Llyn Savadhan, as he writes it: -see his Cambrian Superstitions, pp. 100-2, where he quaintly says that -the story of the wickedness of the ancient lord of Syfadon is assigned -as the reason why 'the superstitious little river Lewenny will not mix -its water with that of the lake.' Lewenny is a reckless improvement -of Mapes' Leueni (printed Lenem); and Giraldus' Clamosum implies -an old spelling Llefni, pronounced the same as the later spelling -Llyfni, which is now made into Llynfi or Llynvi: the river so called -flows through the lake and into the Wye at Glasbury. As to Safadan -or Syfadon, it is probably of Goidelic origin, and to be identified -with such an Irish name as the feminine Samthann: see Dec. 19 in the -Martyrologies. To keep within our data, we are at liberty to suppose -that this was the name of the wicked princess in the story, and that -she was the ancestress of a clan once powerful on and around the lake, -which lies within a Goidelic area indicated by its Ogam inscriptions. - -[32] These were held, so far as I can gather from the descriptions -usually given of them, exactly as I have seen a kermess or kirchmesse -celebrated at Heidelberg, or rather the village over the Neckar -opposite that town. It was in 1869, but I forget what saint it was with -whose name the kermess was supposed to be connected: the chief features -of it were dancing and beer drinking. It was by no means unusual for -a Welsh Gwyl Fabsant to bring together to a rural neighbourhood far -more people than could readily be accommodated; and in Carnarvonshire -a hurriedly improvised bed is to this day called gwely g'l'absant, -as it were 'a bed (for the time) of a saint's festival.' Rightly -or wrongly the belief lingers that these merry gatherings were -characterized by no little immorality, which made the better class -of people set their faces against them. - -[33] Since the editing of this volume was begun I have heard that it -is intended to publish the Welsh collection which Mr. Jones has made: -so I shall only give a translation of the Edward Llwyd version of -the afanc story: see section v. of this chapter. - -[34] This word is not in Welsh dictionaries, but it is Scotch and -Manx Gaelic, and is possibly a remnant of the Goidelic once spoken -in Gwyned. - -[35] Our charlatans never leave off trying to make this into Tryfaen so -as to extract maen, 'stone,' from it. They do not trouble themselves -to find out whether it ever was Tryfaen or not: in fact they rather -like altering everything as much as they can. - -[36] Ystrádllyn, with the accent on the penult, is commonly pronounced -Strállyn, and means 'the strand of the lake,' and the hollow is -named after it Cwm Strállyn, and the lake in it Llyn Cwm Strállyn, -which literally means 'the Lake of the Combe of the Strand of the -Lake'--all seemingly for the luxury of forgetting the original name -of the lake, which I have never been able to ascertain. - -[37] So Mr. Jones puts it: I have never heard of any other part of -the Principality where the children are usually baptized before they -are eight days old. - -[38] I cannot account for this spelling, but the ll in Bellis is -English ll, not the Welsh ll, which represents a sound very different -from that of l. - -[39] Where not stated otherwise, as in this instance, the reader is -to regard this chapter as written in the latter part of the year 1881. - -[40] See Giraldus' Itinerarium Kambriæ, i. 8 (pp. 75-8); some -discussion of the whole story will be found in chapter iii of this -volume. - -[41] Dr. Moore explains this to be cabbages and potatoes, pounded -and mixed with butter or lard. - -[42] It would be interesting to know what has become of this letter -and others of Llwyd's once in the possession of the canon, for it is -not to be supposed that the latter ever took the trouble to make an -accurate copy of them any more than he did of any other MSS. - -[43] There is also a Sarn yr Afanc, 'the Afanc's Stepping Stones,' -on the Ogwen river in Nant Ffrancon: see Pennant's Tours in Wales, -iii. 101. - -[44] The oxen should accordingly have been called Ychain Pannog; -but the explanation is not to be taken seriously. These oxen will -come under the reader's notice again, to wit in chapter x. - -[45] The lines are copied exactly as given at p. 189 (I. vi. 25-30) -of The Poetical Works of Lewis Glyn Cothi, edited for the Cymmrodorion -by Gwallter Mechain and Tegid, and printed at Oxford in the year 1837. - -[46] This, I should say, must be a mistake, as it contradicts all -the folklore which makes the rowan an object of dread to the fairies. - -[47] See Choice Notes from 'Notes and Queries' (London, 1859), p. 147. - -[48] It is more likely that it is a shortening of Llyn y Barfog, -meaning the Lake of the Bearded One, Lacus Barbati as it were, the -Bearded One being somebody like the hairy monster of another lake -mentioned at p. 18 above, or him of the white beard pictured at p. 127. - -[49] So far from afanc meaning a crocodile, an afanc is represented in -the story of Peredur as a creature that would cast at every comer a -poisoned spear from behind a pillar standing at the mouth of the cave -inhabited by it; see the Oxford Mabinogion, p. 224. The corresponding -Irish word is abhac, which according to O'Reilly means 'a dwarf, -pigmy, manikin; a sprite.' - -[50] I should not like to vouch for the accuracy of Mr. Pughe's -rendering of this and the other Welsh names which he has introduced: -that involves difficult questions. - -[51] The writer meant the river known as Dyfi or Dovey; but he would -seem to have had a water etymology on the brain. - -[52] This involves the name of the river called Disynni, and Diswnwy -embodies a popular etymology which is not worth discussing. - -[53] It would, I think, be a little nearer the mark as follows:-- - - Come thou, Einion's Yellow One, - Stray-horns, the Particoloured Lake Cow, - And the Hornless Dodin: - Arise, come home. - -But one would like to know whether Dodin ought not rather to be -written Dodyn, to rhyme with Llyn. - -[54] Hywel's real name is William Davies, Tal y Bont, Cardiganshire. As -adjudicator I became acquainted with several stories which Mr. Davies -has since given me permission to use, and I have to thank him for -clues to several others. - -[55] Or Llech y Deri, as Mr. Williams tells me in a letter, where -he adds that he does not know the place, but that he took it to be -in the Hundred of Cemmes, in North-west Pembrokeshire. I take Llech -y Derwyd to be fictitious; but I have not succeeded in finding any -place called by the other name either. - -[56] Perhaps the more usual thing is for the man returning from Faery -to fall into dust on the spot: see later in this chapter the Curse of -Pantannas, which ends with an instance in point, and compare Howells, -pp. 142, 146. - -[57] B. Davies, that is, Benjamin Davies, who gives this tale, was, -as I learn from Gwynionyd, a native of Cenarth. He was a schoolmaster -for about twelve years, and died in October, 1859, at Merthyr, near -Carmarthen: he describes him as a good and intelligent man. - -[58] This is ordinarily written Cenarth, the name of a parish on -the Teifi, where the three counties of Cardigan, Pembroke, and -Carmarthen meet. - -[59] The name Llan Dydoch occurs in the Bruts, A.D. 987 and 1089, -and is the one still in use in Welsh; but the English St. Dogmael's -shows that it is derived from that of Dogfael's name when the mutation -consonant f or v was still written m. In Welsh the name of the saint -has been worn down to Dogwel, as in St. Dogwell's near Fishguard, and -Llandogwel in Llanrhudlad parish in Anglesey: