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I 
 
 TO 
 HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS, 
 
 ALBERT EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES, 
 
 THIS ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY AND FOLK-LORE 
 OF HIS PRINCIPALITY 
 
 IS BY PERMISSION DEDICATED. 
 
British Goblins 
 
 WELSH FOLKLORE, FAIRY MYTHOLOGY, 
 LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS, 
 
 WIRT SIKES, 
 
 UNITED STATES CONSUL POE WALES. 
 
 WITH iLLUtTRATIONt BY T. H. THOMAf. 
 
 In oide day«i of th« Kyng Aiihour . . . 
 Al was ihis load fuJfilUd of fayric. 
 
 Cnaucbk. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, i88 FLEET STREET. 
 
 i88a 
 
 [Ail rigfUt retcrvtd.} 
 
' B 
 
 OHC •YO'^ 
 
 LONDON ; 
 
 P»IN»KD BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, 
 
 •TAMPOKD tTMBBT AND CMAMNO CKOM. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In a certain sense Wales may be spoken of as the 
 cradle of fairy legend. It is not now disputed that 
 from the Welsh were borrowed many of the first 
 subjects of composition in the literature of all the 
 cultivated peoples of Europe. 
 
 In the ground it covers, while this volume deals 
 especially with Wales, and still more especially with 
 South Wales — where there appear to have been 
 human dwellers long before North Wales was 
 peopled — it also includes the border counties, 
 notably Monmouthshire, which, though severed 
 from Wales by Act of Parliament, is really 
 very Welsh in all that relates to the past. In 
 Monmouthshire is the decayed cathedral city of 
 Caerleon, where, according to tradition, Arthur was 
 crowned king in 508, and where he set up his most 
 dazzling court, as told in the ' Morte d'Arthun' 
 
 The Arthur of British history and tradition stands 
 to Welshmen in much the same light that Alfred 
 the Great stands to Englishmen. Around this 
 historic or semi-historic Arthur has gathered a 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 throng of shining legends of fabulous sort, with 
 which English readers are more or less familiar. An 
 even grander figure is the Arthur who existed in 
 Welsh mythology before the birth of the warrior- 
 king. The mythic Arthur, it is presumed, began 
 his shadowy life in pre-historic ages, and grew pro- 
 gressively in mythologic story, absorbing at a certain 
 period the personality of the real Arthur, and be- 
 coming the type of romantic chivalry. A similar 
 state of things is indicated with regard to the 
 enchanter Merlin ; there was a mythic Merlin before 
 the real Merlin was born at Carmarthen. 
 
 W^h the rich mass of legendary lore to which 
 these figures belong, the present volume is not in- 
 tended to deal ; nor do its pages treat, save in the 
 most casual and parsing manner, of the lineage and 
 original significance of the lowly goblins which are 
 its theme. The questions here involved, and the 
 task of adequately treating them, belong to the 
 comparative mythologist and the critical historian. 
 rather than to the mere literary workman. 
 
 United States Consulate, Cardiff, 
 August ^ 1879. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 THE REALM OF FAERIE. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TAUR 
 
 Fairy Tales and the Ancient Mythology — The Compensations of 
 Science— Existing Belief in Fairies in Wales — The Faith of 
 Culture — The Credulity of Ignorance — The Old-Time Welsh 
 Fairyland — The Fairy King — The Legend of St. Collen and 
 Gwyn ap Nudd — The Green Meadows of the Sea — Fairies at 
 Market — The Land of Mystery .. .. .. ., ,. i 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Classification of Welsh Fairies — General Designation — Habits of 
 the Tylwyth Teg — Ellvllon, or Elves — Shakspeare's Use of 
 Welsh Folk- Lore— Rowii Pugh and the Ellyll— Household Story 
 Roots— The Ellylldan— The Pooka— Puck Valley, Breconshire 
 — Where Shakspeare got his Puck — Pwca 'r Trwyn — Usual 
 Form of the Pooka Story — Coblynau, or Mine Fairies — The 
 Knockers — Miners' Superstitions — Basilisks and Fire Fiends — 
 A Fairy Coal-mine — The Dwarfs of Cae-Caled — Counterparts 
 of the Coblynau — The Bwbach, or Household Fairy — Legend 
 of the Bwbach and the Preacher — Bogies and Hobgoblins- 
 Carrying Mortals through the Air— Counterparts and Originals 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Lake Fairies— The Gwragedd Annwn, or Dames of Elfin-Land— 
 St. Patrick and the Welshmen ; a Legend of Crumlyn Lake— 
 The Elfin Cow of Llyn Barfog— Y Fuwch Laethwen Lefrith 
 — The Legend of the Meddygon Myddfai — The Wife of Super- 
 natural Race — The Three Blows ; a Carmarthenshire Legend 
 —Cheese and the Didactic Purpose in Welsh Folk-Lore— The 
 Fairy Maiden's Papa— The Enchanted Isle in the Mountain 
 Lake — Legend of the Men of Ardudwy — Origin of Water 
 Fairies— Their prevalence in many Lands .. .. ..34 
 
Contents, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AOK 
 
 Mountain Fairies — The Gwyllion — The Old Woman of the Moun- 
 tain — The Black Mountain Gwyll — Exorcism by Knife— Occult 
 Intellectual Powers of Welsh Goats — The Legend of Cadwa- 
 ladr's Goat .. .. .. .. .. 49 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Changelings — The Plentyn-newid — The Cruel Creed of Ignorance 
 regarding Changelings — Modes of Ridding the House of the 
 Fairy Child — The Legend of the Frugal Meal — Legend of the 
 Place of Strife — Dewi Dal and the Fairies — Prevention of Fairy 
 Kidnapping — Fairies caught in the Act by Mothers— Piety as 
 an Exorcism .. .. .. .. .. ..56 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Living with the Tylwyth Teg— The Tale of Elidurus — Shui Rhys 
 and the Fairies — St. Dogmell's Parish, Pembrokeshire — Danc- 
 ing with the EUyllon — The Legend of Rhys and Llewellyn — 
 Death from joining in the Fairy Reel— Legend of the Bush of 
 Heaven — The Forest of the Magic Yew — The I'ale of Twm and 
 lago — Taffy ap Sion, a Legend of Pencader — The Traditions 
 of Pant Shon Shenkin — Tudur of Llangollen ; the Legend of 
 Nant yr Ellyllon— Polly Williams and the Trefethin Elves— The 
 Fairies of Frennifawr— Curiosity Tales — The Fiend Master — 
 lago ap Dewi — The Original of Rip Van Winkle .. .. 65 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Fairy Music — Birds of Enchantment— The Legend of Shon ap 
 Shenkin— Harp-Music in Welsh Fairy Tales — Legend of the 
 Magic Harp— Songs and Tunes of the Tylwyth Teg — The 
 Legend of lolo ap Hugh — Mystic Origin of an old Welsh Air 91 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Fairy Rings— The Prophet Jones and his Works— The Mysterious 
 Language of the Tylwyth Teg — The Horse in Welsh Folk-Lore 
 —Equestrian Fairies — Fairy Cattle, Sheep, Swine, etc. — The 
 Flying Fairies of BedwcUty— The Fairy Sheepfold at Cae 'r 
 Cefn .. .. .. .. .... .. .. .. 103 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Piety as a Protection from the Seductions of the Tylwyth Teg — 
 Various Exorcisms — Cock-crowing— The Name of God — Fenc- 
 ing off the Fairies— Old Betty Griffith and her Eithin Barri- 
 cade—Means of Getting Rid of the Tylwyth Teg— The Bwbach 
 of the Hcndrcfawr Farpi — The J^wca 'r Trwyn's Flitting in a 
 JujjofBarm., .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 112 
 
Contents, xi 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Fairy Money and Fairy Gifts in General— The Story of Gitto Bach, 
 or Little Griffith— The Penalty of Blabbing— Legends of the 
 Shepherds of Cwm Llan — The Money Value of Kindness— 
 lanto Llwellyn and the Tylwyth Teg— The Legend of Hafod 
 Lwyddog— Lessons inculcated by these Superstitions .. .. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Origins of Welsh Fairies — The Realistic Theory — Legend of the 
 Baron's Gate — The Red Fairies — The Trwyn Fairy a Proscribed 
 Nobleman — The Theory of hiding Druids — Colour in Welsh 
 Fairy Attire— The Green Lady of Caerphilly— White the 
 favourite Welsh Hue — Legend of the Prolific Woman — The 
 Poctico-Rehgious Theory — The Creed of Science ..127 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 THE SPIRIT-WORLD. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Modem Superstition regarding Ghosts — American * Spiritualism ' 
 — Welsh Beliefs — Classification of Welsh Ghosts— Departed 
 Mortals — Haunted Houses — Lady Stradling's Ghost— The 
 Haunted Bridge — The Legend of Catrin Gwyn — Didactic 
 Purpose in Cambrian Apparitions — An Insulted Corpse — Duty- 
 performing Ghosts — Laws of the Spirit-World — Cadogan's 
 Ghost .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 137 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Household Ghosts and Hidden Treasures— The Miser of St. 
 Donat's — Anne Dewy's Ghost — The Ghost on Horseback — 
 Hidden Objects of Small Value — Transportation through the 
 Air — From Breconshire to Philadelphia, Pa., in Thirty-Six 
 Hours — Sir David Llwyd, the Magician — The Levitation of 
 Walter Jones— Superstitions regarding Hares — The Legend 
 of Monacella's Lambs — Aerial Transportation in Modern 
 Spiritualism — Exorcising Household Ghosts — The Story of 
 Haunted Margaret .. .. .. .. .. .. 151 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Spectral Animals— The Chained Spirit — The Gwyllgi, or Dog of 
 Darkness — The Legend of Lisworney-Crossways — The Gwyllgi 
 of the Devil's Nags — The Dog of Pant y Madog — Terrors of 
 the Brute Creation at Phantoms — Apparitions of Natural 
 Objects — Phantom Ships and Phantom Islands .. ,. .. 167 
 
xii K^ontenis, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TACB 
 
 Grotesque Ghosts—The Phantom Horseman— Gigantic Spirits— 
 The Black GJtost of Ffynon yr Yspryd— Black Men in the 
 Mabinogion— Whirling Ghosts— Antic Spirits— The Tridoll 
 Valley Ghost— Resemblance to Modem Spiritualistic Perform- 
 ances — Household FairJes .. .. •• '74 
 
 " • CHAPTER V. 
 
 Familiar Spirits— The Famous Sprite of Trwyn Farm — Was it a 
 Fairy ? — The Familiar Spirits of Magicians — Sir David Llwyd's 
 Demon — Familiar Spirits in Female Form — The Legend of the 
 Lady of the Wood— The Devil as a Familiar Spirit — His 
 Disguises in this Character —Summoning and Exorcising 
 Familiars — Jenkin the Pembrokeshire Schoolmaster — The 
 Terrible Tailor of Glanbran .. .. ..187 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 The Evil Spirit in his customary Form — The stupid Medieval 
 Devil in Wales— Sion Cent— The Devil outwitted — Pacts with 
 the Fiend and their avoidance — Sion Dafydd's Foul Pipe — The 
 Devil's Bridge and its Legends — Similar Legends m other 
 Lands — The Devil's Pulpit near Tintern — Angelic Spirits — 
 Welsh Superstitions as to pronouncing the Name of the Evil 
 Spirit — The Bardic Tradition of the Creation — The Struggle 
 between Light and Darkness and its Symbolization .. 202 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Cambrian Death-Portents— The Corpse-Bird — The Tan-Wedd 
 — Listening at the Church-Door — The Lledrith — The Gwrach 
 y Rhibyn — The Llandafif Gwrach — Ugliness of this Female 
 Apparition — The Black Maiden — The Cyhyraeth, or Crying 
 Spirit — Its Moans on Land and Sea — The St. Mellons Cy- 
 hyraeth — The Groaning Spirit of Bedwellty ..212 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Tolaeth Death Portent— Its various Forms— The Tolaeth 
 before Death — Ewythr Jenkin's Tolaeth— A modern Instance — 
 The Railway Victim's Warning— The Goblin Voice —The Voice 
 
 from the Cloud— Legend of the Lord and the Beggar The 
 
 Goblin Funeral— The Horse's Skull— The Goblin Veil— The 
 Wraith of Llanllwch— Dogs of Hell— The Tale of Pwyll— 
 Spiritual Hunting Dogs— Origin of the Cwn Annwn .. 
 
Conten ts . xiii 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 The Corpse Candle — Its Peculiarities — The Woman of Caerau — 
 Grasping a Corpse Candle — The Crwys Candle — Lights issuing 
 from the Mouth — Jesting with theCanwyll Corph — The Candle 
 at Pontfaen— The Three Candles at GoKicn Grcve — Origin of 
 Death-Portents in Wales — Degree of Belief prevalent at the 
 Present Day — Origin of Spirits in Gcdfral — The Siipernatural 
 —The Question of a Future Life 238 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 QUAINT OLD CUSTOMS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Serious Significance of seemingly Trivial Customs — Their Origins 
 — Common Superstitions — The Age we Live in — Days and 
 Seasons — New Year's Day— The Apple Gift — Lucky Acts on 
 New Year's Morning — The First Foot — Showmen's Supersti- 
 tions — Levy Dew Song — Happy New Year Carol — Twelfth 
 Night— The Man Lwyd— The Penglog— The Cutty Wren- 
 Tooling and Sowling — St. Valentine's Day — St. Dewi's Day — 
 The Wearing of the Leek— The Traditional St. David— St. 
 Patrick's Day — St. Patrick a Welshman — Shrove Tuesday .. 250 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Sundry Lenten Customs — Mothering Sunday — Palm Sunday — 
 Flowering Sunday — Walking Barefoot to phurch — Spiritual 
 Potency of Buns — Good Friday Superstitions — Making Christ's 
 Bed — Bad Odour of Friday — Unlucky Days — Holy Thursday 
 — The Eagle of Snowdon — New Clothing at Easter — Lifting — 
 The Crown of Porcelain — Stocsio — Ball-Playing in Church- 
 yards — The Tump of Lies — Dancing in Churchyards — Seeing 
 the Sun Dance — Calan Ebrill, or All Fools' Day — May Day — 
 The Welsh Maypole— The Daughter of Lludd Llaw Ereint— 
 Carrying the Kings of Summer and Winter .. .. .. 266 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Midsummer Eve— The Druidic Ceremonies at Pontypridd — The 
 Snake Stone — Beltane Fires — Fourth of July Fires in America 
 — St. Ulric's Day— Carrying Cynog— Marketing on Tomb- 
 stones—The First Night of Winter— The Three Nights for 
 Spirits— The Tale of Thomas Williams the Preacher— All 
 Hallows Eve Festivities — Running through Fire — Quaint 
 Border Rhymes — The Puzzling Jug — Bobbing for Apples — The 
 Fiery Features of Guy Fawkes' Day — St. Clement's Day — 
 Stripping the Carpenter .. * .. ,. .. .. ,. 277 
 
xiv Contints. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Nadolig, the Welsh Christmas— Bell-Ringing — Carols — Dancing 
 to the Music of the Waits — An Evening in Carmarthenshire 
 — Shenkin Harry, the Preacher, and the Jig Tune — Welsh 
 Morality — Eisteddfodau — Decorating Houses and Churches— 
 The Christmas Thrift-Box— The Colliers' Star-The Plygain— 
 Pagan Origin of Christmas Customs ,. .. .. 286 
 
 CHAPTER Y. y 
 
 Courtship and Marriage — Planting Weeds and Rue on the Graves 
 of Old Bachelors— Special Significance of Flowers in connec- 
 tion with Virginity — The Welsh Venus— Bundling, or Courting 
 Abed — Kissmg Schools — Rhamanta — Lovers' Superstitions — 
 The Maid's Trick — Dreaming on a Mutton Bone— Wheat and 
 Shovel — Garters in a Lovers* Knot — Egg-Shell Cake— Sowing 
 Leeks— Twca and Sheath .. .. .. .. .. .. 298 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Wedding Customs— The Bidding — Forms of Cymmhorth — The 
 Gwahoddwr — Horse- Weddings — Stealing a Bride — Obstruc- 
 tions to the Bridal Party — The Gwyntyn — Chaining — Evergreen 
 Arches — Strewing Flowers — Throwing Rice and Shoes — Rose- 
 mary in the Garden— Names after Marriage — The Coolstrin — 
 The CeflTyl Pren 306 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Death and Burial — The Gwylnos — Beer- Drinking at Welsh 
 Funerals — Food and Drink over the Coffin — Sponge Cakes at 
 Modern Funerals — The Sin- Eater— Welsh Deniad that this 
 Custom ever existed — The Testimony concerning it — Super- 
 stitions regarding Salt — Plate of Salt on Corpse's Breast 
 —The Scapegoat— The St. Tegla Cock and Hen— Welsh 
 Funeral Processions — Praying at Cross-roads — Superstition 
 regarding Criminals' Graves— Hanging and Welsh Prejudice 
 — The Grassless Grave — Parson's Penny, or Oflfrwm — Old 
 Shoes to the Clerk— Arian y Rhaw, or Spade Money — Burials 
 without Coffin — The Sul Coffa — Planting and Strewing Graves 
 with Flowers .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ,. 321 
 
 «i 
 
51. 
 
 Coiitefits. XV 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 BELLS, WELLS, STONES, AND DRAGONS. 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Base of the Primeval Mythology— Bells and their Ghosts — The 
 Bell that committed Murder and was damned for it — The 
 Occult Powers of Bells — Their Work as Detectives, Doctors, 
 etc. — Legend of the Bell of Rhayader — St. Illtyd's Wonderful 
 Bell— The Golden Bell of Llandaff 33S 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Mystic Wells — Their Good and Bad Dispositions — St. Winifred's 
 Well— The Legend of St. Winifred— Miracles— St. Tecla's Well 
 — St. Dwynwen's— Curing Love-sickness — St. Cynfran's — St. 
 Cynhafal's — Throwing Pins in Wells — Warts — Barry Island and 
 its Legends — Ffynon Gwynwy — Propitiatory Gifts to Wells — 
 The Dreadful Cursing Well of St. EHan's — Wells Flowing with 
 Milk— St. Illtyd's— Taff's Well— Sanford's Well— Origins of 
 Superstitions of this Class .. .. .. .. „ ,. 345 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Personal Attributes of Legendary Welsh Stones — Stone Worship — 
 — Canna's Stone Chair — Miraculous Removals of Stone — The 
 Walking Stone of Eitheinn — The Thigh Stone — The Talking 
 Stone in Pembrokeshire — The Expanding Stone — Magic Stones 
 in the Mabinogion — The Stone of Invisibihty — The Stone of 
 Remembrance — Stone Thief-catchers — Stones of Healing — 
 Stones at Cross-roads — Memorials of King Arthur — Round 
 Tables, Cams, Pots, etc. — Arthur's Quoits — The Gigantic 
 Rock-tossers of Old — Mol Walbec and the Pebble in her Shoe 
 — The Giant of Trichrug — Giants and the Mythology of the 
 Heavens — The Legend of Rhitta Gawr .. .. .. .. 361 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Early Inscribed Stones — The Stone Pillar of Ban wan Bryddin, 
 near Neath — Catastrophe accompanying its Removal — The 
 Sagranus Stone and the White Lady — The Dancing Stones of 
 Stackpool — Human Beings changed to Stones — St. Ceyna and 
 the Serpents — The Devil's Stone at Llanarth — Rocking Stones 
 and their accompanying Superstitions — The Suspended Altar 
 of Loin-Garth — Cromlechs and their Fairy Legends — The 
 Fairies' Castle at St. Nicholas, Glamorganshire — The Stone of 
 the Wolf Bitch— The Welsh Melusina — Pare y Bigwrn Cromlech 
 — Connection of these Stones with Ancient Druidism .. ., 373 
 
 Lir\U*1i/J 
 
XVI 
 
 Contents. 
 
 ■ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Baleful Spirits of Storm — The Shov/er at the Magic Fountain — 
 Obstacles in the way of Treasure-Seekers — The Red Lady of 
 Paviland— The Fall of Coychurch Tower — Thunder and Light- 
 ning evoked by Digging — The Treasure- Chest under Moel 
 Arthur in the Vale of Clwyd — Modern Credulity — The Cavern 
 of the Ravens — The Eagle-guarded Coffer of Castell Coch — 
 Sleeping Warriors as Treasure-Guarders — The Dragon which 
 St. Samson drove out of Wales — Dragons in the Mabinogion — 
 Whence came the Red Dragon of Wales? — The Original 
 Dragon of Mythology — Prototypes of the Welsh Caverns and 
 Treasure- Hills — The Goblins of Electricity .. .. .. 385 
 
 II 
 
, • • • • • • 
 
 BRITISH GOBLINS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 THE REALM OF FAERIE. 
 