see Reece's Welsh Saints, -p. 211. It points back to an early Brythonic form Doco-maglos, with -doco of the same origin as Latin dux, ducis, 'a leader,' and maglo-s = -Irish mal, 'a lord or prince.' Dogfael's name assumes in Llan Dydoch a -Goidelic form, for Dog-fael would have to become in Irish Doch-mhal, -which, cut down to Doch with the honorific prefix to, has yielded -Ty-doch; but I am not clear why it is not Ty-doch. Another instance of -a Goidelic form of a name having the local preference in Wales to this -day offers itself in Cyfelach and Llan Gyfelach in Glamorganshire. The -Welsh was formerly Cimeliauc (Reece, p. 274). Here may also be -mentioned St. Cyngar, otherwise called Docwinnus (Reece, p. 183), -but the name occurs in the Liber Landavensis in the genitive both as -Docunn-i and Docguinni, the former of which seems easily explained as -Goidelic for an early form of Cyngar, namely Cuno-caros, from which -would be formed To-chun or Do-chun. This is what seems to underlie the -Latin Docunnus, while Docguinni is possibly a Goidelic modification -of the written Docunni, unless some such a name as Doco-vindo-s has -been confounded with Docunnus. In one instance the Book of Llan Dâv -has instead of Abbas Docunni or Docguinni, the shorter designation, -Abbas Dochou (p. 145), which one must not unhesitatingly treat as -Dochon, seeing that Dochou would be in later book Welsh Dochau, -and in the dialect of the district Docha; and that this occurs in -the name of the church of Llandough near Cardiff, and Llandough near -Cowbridge. The connexion of a certain saint Dochdwy with these churches -does not appear at all satisfactorily established, but more light is -required to help one to understand these and similar church names. - -[60] This name which may have come from Little England below Wales, -was once not uncommon in South Cardiganshire, as Mr. Williams -informs me, but it is now mostly changed as a surname into Davies and -Jones! Compare the similar fortunes of the name Mason mentioned above, -p. 68. - -[61] I have not succeeded in discovering who the writer was, who used -this name. - -[62] This name as it is now written should mean 'the Gold's Foot,' -but in the Demetian dialect aur is pronounced oer, and I learn from -the rector, the Rev. Rhys Jones Lloyd, that the name has sometimes -been written Tref Deyrn, which I regard as some etymologist's futile -attempt to explain it. More importance is to be attached to the name -on the communion cup, dating 1828, and reading, as Mr. Lloyd kindly -informs me, Poculum Eclyseye de Tre-droyre. Beneath Droyre some -personal name possibly lies concealed. - -[63] Y Ferch o Gefn Ydfa ('The Maid of Cefn Ydfa'), by Isaac Craigfryn -Hughes, published by Messrs. Daniel Owen, Howell & Co., Cardiff, 1881. - -[64] In a letter dated February 9, 1899, he states, however, that as -regards folklore the death of his father at the age of seventy-six, -in the year 1889, had been a great loss to him; for he adds that he -was perfectly familiar with the traditions of the neighbourhood and -had associated with older men. Among the latter he had been used to -talk with an old man whose father remembered Cromwell passing on his -way to destroy the Iron Works of Pant y Gwaith, where the Cavaliers -had had a cannon cast, which was afterwards used in the engagement -at St. Fagan's. - -[65] This term is sometimes represented as being Bendith eu Mamau, -'their Mother's Blessing,' as if each fairy were such a delightful -offspring as to constitute himself or herself a blessing to his or her -mother; but I have not found satisfactory evidence to the currency -of Bendith eu Mamau, or, as it would be pronounced in Glamorgan, -Béndith i Máma. On the whole, therefore, perhaps one may regard the -name as pointing back to the Celtic goddesses known in Gaul in Roman -times as the Mothers. - -[66] On Pen Craig Daf Mr. Hughes gives the following note:--It -was the residence of Dafyd Morgan or 'Counsellor Morgan,' who, he -says, was executed on Kennington Common for taking the side of the -Pretender. He had retreated to Pen y Graig, where his abode was, -in order to conceal himself; but he was discovered and carried away -at night. Here follows a verse from an old ballad about him:-- - - Dafyd Morgan ffel a ffol, Taffy Morgan, sly and daft, - Fe aeth yn ol ei hyder: He did his bent go after: - Fe neidod naid at rebel haid He leaped a leap to a rebel swarm, - Pan drod o blaid Pretender. To arm for a Pretender. - -[67] A tòn is any green field that is used for grazing and not meant to -be mown, land which has, as it were, its skin of grassy turf unbroken -for years by the plough. - -[68] On this Mr. Hughes has a note to the effect that the whole of -one milking used to be given in Glamorgan to workmen for assistance -at the harvest or other work, and that it was not unfrequently enough -for the making of two cheeses. - -[69] Since this was first printed I have learnt from Mr. Hughes that -the first cry issued from the Black Cauldron in the Taff (o'r Gerwyn -Du ar Daf), which I take to be a pool in that river. - -[70] The Fan is the highest mountain in the parish of Merthyr Tydfil, -Mr. Hughes tells me: he adds that there was on its side once a chapel -with a burial ground. Its history seems to be lost, but human bones -have, as he states, been frequently found there. - -[71] The above, I am sorry to say, is not the only instance of this -nasty trick associating itself with Gwent, as will be seen from the -story of Bwca'r Trwyn in chapter x. - -[72] This chapter, except where a later date is suggested, may be -regarded as written in the summer of 1883. - -[73] Trefriw means the town of the slope or hillside, and stands for -Tref y Riw, not tref y Rhiw, which would have yielded Treffriw, for -there is a tendency in Gwyned to make the mutation after the definite -article conform to the general rule, and to say y law, 'the hand,' -and y raw, 'the spade,' instead of what would be in books y llaw and -y rhaw from yr llaw and yr rhaw. - -[74] Why the writer spells the name Criccieth in this way I cannot -tell, except that he was more or less under the influence of the more -intelligible spelling Crugcaith, as where Lewis Glyn Cothi. I. xxiv, -sang - - Rhys ab Sion â'r hysbys iaith, - Gwr yw acw o Grugcaith. - -This spelling postulates the interpretation Crug-Caith, earlier Crug -y Ceith, 'the mound or barrow of the captives,' in reference to some -forgotten interment; but when the accent receded to the first syllable -the second was slurred almost out of recognition, so that Crug-ceith, -or Cruc-ceith, became Crúceth, whence Crúcieth and Cricieth. The Bruts -have Crugyeith the only time it occurs, and the Record of Carnarvon -(several times) Krukyth. - -[75] Out of excessive fondness for our Arthur English people translate -this name into Arthur's Seat instead of Idris' Seat; but Idris was -also somebody: he was a giant with a liking for the study of the -stars. But let that be: I wish to say a word concerning his name: -Idris may be explained as meaning 'War-champion,' or the like; -and, phonologically speaking, it comes from Iud-rys, which was made -successively into Id-rys, Idris. The syllable iud meant battle or -fight, and it undergoes a variety of forms in Welsh names. Thus before -n, r, l, and w, it becomes id, as in Idnerth, Idloes, and Idwal, while -Iud-hael yields Ithel, whence Ab Ithel, anglicized Bethel. At the end, -however, it is yd or ud, as in Gruffud or Gruffyd, from Old Welsh -Grippiud, and Maredud or Meredyd for an older Marget-iud. By itself -it is possibly the word which the poets write ud, and understand to -mean lord; but if these forms are related, it must have originally -meant rather a fighter, soldier, or champion. - -[76] There is a special similarity between this and an Anglesey story -given by Howells, p. 138: it consists in the sequence of seeing the -fairies dance and finding money left by them. Why was the money left? - -[77] It was so called by the poet D. ab Gwilym, cxcii. 12, when -he sang: - - I odi ac i luchio To bring snow and drifting flakes - Odiar lechwed Moel Eilio. From off Moel Eilio's slope. - -[78] This is commonly pronounced 'Y Gath Dorwen,' but the people of the -neighbourhood wish to explain away a farm name which could, strangely -enough, only mean 'the white-bellied cat'; but y Garth Dorwen, -'the white-bellied garth or hill,' is not a very likely name either. - -[79] The hiring time in Wales is the beginning of winter and of -summer; or, as one would say in Welsh, at the Calends of Winter and -the Calends of May respectively. In North Cardiganshire the great -hiring fair was held at the former date when I was a boy, and so, -as I learn from my wife, it was in Carnarvonshire. - -[80] In a Cornish story mentioned in Choice Notes, p. 77, we have, -instead of ointment, simply soap. See also Mrs. Bray's Banks of -the Tamar, pp. 174-7, where she alludes to H. Cornelius Agrippa's -statement how such ointment used to be made--the reference must, -I think, be to his book De Occulta Philosophia Libri III (Paris, -1567), i. 45 (pp. 81-2). - -[81] See the Mabinogion, pp. 1-2; Evans' Facsimile of the Black Book -of Carmarthen, fol. 49b-50a; Rhys' Arthurian Legend, pp. 155-8; Edmund -Jones' Spirits in the County of Monmouth, pp. 39, 71, 82; and in this -volume, pp. 143, 203, above. I may mention that the Cornish also have -had their Cwn Annwn, though the name is a different one, to wit in the -phrase, 'the Devil and his Dandy-dogs': see Choice Notes, pp. 78-80. - -[82] As it stands now this would be unmutated Césel Gýfarch, 'Cyfarch's -Nook,' but there never was such a name. There was, however, Elgýfarch -or Aelgýfarch and Rhygýfarch, and in such a combination as Césel -Elgýfarch there would be every temptation to drop one unaccented el. - -[83] Owing to some oversight he has 'a clean or a dirty cow' instead -of cow-yard or cow-house, as I understand it. - -[84] Cwta makes cota in the feminine in North Cardiganshire; the -word is nevertheless only the English cutty borrowed. Du, 'black,' -has corresponding to it in Irish, dubh. So the Welsh word seems to -have passed through the stages dyv, dyw, before yw was contracted -into û, which was formerly pronounced like French û, as proved by -the grammar already mentioned (p. 22) of J. D. Rhys, published in -London in 1592; see p. 33, to which my attention has been called -by Prof. J. Morris Jones. In Old or pre-Norman Welsh m did duty -for m and v, so one detects dyv as dim in a woman's name Penardim, -'she of the very black head'; there was also a Penarwen, 'she of the -very blonde head.' The look of Penardim having baffled the redactor -of the Branwen, he left the spelling unchanged: see the (Oxford) -Mabinogion, p. 26. The same sort of change which produced du has -produced cnu, 'a fleece,' as compared with cneifio, 'to fleece'; -lluarth, 'a kitchen garden,' as compared with its Irish equivalent -lubhghort. Compare also Rhiwabon, locally pronounced Rhuabon, and -Rhiwallon, occurring sometimes as Rhuallon. But the most notable rôle -of this phonetic process is exemplified by the verbal nouns ending in -u, such as caru, 'to love,' credu, 'to believe,' tyngu, 'to swear,' -in which the u corresponds to an m termination in Old Irish, as in -sechem, 'to follow,' cretem, 'belief,' sessam or sessom, 'to stand.' - -[85] In medieval Welsh poetry this name was still a dissyllable; -but now it is pronounced Llyn, in conformity with the habit of -the Gwyndodeg, which makes into porfyd what is written porfeyd, -'pastures,' and pronounced porféid in North Cardiganshire. So in the -Lleyn name Sarn Fyllteyrn the second vocable represents Maelteyrn, -in the Record of Carnarvon (p. 38) Mayltern: it is now sounded -Mylltyrn with the second y short and accented. Lleyn is a plural of -the people (genitive Llaën in Porth Dinllaën), used as a singular of -their country, like Cymru = Cymry, and Prydyn. The singular is llain, -'a spear,' in the Book of Aneurin: see Skene, ii. 64, 88, 92. - -[86] It is also called dolur byr, or the 'short disease'; I believe -I have been told that it is the disease known to 'the vet.' as anthrax. - -[87] Here the writer seems to have been puzzled by the mh of -Amheirchion, and to have argued back to a radical form Parch; -but he was on the wrong tack--Amheirchion comes from Ap-Meirchion, -where the p helped to make the m a surd, which, with the syllabic -accent on the succeeding vowel, became fixed as mh, while the p -disappeared by assimilation. We have, later on, a similar instance -in Owen y Mhaxen for Owen Amhacsen = O. ap Macsen. Another instance -will be found at the opening of the Mabinogi of Branwen, to wit, -in the word prynhawngweith, 'once on an afternoon,' from prynhawn, -'afternoon,' for which our dictionaries substitute prydnawn, -with the accent on the ultima, though D. ab Gwilym used pyrnhawn, -as in poem xl. 30. But the ordinary pronunciation continues to be -prynháwn or pyrnháwn, sometimes reduced in Gwyned to pnawn. Let me -add an instance which has reached me since writing the above: In the -Archæologia Cambrensis for 1899, pp. 325-6, we have the pedigree of -the Ameridiths from the Visitation of Devonshire in 1620: in the course -of it one finds that Iuan ap Merydeth has a son Thomas Amerideth, who, -knowing probably no Welsh, took to writing his patronymic more nearly -as it was pronounced. The line is brought down to Ames Amerideth, -who was created baronet in 1639. Amerideth of course = Ap Meredyd, -and the present member of the family who writes to the Archæologia -Cambrensis spells his patronymic more correctly, Ameridith; but if -it had survived in Wales it might have been Amheredyd. For an older -instance than any of these see the Book of Taliessin, poem xlix (= -Skene, ii. 204), where one reads of Beli Amhanogan, 'B. ab Mynogan.' - -[88] This is pronounced Rhiwan, though probably made up of Rhiw-wen, -for it is the tendency of the Gwyndodeg to convert e and ai of -the unaccented ultima into a, and so with e in Glamorgan; see such -instances as Cornwan and casag, p. 29 above. It is possibly a tendency -inherited from Goidelic, as Irish is found to proceed in the same way. - -[89] I may mention that some of the Francises of Anglesey are supposed -to be descendants of Frazers, who changed their name on finding -refuge in the island in the time of the troubles which brought there -the ancestor of the Frazer who, from time to time, claims to be the -rightful head of the Lovat family. - -[90] According to old Welsh orthography this would be written Moudin, -and in the book Welsh of the present day it would have to become -Meudin. Restored, however, to the level of Gallo-Roman names, it would -be Mogodunum or Magodunum. The place is known as Castell Moedin, and -includes within it the end of a hill about halfway between Llannarth -and Lampeter. - -[91] For other mentions of the colours of fairy dress see pp. 44, -139 above, where red prevails, and contrast the Lake Lady of Llyn -Barfog clad in green, p. 145. - -[92] This name means the Bridge of the Blessed Ford, but how the -ford came to be so called I know not. The word bendigaid, 'blessed,' -comes from the Latin verb benedico, 'I bless,' and should, but for -the objection to nd in book