 At eve, the primrose path along, 
 The milkmaid shortens with a song 
 
 Her solitary way ; 
 She sees the fairies with their queen 
 Trip hand-in-hand the circled green, 
 And hears them raise, at times unseen, 
 
 The ear-enchanting lay. 
 
 Rev. John Logan : Ode to Spring, 1780. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 Fairy Tales and the Ancient Mythology— The Compensations of 
 Science — Existing Belief in Fairies in Wales — The Faith of Culture 
 — The Credulity of Ignorance— The Old-Time Welsh Fairyland— 
 The Fairy King — The Legend of St. Collen and Gwyn ap Nudd 
 — The Green Meadows of the Sea — Fairies at Market — The Land 
 of Mystery. 
 
 I. 
 
 With regard to other divisions of the field of folk- 
 lore, the views of scholars differ, but in the realm 
 of faerie these differences are reconciled ; it is agreed 
 that fairy tales are relics of the ancient mythology ; 
 and the philosophers stroll hand in hand harmo- 
 niously. This is as it should be, in a realm about 
 which cluster such delightful memories of the most 
 poetic period of life — childhood, before scepticism 
 has crept in as ignorance slinks out. The know- 
 ledge which introduced scepticism is infinitely more 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 valuable than the faith it displaced ; but, in spite 
 of that, there be few among us who have not felt 
 evanescent regrets for the displacement by the foi 
 scientifique of the old faith in fairies. There was 
 something so peculiarly fascinating in that old belief, 
 that * once upon a time ' the world was less practical 
 in its facts than now, less commonplace and hum- 
 drum, less subject to the inexorable laws of gravi- 
 tation, optics, and the like. What dramas it has 
 yielded ! What poems, what dreams, what delights ! 
 But since the knowledge of our maturer years 
 destroys all that, it is with a degree of satisfaction 
 we can turn to the consolations of the fairy mytho- 
 logy. The beloved tales of old are ' not true ' — 
 but at least they are not mere idle nonsense, and 
 they have a good and sufficient reason for being in 
 the world ; we may continue to respect them. The 
 wit who observed that the final cause of fairy 
 legends is ' to afford sport for people who ruthlessly 
 track them to their origin,' ^ expressed a grave truth 
 in jocular form. Since one can no longer rest in 
 peace with one's ignorance, it is a comfort to the 
 lover of fairy legends to find that he need not sweep 
 them into the grate as so much rubbish ; on the 
 contrary they become even more enchanting in the 
 crucible of science than they were in their old 
 character. 
 
 II. 
 
 Among the vulgar in Wales, the belief in fairies 
 is less nearly extinct than casual observers would be 
 likely to suppose. Even educated people who dwell 
 in Wales, and have dwelt there all their lives, can- 
 not always be classed as other than casual observers 
 in this field. There are some such residents who 
 have paid special attention to the subject, and have 
 
 * 'Saturday Review/ October 20, 1877. 
 
 i 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 
 
 formed an opinion as to the extent of prevalence of 
 popular credulity herein ; but most Welsh people of 
 the educated class, I find, have no opinion, beyond 
 a vague surprise that the question should be raised 
 at all. So lately as the year 1858, a learned writer 
 in the ' Archseologia Cambrensis ' declared that ' the 
 traveller may now pass from one end of the Princi- 
 pality to the other, without his being shocked or 
 amused, as the case may be, by any of the fairy 
 legends or popular tales which used to pass current 
 from father to son.' But in the same periodical, 
 eighteen years later, I find Mr. John Walter 
 Lukis (President of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society), 
 asserting with regard to the cromlechs, tumuli, and 
 ancient camps in Glamorganshire : ' There are 
 always fairy tales and ghost stories connected with 
 them ; some, though fully believed in by the inhabi- 
 tants of those localities, are often of the most absurd 
 character ; in fact, the more ridiculous they are, the 
 more they are believed in.'^ My own observation 
 leads me to support the testimony of the last-named 
 witness. Educated Europeans generally conceive 
 that this sort of belief is extinct in their own land, 
 or, at least their own immediate section of that land. 
 They accredit such degree of belief as may remain, 
 in this enlightened age, to some remote part — to 
 the south, if they dwell in the north ; to the north, 
 if they dwell in the south. But especially they 
 accredit it to a previous age: in Wales, to last 
 century, or the middle ages, or the days of King 
 Arthur. The rector of Merthyr, being an elderly 
 man, accredits it to his youth. * I am old enough 
 to remember,' he wrote me under date of January 
 30th, 1877, 'that these tales were thoroughly 
 believed in among country folk forty or fifty years 
 
 * ' Archaeologia Cambrensis,' 4th Se., vi., 174. 
 
 A 2 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 ago/ People of superior culture have held this 
 kind of faith concerning fairy-lore, it seems to me, 
 in every age, except the more remote. Chaucer 
 held it, almost five centuries ago, and wrote '} 
 
 In olde dayes of the Kyng Arthour, . . . 
 Al was this lond fidfilled of fayrie ; . . . 
 I speke of many hundrid yer ago ; 
 But now can no man see non elves mo. 
 
 Dryden held it, two hundred years later, and said 
 of the fairies : 
 
 I speak of ancient times, for now the swain 
 Returning late may pass the woods in vain, 
 And never hope to see the nightly train. 
 
 In all later days, other authors have written the 
 same sort of thing ; it is not thus now, say they, but 
 it was recently thus. The truth, probably, is that 
 if you will but sink down to the level of common 
 life, of ignorant life, especially in rural neighbour- 
 hoods, there you will find the same old beliefs 
 prevailing, in about the same degree to which they 
 have ever prevailed, within the past five hundred 
 years. To sink to this level successfully, one must 
 become a living unit in that life, as I have done in 
 Wales and elsewhere, from time to time. Then one 
 will hear the truth from, or at least the true senti- 
 ments of, the class he seeks to know. The practice 
 of every generation in thus relegating fairy belief 
 to a date just previous to its own does not apply, 
 however, to superstitious beliefs in general ; for, 
 concerning many such beliefs, their greater or less 
 prevalence at certain dates (as in the history of 
 witchcraft) is matter of well-ascertained fact. I con- 
 fine the argument, for the present, strictly to the 
 domain of faerie. In this domain, the prevalent belief 
 in Wales may be said to rest with the ignorant, to 
 
 ^ ' Wyf of Bathes Tale,' ' Canterbury Tales.' 
 
The Realm of Faerie, 
 
 be strongest in rural and mining districts, to be 
 childlike and poetic, and to relate to anywhere 
 except the spot where the speaker dwells — as to 
 the next parish, to the next county, to the distant 
 mountains, or to the shadow-land of Gwerddonau 
 Llion, the green meadows of the sea. 
 
 III. 
 
 In Arthur's day and before that, the people of 
 South Wales regarded North Wales as pre- 
 eminently the land of faerie. In the popular 
 imagination, that distant country was the chosen 
 abode of giants, monsters, magicians, and all the 
 creatures of enchantment. Out of it came the 
 fairies, on their visits to the sunny land of the south. 
 The chief philosopher of that enchanted region was 
 a giant who sat on a mountain peak and watched 
 the stars. It had a wizard monarch called Gwydion, 
 who possessed the power of changing himself into 
 the strangest possible forms. The peasant who 
 dwelt on the shores of Dyfed (Demetia) saw in the 
 distance, beyond the blue waves of the ocean, 
 shadowy mountain summits piercing the clouds, and 
 guarding this mystic region in solemn majesty. 
 Thence rolled down upon him the storm-clouds 
 from the home of the tempest ; thence streamed up 
 the winter sky the flaming banners of the Northern 
 lights ; thence rose through the illimitable darkness 
 on high, the star-strewn pathway of the fairy king. 
 These details are current in the Mabinogion, those 
 brilliant stories of Welsh enchantment, so gracefully 
 done into English by Lady Charlotte Guest, ^ and it 
 is believed that all the Mabinogion in which these 
 details were found were written in Dyfed. This 
 
 1 ' The Mabinogion, from the Welsh of the Llyfr Coch o Hergest.' 
 Translated, with notes, by Lady Charlotte Guest. (New Edition, 
 London, 1877.) 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 was the region on the west, now covered by Pem- 
 broke, Carmarthen, and Cardigan shires. 
 
 More recently than the time above indicated, 
 special traditions have located fairy-land in the Vale_ 
 of Neath, in Glamorganshire. Especially does a 
 certain steep and rugged crag there, called Craig y 
 Ddinas, bear a distinctly awful reputation as a 
 stronghold of the fairy tribe. ^ Its caves and 
 crevices have been their favourite haunt for many 
 centuries, and upon this rock was held the court of 
 the last fairies who have ever appeared in Wales. 
 Needless to say there are men still living who 
 remember the visits of the fairies to Craig y Ddinas, 
 although they aver the little folk are no longer seen 
 there. It is a common remark that the Methodists 
 drove them away ; indeed, there are numberless 
 stories which show the fairies to have been animated, 
 when they were still numerous in Wales, by a 
 cordial antipathy for all dissenting preachers. In 
 this antipathy, it may be here observed, teetotallers 
 were included. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The sovereign of the fairies, and their especial 
 guardian and protector, was one Gwyn ap Nudd. 
 He was also ruler over the goblin tribe in general. 
 His name often occurs in ancient Welsh poetry. An 
 old bard of the fourteenth century, who, led away 
 by the fairies, rode into a turf bog on a mountain 
 one dark night, called it the ' fish-pond of Gwyn ap 
 Nudd, a palace for goblins and their tribe.' The asso- 
 ciation of this legendary character with the goblin 
 fame of the Vale of Neath will appear, when it is men- 
 tioned that Nudd in Welsh is pronounced simply 
 Neath, and not otherwise. As for the fairy queen, 
 
 ^ There are two hills in Glamorganshire called by this name, and 
 others elsewhere in Wales. 
 
The Realm of Faerie, 
 
 she does not seem to have any existence among 
 Cambrian gobUns. It is nevertheless thought by 
 Cambrian etymologists, that Morgana is derived from 
 Mor Gwyn, the white maid ; and the Welsh proper 
 name Morgan can hardly fail to be mentioned in this 
 connection, though it is not necessarily significant. 
 
 The legend of St. Collen, in which Gwyn ap Nudd 
 figures, represents him as king of Annwn (hell, or 
 the shadow land) as well as of the fairies.^ Collen 
 was passing a period of mortification as a hermit, in 
 a cell under a rock on a mountain. There he one day 
 overheard two men talking about Gwyn ap Nudd, 
 and giving him this twofold kingly character. Collen 
 cried out to the men to go away and hold their 
 tongues, instead of talking about devils. For this 
 Collen was rebuked, as the king of fairyland had an 
 objection to such language. The saint was sum- 
 moned to meet the king on the hill-top at noon, and 
 after repeated refusals, he finally went there ; but he 
 carried a flask of holy water with him. ' And when 
 he came there he saw the fairest castle he had ever 
 beheld, and around it the best appointed troops, and 
 numbers of minstrels and every kind of music of 
 voice and string, and steeds with youths upon them, 
 the comeliest in the world, and maidens of elegant 
 aspect, sprightly, light of foot, of graceful apparel, 
 and in the bloom of youth ; and every magnificence 
 becoming the court of a puissant sovereign. And 
 he beheld a courteous man on the top of the castle 
 who bade him enter, saying that the king was 
 waiting for him to come to meat. And Collen went 
 into the castle, and when he came there the king 
 was sitting in a golden chair. And he welcomed 
 Collen honourably, and desired him to eat, assuring 
 him that besides what he saw, he should have the 
 
 ^ ' Greal ' (8vo. London, 1805), p. 337. 
 
8 British Goblins. 
 
 most luxurious of every dainty and delicacy that the 
 mind could desire, and should be supplied with 
 every drink and liquor that the heart could wish ; 
 and that there should be in readiness for him every 
 luxury of courtesy and service, of banquet and of 
 honourable entertainment, of rank and of presents, 
 and every respect and welcome due to a man of his 
 wisdom. '' I will not eat the leaves of the trees," 
 said Collen. " Didst thou ever see men of better 
 equipment than these of red and blue ?" asked the 
 king. " Their equipment is good enough," said 
 Collen, *' for such equipment as it is." '* What kind 
 of equipment is that ? " said the king. Then said 
 Collen, " The red on the one part signifies burn- 
 ing, and the blue on the other signifies coldness." 
 And with that Collen drew out his flask and threw 
 the holy water on their heads, whereupon they 
 vanished from his sight, so that there was neither 
 castle nor troops, nor men, nor maidens, nor music, 
 nor song, nor steeds, nor youths, nor banquet, nor 
 the appearance of anything whatever but the green 
 
 hillocks.' 
 
 V. 
 
 A third form of Welsh popular belief as to the 
 whereabouts of fairy-land corresponds with the 
 Avalon of the Arthurian legends. The green 
 meadows of the sea, called in the triads Gwerddonau 
 Llion, are the 
 
 Green fairy islands, reposing. 
 In sunlight and beauty on ocean's calm breast.^ 
 
 Many extraordinary superstitions survive with re 
 gard to these islands. They were supposed to be 
 the abode of the souls of certain Druids, who, not 
 holy enough to enter the heaven of the Christians, 
 were still not wicked enough to be condemned to 
 
 ^ Parry's ' Welsh Melodies.' 
 
 d 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 
 
 the tortures of annv/n, and so were accorded a place 
 in this romantic sort of purgatorial paradise. In the 
 fifth century a voyage was made, by the British 
 king Gavran, in search of these enchanted islands ; 
 with his family he sailed away into the unknown 
 waters, and was never heard of more. This voyage 
 is commemorated in the triads as one of the Three 
 Losses by Disappearance, the two others being 
 Merlin's and Madog's. Merlin sailed away in a 
 ship of glass ; Madog sailed in search of America ; 
 and neither returned, but both disappeared for ever. 
 In Pembrokeshire and southern Carmarthenshire 
 are to be found traces of this belief There are 
 sailors on that romantic coast who still talk of the 
 green meadows of enchantment lying in the Irish 
 channel to the west of Pembrokeshire. Sometimes 
 they are visible to the eyes of mortals for a brief 
 space, when suddenly they vanish. There are 
 traditions of sailors who, in the early part of the 
 present century, actually went ashore on the fairy 
 islands — not knowing that they were such, until they 
 returned to their boats, when they were filled with 
 awe at seeing the islands disappear from their sight, 
 neither sinking in the sea, nor floating away upon 
 the waters, but simply vanishing suddenly. The 
 fairies inhabiting these islands are said to have 
 regularly attended the markets at Milford Haven 
 and Laugharne. They made their purchases with- 
 out speaking,, laid down their money and departed, 
 always leaving the exact sum required, which they 
 seemed to know, without asking the price of any- 
 thing. 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 
 
lO 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 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. 
 
 FAIRIES MARKETING AT LAUGHARNE. 
 
 That isolated cape which forms the county of 
 Pembroke was looked upon as a land of mystery by 
 the rest of Wales long after it had been settled by 
 the Flemings in 1 113. A secret veil was supposed 
 to cover this sea-girt promontory ; the inhabitants 
 talked in an unintelligible jargon that was neither 
 English, nor French, nor Welsh ; and out of its misty 
 darkness came fables of wondrous sort, and accounts 
 of miracles marvellous beyond belief. Mythology 
 and Christianity spoke together from this strange 
 country, and one could not tell at which to be most 
 amazed, the pagan or the priest. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Classification of Welsh Fairies — General Designation — Habits of the 
 Tylwyth Teg — Ellyllon, or Elves — Shakspeare's Use of Welsh 
 Folk-Lore — Rowli Pugh and the Ellyll — Household Story Roots — 
 The Ellylldan — The Pooka — Puck Valley, Breconshire — Where 
 Shakspeare got his Puck— Pwca 'r Trwyn — Usual Form of 
 the Pooka Story — Coblynau, or Mine Fairies— The Knockers — 
 Miners' Superstitions — Basilisks and Fire Fiends-=-a Fairy Coal- 
 mine — The Dwarfs of Cae Caled — Counterparts of the Coblynau 
 — The Bwbach, or Household Fairy — Legend of the Bwbach and 
 the Preacher — Bogies and Hobgoblins — Carrying Mortals through 
 the Air — Counterparts and Originals. 
 
 I. 
 
 Fairies being creatures of the imagination, it is not 
 possible to classify them by fixed and immutable 
 rules. In the exact sciences, there are laws which 
 never vary, or if they vary, their very eccentricity is 
 governed by precise rules. Even in the largest 
 sense, comparative mythology must demean itself 
 modestly in order to be tolerated in the severe 
 company of the sciences. In presenting his subjects, 
 therefore, the writer in this field can only govern 
 himself by the purpose of orderly arrangement. To 
 secure the maximum of system, for the sake of the 
 student who employs the work for reference and 
 comparison, with the minimum of dullness, for the 
 sake of the general reader, is perhaps the limit of 
 a reasonable ambition. Keightley^ divides into 
 four classes the Scandinavian elements of popular 
 belief as to fairies, viz. : i. The Elves ; 2. The 
 Dwarfs, or Trolls; 3. The Nisses; and 4. The Necks, 
 
 ^ ' Fairy Mythology ' (Bohn's Ed.), 78. 
 
12 British Goblins. 
 
 Mermen, and Mermaids. How entirely arbitrary 
 this division is, the student of Scandinavian folk-lore 
 at once perceives. Yet it is perhaps as satisfactory 
 as another. The fairies of Wales may be divided 
 into five classes, if analogy be not too sharply 
 insisted on. Thus we have, i. The Ellyllon, or 
 elves; 2. The Coblynau, or mine fairies; 3. The 
 Bwbachod, or household fairies ; 4. The Gwragedd 
 Annwn, or fairies of the lakes and streams ; and 
 5. The Gwyllion, or mountain fairies. 
 
 The modern Welsh name for fairies is y Tylwyth 
 Teg, the fair folk or family. This is sometimes 
 lengthened into y Tylwyth Teg yn y Coed, the 
 fair family in the wood, or Tylwyth Teg y Mwn, 
 the fair folk of the mine. They are seen dancing 
 in moonlight nights on the velvety grass, clad in 
 airy and flowing robes of blue, green, white, or 
 scarlet — details as to colour not usually met, I think, 
 in accounts of fairies. They are spoken of as 
 bestowing blessings on those mortals whom they 
 select to be thus favoured ; and again are called 
 Bendith y Mamau, or their mothers blessing, that 
 is to say, good little children whom it is a pleasure 
 to know. To name the fairies by a harsh epithet 
 is to invoke their anger ; to speak of them in flatter- 
 ing phrase is to propitiate their good offices. The 
 student of fairy mythology perceives in this pro- 
 pitiatory mode of speech a fact of wide significance. 
 It can be traced in numberless lands, and back to 
 the beginning of human history, among the cloud- 
 hung peaks of Central Asia. The Greeks spoke 
 of the furies as the Eumenides, or gracious ones ; 
 Highlanders mentioned by Sir Walter Scott uncover 
 to the gibbet and call it ' the kind gallows ;' the 
 Dayak will not name the small-pox, but calls it ' the 
 chief;' the Laplander calls the bear 'the old man 
 
The Realm of Faeine. 13 
 
 with the fur coat ;' in Ammam the tiger is called 
 
 ' orrandfather ;' and it is thought that the maxim, 
 
 ' Speak only good of the dead,' came originally from 
 
 the notion of propitiating the ghost of the departed,^ 
 
 who, in laying off this mortal garb, had become 
 
 endowed with new powers of harming his late 
 
 acquaintance. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Ellyllon are the pigmy elves who haunt the 
 groves and valleys, and correspond pretty closely 
 with the English elves. The English name was 
 probably derived from the Welsh el, a spirit, elf, an 
 element ; there is a whole brood of words of this 
 class in the Welsh language, expressing every 
 variety of flowing, gliding, spirituality, devilry, 
 angelhood, and goblinism. Ellyllon (the plural of 
 ellyll), is also doubtless allied with the Hebrew 
 Elilim, having with it an identity both of origin and 
 meaning.^ The poet Davydd ab Gwilym, in a 
 humorous account of his troubles in a mist, in the 
 year 1340, says : 
 
 Yr ydoedd ym mhob gobant 
 Ellyllon mingeimion gant. 
 
 There was in every hollow 
 A hundred wrymouthed elves. 
 