Welsh, be bendigaid, which, in fact, -it is approximately in the northern part of the county, where it is -colloquially sounded Pont Rhyd Fyndiged, Fydiged, or even Fdiged, also -Pont Rhyd mdiged, which represents the result of the unmutated form -Bdiged coming directly after the d of rhyd. Somewhat the same is -the case with the name of the herb Dail y Fendigaid, literally 'the -Leaves of the Blessed' (in the feminine singular without any further -indication of the noun to be supplied). This name means, I find, -'hypericum androsæmum, tutsan,' and in North Cardiganshire we call -it Dail y Fyndiged or Fdiged, but in Carnarvonshire the adjective -is made to qualify dail, so that it sounds Dail Bydigad or Bdigad, -'Blessed Leaves.' - -[93] I am far from certain what y nos, 'the night,' may mean in -such names as this and Craig y Nos, 'the Rock of the Night' (p. 254 -above), to which perhaps might be added such an instance as Blaen Nos, -'the Point of (the?) Night,' in the neighbourhood of Llandovery, in -Carmarthenshire. Can the allusion be merely to thickly overshadowed -spots where the darkness of night might be said to lurk in defiance -of the light of day? I have never visited the places in point, -and leading questions addressed to local authorities are too apt to -elicit misleading answers: the poetic faculty is dangerously rampant -in the Principality. - -[94] Dâr is a Glamorgan pronunciation, metri gratiâ of what is written -daear, 'earth': compare d'ar-fochyn in Glamorgan for a badger, -literally 'an earth pig.' The dwarf's answer was probably in some -sort of verse, with dâr and iâr to rhyme. - -[95] Applied in Glamorgan to a child that looks poorly and does -not grow. - -[96] In Cardiganshire a conjurer is called dyn hysbys, where hysbys -(or, in older orthography, hyspys) means 'informed': it is the -man who is informed on matters which are dark to others; but the -word is also used of facts--Y mae 'r peth yn hysbys, 'the thing -is known or manifest.' The word is divisible into hy-spys, which -would be in Irish, had it existed in the language, so-scese for an -early su-squestia-s, the related Irish words being ad-chiu, 'I see,' -pass. preterite ad-chess, 'was seen,' and the like, in which ci and ces -have been equated by Zimmer with the Sanskrit verb caksh, 'to see,' -from a root quas. The adjective cynnil applied to the dyn hyspys in -Glamorgan means now, as a rule, 'economical' or 'thrifty,' but in -this instance it would seem to have signified 'shrewd,' 'cunning,' or -'clever,' though it would probably come nearer the original meaning of -the word to render it by 'smart,' for it is in Irish conduail, which -is found applied to ingenious work, such as the ornamentation on the -hilt of a sword. Another term for a wizard or conjurer is gwr cyfarwyd, -with which the reader is already familiar. Here cyfarwyd forms a link -with the kyvarwyd of the Mabinogion, where it usually means a -professional man, especially one skilled in story and history; and what -constituted his knowledge was called kyvarwydyt, which included, -among other things, acquaintance with boundaries and pedigrees, but -it meant most frequently perhaps story; see the (Oxford) Mabinogion, -pp. 5, 61, 72, 93. All these terms should, strictly speaking, have -gwr--gwr hyspys, gwr cynnil, and gwr cyfarwyd--but for the fact -that modern Welsh tends to restrict gwr to signify 'a husband' or -'a married man,' while dyn, which only signifies a mortal, is made -to mean man, and provided with a feminine dynes, 'woman,' unknown -to good Welsh literature. Thus the spoken language is in this matter -nearly on a level with English and French, which have quite lost the -word for vir and anêr. - -[97] Rhyd y Gloch means 'the Ford of the Bell,' in allusion, as -the story goes, to a silver bell that used in former ages to be -at Llanwonno Church. The people of Llanfabon took a liking to it, -and one night a band of them stole it; but as they were carrying it -across the Taff the moon happened to make her appearance suddenly, -and they, in their fright, taking it to be sunrise, dropped the bell -in the bed of the river, so that nothing has ever been heard of it -since. But for ages afterwards, and even at the present day indeed, -nothing could rouse the natives of Llanfabon to greater fury than to -hear the moon spoken of as haul Llanfabon, 'the sun of Llanfabon.' - -[98] It was peat fires that were usual in those days even in Glamorgan. - -[99] See Hartland's Science of Fairy Tales, pp. 112-6. - -[100] In no other version has Mr. Reynolds heard cwcwll wy iâr, -but either plisgyn or cibyn wy iâr, to which I may add masgal from -Mr. Craigfryn Hughes' versions. The word cwcwll usually means a cowl, -but perhaps it is best here to treat cwcwll as a distinct word derived -somehow from conchylium or the French coquille, 'a shell.' - -[101] The whole passage will be found in the Itinerarium Kambriæ, -i. 8 (pp. 75-8), and Giraldus fixes the story a little before his time -somewhere in the district around Swansea and Neath. With this agrees -closely enough the fact that a second David, Dafyd ab Geralld or David -Fitzgerald, appears to have been consecrated Bishop of St. David's -in 1147, and to have died in 1176. - -[102] The words in the original are: Nec carne vescebantur, nec pisce; -lacteis plerumque cibariis utentes, et in pultis modum quasi croco -confectis. - -[103] Perhaps it is this also that suggested the name Eliodorus, as -it were Hêliodôros; for the original name was probably the medieval -Welsh one of Elidyr = Irish Ailithir, ailither, 'a pilgrim': compare -the Pembrokeshire name Pergrin and the like. It is curious that Elidyr -did not occur to Glasynys and prevent him from substituting Elfod, -which is quite another name, and more correctly written Elfod for -the earlier El-fodw, found not only as Elbodu but also Elbodug-o, -Elbodg, Elbot and Elfod: see p. 117 above. - -[104] For one or two more instances from Wales see Howells, -pp. 54-7. Brittany also is a great country for death portents: see -A. Le Braz, Légende de la Mort en Basse-Bretagne (Paris, 1893), also -Sébillot's Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne (Paris, -1882), i. pp. 270-1. For Scotland see The Ghost Lights of the West -Highlands by Dr. R. C. Maclagan in Folk-Lore for 1897, pp. 203-256, -and for the cognate subject of second sight see Dalyell's Darker -Superstitions of Scotland, pp. 466-88. - -[105] Another word for the toeli is given by Silvan Evans as used -in certain parts of South Wales, namely, tolaeth or dolath, as to -which he mentions the opinion that it is a corruption of tylwyth, -a view corroborated by Howells using, p. 31, the plural tyloethod; -but it could not be easily explained except as a corruption through -the medium of English. Elias Owen, p. 303, uses the word in reference -to the hammering and rapping noise attending the joinering of a -phantom coffin for a man about to die, a sort of rehearsal well known -throughout the Principality to every one who has ears spiritually -tuned. Unfortunately I have not yet succeeded in locating the use -of the word tolaeth, except that I have been assured by a Carmarthen -man that it is current in Welsh there as toleth, and by a native of -Pumsant that it is in use from Abergwili up to Llanbumsant. - -[106] See, for instance, pp. 200, 221, 228. - -[107] Mrs. Williams-Ellis of Glasfryn writes to me that the place is -now called Bwlch Trwyn Swncwl, that it is a gap on the highest part -of the road crossing from Llanaelhaearn to Pistyll, and that it is -quite a little mountain pass between bleak heather-covered hillsides, -in fact a