 The hollows, or little dingles, are still the places 
 where the peasant, belated on his homeward way 
 from fair or market, looks for the ellyllon, but fails 
 to find them. Their food is specified in Welsh 
 folk-lore as fairy butter and fairy victuals, ymenyn 
 tylwyth teg and bwyd ellyllon ; the latter the toad- 
 stool, or poisonous mushroom, and the former a 
 butter-resembling substance found at great depths 
 in the crevices of limestone rocks, in sinking for 
 
 ^ John Fiske, ' Myths and Myth-makers,' 223. 
 2 Pughe's ' Welsh Dictionary.' (Denbigh, 1866.) 
 
14 British Goblins. 
 
 lead ore. Their gloves, menyg ellyllon, are the 
 bells of the digitalis, or fox-glove, the leaves of 
 which are well known to be a strong sedative. 
 Their queen — for though there is no fairy-queen in 
 the large sense that Gwyn ap Nudd is the fairy-king, 
 there is a queen of the elves — is none other than the 
 Shakspearean fairy spoken of by Mercutio, who 
 comes 
 
 In shape no bigger than an agate- stone 
 On the forefinger of an alderman.^ 
 
 Shakspeare's use of Welsh folk-lore, it should be 
 noted, was extensive and peculiarly faithful. 
 Keightley in his ' Fairy Mythology ' rates the bard 
 soundly for his inaccurate use of English fairy 
 superstitions ; but the reproach will not apply as 
 regards Wales. From his Welsh informant Shak- 
 speare got Mab, which is simply the Cymric for a 
 little child, and the root^ of numberless words signi- 
 fying babyish, childish, love for children (mabgar), 
 kitten (mabgath), prattling (mabiaith), and the like, 
 most notable of all which in this connection is 
 rrvabinogi, the singular of Mabinogion, the romantic 
 tales of enchantment told to the young in by-gone 
 
 ages. 
 
 III. 
 
 In the Huntsman's Rest Inn at Peterstone-super- 
 Ely, near Cardiff, sat a group of humble folk one 
 afternoon, when I chanced to stop there to rest 
 myself by the chimney-side, after a long walk 
 through green lanes. The men were drinking 
 their tankards of ale and smoking their long clay 
 pipes ; and they were talking about their dogs and 
 horses, the crops, the hard times, and the prospect 
 of bettering themselves by emigration to America. 
 On this latter theme I was able to make myself 
 
 ^ ' Romeo and Juliet,' Act II., Sc. 4. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 15 
 
 interesting, and acquaintance was thereupon easily 
 established on a friendly footing. I led the con- 
 versation into the domain of folk-lore ; and this 
 book is richer in illustration on many a page, in con- 
 sequence. Among others, this tale was told : 
 
 On a certain farm in Glamorganshire lived Rowli 
 Pugh, who was known far and wide for his evil luck. 
 Nothing prospered that he turned his hand to ; his 
 crops proved poor, though his neighbours' might be 
 good; his roof leaked in spite of all his mending; 
 his walls remained damp when every one else's walls 
 were dry ; and above all, his wife was so feeble she 
 could do no work. His fortunes at last seemed so 
 hard that he resolved to sell out and clear out, no 
 matter at what loss, and try to better himself in 
 another country — not by going to America, for there 
 was no America in those days. Well, and if there 
 was, the poor Welshman didn't know it. So as 
 Rowli was sitting on his wall one day, hard by his 
 cottage, musing over his sad lot, he was accosted by 
 a little man who asked him what was the matter. 
 Rowli looked around in surprise, but before he could 
 answer the ellyll said to him with a grin, ' There, 
 there, hold your tongue, I know more about you 
 than you ever dreamed of knowing. You're in, 
 trouble, and you're going away. But you may stay, 
 now I've spoken to you. Only bid your good wife 
 leave the candle burning when she goes to bed, and 
 say no more about it.' With this the ellyll kicked 
 up his heels and disappeared. Of course the farmer 
 did as he was bid, and from that day he prospered. 
 Every night Catti Jones, his wife,^ set the candle 
 out, swept the hearth, and went to bed ; and 
 every night the fairies would come and do her 
 
 * Until recently, Welsh women retained their maiden names even 
 after marriasre. 
 
i6 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 baking and brewing, her washing and mending, 
 sometimes even furnlshinof their own tools and 
 
 materials. The farmer was now always clean of 
 
 ROWLI AND THE ELLYLL. 
 
 linen and whole of garb ; he had good bread and 
 good beer ; he felt like a new man, and worked 
 like one. Everything prospered with him now as 
 nothing had before. His crops were good, his barns 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 1 7 
 
 were tidy, his cattle were sleek, his pigs the fattest 
 in the parish. So things went on for three years. 
 One night Catti Jones took it into her head that she 
 must have a peep at the fair family who did her 
 work for her ; and curiosity conquering prudence, 
 she arose while Rowli Pugh lay snoring, and peeped 
 through a crack in the door. There they were, a 
 jolly company of ellyllon, working away like mad, 
 and laughing and dancing as madly as they worked. 
 Catti was so amused that in spite of herself she fell 
 to laughing too ; and at sound of her voice the 
 ellyllon scattered like mist before the wind, leaving 
 the room empty. They never came back any more ; 
 but the farmer was now prosperous, and his bad luck 
 never returned to plague him. 
 
 The resemblance of this tale to many he has 
 encountered will at once be noted by the student of 
 comparative folk-lore. He will also observe that it 
 trenches on the domain of another class in my own 
 enumeration, viz., that of the Bwbach, or household 
 fairy. This is the stone over which one is constantly 
 stumbling in this field of scientific research. Mr. 
 Baring-Gould's idea that all household tales are 
 reducable to a primeval root (in the same or a 
 similar manner that we trace words to their roots), 
 though most ingeniously illustrated by him, is con- 
 stantly involved in trouble of the sort mentioned. 
 He encounters the obstacle which lies in the path 
 of all who walk this way. His roots sometimes get 
 inextricably gnarled and intertwisted with each 
 other. But some effort of this sort is imperative, 
 and we must do the best we can with our mate- 
 rials. Stories of the class of Grimm's Witchel- 
 manner (Kinder und Hausmarchen) will be recalled 
 by the legend of Rowli Pugh as here told. The 
 German Hausmanner are elves of a domestic turn, 
 
 B 
 
1 8 ■ British Goblins. 
 
 sometimes mischievous and sometimes useful, but 
 usually looking for some material reward for their 
 labours. So with the English goblin named by 
 Milton in ' L' Allegro,' which drudges. ., 
 
 To earn his cream-bowl duly set. 
 
 « 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Ellylldan is a species of elf exactly corre- 
 sponding to the English Will-o'-wisp, the Scandi- 
 navian Lyktgubhe, and the Breton Sand Yan y Tad. 
 The Welsh word dan means fire ; dan also means 
 a lure ; the compound word suggests a luring elf- 
 fire. The Breton Sand Yan y Tad (St. John and 
 Father)^ is a double ignis fatuus fairy, carrying 
 at its finger-ends five lights, which spin round like 
 a wheel. The negroes of the southern seaboard 
 states of America invest this goblin with an exagge- 
 ration of the horrible peculiarly their own. They 
 call it Jack-muh-lantern, and describe it as a hideous 
 creature five feet in height, with goggle-eyes and 
 huge mouth, its body covered with long hair, and 
 which goes leaping and bounding through the air 
 like a gigantic grasshopper. This frightful appari- 
 tion is stronger than any man, and swifter than any 
 horse, and compels its victims to follow it into the 
 swamp, where it leaves them to die. ^ 
 
 Like all goblins of this class, the Ellylldan was;^ 
 of course, seen dancing about in marshy grounds, 
 into which it led the belated wanderer; but, as a 
 distinguished resident in Wales has wittily said, the 
 poor elf ' is now starved to death, and his breath is 
 taken from him ; his light is quenched for ever by 
 the improving farmer, who has drained the bog; 
 and, instead of the rank decaying vegetation of the 
 
 * Keightley, ' Fairy Mythology,' 441. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 1 9 
 
 autumn, where bitterns and snipes delighted to 
 secrete themselves, crops of corn and potatoes are 
 grown/ ^ 
 
 A poetic account by a modern character, called 
 lolo the Bard, is thus condensed : * One night, 
 when the moon had gone down, as I was sitting on 
 a hill-top, the Ellylldan passed by. I followed it 
 into the valley. We crossed plashes of water where 
 the tops of bulrushes peeped above, and where the 
 lizards lay silently on the surface, looking at us with 
 an unmoved stare. The frogs sat croaking and 
 swelling their sides, but ceased as they raised a 
 melancholy eye at the Ellylldan. The wild fowl, 
 sleeping with their heads under their wings, made a 
 low cackle as we went by. A bittern awoke and 
 rose with a scream into the air. I felt the trail of 
 the eels and leeches peering about, as I waded 
 through the pools. On a slimy stone a toad sat 
 sucking poison from the night air. The Ellylldan 
 glowed bravely in the slumbering vapours. It rose 
 airily over the bushes that drooped in the ooze. 
 When I lingered or stopped, it waited for me, but 
 dwindled gradually away to a speck barely per- 
 ceptible. But as soon as I moved on again, it 
 would shoot up suddenly and glide before. A bat 
 came flying round and round us, flapping its wings 
 heavily. Screech-owls stared silently at us with 
 their broad eyes. Snails and worms crawled about. 
 The fine threads of a spider's web gleamed in the 
 light of the Ellylldan. Suddenly it shot away from 
 me, and in the distance joined a ring of its fellows, 
 who went dancing slowly round and round in a 
 goblin dance, which sent me off to sleep.' ^ 
 
 ^ Hon. W. O. Stanley, M.P., in * Notes and Queries.' 
 2 *The Vale of Glamorgan.' (London, 1839.) 
 
 B 2 
 
20 British Goblins. 
 
 Pwca, or Pooka, is but another name for the Ellyll- 
 dan, as our Puck is another name for the Will-o'- 
 wisp ; but in both cases the shorter term has a more 
 poetic flavour and a wider latitude. The name 
 Puck was originally applied to the whole race of 
 English fairies, and there still be few of the realm 
 who enjoy a wider popularity than Puck, in spite of 
 his mischievous attributes. Part of this popularity 
 is due to the poets, especially to Shakspeare. I 
 have alluded to the bard's accurate knowledge of 
 Vv^elsh folk-lore ; the subject is really one of unique 
 interest, in view of the inaccuracy charged upon him 
 as to the English fairyland. There is a Welsh 
 tradition to the effect that Shakspeare received his 
 knowledge of the Cambrian fairies from his friend 
 Richard Price, son of Sir John Price, of the priory 
 of Brecon. It is even claimed that Cwm Pwca, or 
 Puck Valley, a part of the romantic glen of the 
 Clydach, in Breconshire, is the original scene of the 
 * Midsummer Night's Dream ' — a fancy as light and 
 airy as Puck himself.^ Anyhow, there Cwm Pwca 
 is, and in the sylvan days, before Frere and Powells 
 ironworks were set up there, it is said to have been 
 as full of goblins as a Methodist's head is of piety. 
 And there are in Wales other places bearing like 
 names, where Pwca's pranks are well remembered 
 by old inhabitants. The range given to the popular 
 
 * According to a letter written by the poet Campbell to Mrs. 
 Fletcher, in 1833, and published in her Autobiography, it was thought 
 Shakspeare went in person to see this magic valley. ' It is no later than 
 yesterday,' wrote Campbell, 'that I discovered a probability — almost 
 near a certainty — that Shakspeare visited friends in the very town 
 (Brecon in Wales) where Mrs. Siddons was born, and that he there 
 found in a neighbouring glen, called " The Valley of Fairy Puck," the 
 principal machinery of his " Midsummer Night's Dream."' 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 
 
 21 
 
 fancy in Wales is expressed with fidelity by 
 Shakspeare s words in the mouth of Puck : 
 
 I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, 
 
 Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier, 
 
 Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, 
 
 A hog, a headless bear, sometmie a fire ; 
 
 And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, 
 
 Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.^ 
 
 The various stories I have encountered bear out 
 these details almost without an omission. 
 
 In his own proper character, however, Pwca has 
 a sufficiently grotesque elfish aspect. It is stated 
 that a Welsh peasant who was asked to give an 
 
 idea of the appearance of Pwca, drew the above 
 figure with a bit of coal. 
 
 ^ ' Midsummer Night's Dream,' Act III., Sc. 3. 
 
22 British Goblins. 
 
 A servant girl who attended to the cattle on the 
 Trwyn farm, near Abergwyddon, used to take food 
 to ' Master Pwca,' as she called the elf. A bowl 
 of fresh milk and a slice of white bread were the 
 component parts of the goblin's repast, and were 
 placed on a certain spot where he got them. One 
 night the girl, moved by the spirit of mischief, drank 
 the milk and ate most of the bread, leaving for 
 Master Pwca only water and crusts. Next morn- 
 ing she found that the fastidious fairy had left the 
 food untouched. Not long after, as the girl was 
 passing the lonely spot, where she had hitherto left 
 Pwca his food, she was seized under the arm pits 
 by fleshly hands (which, however, she could not see), 
 and subjected to a castigation of a most mortifying 
 character. Simultaneously there fell upon her ear 
 in good set Welsh a warning not to repeat her 
 offence on peril of still worse treatment. This 
 story 'is thoroughly believed in there to this 
 day.'^ 
 
 I visited the scene of the story, a farm near 
 Abergwyddon (now called Abercarne), and heard a 
 great deal more of the exploits of that particular 
 Pwca, to which I will refer again. The most singular 
 fact of the matter is that although at least a century 
 has elapsed, and some say several centuries, since 
 the exploits in question, you cannot find a Welsh 
 peasant in the parish but knows all about Pwca r 
 Trwyn. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The most familiar form of the Pwca story is one 
 which I have encountered in several localities, vary- 
 ing so little in its details that each account would 
 be interchangeable with another by the alteration of 
 
 Archaeologia Cambrensis,' 4th Se., vi., 175. (1875.) 
 
 I 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 
 
 ^3 
 
 
 local names. 
 This form 
 presents a 
 peasant who 
 is returning 
 home from 
 
 t: 
 
 his work, or from a fair, when he sees 
 a light travelling before him. Look- 
 ing closer he perceives that it is carried 
 by a dusky little figure, holding a lantern 
 or candle at arm's length over its head. 
 He follows it for several miles, and 
 suddenly finds himself on the brink of a 
 frightful precipice. From far down 
 below there rises to his ears the sound 
 of a foaming torrent. At the same 
 moment the little goblin with the lantern 
 springs across the chasm, alighting on 
 the opposite side ; raises the light again 
 
 1A '^'••^ 
 
 COBLYNAU. 
 
24 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 high over its head, utters a loud and maHcious 
 laugh, blows out its candle and disappears up the 
 opposite hill, leaving the awestruck peasant to get 
 home as best he can. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Under the general title of Coblynau I class the 
 fairies which haunt the mines, quarries and under- 
 ground regions of Wales, corresponding to the 
 cabalistic Gnomes. The word coblyn has the 
 double meaning of knocker or thumper and sprite 
 or fiend ; and may it not be the original of goblin ? 
 It is applied by Welsh miners to pigmy fairies which 
 dwell in the mines, and point out, by a peculiar 
 knocking or rapping, rich veins of ore. The faith 
 is extended, in some parts, so as to cover the indi- 
 cation of subterranean treasures generally, in caves 
 and secret places of the mountains. The cobly'nau 
 are described as being about half a yard in height 
 and very ugly to look upon, but extremely good- 
 natured, and warm friends of the miner. Their 
 dress is a grotesque imitation of the miner's garb, 
 and they carry tiny hammers, picks and lamps. 
 They work busily, loading ore in buckets, flitting 
 about the shafts, turning tiny windlasses, and pound- 
 ing away like madmen, but really accomplishing 
 nothing whatever. They have been known to 
 throw stones at the miners, when enraged at being 
 lightly spoken of; but the stones are harmless. 
 Nevertheless, all miners of a proper spirit refrain 
 from provoking them, because their presence brings 
 good luck. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Miners are possibly no more superstitious than 
 other men of equal intelligence ; I have heard some 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 25 
 
 of their number repel indignantly the idea that they 
 are superstitious at all ; but this would simply be to 
 raise them above the level of our common humanity. 
 There is testimony enough, besides, to support my 
 own conclusions, which accredit a liberal share of 
 credulity to the mining class. The Oswestry Adver- 
 tiser, a short time ago, recorded the fact that, at 
 Cefn, *a woman is employed as messenger at one 
 of the collieries, and as she commences her duty 
 early each morning she meets great numbers of 
 colliers going to their work. Some of them, we are 
 gravely assured, consider it a bad omen to meet a 
 woman first thing in the morning ; and not having 
 succeeded in deterring her from her work by other 
 means, they waited upon the manager and declared 
 that they should remain at home unless the woman 
 was dismissed.' This was in 1874. In June, 1878, 
 the South Wales Daily News recorded a superstition 
 of the quarrymen at Penrhyn, where some thousands 
 of men refused to work on Ascension Day. ' This 
 refusal did not arise out of any reverential feeling, 
 but from an old and wide-spread superstition, which 
 has lingered in that district for years, that if work 
 is continued on Ascension Day an accident will 
 certainly follow. A few years ago the agents 
 persuaded the men to break through the supersti- 
 tion, and there were accidents each year — a not 
 unlikely occurrence, seeing the extent of works 
 carried on, and the dangerous nature of the occupa- 
 tion of the men. This year, however, the men, one 
 and all, refused to work.' These are examples 
 dealing with considerable numbers of the mining 
 class, and are quoted in this instance as being more 
 significant than individual cases would be. Of these 
 last I have encountered many. Yet I should be 
 
26 British Goblins. 
 
 sorry if any reader were to conclude from all this 
 that Welsh miners are not in the main intelligent, 
 church-going, newspaper-reading men. They are 
 so, I think, even beyond the common. Their super- 
 stitions, therefore, like those of the rest of us, must 
 be judged as *a thing apart,' not to be reconciled 
 with intelligence and education, but co-existing with ^ 
 them. Absolute freedom from superstition can 
 come only with a degree of scientific culture not j^ 
 yet reached by mortal man. ^ 
 
 It can hardly be cause for wonder that the miner 
 should be superstitious. His life is passed in a 
 dark and gloomy region, fathoms below the earth's 
 green surface, surrounded by walls on which dim 
 lamps shed a fitful light. It is not surprising that 
 imagination (and the Welsh imagination is pecu- 
 liarly vivid) should conjure up the faces and forms 
 of gnomes and coblynau, of phantoms and fairy 
 men. When they hear the mysterious thumping 
 which they know is not produced by any human 
 being, and when in examining the place where the 
 noise was heard they find there are really valuable 
 indications of ore, the sturdiest incredulity must 
 sometimes be shaken. Science points out that 
 the noise may be produced by the action of water 
 upon the loose stones in fissures and pot-holes of 
 the mountain limestone, and does actually suggest 
 the presence of metals. 
 
 In the days before a Priestley had caught and 
 bottled that demon which exists in the shape of 
 carbonic acid gas, when the miner was smitten dead 
 by an invisible foe in the deep bowels of the earth 
 it was natural his awe-struck companions should 
 ascribe the mysterious blow to a supernatural 
 enemy. When the workman was assailed suddenly 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 27 
 
 by what we now call fire-damp, which hurled him 
 and his companions right and left upon the dark 
 rocks, scorching, burning, and killing, those who 
 survived were not likely to question the existence 
 of the mine fiend. Hence arose the superstition — 
 now probably quite extinct — of basilisks in the 
 mines, which destroyed with their terrible gaze. 
 When the explanation came, that the thing which 
 killed the miner was what he breathed, not what he 
 saw ; and when chemistry took the fire-damp from 
 the domain of faerie, the basilisk and the fire fiend 
 had not a leg to stand on. The explanation of the 
 Knockers is more recent, and less palpable and 
 convincing. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The Coblynau are always given the form of dwarfs, 
 in the popular fancy ; v/herever seen or heard, they 
 are believed to have escaped from the mines or the 
 secret regions of the mountains. Their homes 
 are hidden from mortal vision. When encountered, 
 either in the mines or on the mountains, they have 
 strayed from their special abodes, which are as 
 spectral as themselves. There is at least one 
 account extant of their secret territory having been 
 revealed to mortal eyes. I find it in a quaint volume 
 (of which I shall have more to say), printed at 
 Newport, Monmouthshire, in 1813.^ It relates that 
 one William Evans, of Hafodafel, while crossing 
 the Beacon Mountain very early in the morning, 
 passed a fairy coal mine, where fairies were busily 
 at work. Some were cutting the coal, some carrying 
 it to fill the sacks, some raising the loads upon the 
 
 1 ' A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth 
 and the Principality of Wales.' By Rev. Edmund Jones of the 
 Tranch. (Newport, 1813.) 
 
28 British Goblins. 
 
 horses' backs, and so on ; but all in the completest 
 silence. He thought this 'a wonderful extra natural 
 thing,' and was considerably impressed by it, for 
 well he knew that there really was no coal mine at 
 that place. He was a person of ' undoubted veracity,' 
 and what is more, ' a great man in the world — above 
 telling an untruth.' 
 
 That the Coblynau sometimes wandered far from 
 home, the same chronicler testifies ; but on these 
 occasions they were taking a holiday. Egbert 
 Williams, 'a pious young gentleman of Denbigh- 
 shire, then at school,' was one day playing in a field 
 called Cae Caled, in the parish of Bodfari, with 
 three girls, one of whom was his sister. Near the 
 stile beyond Lanelwyd House they saw a company 
 of fifteen or sixteen coblynau engaged in dancing 
 madly. They were in the middle of the field, about 
 seventy yards from the spectators, and they danced 
 something after the manner of Morris-dancers, but 
 with a wildness and swiftness in their motions. They 
 were clothed in red like British soldiers, and wore 
 red handkerchiefs spotted with yellow wound round 
 their heads. And a strange circumstance about 
 them was that although they were almost as big 
 as ordinary men, yet they had unmistakably the 
 appearance of dwarfs, and one could call them 
 nothing but dwarfs. Presently one of them left the 
 company and ran towards the group near the stile, 
 who were direfully scared thereby, and scrambled 
 in great fright to go over the stile. Barbara Jones 
 got over first, then her sister, and as Egbert 
 Williams was helping his sister over they saw the 
 coblyn close upon them, and barely got over when 
 his hairy hand was laid on the stile. He stood 
 leaning on it, gazing after them as they ran, with a 
 
 ■ 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 29 
 
 grim copper-coloured countenance and a fierce look. 
 The young people ran to Lanelwyd House and called 
 the elders out, but though they hurried quickly to 
 the field the dwarfs had already disappeared. 
 
 The counterparts of the Coblynau are found in 
 most mining countries. In Germany, the Wichtlein 
 (little Wights) are little old long-bearded men, 
 about three-quarters of an ell high, which haunt the 
 mines of the southern land. The Bohemians call 
 the Wichtlein by the name of Haus-schmiedlein, 
 little House-smiths, from their sometimes making 
 a noise as if labouring hard at the anvil. They are 
 not so popular as in Wales, however, as they predict 
 misfortune or death. They announce the doom of 
 a miner by knocking three times distinctly, and 
 when any lesser evil is about to befall him they are 
 heard digging, pounding, and imitating other kinds 
 of work. In Germany also the kobolds are rather 
 troublesome than otherwise, to the miners, taking 
 pleasure in frustrating their objects, and rendering 
 their toil unfruitful. Sometimes they are down- 
 right malignant, especially if neglected or insulted, 
 but sometimes also they are indulgent to individuals 
 whom they take under their protection. * When a 
 miner therefore hit upon a rich vein of ore, the 
 inference commonly was not that he possessed more 
 skill, industry, or even luck than his fellow-workmen, 
 but that the spirits of the mine had directed him to 
 the treasure.' ^ 
 
 The intimate connection between mine fairies and 
 the whole race of dwarfs is constantly met through- 
 out the fairy mythology ; and the connection of 
 
 ^ Scott, * Demonology and Witchcraft,' 121. 
 
30 British Goblins, 
 
 the dwarfs with the mountains is equally universal. 
 ' God/ says the preface to the Heldenbuch, * gave 
 the dwarfs being, because the land and the mountains 
 were altogether waste and uncultivated, and there 
 was much store of silver and gold and precious 
 stones and pearls still in the mountains.' From 
 the most ancient times, and in the oldest countries, 
 down to our own time and the new world of America, I 
 the traditions are the same. The old Norse belief *; 
 which made the dwarfs the current machinery of 
 the northern Sagas is echoed in the Catskill Moun- 
 tains with the rolling of the thunder among the 
 crags where Hendrik Hudson's dwarfs are playing I 
 ninepins. I 
 
 XI. ■■■ ! 
 
 The Bwbach, or Boobach, is the good-natured I 
 
 goblin which does good turns for the tidy Welsh \ 
 
 maid who wins its favour by a certain course of \ 
 
 behaviour recommended by long tradition. The' | 
 
 maid having swept the kitchen, makes a good ! 
 
 fire the last thing at night, and having put the ; 
 
 churn, filled with cream, on the whitened hearth, i 
 with a basin of fresh cream for the Bwbach on the 
 hob, goes to bed to await the event. In the 
 
 morning she finds (if she is in luck) that the Bwbach | 
 
 has emptied the basin of cream, and plied the \ 
 churn-dasher so well that the maid has but to give a 
 
 thump or two to bring the butter in a great lump. \ 
 
 Like the Ellyll which it so much resembles, the ; 
 
 Bwbach does not approve of dissenters and their \ 
 
 ways, and especially strong is its aversion to total \ 
 
 abstainers. i 
 
 There was a Bwbach belonging to a certain \ 
 
 estate in Cardiganshire, which took great umbrage | 
 
 at a Baptist preacher who was a guest in the house, \ 
 
 i 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 3 1 
 
 and who was much fonder of prayers than of good 
 ale. Now the Bwbach had a weakness in favour of 
 people who sat around the hearth with their mugs 
 of cwrw da and their pipes, and it took to pestering 
 the preacher. One night it jerked the stool from 
 under the good man's elbows, as he knelt pouring 
 forth prayer, so that he fell down flat on his face. 
 Another time it interrupted the devotions by 
 jangling the fire-irons on the hearth ; and it was 
 continually making the dogs fall a-howling during 
 prayers, or frightening the farm-boy by grinning 
 at him through the window, or throwing the maid 
 into fits. At last it had the audacity to attack 
 the preacher as he was crossing a field. The 
 minister told the story in this wise : * I was reading 
 busily in my hymn-book as I walked on, when a 
 sudden fear came over me and my legs began 
 to tremble. A shadow crept upon me from behind, 
 and when I turned round — it was myself! — my 
 person, my dress, and even my hymn-book. I 
 looked in its face a moment, and then fell insensible 
 to the ground.' And there, insensible still, they 
 found him. This encounter proved too much for 
 the good man, who considered it a warning to him 
 to leave those parts. He accordingly mounted 
 his horse next day and rode away. A boy of the 
 neighbourhood, whose veracity was, like that of all 
 boys, unimpeachable, afterwards said that he saw 
 the Bwbach jump up behind the preacher, on the 
 horse's back. And the horse went like light- 
 ning, with eyes like balls of fire, and the preacher 
 looking back over his shoulder at the Bwbach, 
 that grinned from ear to ear. 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The same confusion in outlines which exists 
 regarding our own Bogie and Hobgoblin gives the 
 Bwbach a double character, as a household fairy 
 and as a terrifying phantom. In both aspects it is 
 ludicrous, but in the latter it has dangerous practices. 
 To get into its clutches under certain circumstances 
 is no trifling matter, for it has the power of whisking 
 people off through the air. Its services are brought 
 into requisition for this purpose by troubled ghosts 
 who cannot sleep on account of hidden treasure 
 they want removed ; and if they can succeed in 
 getting a mortal to help them in removing the 
 treasure, they employ the Bwbach to transport the 
 mortal through the air. 
 
 This ludicrous fairy is in France represented by 
 the gobelin. Mothers threaten children with him. 
 *Le gobelin vous mangera, le gobelin vous em- 
 portera.' ^ In the English ' hobgoblin ' we have a 
 word apparently derived from the Welsh hob, to 
 hop, and coblyn, a goblin, which presents a hopping 
 goblin to the mind, and suggests the Pwca (with 
 which the Bwbach is also confused in the popular 
 fancy at times), but should mean in English simply 
 the goblin of the hob, or household fairy. In its 
 bugbear aspect, the Bwbach, like the English bogie, 
 is believed to be identical with the Slavonic 'bog,* 
 and the ' baga ' of the Cuneiform Inscriptions, both 
 of which are names for the Supreme Being, accord- 
 ing to Professor Fiske. ' The ancestral form of 
 these epithets ' is found in * the old Aryan " Bhaga," 
 which reappears unchanged in the Sanskrit of the 
 
 1 P^re I'Abbd, ' Etymologic,' i., 262. 
 
Quaint Old Customs, ^i'h 
 
 Vedas, and has left a memento of itself in the 
 surname of the Phrygian Zeus " Bagaios." It seems 
 originally to have denoted either the unclouded sun, 
 or the sky of noonday illuminated by the solar rays. 
 . . . Thus the same name which to the Vedic 
 poet, to the Persian of the time of Xerxes, and to 
 the modern Russian, suggests the supreme majesty 
 of deity, is in English associated with an ugly and 
 ludicrous fiend, closely akin to that grotesque 
 Northern Devil of whom Southey was unable to 
 think without lauo-hinor.' ^ 
 
 o o 
 
 ^ Fiske, ' Myths and Myth-makers.' 105. 
 
 \ 
 
34 
 
 British Goblins, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Lake Fairies — The Gwragedd Annwn, or Dames of Elfin-Land — St. 
 Patrick and the Welshmen ; a Legend of Crumlyn Lake — The 
 Elfin Cow of Llyn Barfog — Y Fuwch Laethwen Lefrith — The 
 Legend of the Meddygon Myddfai — The Wife of Supernatural 
 Race — The Three Blows ; a Carmarthenshire Legend — Cheese 
 and the Didactic Purpose in Welsh Folk-Lore — The Fairy Maiden's 
 Papa — The Enchanted Isle in the Mountain Lake— Legend of the 
 Men of Ardudwy — Origin of Water Fairies —Their prevalence in 
 many Lands. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Gwragedd Annwn (literally, wives of the lower 
 world, or hell) are the elfin dames who dwell under 
 the water. I find no resemblance in the Welsh 
 fairy to our familiar mermaid, beyond the watery 
 abode, and the sometimes winning ways. The 
 Gwragedd Annwn are not fishy of aspect, nor do 
 they dwell in the sea. Their haunt is the lakes 
 and rivers, but especially the wild and lonely lakes 
 upon the mountain heights. These romantic sheets 
 are surrounded with numberless superstitions, which 
 will be further treated of. In the realm of faerie 
 they serve as avenues of communication between 
 this world and the lower one of annwn, the shadowy 
 domain presided over by Gwyn ap Nudd, king of 
 the fairies. This sub-aqueous realm is peopled by 
 those children of mystery termed Plant Annwn, and 
 the belief is current among the inhabitants of the 
 Welsh mountains that the Gwragedd Annwn still 
 occasionally visit this upper world of ours.^ The 
 
 * * Archseologia Cambrensis,' 2nd Se., iv., 253. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 35 
 
 only reference to Welsh mermaids I have either 
 read or heard Is contained In Drayton's account of 
 the Battle of Aglncourt. There It Is mentioned, 
 among the armorial ensigns of the counties of 
 Wales : 
 
 As Cardigan, the next to them that went. 
 Came with a mermaid sitting on a rock.^ 
 
 II. 
 
 Crumlyn Lake, near the quaint village of Briton 
 Ferry, Is one of the many In Wales which are a 
 resort of the elfin dames. It Is also believed that a 
 large town lies swallowed up there, and that the 
 Gwragedd 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 these towers. The way the elfin dames 
 first came to dwell there was this : A long, ay, a 
 very long time ago, St. Patrick came over from 
 Ireland on a visit to St. David of Wales, just to say 
 * Sut yr y'ch chwl ? ' (How d ye do ?) ; and as they were 
 strolling by this lake conversing on religious topics In 
 a friendly manner, some Welsh people who had ascer- 
 tained that It was St. Patrick, and being angry at 
 him for leaving Cambria for Erin, began to abuse 
 him In the Welsh language, his native tongue. Of 
 course such an Insult could not go unpunished, and 
 St. Patrick caused his vllllfiers to be transformed 
 Into fishes ; but some of them being females, were 
 converted Into fairies Instead. It Is also related 
 that the sun, on account of this insolence to so holy 
 a man, never shed Its life-giving rays upon the dark 
 
 ^ There is in * Cyraru Fu ' a mermaid story, but its mermaid feature 
 is apparently a modern embellishment of a real incident, and without 
 value here. 
 
36 British Goblins. 
 
 waters of this picturesque lake, except during one 
 
 week of the year. This legend and these magical 
 
 details are equally well accredited to various other 
 
 lakes, among them Llyn Barfog, near Aberdovey, 
 
 the town whose * bells ' are celebrated in immortal 
 
 song. 
 
 III. 
 
 Llyn Barfog Is the scene of the famous elfin cow's 
 descent upon earth, from among the droves of the 
 Gwragedd Annwn. This is the legend of the origin 
 of the Welsh black cattle, as related to me in 
 Carmarthenshire : I n times of old there was a 
 band of elfin ladies who used to haunt the neigh- 
 bourhood of Llyn Barfog, a lake among the hills just 
 back of Aberdovey. It was their habit to make 
 their appearance at dusk clad all in green, accom- 
 panied by their milk-white hounds. Besides their 
 hounds, the green ladies of Llyn Barfog were pe- 
 culiar in the possession of droves of beautiful milk- 
 white kine, called Gwartheg y Llyn, or kine of the 
 lake. One day an old farmer, who lived near 
 Dyssyrnant, had the good luck to catch one of these 
 mystic cows, which had fallen in love with the cattle 
 of his herd. From that day the farmer's fortune 
 was made. Such calves, such milk, such butter and 
 cheese, as came from the milk-white cow never had 
 been seen in Wales before, nor ever will be seen 
 again. The fame of the Fuwch Gyfeiliorn (which 
 was what they called the cow) spread through the 
 country round. The farmer, who had been poor, 
 became rich ; the owner of vast herds, like the 
 patriarchs of old. But one day he took it into his 
 silly noddle that the elfin cow was getting old, and 
 that he had better fatten her for the market. His 
 nefarious purpose thrived amazingly. Never, since 
 beef steaks were invented, was seen such a fat cow 
 
 i 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 3 7 
 
 as this cow grew to be. Killing day came, and the 
 neighbours arrived from all about to witness the 
 taking-off of this monstrously fat beast. The farmer 
 had already counted up the gains from the sale of 
 her, and the butcher had bared his red right arm. 
 The cow was tethered, regardless of her mournful 
 lowing and her pleading eyes ; the butcher raised 
 his bludgeon and struck fair and hard between the 
 eyes — when lo ! a shriek resounded through the air, 
 awakening the echoes of the hills, as the butcher's 
 bludgeon went through the goblin head of the elfin 
 cow, and knocked over nine adjoining men, while 
 the butcher himself went frantically whirling around 
 trying to catch hold of something permanent. Then 
 the astonished assemblage beheld a green lady 
 standing on a crag high up over the lake, and 
 crying with a loud voice : 
 
 Dere di felen Einion, 
 
 Cyrn Cyfeiliorn — braith y Llyn, 
 
 A'r foel Dodin, 
 
 Codwch, dewch adre. 
 
 Come yellow Anvil, stray horns, 
 Speckled one of the lake, 
 And of the hornless Dodin, 
 Arise, come home. 
 
 Whereupon not only did the elfin cow arise and 
 go home, but all her progeny to the third and fourth 
 generations went home with her, disappearing in the 
 air over the hill tops and returning nevermore. 
 Only one cow remained of all the farmers herds, 
 and she had turned from milky white to raven black. 
 Whereupon the farmer in despair drowned himself 
 in the lake of the green ladies, and the black cow 
 became the progenitor of the existing race of Welsh 
 black cattle. 
 
 This legend appears, in a slightly different form, 
 in the ' lolo MSS.,' as translated by Taliesin Williams, 
 
 D 2 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 of Merthyr : ^ * The milk-white milch cow gave 
 enough of milk to every one who desired it ; and 
 however frequently milked, or by whatever number 
 of persons, she was never found deficient. All 
 persons who drank of her milk were healed of every 
 illness ; from fools they became wise ; and from 
 being wicked, became happy. This cow went round 
 the world; and wherever she appeared, she filled 
 with milk all the vessels that could be found, leaving 
 calves behind her for all the wise and happy. It 
 was from her that all the milch cows in the world 
 were obtained. After traversing through the island 
 of Britain, for the benefit and blessing of country and 
 kindred, she reached the Vale of Towy ; where, 
 tempted by her fine appearance and superior condi- 
 tion, the natives sought to kill and eat her ; but just 
 as they were proceeding to effect their purpose, she 
 vanished from between their hands, and was never 
 seen again. A house still remains in the locality, 
 called Y Fuwch Laethwen Lefrith (The Milk-white 
 
 Milch Cow.)^ ... 
 
 IV. ^ 
 
 The legend of the Meddygon Myddfai again intro- 
 duces the elfin cattle to our notice, but combines with 
 them another and a very interesting form of this 
 superstition, namely, that of the wife of supernatural 
 race. A further feature gives it its name, Meddygon 
 meaning physicians, and the legend professing to 
 give the origin of certain doctors who were renowned 
 in the thirteenth century. The legend relates that 
 a farmer in the parish of Myddfai, Carmarthenshire, 
 having bought some lambs in a neighbouring fair, 
 led them to graze near Llyn y Fan Fach, on the 
 Black Mountains. Whenever he visited these 
 lambs three beautiful damsels appeared to him from 
 
 1 Llandovery, published for the Welsh MSS. Society, 1848. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 39 
 
 the lake, on whose shores they often made excur- 
 sions. Sometimes he pursued and tried to catch 
 them, but always failed ; the enchanting nymphs ran 
 before him and on reaching the lake taunted him in 
 these words : 
 
 Cras dy fara, 
 Anhawdd ein dala ; 
 
 which, if one must render it literally, means : 
 
 Bake your bread, 
 
 'Twill be hard to catch us ; 
 
 but which, more poetically treated, might signify : 
 
 Mortal, who eatest baken bread, 
 Not for thee is the fairy's bed ! 
 