very lonely spot in the outskirts of the Eifl, and with -Carnguwch blocking the horizon in the direction of Cardigan Bay. - -[108] For this I am indebted to Mr. Gwenogvryn Evans' Report on -MSS. in the Welsh Language, i. 585 k. The words were written by -Williams about the beginning of the seventeenth century, and his û -does not mean w. He was, however, probably thinking of cawr, cewri, -and such instances as tawaf, 'taceo,' and tau, 'tacet.' At all events -there is no trace of u in the local pronunciation of the name Tre'r -Ceiri. I have heard it also as Tre' Ceiri without the definite article; -but had this been ancient one would expect it softened into Tre' Geiri. - -[109] See the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 110, 113, and 27-9, 36-41, 44, -also 309, where a Triad explains that the outposts were Anglesey, Man, -and Lundy. But the other Triads, i. 3 = iii. 67, make them Orkney, -Man, and Wight, for which we have the older authority of Nennius. § -8. The designation Tair Ynys Brydain, 'The Three Isles of Prydain,' -was known to the fourteenth-century poet, Iolo Goch: see his works -edited by Ashton, p. 669. - -[110] For Prydyn in the plural see Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales, -ii. 209, also 92, where Pryden is the form used. In modern Welsh the -two senses of Cymry are distinguished in writing as Cymry and Cymru, -but the difference is merely one of spelling and not very ancient. - -[111] So Geoffrey (i. 12-15) brings his Trojans on their way to -Britain into Aquitania, where they fight with the Pictavienses, -whose king he calls Goffarius Pictus. - -[112] Cadarn and cadr postulate respectively some such early forms -as catrno-s and cadro-s, which according to analogy should become -cadarn and cadr. Welsh, however, is not fond of dr; so here begins a -bifurcation: (1) retaining the d unchanged cadro-s yields cadr, or (2) -dr is made into dr, and other changes set in resulting in the ceir -of ceiri, as in Welsh aneirif, 'numberless,' from eirif, 'number,' -of the same origin as Irish áram from *ad-rim = *ad-rima, and Welsh -eiliw, 'species, colour,' for ad-liw, in both of which i follows d -combinations; but that is not essential, as shown by cader, cadair, -for Old Welsh cateir, 'a chair,' from Latin cat[h]edra. The word that -serves as our singular, namely cawr, is far harder to explain; but on -the whole I am inclined to regard it as of a different origin, to wit, -the Goidelic word caur, 'a giant or hero,' borrowed. The plural cewri -or cawri is formed from the singular cawr, which means a giant, though, -associated in the plural with ceiri, it has sometimes to follow suit -with that vocable in connoting dress. - -[113] The most important of these are the old Breton kazr, now kaer, -'beautiful or pretty,' and old Cornish caer of the same meaning; -elsewhere we have, as in Greek, the Doric kekadmai and kekadmenos, -to be found used in reference to excelling or distinguishing one's -self; also kosmos, 'good order, ornament,' while in Sanskrit there is -the theme çad, 'to excel or surpass.' The old meaning of 'beautiful,' -'decorated,' or 'loudly dressed,' is not yet lost in the case of ceiri. - -[114] For the text see the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 193-4, and for -comparisons of the incident see Nutt's Holy Grail, p. 154 et seq.; -and Rhys' Arthurian Legend, pp. 75-6. A more exact parallel, however, -is to be mentioned in the next chapter. - -[115] This chapter was written mostly in 1891. - -[116] The spelling there used is phynnodderee, to the perversity of -which Cregeen calls attention in his Dictionary. In any case the -pronunciation is always approximately fun-ó-dur-i or fun-ód-ri, -with the accent on the second syllable. - -[117] I am inclined to think that the first part of the word fenodyree -is not fynney, the Manx word for 'hair,' but the Scandinavian word -which survives in the Swedish fjun, 'down.' Thus fjun-hosur (for the -fjun-hosa suggested by analogy) would explain the word fenodyree, -except its final ee, which is obscure. Compare also the magic -breeks called finn-brækr, as to which see Vigfusson's Icelandic -Dict. s. v. finnar. - -[118] Cumming's Isle of Man (London, 1848), p. 30, where he refers his -readers to Waldron's Description of the Isle of Man: see pp. 28, 105. - -[119] See Windisch's Irische Grammatik, p. 120. - -[120] The Manx word for the rowan tree, incorrectly called a mountain -ash, is cuirn, which is in Mod. Irish caorthann, genitive caorthainn, -Scotch Gaelic caorunn; but in Welsh books it is cerdin, singular -cerdinen, and in the spoken language mostly cerdin, cerding, singular -cerdinen, cerdingen. This variation seems to indicate that these -words have possibly been borrowed by the Welsh from a Goidelic source; -but the berry is known in Wales by the native name of criafol, from -which the wood is frequently called, especially in North Wales, coed -criafol, singular coeden griafol or pren criafol. The sacredness of the -rowan is the key to the proper names Mac-Cáirthinn and Der-Cháirthinn, -with which the student of Irish hagiology is familiar. They mean the -Son and the Daughter of the Rowan respectively, and the former occurs -as Maqui Cairatini on an Ogam inscribed stone recently discovered in -Meath, not very far from the Boyne. - -[121] I am sorry to say that it never occurred to me to ask whether -the shooting was done with such modern things as guns. But Mr. Arthur -Moore assures me that it is always understood to be bows and arrows, -not guns. - -[122] Edited by Oswald Cockayne for the Master of the Rolls (London, -1864-6): see more especially vol. ii. pp. 156-7, 290-1, 401; -vol. iii. pp. 54-5. - -[123] Mr. Moore is not familiar with this term, but I heard it at -Surby, in the south; and I find buidseach and buidseachd given as -Highland Gaelic words for a witch and witchcraft respectively. - -[124] See Stokes' Goidelica, p. 151. - -[125] This chapter was written in 1891, except the portions of it -which refer to later dates indicated. - -[126] See the Stokes-O'Donovan edition of Cormac (Calcutta, 1868), -pp. 19, 23. - -[127] Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, xi. 620; -Pennant's Tour in Scotland in 1769 (3rd edition, Warrington, 1774), -i. 97, 186, 291; Thomas Stephens' Gododin, pp. 124-6; and Dr. Murray -in the New English Dictionary, s. v. Beltane. - -[128] In my Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom, pp. 517-21. - -[129] As to the Thargelia and Delia, see Preller's Griechische -Mythologie, i. 260-2, and A. Mommsen's Heortologie, pp. 414-25. - -[130] See section H of the Report of the Liverpool Meeting of the -British Association in 1896, pp. 626-56. - -[131] It is my impression that it is crowned with a small tumulus, -and that it forms the highest ground in Jurby, which was once an -island by itself. The one between Ramsey and Bride is also probably -the highest point of the range. But these are questions which I should -like to see further examined, say by Mr. Arthur Moore or Mr. Kermode. - -[132] Cronk yn Irree Laa, despite the gender, is the name as pronounced -by all Manxmen who have not been misled by antiquarians. To convey the -other meaning, referring to the day watch, the name would have to be -Cronk ny Harrey Laa; in fact, a part of the Howe in the south of the -island is called Cronk ny Harrey, 'the Hill of the Watch.' Mr. Moore -tells me that the Jurby cronk was one of the eminences for 'Watch and -Ward'; but he is now of opinion that the high mountain of Cronk yn -Irree Laa in the south was not. As to the duty of the inhabitants to -keep 'Watch and Ward' over the island, see the passage concerning it -extracted from the Manx Statutes (vol. i. p. 65) by Mr. Moore in his -Manx Surnames, pp. 183-3; also my preface to the same work, pp. v-viii. - -[133] Quoted from Oliver's Monumenta de Insula Manniæ, vol. i. (Manx -Society, vol. iv) p. 84: see also Cumming's Isle of Man, p. 258. - -[134] See the New English Dictionary, s. v. 