 One day some moist bread from the lake came 
 floating ashore. The farmer seized it, and devoured 
 it with avidity. The following day, to his great 
 delight, he was successful in his chase, and caught 
 the nymphs on the shore. After talking a long time 
 with them, he mustered up the courage to propose 
 marriage to one of them. She consented to accept 
 him on condition that he would distinguish her from 
 her sisters the next day. This was a new and great 
 difficulty to the young farmer, for the damsels were 
 so similar in form and features, that he could 
 scarcely see any difference between them. He 
 noted, however, a trifling singularity in the strapping 
 of the chosen one's sandal, by which he recognized 
 her on the following day. As good as her word, 
 the gwraig immediately left the lake and went with 
 him to his farm. Before she quitted the lake she 
 summoned therefrom to attend her, seven cows, two 
 oxen, and one bull. She stipulated that she should 
 remain with the farmer only until such time as he 
 should strike her thrice without cause. For some 
 years they dwelt peaceably together, and she bore 
 
40 British Goblins. 
 
 him three sons, who were the celebrated Meddygon 
 Myddfai. One day, when preparing for a fair in the 
 neighbourhood, the farmer desired her to go to the 
 field for his horse. She said she would, but being 
 rather dilatory, he said to her humorously ' Dos, 
 dos, dos,' i.e., * Go, go, go,' and at the same time 
 slightly tapped her arm three times with his glove. 
 . . . The blows were slight — but they were blows. 
 The terms of the marriage contract were broken, 
 and the dame departed, summoning with her her 
 seven cows, her two oxen, and the bull. The oxen 
 were at that moment ploughing in the field, but they 
 immediately obeyed her call and dragged the 
 plough after them to the lake. The furrow, from the 
 field in which they were ploughing to the margin of 
 the lake, is still to be seen — in several parts of that 
 country — at the present day. After her departure, 
 the gwraig annwn once met her three sons in the 
 valley now called Cwm Meddygon, and gave them a 
 magic box containing remedies of wonderful power, 
 through whose use they became celebrated. Their 
 names were Cadogan, Gruffydd and Einion, and the 
 farmer's name was Rhiwallon. Rhiwallon and his 
 sons, named as above, were physicians to Rhys 
 Gryg, Lord of Dynevor, and son of the last native 
 prince of Wales. They lived about 1 230, and dying, 
 left behind them a compendium of their medical 
 practice. * A copy of their works is in the Welsh 
 School Library in Gray's Inn Lane.' ^ 
 
 In a more polished and elaborate form this legend 
 omits the medical features altogether, but substitutes 
 a number of details so peculiarly Welsh that I cannot 
 refrain from presenting them. This version relates 
 
 * ' Cambro Briton,' ii., 315. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 41 
 
 that the enamoured farmer had heard of the lake 
 maiden, who rowed up and down the lake in a 
 golden boat, with a golden oar. Her hair was long 
 and yellow, and her face was pale and melancholy. 
 In his desire to see this wondrous beauty, the farmer 
 went on New Year's Eve to the edge of the lake, 
 and in silence awaited the coming of the first hour 
 of the new year. It came, and there in truth was 
 the maiden in her golden boat, rowing softly to and 
 fro. Fascinated, he stood for hours beholding her, 
 until the stars faded out of the sky, the moon sank 
 behind the rocks, and the cold gray dawn drew 
 nigh ; and then the lovely gwraig began to vanish 
 from his sight. Wild with passion, and with the 
 thought of losing her for ever, he cried aloud to the 
 retreating vision, * Stay ! stay ! Be my wife.' But 
 the gwraig only uttered a faint cry, and was gone. 
 Night after night the young farmer haunted the 
 shores of the lake, but the gwraig returned no more. 
 He became negligent of his person ; his once robust 
 form grew thin and wan ; his face was a map of 
 melancholy and despair. He went one day to 
 consult a soothsayer who dwelt on the mountain, 
 and this grave personage advised him to besiege 
 the damsel's heart with gifts of bread and cheese. 
 This counsel commending itself strongly to his 
 Welsh way of thinking, the farmer set out upon an 
 assiduous course of casting his bread upon the 
 waters — accompanied by cheese. He began on 
 Midsummer eve by going to the lake and dropping 
 therein a large cheese and a loaf of bread. Night 
 after night he continued to throw in loaves and 
 cheeses, but nothing appeared in answer to his 
 sacrifices. His hopes were set, however, on the 
 approaching New Year's eve. The momentous 
 night arrived at last. Clad in his best array, and 
 
42 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 armed with seven white loaves and his biggest and 
 handsomest cheese, he set out once more for the, 
 
 THE GWRAIG OF THE GOLDEN BOAT. 
 
 lake. There he waited till midnight, and then slowly 
 and solemnly dropped the seven loaves into the 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 43 
 
 water, and with a sigh sent the cheese to keep them 
 company. His persistence was at length rewarded. 
 The magic skiff appeared ; the fair gwraig guided it 
 to where he stood ; stepped ashore, and accepted 
 him as her husband. The before-mentioned stipu- 
 lation was made as to the blows ; and she brought 
 her dower of cattle. One day, after they had been 
 four years married, they were invited to a christening. 
 In the midst of the ceremony the gwraig burst into 
 tears. Her husband gave her an angry look, and 
 asked her why she thus made a fool of herself. She 
 replied, * The poor babe is entering a world of sin 
 and sorrow ; misery lies before it. Why should I 
 rejoice ?' He pushed her pettishly away. ' I warn 
 you, husband,' said the gwraig ; * you have struck 
 me once.' After a time they were bidden to the 
 funeral of the child they had seen christened. Now 
 the gwraig laughed, sang, and danced about. The 
 husband's wrath again arose, and again he asked her 
 why she thus made a fool of herself. She answered, 
 'The dear babe has escaped the misery that was 
 before it, and gone to be good and happy for ever. 
 Why should I grieve ?' Again he pushed her from 
 him, and again she warned him ; he had struck her 
 twice. Soon they were invited to a wedding ; the 
 bride was young and fair, the groom a tottering, 
 toothless, decrepit old miser. In the midst of 
 the wedding feast the gwraig annwn burst into 
 tears, and to her husband's question why she 
 thus made a fool of herself she replied, ' Truth 
 is wedded to age for greed, and not for love — 
 summer and winter cannot agree — it is the diawl's 
 compact.' The angry husband thrust her from him 
 for the third and last time. She looked at him 
 with tender love and reproach, and said, ' The three 
 blows are struck — husband, farewell ! ' He never 
 
44 " nrtiish Goblins. 
 
 saw her more, nor any of the flocks and herds she 
 had brought him for her dowry. 
 
 In its employment of the myth to preach a sermon, 
 and in its introduction of cheese, this version of the 
 legend is very Welsh indeed. The extent to which 
 cheese figures in Cambrian folk-lore is surprising ; 
 cheese is encountered in every sort of fairy company ; 
 you actually meet cheese in the Mabinogion, along 
 with the most romantic forms of beauty known in 
 story. And herein again is illustrated Shakspeare s 
 accurate knowledge of the Cambrian goblins. 
 * Heaven defend me from that Welsh fairy ! ' says 
 Falstaff, 'lest he transform me to a piece of cheese !' ^ 
 Bread is found figuring actively in the folk-lore of 
 every country, especially as a sacrifice to water- 
 gods ; but cheese is, so far as I know, thus honoured 
 only in Cambria. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Once more this legend appears, this time with a 
 feature I have nowhere else encountered in fairy 
 land, to wit, the father of a fairy damsel. The son 
 of a farmer on Drws Coed farm was one foggy day 
 looking after his father's sheep, when crossing a 
 marshy meadow he beheld a little lady behind some 
 rising ground. She had yellow hair, blue eyes and 
 rosy cheeks. He approached her, and asked per- 
 mission to converse ; whereupon she smiled sweetly 
 and said to him, ' Idol of my hopes, you have come 
 at last ! ' They there and then began to ' keep 
 company,* and met each other daily here and there 
 along the farm meadows. His intentions were 
 honourable ; he desired her to marry him. He was 
 sometimes absent for days together, no one knew 
 where, and his friends whispered about that he had 
 been witched. Around the Turf Lake (Llyn y 
 
 * * Merry Wives of Windsor ' Act. V., Sc. 5. 
 
 
The Realm of Faerie, 45 
 
 Dywarchen) was a grove of trees, and under one of 
 these one day the fairy promised to be his. The 
 consent of her father was now necessary. One 
 moonlight night an appointment was made to meet 
 in this wood. The father and daughter did not 
 appear till the moon had disappeared behind the 
 hill. Then they both came. The fairy father im- 
 mediately gave his consent' to the marriage, on 
 one condition, namely, that her future husband 
 should never hit her with iron. ' If ever thou dost 
 touch her flesh with iron she shall be no more thine, 
 but she shall return to her own.' They were married 
 — a good-looking pair. Large sums of money were 
 brought by her, the night before the wedding, to 
 Drws Coed. The shepherd lad became wealthy, 
 had several handsome children, and they were very 
 happy. After some years, they were one day out 
 riding, when her horse sank in a deep mire, and by 
 the assistance of her husband, in her hurrry to 
 remount, she was struck on her knee by the stirrup 
 of the saddle. Immediately voices were heard 
 singing on the brow of the hill, and she disappeared, 
 leaving all her children behind. She and her 
 mother devised a plan by which she could see her 
 beloved, but as she was not allowed to walk the 
 earth with man, they floated a large turf on the lake, 
 and on this turf she stood for hours at a time 
 holding converse with her husband. This continued 
 until his death.^ 
 
 VII. 
 
 The didactic purpose again appears in the follow- 
 ing legend, which, varying but little in phraseology, 
 is current in the neighbourhood of a dozen different 
 mountain lakes : In other days, before the Cymry 
 had become reconciled to their Saxon foe, on every 
 
 ^ ' Cymru Fu,' 476. 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 New Year's morning a door was found open in a 
 rock hard by the lake. Those mortals who had 
 the curiosity and the resolution to enter this door 
 were conducted by a secret passage to a small 
 island in the middle of the lake. Here they found 
 a most enchanting garden, stored with the choicest 
 fruits and flowers, and inhabited by the Gwragedd 
 Annwn, whose beauty could be equalled only by the 
 courtesy and affability which they exhibited to those 
 who pleased them. They gathered fruit and flowers 
 for each of their guests, entertained them with the 
 most exquisite music, disclosed to them many secrets 
 of futurity, and invited them to stay as long as they 
 liked. 'But,' said they, *the island is secret, and 
 nothing of its produce must be carried away.' The 
 warning being heeded, all went well. But one day 
 there appeared among the visitors a wicked Welsh- 
 man, who, thinking to derive some magical aid 
 therefrom, pocketed a flower with which he had 
 been presented, and was about to leave the garden 
 with his prize. But the theft boded him no good. 
 As soon as he had touched unhallowed ground the 
 flower vanished, and he lost his senses. However, 
 of this abuse of their hospitality the Gwragedd 
 Annwn took no notice at the time. They dismissed 
 their guests with their accustomed courtesy, and the 
 door was closed as usual. But their resentment 
 was bitter ; for though the fairies of the lake and 
 their enchanted garden undoubtedly occupy the 
 spot to this day, the door which led to the island 
 has never been reopened. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In all these legends the student of comparative 
 folk-lore traces the ancient mythology, however 
 overlain with later details. The water-maidens of 
 
The Realm of Faerie, 47 
 
 every land doubtless originally were the floating 
 clouds of the sky, or the mists of the mountain. 
 From this have come certain fair and fanciful crea- 
 tions with which Indo-European folk-lore teems, the 
 most familiar of which are Undine, Melusina, Nau- 
 sicaa, and the classic Muse. In Wales, as in other 
 lands, the myth has many forms. The dispersion of 
 dark clouds from the mountains, by the beams of the 
 rising sun, or the morning breezes, is localized in the 
 legend of the Men of Ardudwy. These men make 
 a raid on the maidens of the Vale of Clwyd, and are 
 pursued and slaughtered by the latter's fathers and 
 brothers. The maidens thereupon cast themselves 
 headlong into the lake, which is thenceforth called 
 the Maidens' Lake, or Llyn y Morwynion. In 
 another legend, the river mist over the Cynwal is 
 the spirit of a traitress who perished long ago in the 
 lake. She had conspired with the sea-born pirates 
 of the North (the ocean storms) to rob her Cambrian 
 lord of his domains. She was defeated by the aid 
 of a powerful enchanter (the sun), and fled up the 
 river to the lake, accompanied by her maidens, who 
 were drowned with her there.^ 
 
 IX. 
 
 As the mermaid superstition is seemingly absent 
 in Wales, so there are no fairy tales of maidens who 
 lure mortals to their doom beneath the water, as the 
 Dracae did women and children, and as the Nymph 
 of the Lurley did marriageable young men. But it 
 is believed that there are several old Welsh families 
 who are the descendants of the Gwragedd Annwn, as 
 in the case of the Meddygon Myddfai. The familiar 
 Welsh name of Morgan is sometimes thought to 
 signify, ' Born of the Sea.' Certainly mor in Welsh 
 
 ^ 'Arch. Camb.,'4th Se., vii., 251. 
 
»J '-jt^ii, 
 
 48 British Goblins. 
 
 means sea, and gdn a birth. It is curious, too, that 
 a mermaid is called in Basse Bretagne * Mary 
 Morgan.' But the class of stories in which a mortal 
 marries a water-maiden is large, and while the local 
 details smack of the soil, the general idea is so like 
 in lands far remote from each other as to indicate a 
 common origin in pre-historic times. In Wales, 
 where the mountain lakes are numerous, gloomy, 
 lonely, and yet lovely ; where many of them, too, 
 show traces of having been inhabited in ancient 
 times by a race of lake-dwellers, whose pile- 
 supported villages vanished ages ago ; and where 
 bread and cheese are as classic as beer and candles, 
 these particulars are localized in the legend. In the 
 Faro Islands, where the seal is a famiUar yet ever- 
 mysterious object, with its human-like eyes, and 
 glossy skin, the wife of supernatural race is a 
 transformed seal. She comes ashore every ninth 
 night, sheds her skin, leaves it on the shore, and 
 dances with her fairy companions. A mortal steals 
 her sealskin dress, and when day breaks, and her 
 companions return to their abode in the sea, compels 
 her to remain and be his wife. Some day he offends 
 her ; she recovers her skin and plunges into the sea. 
 In China, the superstition appears in a Lew-chewan 
 legend mentioned by Dr. Dennys,^ which relates 
 how a fairy in the guise of a beautiful woman is 
 found bathing in a man's well. He persuades her 
 to marry him, and she remains with him for nine 
 years, at the end of which time, despite the affection 
 she has for their two children, she ' glides upwards 
 into a cloud ' and disappears. 
 
 * * P'olk-Lore of China,' 99. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mountain Fairies — The Gwyllion — The Old Woman of the Mountain 
 — The Black Mountain Gwy 11— Exorcism by Knife — Occult In- 
 tellectual Powers of Welsh Goats — The Legend of Cadwaladr's 
 Goat. , 
 
 The Gwyllion are female fairies of frightful charac- 
 teristics, who haunt lonely roads in the Welsh 
 mountains, and lead night-wanderers astray. They 
 partake somewhat of the aspect of the Hecate of 
 Greek mythology, who rode on the storm, and was 
 a hag of horrid guise. The Welsh word gwyll is 
 variously used to signify gloom, shade, duskiness, a 
 hag, a witch, a fairy, and a goblin ; but its special 
 application is to these mountain fairies of gloomy 
 and harmful habits, as distinct from the Ellyllon of 
 the forest glades and dingles, which are more often 
 beneficent. The Gwyllion take on a more distinct 
 individuality under another name — as the Ellyllon 
 do in mischievous Puck — and the Old Woman of 
 the Mountain typifies all her kind. She is very 
 carefully described by the Prophet J ones, ^ in the 
 guise in which she haunted Llanhyddel Mountain 
 in Monmouthshire. This was the semblance of a 
 poor old woman, with an oblong four-cornered hat, 
 ash-coloured clothes, her apron thrown across her 
 shoulder, with a pot or wooden can in her hand, 
 such as poor people carry to fetch milk with, always 
 going before the spectator, and sometimes crying 
 * Wow up ! ' This is an English form of a Welsh cry 
 
 * See p. 104. 
 
50 British Goblins. 
 
 of distress, * Wwb ! * or ' Ww-bwb ! ' ^ Those who 
 saw this apparition, whether by night or on a misty 
 day, would be sure to lose their way, though they 
 might be perfectly familiar with the road. Some- 
 times they heard her cry, ' Wow up ! ' when they 
 did not see her. Sometimes when they went out 
 by night, to fetch coal, water, etc., the dwellers near 
 that mountain would hear the cry very close to 
 them, and immediately after they would hear it | 
 afar off, as if it were on the opposite mountain, in 
 the parish of Aberystruth. The popular tradition 
 in that district was that the Old Woman of the 
 Mountain was the spirit of one Juan White, who | 
 lived time out of mind in those parts, and was 
 thought to be a witch ; because the mountains were 
 not haunted in this manner until after Juan White's ' 
 death.^ When people first lost their way, and saw I 
 her before them, they used to hurry forward and try i 
 to catch her, supposing her to be a flesh-and-blood ] 
 woman, who could set them right ; but they never 
 could overtake her, and she on her part never 
 looked back ; so that no man ever saw her face. ; 
 She has also been seen in the Black Mountain in I 
 Breconshire. Robert Williams, of Langattock, Crick- | 
 howel, ' a substantial man and of undoubted veracity,' I 
 tells this tale : As he was travelling one night over 
 part of the Black Mountain, he saw the Old ] 
 Woman, and at the same time found he had lost i 
 his way. Not knowing her to be a spectre he ; 
 hallooed to her to stay for him, but receiving no j 
 answer thought she was deaf. He then hastened j 
 
 1 Pronounced Wooboob. j 
 
 2 * Juan (Shui) White is an old acquaintance of my boyhood,' writes : 
 to me a friend who was born some thirty years ago in Monmouth- j 
 shire. ' A ruined cottage on the Lasgarn hill near Pontypool was \ 
 understood by us boys to have been her house, and there she appeared I 
 at 12 p.m., carrying her head under her arm.' V 
 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 5 1 
 
 his steps, thinking to overtake her, but the faster he 
 
 ran the further he found himself behind her, at 
 
 which he wondered very much, not knowing the 
 
 reason of it. He presently found himself stumbling 
 
 in a marsh, at which discovery his vexation increased ; 
 
 and then he heard the Old Woman laughing at him 
 
 with a weird, uncanny, crackling old laugh. This 
 
 set him to thinking she might be a gwyll ; and 
 
 when he happened to draw out his knife for some 
 
 purpose, and the Old Woman vanished, then he was 
 
 sure of it ; for Welsh ghosts and fairies are afraid 
 
 of a knife. 
 
 II. 
 
 Another account relates that John ap John, of 
 
 Cwm Celyn, set out one morning before daybreak 
 
 to walk to Caerleon Fair. As he ascended Milfre 
 
 Mountain he heard a shouting behind him as if it 
 
 were on Bryn Mawr, which is a part of the Black 
 
 Mountain in Breconshire. Soon after he heard the 
 
 shouting on his left hand, at Bwlch y Llwyn, nearer 
 
 to him, whereupon he was seized with a great fright, 
 
 and began to suspect it was no human voice. He 
 
 had already been wondering, indeed, what any one 
 
 could be doing at that hour in the morning, shouting 
 
 on the mountain side. Still going on, he came 
 
 up higher on the mountain, when he heard the 
 
 shouting just before him, at Gilfach fields, to the 
 
 right — and now he was sure it was the Old Woman 
 
 of the Mountain, who purposed leading him astray. 
 
 Presently he heard behind him the noise of a coach, 
 
 and with it the special cry of the Old Woman of the 
 
 Mountain, viz., ' Wow up ! ' Knowing very well 
 
 that no coach could go that way, and still hearing its 
 
 noise approaching nearer and nearer, he became 
 
 thoroughly terrified, and running out of the road 
 
 threw himself down upon the ground and buried his 
 
 E 
 
52 British Goblins. 
 
 face in the heath, waiting for the phantom to pass. 
 When it was gone out of hearing, he arose ; and 
 hearing the birds singing as the day began to break, 
 also seeing some sheep before him, his fear went 
 quite off. And this, says the Prophet Jones, was 
 ' no profane, immoral man,* but ' an honest, peace- 
 able, knowing man, and a very comely person ' more- 
 over. 
 
 III. 
 
 The exorcism by knife appears to be a Welsh 
 notion ; though there is an old superstition of wide 
 prevalence in Europe that to give to or receive 
 from a friend a knife or a pair of scissors cuts friend- 
 ship. I have even encountered this superstition in 
 America; once an editorial friend at Indianapolis 
 gave me a very handsome pocket-knife, which 
 he refused to part with except at the price of one 
 cent, lawful coin of the realm, asserting that we 
 should become enemies without this precaution. In 
 China, too, special charms are associated with 
 knives, and a knife which has slain a fellow-being is 
 an invaluable possession. In Wales, according to 
 Jones, the Gwyllion often came into the houses of 
 the people at Aberystruth, especially in stormy 
 weather, and the inmates made them welcome — not 
 through any love they bore them, but through fear 
 of the hurts the Gwyllion might inflict if offended 
 — by providing clean water for them, and taking 
 especial care that no knife, or other cutting tool, 
 should be in the corner near the fire, where the 
 fairies would go to sit. ' For want of which care 
 many were hurt by them.' While it was desirable 
 to exorcise them when in the open air, it was not 
 deemed prudent to display an inhospitable spirit 
 towards any member of the fairy world. The cases 
 of successful exorcism by knife are many, and no- 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 53 
 
 thing in the realm of faerie is better authenticated. 
 There was Evan Thomas, who, travelling by night 
 over Bedwellty Mountain, towards the valley of 
 Ebwy Fawr, where his house and estate were, 
 saw the Gwyllion on each side of him, some of them 
 dancing around him in fantastic fashion. He also 
 heard the sound of a bugle-horn winding in the air, 
 and there seemed to be invisible hunters riding by. 
 He then began to be afraid, but recollected his 
 having heard that any person seeing Gwyllion may 
 drive them away by drawing out a knife. So he 
 drew out his knife, and the fairies vanished directly. 
 Now Evan Thomas was * an old gentleman of such 
 strict veracity that he ' on one occasion ' did confess 
 a truth against himself,' when he was 'like to suffer 
 loss ' thereby, and notwithstanding he ' was per- 
 suaded by some not to do it, yet he would persist in 
 telling the truth, to his own hurt.' 
 
 Should we find, in tracing these notions back to 
 their source, that they are connected with Arthur's 
 sword Excalibur ? If so, there again we touch the 
 primeval world. 
 
 Jones says that the Old Woman of the Mountain 
 has, since about 1800, (at least in South Wales,) 
 been driven into close quarters by the light of the 
 Gospel — in fact, that she now haunts mines — or in 
 the preacher's formal words, 'the coal-pits and 
 holes of the earth.' 
 
 IV. 
 
 Among the traditions of the origin of the Gwyllion 
 is one which associates them with goats. Goats are 
 in Wales held in peculiar esteem for their supposed 
 occult intellectual powers. They are believed to 
 be on very good terms with the Tylwyth Teg, and 
 possessed of more knowledge than their appear- 
 ance indicates. It is one of the peculiarities of the 
 
 E 2 
 
54 British Goblins. 
 
 Tylwyth Teg that every Friday night they comb the 
 goats' beards to make them decent for Sunday. 
 Their association with the GwylHon is related in the 
 legend of Cadwaladr's goat : Cadwaladr owned a 
 very handsome goat, named Jenny, of which he 
 was extremely fond ; and which seemed equally 
 fond of him ; but one day, as if the very diawl 
 possessed her, she ran away into the hills, with 
 Cadwaladr tearing after her, half mad with anger 
 and affright. At last his Welsh blood got so hot, 
 as the goat eluded him again and again, that he 
 flung a stone at her, which knocked her over a pre- 
 cipice, and she fell bleating to her doom. Cadwaladr 
 made his way to the foot of the crag ; the goat was 
 dying, but not dead, and licked his hand — which so 
 affected the poor man that he burst into tears, and 
 sitting on the ground took the goat's head on his 
 arm. The moon rose, and still he sat there. 
 Presently he found that the goat had become trans- 
 formed to a beautiful young woman, whose brown 
 eyes, as her head lay on his arm, looked into his in 
 a very disturbing way. * Ah, Cadwaladr,' said she, 
 * have I at last found you ?* Now Cadwaladr had a 
 wife at home, and was much discomfited by this 
 singular circumstance ; but when the goat — yn awr 
 maiden — arose, and putting her black slipper on 
 the end of a moonbeam, held out her hand to him, 
 he put his hand in hers and went with her. As 
 for the hand, though it looked so fair, it felt just like 
 a hoof. They were soon on the top of the highest 
 mountain in Wales, and surrounded by a vapoury 
 company of goats with shadowy horns. These 
 raised a most unearthly bleating about his ears. 
 One, which seemed to be the king, had a voice that 
 sounded above the din as the castle bells of Car- 
 marthen used to do long ago above all the other 
 
The Realm of Faerie. ^^ 
 
 bells in the town. This one rushed at Cadwaladr 
 and butting him in the stomach sent him toppling 
 over a crag as he had sent his poor nannygoat. 
 When he came to himself, after his fall, the morning 
 sun was shining on him and the birds were singing 
 over his head. But he saw no more of either his 
 goat or the fairy she had turned into, from that 
 time to his death. 
 
^6 British Goblins. 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Changelings — The Plentyn-newid — The Cruel Creed of Ignorance 
 regarding Changelings — Modes of Ridding the House of the Fairy- 
 Child — The Legend of the Frugal Meal — Legend of the Place of 
 Strife — Dewi Dal and the Fairies — Prevention of Fairy Kid- 
 napping — Fairies caught in the Act by Mothers— Piety as an 
 Exorcism. 
 
 L 
 
 The Tylwyth Teg have a fatal admiration for lovely- 
 children. Hence the abundant folk-lore concerning 
 infants who have been stolen from their cradles, and 
 a plentyn-newid (change-child — the equivalent of 
 our changeling) left in its place by the Tylwyth 
 Teg. The plentyn-newid has the exact appearance 
 of the stolen infant, at first ; but its aspect speedily 
 alters. It grows ugly of face, shrivelled of form, 
 ill-tempered, wailing, and generally frightful. It 
 bites and strikes, and becomes a terror to the poor 
 mother. Sometimes it is idiotic ; but again it has 
 a supernatural cunning, not only impossible in a 
 mortal babe, but not even appertaining to the oldest 
 heads, on other than fairy shoulders. The veracious 
 Prophet Jones testifies to a case where he himself 
 saw the plentyn-newid — an idiot left in the stead 
 of a son of Edmund John William, of the Church 
 Valley, Monmouthshire. Says Jones : ' I saw him 
 myself. There was something diabolical in his 
 aspect,' but especially in his motions. He ' made 
 very disagreeable screaming sounds,* which used 
 to frighten strangers greatly, but otherwise he was 
 harmless. He was of a ' dark, tawny complexion.' 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 57 
 
 He lived longer than such children usually lived 
 in Wales in that day, (a not altogether pleasant 
 intimation regarding the hard lot to which such 
 children were subjected by their unwilling parents,) 
 reaching the age of ten or twelve years. But 
 the creed of ignorance everywhere as regards 
 changelings is a very cruel one, and reminds us of 
 the tests of the witchcraft trials. Under the 
 pretence of proving whether the objectionable baby 
 is a changeling or not, it is held on a shovel over 
 the fire, or it is bathed in a solution of the fox-glove, 
 which kills it ; a case where this test was applied 
 is said to have actually occurred in Carnarvonshire 
 in 1857. That there is nothing specially Welsh 
 in this, needs not to be pointed out. Apart from 
 the fact that infanticide, like murder, is of no 
 country, similar practices as to changelings have 
 prevailed in most European lands, either to test 
 the child's uncanny quality, or, that being admitted, 
 to drive it away and thus compel the fairies to 
 restore the missing infant. In Denmark the mother 
 heats the oven, and places the changeling on the 
 peel, pretending to put it in ; or whips it severely 
 with a rod ; or throws it into the water. In Sweden 
 they employ similar methods. In Ireland the 
 hot shovel is used. With regard to a changeling 
 which Martin Luther tells of in his ' Colloquia 
 Mensalia/ the great reformer declared to the 
 Prince of Anhalt, that if he were prince of that 
 country he would 'venture homicidium thereon, 
 and would throw it into the River Moldaw.' He 
 admonished the people to pray devoutly to God 
 to take away the devil, which ' was done accordingly ; 
 and the second year after the changeling died.' 
 It is hardly probable that the child was very well 
 fed during the two years that this pious process 
 
58 British Goblins, 
 
 was going on. Its starved ravenous appetite 
 indeed is indicated in Luther's description : It 
 * would eat as much as two threshers, would laugh 
 and be joyful when any evil happened in the house, 
 but would cry and be very sad when all went well.' 
 
 II. 
 
 A story, told in various forms in Wales, preserves 
 a tradition of an exceedingly frugal meal which was 
 employed as a means of banishing a plentyn-newid. 
 M. Villemarqu^, when in Glamorganshire, heard 
 this story, which he found to be precisely the same 
 as a Breton legend, in which the changeling utters a 
 rhymed triad as follows : 
 
 Gweliz vi ken guelet iar wenn, 
 Gweliz mez ken gwelet gwezen. 
 Gweliz mez ha gweliz gwial, 
 Gweliz derven e Koat Brezal, 
 Biskoaz na weliz kemend all. 
 
 In the Glamorgan story the changeling was heard 
 muttering to himself in a cracked voice : * I have 
 seen the acorn before I saw the oak : I have seen 
 the ^gg before I saw the white hen : I have never 
 seen the like of this.' M. Villemarque found it 
 remarkable that these words form in Welsh a rhymed 
 triad nearly the same as in the Breton ballad, thus : 
 
 Gweliz mez ken gwelet derven, 
 Gweliz vi ken gwelet iar wenn, 
 Erioez ne wiliz evelhenn.^ 
 
 Whence he concluded that the story and the rhyme 
 are older than the seventh century, the epoch of the 
 separation of the Britons of Wales and Armorica. 
 And this is the story : A mother whose child had 
 been stolen, and a changeling left in its place, was 
 advised by the Virgin Mary to prepare a meal for 
 
 * Keightley, ' Fairy Mythology,' 437. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 59 
 
 ten farm-servants in an egg-shell, which would make 
 the changeling speak. This she did, and the 
 changeling asked what she was about. She told 
 him. Whereupon he exclaimed, ' A meal for ten, 
 dear mother, in one egg-shell ? ' Then he uttered 
 the exclamation given above, (' I have seen the 
 acorn,' etc.,) and the mother replied, ' You have 
 seen too many things, my son, you shall have a 
 beating.' With this she fell to beating him, the 
 child fell to bawling, and the fairy came and took 
 him away, leaving the stolen child sleeping sweetly 
 in the cradle. It awoke and said, ' Ah, mother, I 
 have been a long time asleep ! ' 
 
 III. 
 
 I have encountered this tale frequently among the 
 Welsh, and it always keeps in the main the likeness 
 of M. Villemarque's story. The following is a 
 nearly literal version as related in Radnorshire 
 (an adjoining county to Montgomeryshire), and 
 which, like most of these tales, is characterised by 
 the non-primitive tendency to give names of 
 localities : 'In the parish of Trefeglwys, near 
 Llanidloes, in the county of Montgomery, there 
 is a little shepherd's cot that is commonly called 
 the Place of Strife, on account of the extraordinary 
 strife that has been there. The inhabitants of the 
 cottage were a man and his wife, and they had born 
 to them twins, whom the woman nursed with great 
 care and tenderness. Some months after, indis- 
 pensable business called the wife to the house of 
 one of her nearest neighbours, yet notwithstanding 
 that she had not far to go, she did not like to leave 
 her children by themselves in their cradle, even 
 for a minute, as her house was solitary, and there 
 were many tales of goblins, or the Tylwyth Teg, 
 
6o British Goblins. 
 
 . 
 
 haunting the neighbourhood. However, she went 
 and returned as soon as she could ;' but on her 
 way back she was * not a Httle terrified at seeing, 
 though it was midday, some of the old elves of the 
 blue petticoat.' She hastened home in great 
 apprehension ; but all was as she had left it, so 
 that her mind was greatly relieved. ' But after 
 some time had passed by, the good people began 
 to wonder that the twins did not grow at all, but 
 still continued little dwarfs. The man would have 
 it that they were not his children ; the woman said 
 they must be their children, and about this arose 
 the great strife between them that gave name to 
 the place. One evening when the woman was 
 very heavy of heart, she determined to go and 
 consult a conjuror, feeling assured that everything 
 was known to him. . . . Now there was to be a 
 harvest soon of the rye and oats, so the wise man 
 said to her, "When you are preparing dinner for the 
 reapers, empty the shell of a hen's ^g^, and boil 
 the shell full of pottage, and take it out through 
 the door as if you meant it for a dinner to the 
 reapers, and then listen what the twins will say ; 
 if you hear the children speaking things above the 
 understanding of children, return into the house, 
 take them and throw them into the waves of Llyn 
 Ebyr, which is very near to you ; but if you don't 
 hear anything remarkable do them no injury." And 
 when the day of the reaping came, the woman did 
 as her adviser had recommended to her; and as 
 she went outside the door to listen she heard one 
 of the children say to the other : 
 
 Gwelais fesen cyn gweled derwen ; 
 Gwelais wy cyn gweled iar ; 
 Erioed ni welais ferwi bwyd i fedel 
 Mewn plisgyn wy iar ! 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 6i 
 
 Acorns before oak I knew ; 
 An ^<gg before a hen ; 
 Never one hen's egg-shell stew- 
 Enough for harvest men ! 
 
 ' On this the mother returned to her house and 
 took the two children and threw them into the Llyn ; 
 and suddenly the goblins in their blue trousers came 
 to save their dwarfs, and the mother had her own 
 children back again ; and thus the strife between 
 her and her husband ended.' ^ 
 
 IV. 
 
 This class of story is not always confined to the 
 case of the plentyn-newid, as I have said. It is 
 applied to the household fairy, when the latter, as in 
 the following instance, appears to have brought a 
 number of extremely noisy friends and acquaintances 
 to share his shelter. Dewi Dal was a farmer, whose 
 house was over-run with fairies, so that he could not 
 sleep of nights for the noise they made. Dewi 
 consulted a wise man of Taiar, who entrusted Dewi's 
 wife to do certain things, which she did carefully, as 
 follows : 'It was the commencement of oat harvest, 
 when Cae Mawr, or the big field, which it took 
 fifteen men to mow in a day, was ripe for the 
 harvesters. '' I will prepare food for the fifteen 
 men who are going to mow Cae Mawr to-morrow," 
 said Eurwallt, the wife, aloud. "Yes, do," replied 
 Dewi, also aloud, so that the fairies might hear, 
 **and see that the food is substantial and sufficient 
 for the hard work before them." Said Eurwallt, 
 ''The fifteen men shall have no reason to complain 
 upon that score. They shall be fed according to our 
 means." Then when evening was come Eurwallt 
 prepared food for the harvesters' sustenance upon 
 the following day. Having procured a sparrow, 
 
 ^ * Cambrian Quarterly,' ii., 86. 
 
62 British Goblins. 
 
 she trussed it like a fowl, and roasted it by the 
 kitchen fire. She then placed some salt in a nut- 
 shell, and set the sparrow and the salt, with a small 
 piece of bread, upon the table, ready for the fifteen 
 men's support while mowing Cae Mawr. So when 
 the fairies beheld the scanty provision made for so 
 many men, they said " Let us quickly depart from 
 this place, for alas ! the means of our hosts are 
 exhausted. Who before this was ever so reduced 
 in circumstances as to serve up a sparrow for the 
 day's food of fifteen men ? " So they departed upon 
 that very night. And Dewi Dal and his family 
 lived, ever afterwards, in comfort and peace.' ^ 
 
 V. 
 
 The Welsh fairies have several times been detected 
 in the act of carrying off a child ; and in these cases, 
 if the mother has been sufficiently energetic in her 
 objections, they have been forced to abandon their 
 purpose. Dazzy Walter, the wife of Abel Walter, 
 of Ebwy Fawr, one night in her husband's absence 
 awoke in her bed and found her baby was not at her 
 side. In great fright she sought for it, and caught 
 it with her hand upon the boards above the bed, 
 which was as far as the fairies had succeeded in 
 carrying it. And Jennet Francis, of that same 
 valley of Ebwy Fawr, one night in bed felt her 
 infant son being taken from her arms ; whereupon 
 she screamed and hung on, and, as she phrased it, 
 ' God and me were too hard for them.' This son 
 subsequently grew up and became a famous preacher 
 of the gospel. 
 
 There are special exorcisms and preventive mea- 
 sures to Interfere with the fairies in their quest of 
 infants. The most significant of these, throughout 
 
 1 Rev. T. R. Lloyd (Estyn), in ^' The Principality.' 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 
 
 63 
 
 Cambria, is a general habit of piety. Any pious 
 exclamation has value as an exorcism ; but it will 
 not serve as a preventive. To this end you must 
 put a knife in the child's cradle when you leave it 
 
 JENNET FRANCIS STRUGGLES WITH THE 
 FAIRIES FOR HER BABY. 
 
 alone, or you must lay 
 a pair of tongs across 
 the cradle. But the 
 best preventive is bap- 
 tism ; it is usually the 
 unbaptised infant that 
 is stolen. So in Friesland, Germany, it is considered 
 a protection against the fairies who deal in change- 
 lings, to lay a Bible under the child's pillow. In 
 Thuringia it is deemed an infallible preventive to 
 hang the father's breeches against the wall. Anything 
 
64 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 more trivial than this, as a matter for the considera- 
 tion of grave and scholarly men, one could hardly 
 imagine ; but it is in precisely these trivial or seem- 
 ingly trivial details that the student of comparative 
 folk-lore finds his most extraordinary indices. Such 
 a superstition in isolation would suggest nothing ; but 
 it is found again in Scotland,^ and other countries, 
 including China, where ' a pair of the trousers of 
 the child's father are put on the frame of the bed- 
 stead in such a way that the waist shall hang down- 
 ward or be lower than the legs. On the trousers 
 is stuck a piece of red paper, having four words 
 written upon it intimating that all unfavourable 
 influences are to go into the trousers instead of 
 afflicting the babe.'^ 
 
 ^ Henderson, * Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties,' 6. 
 2 See DooHttle's ' Social Life of the Chinese.' 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Living with the Tylwyth Teg — The Tale of EHdurus — Shui Rhys and 
 the Fairies — St. Dogmell's Parish, Pembrokeshire — Dancing with 
 the Ellyllon — The Legend of Rhys and Llewellyn — Death from 
 joining in the Fairy Reel — Legend of the Bush of Heaven — The 
 Forest of the Magic Yew — The Tale of Twm and I ago — Taffy ap 
 Sion, a Legend of Pencader — The Traditions of Pant Shon Shen- 
 kin — Tudur of Llangollen ; the Legend of Nant yr Ellyllon — Polly 
 Williams and the Trefethin Elves — The Fairies of Frennifawr- — 
 Curiosity Tales — The Fiend Master — lago ap Dewi — The Original 
 of Rip van Winkle. 
 
 I. 
 
 Closely akin to the subject of changelings is that of 
 adults or well-grown children being led away to live 
 with the Tylwyth Teg. In this field the Welsh 
 traditions are innumerable, and deal not only with 
 the last century or two, but distinctly with the 
 middle ages. Famed among British goblins are' 
 those fairies which are immortalised in the Tale of 
 Elidurus. This tale was written in Latin by Giraldus 
 Cambrensis (as he called himself, after the pedantic 
 fashion of his day), a Welshman, born at Pembroke 
 Castle, and a hearty admirer of everything Welsh, 
 himself included. He was beyond doubt a man of 
 genius, and of profound learning. In 1188 he made 
 a tour through Wales, in the interest of the crusade 
 then in contemplation, and afterwards wrote his 
 book — a fascinating picture of manners and customs 
 in Wales in the twelfth century. 
 
 The scene of the tale is that Vale of Neath, already 
 named as a famous centre of fairyland. Elidurus, 
 when a youth of twelve years, ' in order to avoid the 
 severity of his preceptor,' ran away from school, 
 
66 British Goblins. 
 
 * and concealed himself under the hollow bank of a 
 river/ After he had fasted in that situation for 
 two days, ' two little men of pigmy stature appeared 
 to him,' and said, ' If you will go with us, we will 
 lead you into a country full of delights and sports.' 
 Assenting, Elidurus rose up and * followed his guides 
 through a path at first subterraneous and dark, into 
 a most beautiful country, but obscure and not illumi- 
 nated with the full light of the sun.' All the days 
 in that country ' were cloudy, and the nights ex- 
 tremely dark.' The boy was brought before the 
 king of the strange little people, and introduced to 
 him in the presence of his Court. Having examined 
 Elidurus for a long time, the king delivered him to 
 his son, that prince being then a boy. The men of 
 this country, though of the smallest stature, were 
 very well proportioned, fair-complexioned, and wore 
 long hair. ' They had horses and greyhounds adapted 
 to their size. They neither ate flesh nor fish, but 
 lived on milk-diet, made up into messes with saffron. 
 As often as they returned from our hemisphere, they 
 reprobated our ambition, infidelities, and inconstan- 
 cies ; and though they had no form of public worship, 
 were, it seems, strict lovers and reverers of truth. 
 The boy frequently returned to our hemisphere, 
 sometimes by the way he had gone, sometimes by 
 others ; at first in company, and afterwards alone ; 
 and made himself known only to his mother, to 
 whom he described what he had seen. Being desired 
 by her to bring her a present of gold, with which 
 that country abounded, he stole, whilst at play with 
 the king's son, a golden ball with which he used to 
 divert himself, and brought it in haste to his mother, 
 but not unpursued ; for, as he entered the house of 
 his father, he stumbled at the threshold ;' the ball 
 fell, ' and two pigmies seizing it, departed, showing 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 67 
 
 the boy every mark of contempt and derision. Not- 
 withstanding every attempt for the space of a year, 
 he never again could find the track to the subter- 
 raneous passage.' He had made himself acquainted 
 with the language of his late hosts, ' which was very 
 conformable to the Greek idiom. When they asked 
 for water, they said Udor udorum ; when they want 
 salt, they say Halgein tidortim! ^ 
 
 II. 
 
 Exactly similar to this medieval legend in spirit, 
 although differing widely in detail, is the modern 
 story of Shui Rhys, told to me by a peasant in 
 Cardiganshire. Shui was a beautiful girl of seven- 
 teen, tall and fair, with a skin like ivory, hair black 
 and curling, and eyes of dark velvet. She was but 
 a poor farmer's daughter, notwithstanding her beauty, 
 and among her duties was that of driving up the 
 cows for the milking. Over this work she used to 
 loiter sadly, to pick flowers by the way, or chase 
 the butterflies, or amuse herself in any agreeable 
 manner that fortune offered. For her loitering she 
 was often chided ; indeed, people said Shui's mother 
 was far too sharp with the girl, and that it was for 
 no good the mother had so bitter a tongue. After 
 all the girl meant no harm, they said. But when 
 one night Shui never came home till bed-time, 
 leaving the cows to care for themselves, dame Rhys 
 took the girl to task as she never had done before. 
 ' Ysgwaetheroedd, mami,' said Shui, ' I couldn't 
 help it ; it was the Tylwyth Teg.' The dame was 
 aghast at this, but she could not answer it — for well 
 she knew the Tylwyth Teg were often seen in the 
 woods of Cardigan. Shui was at first shy about 
 talking of the fairies, but finally confessed they were 
 
 ^ See Sir R. C. Hoare's Translation of Giraldus. 
 