'Allhallows.' - -[135] This comes near the pronunciation usual in Roxburghshire and -the south of Scotland generally, which is, as Dr. Murray informs -me, Hunganay without the m occurring in the other forms to be -mentioned presently. But so far as I have been able to find, the Manx -pronunciation is now Hob dy naa, which I have heard in the north, -while Hob ju naa is the prevalent form in the south. - -[136] See my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 514-5; and as to hiring fairs in -Wales see pp. 210-2 above. - -[137] See Robert Bell's Early Ballads (London, 1877), pp. 406-7, -where the following is given as sung at Richmond in Yorkshire:-- - - To-night it is the New-Year's night, to-morrow is the day, - And we are come for our right, and for our ray, - As we used to do in old King Henry's day. - Sing, fellows, sing, Hagman-heigh. - If you go to the bacon-flick, cut me a good bit; - Cut, cut and low, beware of your maw; - Cut, cut and round, beware of your thumb, - That me and my merry men may have some. - Sing, fellows, sing, Hagman-heigh. - If you go to the black-ark bring me X mark; - Ten mark, ten pound, throw it down upon the ground, - That me and my merry men may have some. - Sing, fellows, sing, Hagman-heigh. - -[138] The subject is worked out in Nicholson's Golspie, pp. 100-8, also -in the New English Dictionary, where mention is made of a derivation -involving calendæ, which reminds me of the Welsh call for a New-Year's -Gift--Calennig! or C'lennig! in Arfon 'Y Ngh'lennig i! 'My Calends -gift if you please!' - -[139] On being asked, after reading this paper to the Folk-Lore -Society, who was supposed to make the footmarks in the ashes, I had -to confess that I had been careless enough never to have asked the -question. I have referred it to Mr. Moore, who informs me that nobody, -as I expected, will venture on any explanation by whom the footmarks -are made. - -[140] This seems to imply the application of the same adjective, some -time or other, to clean water and a handsome man, just as we speak -in North Cardiganshire of dwr glân, 'clean water,' and bachgen glân, -'a handsome boy.' - -[141] In Phillips' Book of Common Prayer this is called Lá nolick y -biggy, 'Little Nativity Day,' and Lá ghian blieny, 'The Day of the -Year's End,' meaning, of course, the former end of the year, not the -latter: see pp. 55, 62, 66. - -[142] See my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 514-5, and the Brython, ii. 20, -120: an instance in point occurs in the next chapter. - -[143] This has been touched upon in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 676; but -to the reasons there briefly mentioned should be added a reference to -the position allotted to intercalary months in the Norse calendar, -namely, at the end of the summer half, that is, as I think, at the -end of the ancient Norse year. - -[144] My paper was read before the Folk-Lore Society in April or May, -1891, and Miss Peacock's notes appeared in the journal of the Society -in the following December: see pp. 509-13. - -[145] See Choice Notes, p. 76. - -[146] See the third edition of Wm. Nicholson's Poetical Works -(Castle-Douglas, 1878), pp. 78, 81. - -[147] See p. 321 above and the references there given; also Howells' -Cambrian Superstitions, p. 58. - -[148] Pomponius Mela De Chorographia, edited by Parthey, iii, chap. 6 -(p. 72); see also my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 195-6, where, however, -the identification of the name Sena with that of Sein should be -cancelled. Sein seems to be derived from the Breton Seidhun, otherwise -modified into Sizun and Sun: see chap. vi below. - -[149] See my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 195-7; also my Arthurian Legend, -pp. 367-8, where a passage in point is cited at length from Plutarch -De Defectu Oraculorum, xviii. (= the Didot edition of Plutarch's -works, iii. 511); the substance of it will be found given likewise -in chap. viii below. - -[150] For an allusion to the traffic in winds in Wales see Howells, -p. 86, where he speaks as follows:--'In Pembrokeshire there was a -person commonly known as the cunning man of Pentregethen, who sold -winds to the sailors, after the manner of the Lapland witches, and -who was reverenced in the neighbourhood in which he dwelt, much more -than the divines.' - -[151] This may turn out to be all wrong; for I learn from the -Rev. John Quine, vicar of Malew, in Man, that there is a farm called -Balthane or Bolthane south of Ballasalla, and that in the computus -(of 1540) of the Abbey Tenants it is called Biulthan. This last, -if originally a man's name, would seem to point back to some such a -compound as Beo-Ultán. In his Manx Names, p. 138, Mr. Moore suggests -the possibility of explaining the name as bwoailtyn, 'folds or pens'; -but the accentuation places that out of the question. See also the -Lioar Manninagh, iii. 167, where Mr. C. Roeder, referring to the -same computus passage, gives the name as Builthan in the boundary -inter Cross Jvar Builthan. This would be read by Mr. Quine as inter -Cross Ivar et Biulthan, 'between Cross-Ivar and Bolthane.' For the -text of the boundary see Johnstone's edition of the Chronicon Manniæ -(Copenhagen, 1786), p. 48, and Oliver's Monumenta de Insula Manniæ, -vol. i. p. 207; see also Mr. Quine's paper on the Boundary of Abbey -Lands in the Lioar Manninagh, iii. 422-3. - -[152] I say 'approximately,' as, more strictly speaking, the ordinary -pronunciation is Sndaen, almost as one syllable, and from this arises -a variant, which is sometimes written Stondane, while the latest -English development, regardless of the accentuation of the Anglo-Manx -form, which is Santon, pronounced Sántn, makes the parish into a -St. Ann's! For the evidence that it was the parish of a St. Sanctán -see Moore's Names, p. 209. - -[153] The Athenæum for April 1, 1893, p. 415. I may here remark that -Mr. Borlase's note on do fhagaint is, it seems to me, unnecessary: let -do fhagaint stand, and translate, not 'I leave' but 'to leave.' The -letter should be consulted for curious matter concerning Croagh -Patrick, its pagan stations, cup-markings, &c. - -[154] Since this paper was read to the Folk-Lore Society a good deal -of information of one kind or another has appeared in its journal -concerning the first-foot: see more especially Folk-Lore for 1892, -pp. 253-64, and for 1893, pp. 309-21. - -[155] This was written at the beginning of the year 1892. - -[156] With this compare what Mr. Gomme has to say of a New Year's -Day custom observed in Lanarkshire: see p. 633 of the Ethnographic -Report referred to at p. 103 above, and compare Henderson, p. 74. - -[157] Old-fashioned grammarians and dictionary makers are always -delighted to handle Mrs. Partington's broom: so Kelly thinks he has -done a fine thing by printing guee, 'prayer,' and gwee, 'cursing.' - -[158] This was written at the end of 1892, and read to a joint meeting -of the Cymmrodorion and Folk-Lore Societies on January 11, 1893. - -[159] Some account of them was given by me in Folk-Lore for 1892, -p. 380; but somehow or other my contribution was printed unrevised, -with results more peculiar than edifying. - -[160] In Folk-Lore for 1893, pp. 58-9. - -[161] In the neighbourhood