 F 
 
68 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 little men In green coats, who danced around her 
 and made music on their tiny harps ; and they 
 talked to her in language too beautiful to be re- 
 
 SHUI RHYS AND THE TYLVVYTH TEG. 
 
 peated ; indeed she couldn't understand the words, 
 though she knew well enough what the fairies 
 meant. Many a time after that Shui was late ; 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 69 
 
 but now nobody chided her, for fear of offending 
 the fairies. At last one night Shui did not come 
 home at all. In alarm the woods were searched ; 
 there was no sign of her ; and never was she seen 
 in Cardigan again. Her mother watched in the 
 fields on the Teir-nos Ysprydion, or three nights of 
 the year when goblins are sure to be abroad ; but 
 Shui never returned. Once indeed there came back 
 to the neighbourhood a wild rumour that Shui Rhys 
 had been seen in a great city in a foreign land — 
 Paris, perhaps, or London, who knows ? but this 
 tale was in no way injurious to the sad belief that 
 the fairies had carried her off; they might take her 
 to those well-known centres of idle and sinful 
 pleasure, as well as to any other place. 
 
 III. 
 
 An old man who died in St. Dogmells parish, 
 Pembrokeshire, a short time since (viz., in i860), 
 nearly a hundred years old, used to say that that 
 whole neighbourhood was considered * fou.' It was 
 a common experience for men to be led astray there 
 all night, and after marvellous adventures and un- 
 tellable trampings, which seemed as if they would 
 be endless, to find when day broke that they were 
 close to their own homes. In one case, a man who 
 was led astray chanced to have with him a number 
 of hoop-rods, and as he wandered about under the 
 influence of the deluding phantom, he was clever 
 enough to drop the rods one by one, so that next 
 day he might trace his journeyings. When day- 
 light came, and the search for the hoop-rods was 
 entered on, it was found they were scattered over 
 miles upon miles of country. Another time, a St. 
 Dogmell's fisherman was returning home from a 
 wedding at Moelgrove, and it being very dark, the 
 
 F 2 
 
70 British Goblins. 
 
 fairies led him astray, but after a few hours he had 
 the good luck (which Sir John Franklin might 
 have envied him) to ' discover the North Pole,' and 
 by this beacon he was able to steer his staggering 
 barque to the safe port of his own threshold. It 
 is even gravely stated that a severe and dignified 
 clerical person, no longer in the frisky time of life, 
 but advanced in years, was one night forced to join 
 in the magic dance of St. Dogmell's, and keep it 
 up till nearly daybreak. Specific details in this 
 instance are wanting ; but it was no doubt the 
 Ellyllon who led all these folk astray, and put a cap 
 of oblivion on their heads, which prevented them 
 from ever telling their adventures clearly. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Dancing and music play a highly important part 
 in stories of this class. The Welsh fairies are most 
 often dancing together when seen. They seek to 
 entice mortals to dance with them, and when any- 
 one is drawn to do so, it is more than probable 
 he will not return to his friends for a long time. 
 Edmund William Rees, of Aberystruth, was thus 
 drawn away by the fairies, and came back at the 
 year's end, looking very bad. But he could not 
 give a very clear account of what he had been 
 about, only said he had been dancing. This was a 
 common thing in these cases. Either they were 
 not able to, or they dared not, talk about their expe- 
 riences. 
 
 Two farm servants named Rhys and Llewellyn 
 were one evening at twilight returning home from 
 their work, when Rhys cried out that he heard the 
 fairy music. Llewellyn could hear nothing, but 
 Rhys said it was a tune to which he had danced a 
 hundred times, and would again, and at once. ' Go 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 71 
 
 on,' says he, ' and I'll soon catch you up again.' 
 Llewellyn objected, but Rhys stopped to hear no 
 more ; he bounded away and left Llewellyn to go 
 home alone, which he did, believing Rhys had 
 merely gone off on a spree, and would come home 
 drunk before morning. But the morning came, and 
 no Rhys. In vain search was made, still no Rhys. 
 Time passed on ; days grew into months ; and at 
 last suspicion fell on Llewellyn, that he had murdered 
 Rhys. He was put in prison. A farmer learned 
 in fairy-lore, suspecting how it was, proposed that 
 he and a company of neighbours should go with 
 poor Llewellyn to the spot where he had last seen 
 Rhys. Agreed. Arrived at the spot, ' Hush,' cried 
 Llewellyn, ' I hear music ! I hear the sweet music 
 of the harps ! ' They all listened, but could hear 
 nothing. ' Put your foot on mine, David,' says 
 Llewellyn to one of the company ; his own foot 
 was on the outward edge of a fairy ring as he 
 spoke. David put his foot on Llewellyn's, and so 
 did they all, one after another ; and then they heard 
 the sound of many harps, and saw within a circle 
 about twenty feet across, great numbers of little 
 people dancing round and round. And there was 
 Rhys, dancing away like a madman ! As he came 
 whirling by, Llewellyn caught him by his smock- 
 frock and pulled him out of the circle. ' Where 
 are the horses ? where are the horses ? ' cried 
 Rhys in an excited manner. ' Horses, indeed ! ' 
 sneered Llewellyn, in great disgust ; ' wfft ! go home. 
 Horses ! ' But Rhys was for dancing longer, de- 
 claring he had not been there five minutes. ' You've 
 been there,' says Llewellyn, ' long enough to come 
 near getting me hanged, anyhow.' They got him 
 home finally, but he was never the same man 
 again, and soon after he died. 
 
72 British Goblins, 
 
 V. 
 
 In the great majority of these stories the hero 
 dies immediately after his release from the thraldom 
 of the fairies — in some cases with a suddenness and 
 a completeness of obliteration as appalling as 
 dramatic. The following story, well known in Car- 
 marthenshire, presents this detail with much force : 
 There was a certain farmer who, while going early 
 one morning to fetch his horses from the pasture, 
 heard harps playing. Looking carefully about for 
 the source of this music, he presently saw a company 
 of Tylwyth Teg footing it merrily in a corelw. 
 Resolving to join their dance and cultivate their 
 acquaintance, the farmer stepped into the fairy ring. 
 Never had man his resolution more thoroughly* 
 carried out, for having once begun the reel he was 
 not allowed to finish it till years had elapsed. Even 
 then he might not have been released, had it not 
 chanced that a man one day passed by the lonely 
 spot, so close to the ring that he saw the farmer 
 dancing. ' Duw catto ni ! ' cried the man, ' God 
 save us ! but this is a merry one. Hai, holo ! man, 
 what, in Heaven's name, makes you so lively?' 
 This question, in which the name of Heaven was 
 uttered, broke the spell which rested on the farmer, 
 who spoke like one in a dream : ' O dyn ! ' cried 
 he, * what's become of the horses ? ' Then he 
 stepped from the fairy circle and instantly crumbled 
 away and mingled his dust with the earth. 
 
 A similar tale is told in Carnarvon, but with the 
 fairy dance omitted and a pious character substituted, 
 which helps to indicate the antiquity of this class of 
 legend, by showing that it was one of the monkish 
 adoptions of an earlier story. Near Clynog, in Car- 
 narvonshire, there is a place called Llwyn y Nef, 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 73 
 
 (the Bush of Heaven,) which thus received its name : 
 In Clynog lived a monk of most devout Hfe, who 
 longed to be taken to heaven. One evening, whilst 
 walking without the monastery by the riverside, he 
 sat down under a green tree and fell into a deep 
 reverie, which ended in sleep ; and he slept for 
 thousands of years. At last he heard a voice calling 
 unto him, ' Sleeper, awake and be up.' He awoke. 
 All was strange to him except the old monastery, 
 which still looked down upon the river. He went 
 to the monastery, and was made much of. He 
 asked for a bed to rest himself on and got it. Next 
 morning when the brethren sought him, they found 
 nothing in the bed but a handful of ashes.^ 
 
 So in the monkish tale of the five saints, who 
 sleep in the cave of Caio, reappears the legend of 
 Arthur's sleeping warriors under Craig-y-Ddinas. 
 
 VI. 
 
 A tradition is current in Mathavarn, in the parish 
 of Llanwrin, and the Cantref of Cyfeillioc, con- 
 cerning a certain wood called Ffridd yr Ywen, (the 
 Forest of the Yew,) that it is so called on account of 
 a magical yew-tree which grows exactly in the 
 middle of the forest. Under that tree there is a 
 fairy circle called The Dancing Place of the Goblin. 
 There are several fairy circles in the Forest of the 
 Yew, but the one under the yew-tree in the middle 
 has this legend connected with it : Many years 
 ago, two farm-servants, whose names were Twm 
 and I ago, went out one day to work in the Forest 
 of the Yew. Early in the afternoon the country 
 became covered with so dense a mist that the 
 youths thought the sun was setting, and they 
 prepared to go home ; but when they came to the 
 
 1 'Cymru Fu,' i88. 
 
74 British Goblins. 
 
 yew-tree in the middle of the forest, suddenly they \ 
 found all light around them. They now thought it i 
 too early to go home, and concluded to lie down ! 
 under the yew-tree and have a nap. By-and-by 
 Twm awoke, to find his companion gone. He was 
 much surprised at this, but concluded I ago had 
 gone to the village on an errand of which they had 
 been speaking before they fell asleep. So Twm 
 went home, and to all inquiries concerning I ago, 
 he answered, ' Gone to the cobbler's in the village/ 
 
 PLUCKED FROM THE FAIRY CIRCLE. 
 
 But lago was still absent next morning, and now 
 Twm was cross-questioned severely as to what had 
 become of his fellow- servant. Then he confessed 
 that they had fallen asleep under the yew where 
 the fairy circle was, and from that moment he had 
 seen nothing more of lago. They searched the 
 whole forest over, and the whole country round, for 
 many days, and finally Twm went to a gwr cyfar- 
 wydd (or conjuror), a common trade in those days, 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 75 
 
 says the legend. The conjuror gave him this advice : 
 ' Go to the same place where you and the lad slept. 
 Go there exactly a year after the boy was lost. Let 
 it be on the same day of the year and at the same 
 time of the day ; but take care that you do not step 
 inside the fairy ring. Stand on the border of the 
 green circle you saw there, and the boy will come 
 out with many of the goblins to dance. When you 
 see him so near to you that you may take hold of 
 him, snatch him out of the ring as quickly as you can.' 
 These instructions were obeyed. I ago appeared, 
 dancing in the ring with the Tylwyth Teg, and was 
 promptly plucked forth. ' Duw ! Duw ! ' cried Tom, 
 ' how wan and pale you look ! And don't you feel 
 hungry too?' 'No,' said the boy, 'and if I did, 
 have I not here in my wallet the remains of my 
 dinner that I had before I fell asleep ?' But when 
 he looked in his wallet, the food was not there. 
 ' Well, it must be time to go home,' he said, with a 
 sigh ; for he did not know that a year had passed 
 by. His look was like a skeleton, and as soon as 
 he had tasted food, he mouldered away. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Taffy ap Sion, the shoemaker's son, living near 
 Pencader, Carmarthenshire, was a lad who many 
 years ago entered the fairy circle on the mountain 
 hard by there, and having danced a few minutes, 
 as he supposed, chanced to step out. He was then 
 astonished to find that the scene which had been 
 so familiar was now quite strange to him. Here 
 were roads and houses he had never seen, and in 
 place of his father's humble cottage there now stood 
 a fine stone farmhouse. About him were lovely 
 cultivated fields instead of the barren mountain he 
 was acccustomed to. ' Ah,' thought he, ' this is 
 
76 British Goblins, 
 
 . 
 
 some fairy trick to deceive my eyes. It is not ten 
 minutes since I stepped into that circle, and now 
 when I step out they have built my father a new 
 house ! Well, I only hope it is real ; anyhow, TU 
 go and see.' So he started off by a path he 
 knew instinctively, and suddenly struck against a 
 very solid hedge. He rubbed his eyes, felt the 
 hedge with his fingers, scratched his head, felt the 
 hedge again, ran a thorn into his fingers and cried 1 
 out, * Wbwb ! this is no fairy hedge anyhow, nor, \ 
 from the age of the thorns, was it grown in a few \ 
 minutes' time.' So he climbed over it and walked j 
 on. ' Here was I born,' said he, as he entered the 
 farmyard, staring wildly about him, ' and not a thing j 
 here do I know ! ' His mystification was complete 
 when there came bounding towards him a huge dog, \ 
 barking furiously. ' What dog is this ? Get out, ' 
 you ugly brute ! Don't you know I'm master here ? 1 
 — at least, when mother's from home, for father ,1 
 don't count.' But the dog only barked the harder. 
 ' Surely,' muttered Taffy to himself, ' I have lost 
 my road and am wandering through some unknown j 
 neighbourhood ; but no, yonder is the Careg Hir ! ' ; 
 and he stood staring at the well-known erect stone \ 
 thus called, which still stands on the mountain south \ 
 of Pencader, and is supposed to have been placed j 
 there in ancient times to commemorate a victory. \ 
 As Taffy stood thus looking at the Long Stone, he { 
 heard footsteps behind him, and turning, beheld the \ 
 occupant of the farmhouse, who had come out to i 
 see why his dog was barking. Poor Taffy was so 1 
 ragged and wan that the farmer's Welsh heart was ' 
 at once stirred to sympathy. * Who are you, poor ' ! 
 man ? ' he asked. To which Taffy answered, ' I 
 know who I was, but I do not know who I am now. \ 
 * I was the son of a shoemaker who lived in this j 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 77 
 
 place, this morning ; for that rock, though it is 
 changed a little, I know too well.' ' Poor fellow,' 
 said the farmer, * you have lost your senses. This 
 house was built by my great-grandfather, repaired by 
 my grandfather ; and that part there, which seems 
 newly built, was done about three years ago at 
 my expense. You must be deranged, or have missed 
 the road ; but come in and refresh yourself with 
 some victuals, and rest.' Taffy was half persuaded 
 that he had overslept himself and lost his road, but 
 looking back he saw the rock before mentioned, 
 and exclaimed, * It is but an hour since I was on 
 yonder rock robbing a hawk's nest.' ' Where have 
 you been since ? ' Taffy related his adventure. 
 ' Ah,' quoth the farmer, ' I see how it is — you have 
 been with the fairies. Pray, who was your father ? ' 
 ' Sion Evan y Crydd o Glanrhyd,' was the answer. 
 
 * I never heard of such a man,' said the farmer, 
 shaking his head, ' nor of such a place as Glanrhyd, 
 either : but no matter, after you have taken a little 
 food we will step down to Catti Shon, at Pencader, 
 who will probably be able to tell us something.' 
 With this he beckoned Taffy to follow him, and 
 walked on ; but hearing behind him the sound of 
 footsteps growing weaker and weaker, he turned 
 round, when to his horror he beheld the poor fellow 
 crumble in an instant to about a thimbleful of black 
 ashes. The farmer, though much terrified at this 
 sight, preserved his calmness sufficiently to go at 
 once and see old Catti, the aged crone he had 
 referred to, who lived at Pencader, near by. He 
 found her crouching over a fire of faggots, trying to 
 warm her old bones. * And how do you do the day, 
 Catti Shon ? ' asked the farmer. ' Ah,' said old Catti, 
 
 * I'm wonderful well, farmer, considering how old I 
 am.' ' Yes, yes, you're very old. Now, since you 
 
78 British Goblins. 
 
 are so old, let me ask you — do you remember any- 
 thing about Sion y Crydd o Glanrhyd ? Was there 
 ever such a man, do you know ? ' ' Slon Glanrhyd ? 
 O ! I have some faint recollection of hearing my 
 grandfather, old Evan Shenkin, Penferdir, relate that 
 Sion's son was lost one morning, and they never 
 heard of him afterwards, so that it was said he was 
 taken by the fairies. His fathers cot stood some 
 where near your house.' ' Were there many fairies 
 about at that time ? ' asked the farmer. ' O yes ; 
 they were often seen on yonder hill, and I was told 
 they were lately seen in Pant Shon Shenkin, eating 
 flummery out of egg-shells, which they had stolen 
 from a farm hard by.' * Dir anwyl fi ! ' cried the 
 farmer ; ' dear me ! I recollect now — I saw them 
 myself ! ' 
 
 Pant Shon^ Shenkin, it must be here remarked, 
 was a famous place for the Carmarthenshire fairies. 
 The traditions thereabout respecting them are 
 numerous. Among the strangest is, that a woman 
 once actually caught a fairy on the mountain near 
 Pant Shon Shenkin, and that it remained long in 
 her custody, retaining still the same height and size, 
 but at last made its escape. 
 
 Another curious tradition relates that early one 
 Easter Monday, when the parishioners of Pencarreg 
 and Caio were met to play at football, they saw a 
 numerous company of Tylwyth Teg dancing. Being 
 so many in number, the young men were not 
 intimidated at all, but proceeded in a body towards 
 the puny tribe, who^ perceiving them, removed to 
 
 ^ Sion and Shon are the same word, just as are our Smith and 
 Smyth. Where there are so few personal names as in Wales, while 
 1 would not myself change a single letter in order to render the 
 actors in a tale more distinct, it is perhaps as well to encourage 
 any eccentricities of spelling which we are so lucky as to find on the 
 spot. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 79 
 
 another place. The young men followed, whereupon 
 the little folks suddenly appeared dancing at the 
 first place. Seeing this, the men divided and 
 surrounded them, when they immediately became 
 invisible, and were never more seen there. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Ignorance of what transpired in the fairy circle 
 is not an invariable feature of legends like those we 
 have been observing. In the story of Tudur of 
 Llangollen, preserved by several old Welsh writers, 
 the hero's experiences are given with much liveliness 
 of detail. The scene of this tale is a hollow near 
 Llangollen, on the mountain side half-way up to the 
 ruins of Dinas Bran Castle, which hollow is to this 
 day called Nant yr EUyllon. It obtained its name, 
 according to tradition, in this wise : A young man, 
 called Tudur ap Einion Gloff, used in old times to 
 pasture his master's sheep in that hollow. One sum- 
 mer's night, when Tudur was preparing to return 
 to the lowlands with his woolly charge, there sud- 
 denly appeared, perched upon a stone near him, * a 
 little man in moss breeches with a fiddle under his 
 arm. He was the tiniest wee specimen of humanity 
 imaginable. His coat was made of birch leaves, and 
 he wore upon his head a helmet which consisted of 
 a gorse flower, while his feet were encased in pumps 
 made of beetle's wings. He ran his fingers over 
 his instrument, and the music made Tudur's hair 
 stand on end. " Nos da'ch', nos da'ch'," said the little 
 man, which means '' Good-night, good-night to you," 
 in English. '' Ac i chwithau," replied Tudur ; which 
 again, in English, means "■ The same to you." Then 
 continued the little man, " You are fond of dancing, 
 Tudur ; and if you but tarry awhile you shall behold 
 some of the best dancers in Wales, and I am the 
 
8o British Goblins. 
 
 musician." Quoth Tudur, "Then where is your 
 harp ? A Welshman even cannot dance without a 
 harp." '' Oh," said the Httle man, '' I can discourse 
 better dance music upon my fiddle." " Is it a fiddle 
 you call that stringed wooden spoon in your hand ? " 
 asked Tudur, for he had never seen such an instru- 
 ment before. And now Tudur beheld through the 
 dusk hundreds of pretty little sprites converging 
 towards the spot where they stood, from all parts 
 of the mountain. Some were dressed in white, and 
 some in blue, and some in pink, and some carried 
 glow-worms in their hands for torches. And so 
 lightly did they tread that not a blade nor a flower 
 was crushed beneath their weight, and every one 
 made a curtsey or a bow to Tudur as they passed, 
 and Tudur doffed his cap and moved to them in 
 return. Presently the little minstrel drew his bow 
 across the strings of his instrument, and the music 
 produced was so enchanting that Tudur stood trans- 
 fixed to the spot.' At the sound of the sweet melody, 
 the Tylwyth Teg ranged themselves in groups, and 
 began to dance. Now of all the dancing Tudur 
 had ever seen, none was to be compared to that 
 he saw at this moment going on. He could not 
 help keeping time with his hands and feet to the 
 merry music, but he dared not join in the dance, ' for 
 he thought within himself that to dance on a 
 mountain at night in strange company, to perhaps 
 the devil's fiddle, might not be the most direct route 
 to heaven.' But at last he found there was no resist- 
 ing this bewitching strain, joined to the sight of 
 the capering Ellyllon. ' '* Now for it, then," screamed 
 Tudur, as he pitched his cap into the air under the 
 excitement of delight. *' Play away, old devil ; 
 brimstone and water, if you like ! " No sooner were 
 the words uttered than everything underwent a 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 8 1 
 
 change. The gorse-blossom cap vanished from the 
 minstrel's head, and a pair of goat's horns branched 
 out instead. His face turned as black as soot ; a 
 long tail grew out of his leafy coat, while cloven 
 feet replaced the beetle-wing pumps. Tudur's heart 
 was heavy, but his heels were light. Horror was 
 in his bosom, but the impetus of motion was in his 
 feet. The fairies changed into a variety of forms. 
 Some became goats, and some became dogs, some 
 assumed the shape of foxes, and others that of cats. 
 It was the strangest crew that ever surrounded a 
 human being. The dance became at last so furious 
 that Tudur could not distinctly make out the forms 
 of the dancers. They reeled around him with such 
 rapidity that they almost resembled a wheel of fire. 
 Still Tudur danced on. He could not stop, the 
 devil's fiddle was too much for him, as the figure 
 with the goat's horns kept pouring it out with 
 unceasing vigour, and Tudur kept reeling around in 
 spite of himself. Next day Tudur's master ascended 
 the mountain in search of the lost shepherd and his 
 sheep. He found the sheep all right at the foot of 
 the Fron, but fancy his astonishment when, ascend- 
 ing higher, he saw Tudur spinning like mad in the 
 middle of the basin now known as Nant yr Ellyllon.' 
 Some pious words of the master broke the charm, 
 and restored Tudur to his home in Llangollen, 
 where he told his adventures with great gusto for 
 
 many years afterwards.^ 
 
 IX. 
 