I find that the word gwaeldyn in this verse -is sometimes explained to mean not a worthless but an ailing person, -on the strength of the fact that the adjective gwael is colloquially -used both for vile and for ailing. - -[162] Since writing the above remarks the following paragraph, -purporting to be copied from the Liverpool Mercury for November 18, -1896, appeared in the Archæologia Cambrensis for 1899, p. 334:--'Two -new fishes have just been put in the "Sacred Well," Ffynnon y Sant, -at Tyn y Ffynnon, in the village of Nant Peris, Llanberis. Invalids -in large numbers came, during the last century and the first half of -the present century, to this well to drink of its "miraculous waters"; -and the oak box, where the contributions of those who visited the spot -were kept, is still in its place at the side of the well. There have -always been two "sacred fishes" in this well; and there is a tradition -in the village to the effect that if one of the Tyn y Ffynnon fishes -came out of its hiding-place when an invalid took some of the water -for drinking or for bathing purposes, cure was certain; but if the -fishes remained in their den, the water would do those who took it -no good. Two fishes only are to be put in the well at a time, and -they generally live in its waters for about half a century. If one -dies before the other, it would be of no use to put in a new fish, -for the old fish would not associate with it, and it would die. The -experiment has been tried. The last of the two fishes put in the well -about fifty years ago died last August. It had been blind for some -time previous to its death. When taken out of the water it measured -seventeen inches, and was buried in the garden adjoining the well. It -is stated in a document of the year 1776 that the parish clerk was to -receive the money put in the box of the well by visitors. This money, -together with the amount of 6s. 4d., was his annual stipend.' Tyn y -Ffynnon means 'the Tenement of the Well,' tyn being a shortened form -of tydyn, 'a tenement,'as mentioned at p. 33 above; but the mapsters -make it into ty'n = ty yn, 'a house in,' so that the present instance, -Ty'n y Ffynnon, could only mean 'the House in the Well,' which, -needless to say, it is not. But one would like to know whether the -house and land were once held rent-free on condition that the tenant -took care of the sacred fish. - -[163] See Ashton's Iolo Goch, p. 234, and Lewis' Top. Dict. - -[164] See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 229, and the Iolo MSS., pp. 42-3, -420-1. - -[165] A curious note bearing on this name occurs in the Jesus -College MS. 20 (Cymmrodor, viii. p. 86) in reference to the name -Morgannwg, 'Glamorgan':--O enw Morgant vchot y gelwir Morgannwc. -Ereill a dyweit. Mae o en&wwelsh; Mochteyrn Predein. 'It is from -the name of the above Morgan that Morgannwg is called. Others say -that it is from the name of the mochdeyrn of Pictland.' The -mochteyrn must have been a Pictish king or mórmáer called Morgan. -The name occurs in the charters from the Book of Deer in Stokes' -Goidelica. pp. 109, 111, as Morcunt, Morcunn, and Morgunn undeclined, -also with Morgainn for genitive; and so in Skene's Chronicles of the -Picts and Scots, pp. 77, 317, where it is printed Morgaind; see also -Stokes' Tigernach, in the Revue Celtique, xvii. 198. Compare -Geoffrey's story, ii. 15, which introduces a northern Marganus to -account for the name Margan, now Margam, in Morgannwg. - -[166] M. Loth's remarks in point will be found in the Revue Celtique, -xiii. 496-7, where he compares with tut the Breton teuz, 'lutin, -génie malfaisant ou bienfaisant'; and for the successive guesses on -the subject of the name Morgan tut one should also consult Zimmer's -remarks in Foerster's Introduction to his Erec, pp. xxvii-xxxi, and -my Arthurian Legend, p. 391, to which I should add a reference to the -Book of Ballymote, fo. 360a, where we have o na bantuathaib, which -O'Curry has rendered 'on the part of their Witches' in his Manners and -Customs of the Ancient Irish, iii. 526-7. Compare dá bhantuathaigh, -'two female sorcerers,' in Joyce's Keating's History of Ireland, -pp. 122-3. - -[167] For all about the Children of Lir, and about Liban and Lough -Neagh, see Joyce's Old Celtic Romances, pp. 4-36, 97-105. - -[168] On my appealing to Cadrawd, one of the later editors, he -has found me the exact reference, to wit, volume ix of the Cyfaill -(published in 1889), p. 50; and he has since contributed a translation -of the story to the columns of the South Wales Daily News for February -15, 1899, where he has also given an account of Crymlyn, which is to -be mentioned later. - -[169] Judging from the three best-known instances, y bala meant the -outlet of a lake: I allude to this Bala at the outlet of Llyn Tegid; -Pont y Bala, 'the Bridge of the bala,' across the water flowing from -the Upper into the Lower Lake at Llanberis; and Bala Deulyn, 'the bala -of two lakes,' at Nantlle. Two places called Bryn y Bala are mentioned -s. v. Bala in Morris' Celtic Remains, one near Aberystwyth, at a spot -which I have never seen, and the other near the lower end of the Lower -Lake of Llanberis, as to which it has been suggested to me that it is -an error for Bryn y Bela. It is needless to say that bala has nothing -to do with the Anglo-Irish bally, of such names as Ballymurphy or -Ballynahunt: this vocable is in English bailey, and in South Wales -beili, 'a farm yard or enclosure,' all three probably from the late -Latin balium or ballium, 'locus palis munitus et circumseptus.' Our -etymologists never stop short with bally: they go as far as Balaklava -and, probably, Ballarat, to claim cognates for our Bala. - -[170] Cadrawd here gives the Welsh as '2 bladur ... 2 dyd o wair,' -and observes that the lacuna consists of an illegible word of three -letters. If that word was either sef, 'that is,' or neu, 'or,' the -sense would be as given above. In North Cardiganshire we speak of a -day's mowing as gwaith gwr, 'a man's work for a day,' and sometimes -of a gwaith gwr bach, 'a man's work for a short day.' - -[171] See By-Gones for May 24, 1899. The full name of Welshpool in -Welsh is Trallwng Llywelyn, so called after a Llywelyn descended from -Cuneda, and supposed to have established a religious house there; -for there are other Trallwngs, and at first sight it would seem as if -Trallwng had something to do with a lake or piece of water. But there -is a Trallwng, for instance, near Brecon, where there is no lake to -give it the name; and my attention has been called to Thos. Richards' -Welsh-English Dictionary, where a trallwng is said to be 'such a soft -place on the road (or elsewhere) as travellers may be apt to sink into, -a dirty pool.' So the word seems to be partly of the same derivation -as go-llwng, 'to let go, to give way.' The form of the word in use -now is Trallwm, not Trallwng or Trallwn. - -[172] See the Book of the Dun Cow, fo. 39a-41b and Joyce's Old Celtic -Romances, pp. 97-105; but the story may now be consulted in O'Grady's -Silva Gadelica, i. 233-7, translated in ii. 265-9. On turning over -the leaves of this great collection of Irish lore, I chanced, i. 174, -ii. 196, on an allusion to a well which, when uncovered, was about to -drown the whole locality but for a miracle performed by St. Patrick to -arrest the flow of its waters. A similar story of a well bursting and -forming Lough Reagh, in County Galway, will be found told in verse in -the Book of Leinster; fo. 202b: see also fo. 170a, and the editor's -notes, pp. 45, 53. - -[173] See Evans' autotype edition of the Black Book of Carmarthen, -fos. 53b, 54a, also 32a: the punctuation is that of the MS. In the -seventh triplet kedaul is written keadaul, which seems to mean kadaul -corrected into kedaul; but the a is not deleted, so other readings -are possible. - -[174] In the Iolo MSS., p. 89, finaun wenestir is made into -Ffynon-Wenestr and said to be one of the ornamental epithets of the -sea; but I am convinced that it should be rather treated as ffynnon -fenestr with wenestir or fenestr mutated from menestr, which meant -a servant, attendant, cup-bearer: for one or two instances see -Pughe's Dictionary. The word is probably, as suggested by M. Loth -in his Mots Latins, p. 186. the old French menestre, 'cup-bearer,' -borrowed. Compare the mention of Nechtán's men having access to the -secret well in Sid Nechtáin, p. 390 below, and note that they were -his three menestres or cup-bearers. - -[175] See the Cymmrodor, viii. 88 (No. xxix), where a Marereda is -mentioned as a daughter of Madog son of Meredyd brother to Rhys Gryg. - -[176] There is another reading which would make them into Segantii, -and render it irrelevant--to say the least of it--to mention them here. - -[177] See the Mabinogion, p. 35: the passage has been mistranslated -in Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion, iii. 117. - -[178] See my Arthurian Legend, pp. 263-4. - -[179] I do not profess to see my way through the difficulties which -the probable etymological connexion between the names Setantii, -Setanta, Seithyn, and Seithennin implies. But parts of the following -string of guesses may be found to hold good:--Seithyn is probably -more correct than Seithin, as it rhymes with cristin = Cristyn (in -Cristynogaeth: see Silvan Evans' Geiriadur, s. v., and Skene's Four -Ancient Books, ii. 210); and it might be assumed to be from the same -stem as Seizun; but, supposing it to represent an earlier Seithynt, -it would equate phonologically with Setanta, better Setinte, of which -the genitive Setinti actually occurs, as a river name, in the Book of -the Dun Cow, fo. 125b: see my Hibbert Lectures, p. 455, and see also -the Revue Celtique, xi. 457. It would mean some such an early form -Setntio-s, and Seithenhin, another derivative from the same stem, -Setntino-s. But the retention of n before t in Setinte proves it -not to be unconnected with Seithyn, but borrowed from some Brythonic -dialect when the latter was pronounced Seithntio-s. If this -be anywhere nearly right one has to assume that the manuscripts of -Ptolemy giving the genitive plural as Setantiôn or Segantiôn should -have read Sektantiôn, unless one should rather conjecture Segtantiôn -with cht represented by gt as in Ogams in Pembrokeshire: witness -Ogtene and Maqui Quegte. This conjecture as to the original reading -would suggest that the name was derived from the seventh numeral -sechtn, just as that of the Galloway people of the Novantæ seems to -be from the ninth numeral. Ptolemy's next entry to the Harbour of the -Setantii is the estuary of the Belisama, supposed to be the Mersey; -and next comes the estuary of the Seteia or Segeia, supposed to be -the Dee. Now the country of the Setantii, when they had a country, -may have reached from their harbour near the mouth of the Ribble -to the Seteia or the Dee without the name Seteia or Segeia having -anything to do with their own, except that it may have influenced -the latter in the manuscripts of Ptolemy's text. Then we possibly -have a representative of Seteia or Segeia in the Saidi or Seidi, -sometimes appended to Seithyn's name. In that case Seithyn Saidi, -in the late Triad iii. 37, would mean Seithyn of Seteia, or the -Dee. A Mab Saidi occurs in the Kulhwch story (Mabinogion, p. 106), -also Cas, son of Saidi (ib. 110); and in Rhonabwy's Dream Kadyrieith, -son of Saidi (ib. 160); but the latter vocable is Seidi in Triad ii. 26 -(ib. 303). It is to be borne in mind that Ptolemy does not represent -the Setantii as a people in his time: he only mentions a harbour -called after the Setantii. So it looks as if they then belonged to the -past--that in fact they were, as I should put it, a Goidelic people -who had been conquered and partly expelled by Brythonic tribes, to -wit, by the Brigantes, and also by the Cornavii in case the Setantii -had once extended southwards to the Dee. This naturally leads one to -think that some of them escaped to places on the coast, such as Dyfed, -and that some made for the opposite coast of Ireland, and that, by the -time when the Cúchulainn stories came to be edited as we have them, -the people in question were known to the redactors of those stories -only by the Brythonic form of their name, which underlies that of -Setanta Beg, or the Little Setantian. Those of them who found a home -on the coast of Cardigan Bay may have brought with them a version -of the inundation story with Seithennin, son of Seithyn, as the -principal figure in it. So in due time he had to be attached to some -royal family, and in the Iolo MSS., pp. 141-2, he is made to descend -from a certain Plaws Hen, king of Dyfed, while the saints named as -his descendants seem to have belonged chiefly to Gwyned and Powys. - -[180] See the Professor's Address on the Place of a University in the -History of Wales, delivered at Bangor at the opening ceremony of the -Session of 1899-1900 (Bangor, 1900), p. 6. The reference to Giraldus -is to his Itin. Kambriæ, i. 13 (p. 100), and the Expugnatio Hibernica, -i. 36 (p. 284). - -[181] Instead of 'she followed it' one would have expected 'it followed -her'; but the style is very loose and rough. - -[182] As a 'Cardy' I have here two grievances, one against my -Northwalian fellow countrymen, that they insist on writing Rheidiol -out of sheer weakness for the semivowel i; and the other against -the compilers of school books on geography, who give the lake -away to the Wye or the Severn. I am told that this does not matter, -as our geographers are notoriously accurate about Natal and other -distant lands; so I ought to rest satisfied. - -[183] Professor Meyer has given a number of extracts concerning -her in his notes to his edition of The Vision of Mac Conglinne -(London, 1892), pp. 131-4, 208-10, and recently he has published -The Song of the Old Woman of Beare in the Otia Merseiana (London, -1899), pp. 119-28, from the Trinity College codex, H. 3, 18, where -we are told, among other things, that her name was Digdi, and that -she belonged to Corcaguiny. The name Béara, or Bérre, would seem to -suggest identification with that of Bera, daughter of Eibhear, king -of Spain, and wife of Eoghan Taidhleach, in the late story of The -Courtship of Moméra, edited by O'Curry in his Battle of Magh Leana -(Dublin, 1855); but the other name Digdi would seem to stand in the -way. However none of the literature in point has yet been discovered -in any really old manuscript, and it may be that the place-name Berre, -in Caillech Bérri, has usurped the place of the personal name Béra, -whose antiquity in some such a form as Béra or Méra is proved by -its honorific form Mo-mera: see O'Curry's volume, p. 166, and his -Introduction, p. xx. - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx -(Volume 1 of 2), by John Rhys - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC FOLKLORE: WELSH AND MANX *** - -***** This file should be named 55025-8.txt or 55025-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/0/2/55025/ - -Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project -Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously -made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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