 Polly Williams, a good dame who was born in 
 Trefethin parish, and lived at the Ship Inn, at 
 Pontypool, Monmouthshire, was wont to relate that, 
 when a child, she danced with the Tylwyth Teg. 
 The first time was one day while coming home from 
 
 1 Rev. T. R. Lloyd (Estyn), in ' The Principality.' 
 
82 British Goblins. 
 
 school. She saw the fairies dancing in a pleasant, 
 dry place, under a crab-tree, and, thinking they 
 were children like herself, went to them, when they 
 induced her to dance with them. She brought 
 them into an empty barn and they danced there 
 together. After that, during three or four years, 
 she often met and danced with them, when going to 
 or coming from school. She never could hear the 
 sound of their feet, and having come to know that 
 they were fairies, took off her ffollachau (clogs), so 
 that she, too, might make no noise, fearful that the 
 clattering of her clog-shodden feet was displeasing 
 to them. They were all dressed in blue and green 
 aprons, and, though they were so small, she could 
 see by their mature faces that they were no children. 
 Once when she came home barefoot, after dancing 
 with the fairies, she was chided for going to school 
 in that condition ; but she held her tongue about the 
 fairies, for fear of trouble, and never told of them 
 till after she grew up. She gave over going with 
 them to dance, however, after three or four years, 
 and this displeased them. They tried to coax her 
 back to them, and, as she would not come, hurt her 
 by dislocating 'one of her walking members,'^ 
 which, as a euphemism for legs, surpasses anything 
 charged against American prudery. 
 
 X. 
 
 Contrasting strongly with this matter-of-fact 
 account of a modern witness is the glowing descrip- 
 tion of fairy life contained in the legend of the 
 Fairies of Frennifawr. About ten miles south of 
 Cardigan is the Pembrokeshire mountain called 
 Frennifawr, which is the scene of this tale : A 
 shepherd's lad was tending his sheep on the small 
 
 ^ Jones, ' Apparitions.' 
 
The Realm of Faerie, 83 
 
 mountains called Frennifach one fine morning in 
 June. Looking to the top of Frennifawr to note 
 what way the fog hung — for if the fog on that 
 mountain hangs on the Pembrokeshire side, there 
 will be fair weather, if on the Cardigan side, storm 
 — he saw the Tylwyth Teg, in appearance like 
 tiny soldiers, dancing in a ring. He set out for 
 the scene of revelry, and soon drew near the ring 
 where, in a gay company of males and females, they 
 were footing it to the music of the harp. Never 
 had he seen such handsome people, nor any so 
 enchantingly cheerful. They beckoned him with 
 laughing faces to join them as they leaned backward 
 almost falling, whirling round and round with joined 
 hands. Those who were dancing never swerved from 
 the perfect circle ; but some were clambering over the 
 old cromlech, and others chasing each other with sur- 
 prising swiftness and the greatest glee. Still others 
 rode about on small white horses of the most beautiful 
 form ; these riders were little ladies, and their dresses 
 were indescribably elegant, surpassing the sun in 
 radiance, and varied in colour, some being of bright 
 whiteness, others the most vivid scarlet. The males 
 wore red tripled caps, and the ladies a light fantastic 
 headdress which waved in the wind. All this was 
 in silence, for the shepherd could not hear the harps, 
 though he saw them. But now he drew nearer to 
 the circle, and finally ventured to put his foot in the 
 magic ring. The instant he did this, his ears were 
 charmed with strains of the most melodious music 
 he had ever heard. Moved with the transports this 
 seductive harmony produced in him, he stepped 
 fully into the ring. He was no sooner in than he 
 found himself in a palace glittering with gold and 
 pearls. Every form of beauty surrounded him, and 
 every variety of pleasure was offered him. He was 
 
84 British Goblins. 
 
 made free to range whither he would, and his every 
 movement was waited on by young women of the 
 most matchless loveliness. And no tongue can tell 
 the joys of feasting that were his ! Instead of the 
 tatws-a-llaeth (potatoes and butter-milk) to which 
 he had hitherto been accustomed, here were birds 
 and meats of every choice description, served on 
 plates of silver. Instead of home-brewed cwrw, the 
 only bacchic beverage he had ever tasted in real life, 
 here were red and yellow wines of wondrous 
 enjoyableness, brought in golden goblets richly 
 inlaid with gems. The waiters were the most 
 beautiful virgins, and everything was in abundance. 
 There was but one restriction on his freedom : he 
 must not drink, on any consideration, from a certain 
 well In the garden, in which swam fishes of every 
 colour. Including the colour of gold. Each day new 
 joys were provided for his amusement, new scenes 
 of beauty were unfolded to him, new faces presented 
 themselves, more lovely if possible than those he 
 had before encountered. Everything was done to 
 charm him ; but one day all his happiness fled in an 
 instant. Possessing every joy that mortal could 
 desire, he wanted the one thing forbidden — like Eve 
 in the garden, like Fatima in the castle ; curiosity 
 undid him. He plunged his hand into the well : 
 the fishes all disappeared instantly. He put the 
 water to his mouth : a confused shriek ran through 
 the garden. He drank : the palace and all vanished 
 from his sight, and he stood shivering in the night 
 air, alone on the mountain, in the very place where 
 he had first entered the ring.^ 
 
 * * Cambrian Superstitions,' 148. (This is a small collection of 
 Welsh stories printed at Tipton in 1831, and now rare ; its author was 
 W. Howells, a lad of nineteen, and his work was drawn out by a small 
 prize offered by Archdeacon Beynon through a Carmarthen newspaper 
 in 1830. Its Enghsh requires rehandling, but its material is of value.) 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 
 
 85 
 
 XI. 
 
 Comment on the resemblances borne by these 
 tales to the more famous legends of other lands, is 
 perhaps unnecessary ; they will occur to every reader 
 
 THE FATAL DRAUGHT. 
 
 who is at all familiar with the subject of folk-lore. 
 To those who are not, it is sufficient to say that these 
 resemblances exist, and afford still further testimony 
 to the common origin of such tales in a remote past. 
 The legend last given embodies the curiosity feature 
 which is familiar through the story of Bluebeard, 
 
 G 2 
 
86 British Goblins. 
 
 but has its root in the story of Psyche. She was 
 forbidden to look upon her husband Eros, the god 
 of love ; she disobeyed the injunction, and the 
 beautiful palace in which she had dwelt with 
 him vanished in an instant, leaving her alone in a 
 desolate spot. Ages older than the Psyche story, 
 however, is the legend embodying the original 
 Aryan myth. The drop of oil which falls upon the 
 shoulder of the sleeping prince and wakes him, 
 revealing Psyche^s curiosity and destroying her hap- 
 piness, is paralleled among the Welsh by the magic 
 ointment in the legend of the Fiend Master. This 
 legend, it may be premised, is also familiar to both 
 France and Germany, where its details differ but 
 little from those here given : A respectable young 
 Welshwoman of the working class, who lived with 
 her parents, went one day to a hiring fair. Here she 
 ' was addressed by a very noble-looking gentleman 
 all in black, who asked her if she would be a nurse- 
 maid, and undertake the management of his chil- 
 dren. She replied that she had no objection ; when 
 he promised her immense wages, and said he would 
 take her home behind him, but that she must, before 
 they started, consent to be blindfolded. This done, 
 she mounted behind him on a coal-black steed, and 
 away they rode at a great rate. At length they 
 dismounted, when her new master took her by the 
 hand and led her on, still blindfolded, for a con- 
 siderable distance. The handkerchief was then 
 removed, when she beheld more grandeur than she 
 had ever seen before ; a beautiful palace lighted up 
 by more lights than she could count, and a number 
 of little children as beautiful as angels ; also many 
 noble-looking ladies and gentlemen. The children 
 her master put under her charge, and gave her a 
 box containing ointment, which she was to put on 
 
 I 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 87 
 
 their eyes. At the same time he gave her strict 
 orders always to wash her hands immediately after 
 using the ointment, and be particularly careful never 
 to let a bit of it touch her own eyes. These 
 injunctions she strictly followed, and was for some 
 time very happy ; yet she sometimes thought it odd 
 that they should always live by candle-light ; and 
 she wondered, too, that grand and beautiful as the 
 palace was, such fine ladies and gentlemen as were 
 there should never wish to leave it. But so it was ; 
 no one ever went out but her master. One morning, 
 while putting the ointment on the eyes of the 
 children, her own eye itched, and forgetting the 
 orders of her master she touched one corner of it 
 with her finger which was covered with ointment. 
 Immediately, with the vision of that corner of her 
 eye, she saw herself surrounded by fearful flames ; 
 the ladies and gentlemen looked like devils, and 
 the children appeared like the most hideous imps of 
 hell. Though with the other parts of her eyes she 
 beheld all grand and beautiful as before, she could 
 not help feeling much frightened at all this ; but 
 having great presence of mind she let no one see 
 her alarm. However, she took the first opportunity 
 of asking her masters leave to go and see her 
 friends. He said he would take her, but she must 
 again consent to be blindfolded. Accordingly a 
 handkerchief was put over her eyes ; she was again 
 mounted behind her master, and was soon put 
 down in the neighbourhood of her own house. It 
 will be believed that she remained quietly there, and 
 took good care not to return to her place ; but 
 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 
 his elbow. Unthinkingly she said, ''How are you 
 
88 British Goblins. 
 
 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.' ^ An older legend preserving this mythical 
 detail is the story of Taliesin. Gwion Bach's eyes 
 are opened by a drop from Caridwen's caldron 
 falling upon his finger, which he puts in his mouth. 
 
 XII. 
 
 A Carmarthenshire tradition names among those 
 who lived for a period among the Tylwyth Teg no 
 less a person than the translator into Welsh of 
 Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress.' He was called 
 I ago ap Dewi, and lived in the parish of Llan- 
 llawddog, Carmarthenshire, in a cottage situated in 
 the wood of Llangwyly. He was absent from the 
 neighbourhood for a long period, and the universal 
 belief among the peasantry was that I ago ' got out 
 of bed one night to gaze on the starry sky, as he 
 was accustomed (astrology being one of his favourite 
 studies), and whilst thus occupied the fairies (who 
 were accustomed to resort in a neighbouring 
 wood), passing by, carried him away, and he 
 dwelt with them seven years. Upon his return 
 he was questioned by many as to where he had 
 been, but always avoided giving them a reply.' 
 
 Ml 
 
 The wide field of interest opened up in tales of 
 this class is a fascinating one to the students of 
 fairy mythology. The whole world seems to be 
 the scene of such tales, and collectors of folk-lore 
 in many lands have laid claim to the discovery of 
 
 ^ ' Camb. Sup.,' 349. 
 
 II 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 89 
 
 ' the original ' on which the story of Rip van Winkle 
 is based. It is an honour to American genius, to 
 which I cannot forbear a passing allusion, that of 
 all these legends, none has achieved so wide a fame 
 as that which Washington Irving has given to our 
 literature, and Joseph Jefferson to our stage. It 
 is more than probable that Irving drew his inspi- 
 ration from Grimm, and that the Catskills are 
 indebted to the Hartz Mountains of Germany for 
 their romantic fame. But the legends are endless 
 in which occur this unsuspected lapse of time 
 among supernatural beings, and the wandering back 
 to the old home to find all changed. In Greece, 
 it is Epimenides, the poet, who, while searching for 
 a lost sheep, wanders into a cave where he slumbers 
 forty-seven years. The Gaelic and Teutonic legends 
 are well known. But our wonder at the vitality 
 of this myth is greatest when we find it in both 
 China and Japan. In the Japanese account a 
 young man fishing in his boat on the ocean is 
 invited by the goddess of the sea to her home 
 beneath the waves. After three days he desires 
 to see his old mother and father. On parting she 
 gives him a golden casket and a key, but begs him 
 never to open it. At the village where he lived 
 he finds that all is changed, and he can get no trace 
 of his parents until an aged woman recollects having 
 heard of their names. He finds their graves a 
 hundred years old. Thinking that three days could 
 not have made such a change, and that he was 
 under a spell, he opens the casket. A white 
 vapour rises, and under its influence the young 
 man falls to the ground. His hair turns grey, his 
 form loses its youth, and in a few moments he 
 dies of old age. The Chinese legend relates how 
 two friends wandering amongst the ravines of their 
 
90 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 native mountains in search of herbs for medicinal 
 purposes, come to a fairy bridge where two maidens 
 of more than earthly beauty are on guard. They 
 invite them to the fairy land which lies on the 
 other side of the bridge, and the invitation being 
 accepted, they become enamoured of the maidens, 
 and pass what to them seems a short though 
 blissful period of existence with the fairy folk. At 
 length they desire to revisit their earthly homes 
 and are allowed to return, when they find that 
 seven generations have lived and died during their 
 apparently short absence, they themselves having 
 become centenarians.^ In China, as elsewhere, the 
 legend takes divers forms. 
 
 Denny s, * Folk-Lore of China,' 
 
The Realm of Faerie, 91 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Fairy Music — Birds of Enchantment — The Legend of Shon ap Shenkin 
 — Harp-Music m. Welsh Fairy Tales — Legend of the Magic Harp 
 — Songs and Tunes of the Tylwyth Teg — The Legend of lolo ap 
 Hugh — Mystic Origin of an old Welsh Air. 
 
 I. 
 
 In those rare cases where it Is not dancing which 
 holds the victim of Tylwyth Teg in its fatal fascina- 
 tion, the seducer is music. There is a class of 
 stories still common in Wales, In which is preserved 
 a wondrously beautiful survival of the primitive 
 mythology. In the vast middle ground between 
 our own commonplace times and the pre-historic 
 ages we encounter more than once the lovely legend 
 of the Birds of Rhiannon, which sang so sweetly that 
 the warrior knights stood listening entranced for 
 eighty years. This legend appears in the Mabinogi 
 of ' Bran wen, daughter of Llyr,' and, as we read it 
 there, is a medieval tale ; but the medieval authors 
 of the Mabinogion as we know them were working 
 over old materials — telling again the old tales which 
 had come down through unnumbered centuries from 
 father to son by tradition. Cambrian poets of an 
 earlier age often allude to the birds of Rhiannon ; 
 they are mentioned in the Triads. In the Mabinogi, 
 the period the warriors listened is seven years. 
 Seven men only had escaped from a certain battle 
 with the Irish, and they were bidden by their dying 
 chief to cut off his head and bear it to London and 
 bury it with the face towards France. Various were 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 the adventures they encountered while obeying this 
 injunction. At Harlech they stopped to rest, and 
 sat down to eat and drink. ' And there came three 
 birds, and began singing unto them a certain song, 
 and all the songs they had ever heard were 
 unpleasant compared thereto ; and the birds seemed 
 to them to be at a great distance from them over 
 the sea, yet they appeared as distinct as if they 
 were close by ; and at this repast they continued 
 seven years.' ^ This enchanting fancy reappears in 
 the local story of Shon ap Shenkin, which v/as 
 related to me by a farmer's wife near the reputed 
 scene of the legend. Pant Shon Shenkin has 
 already been mentioned as a famous centre for 
 Carmarthenshire fairies. The story of Taffy ap 
 Sion and this of Shon ap Shenkin were probably 
 one and the same at some period in their career, 
 although they are now distinct. Shon ap Shenkin 
 was a young man who lived hard by Pant Shon 
 Shenkin. As he was going afield early one fine 
 summer's morning he heard a little bird singing, in 
 a most enchanting strain, on a tree close by his path. 
 Allured by the melody he sat down under the tree 
 until the music ceased, when he arose and looked 
 about him. What was his surprise at observing 
 that the tree, which was green and full of life when 
 he sat down, was now withered and barkless ! 
 Filled with astonishment he returned to the farm- 
 house which he had left, as he supposed, a few 
 minutes before ; but it also was changed, grown 
 older, and covered with ivy. In the doorway stood 
 an old man whom he had never before seen ; he at 
 once asked the old man what he wanted there. 
 * What do I want here ? ' ejaculated the old man, 
 reddening angrily ; * that's a pretty question ! Who 
 
 1 Lady Charlotte Guest's ' Mabinogion,' 381. 
 
 ■ 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 
 
 93 
 
 are you that dare to insult me in my own house ? ' 
 ' In your own house ? How is this ? where's my 
 
 SHON AP SHENKIN RETURNS HOME. 
 
 father and mother, whom I left here a few minutes 
 since, whilst I have been listening to the charming 
 
94 British Goblins. 
 
 music under yon tree, which, when I rose, was 
 withered and leafless ?' ' Under the tree ! — music ! 
 what's your name ? ' Shon ap Shenkin/ ' Alas, 
 poor Shon, and is this indeed you ! ' cried the old 
 man. ' I often heard my grandfather, your father, 
 speak of you, and long did he bewail your absence. 
 Fruitless inquiries were made for you ; but old Catti 
 Maddock of Brechfa said you were under the power 
 of the fairies, and would not be released until the 
 last sap of that sycamore tree would be dried up. 
 Embrace me, my dear uncle, for you are my uncle 
 — embrace your nephew.' With this the old man 
 extended his arms, but before the two men could 
 embrace, poor Shon ap Shenkin crumbled into dust 
 on the doorstep. 
 
 II. 
 
 The harp is played by Welsh fairies to an extent 
 unknown in those parts of the world where the 
 harp is less popular among the people. When any 
 instrument is distinctly heard in fairy cymmoedd 
 it is usually the harp. Sometimes it is a fiddle, 
 but then on close examination it will be discovered 
 that it is a captured mortal who is playing it ; the 
 Tylwyth Teg prefer the harp. They play the 
 bugle on specially grand occasions, and there is 
 a case or two on record where the drone of the 
 bagpipes was heard ; but it is not doubted that the 
 player was some stray fairy from Scotland or else- 
 where over the border. On the top of Craig-y- 
 Ddinas thousands of white fairies dance to the 
 music of many harps. In the dingle called Cwm 
 Pergwm, in the Vale of Neath, the Tylwyth Teg 
 make music behind the waterfall, and when they 
 go off over the mountains the sounds of their harps 
 are heard dying away as they recede. The story 
 which presents the Cambrian equivalent of the 
 
 I 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 95 
 
 Magic Flute substitutes a harp for the (to Welsh- 
 men) less familiar instrument. As told to me this 
 story runs somewhat thus : A company of fairies 
 which frequented Cader Idris were in the habit of 
 going about from cottage to cottage In that part of 
 Wales, in pursuit of information concerning the 
 degree of benevolence possessed by the cottagers. 
 Those who gave these fairies an ungracious wel- 
 come were subject to bad luck during the rest of 
 their lives, but those who were good to the little 
 folk became the recipients of their favour. Old 
 Morgan ap Rhys sat one night in his own chimney 
 corner making himself comfortable with his pipe 
 and his pint of cwrw da. The good ale having 
 melted his soul a trifle, he was In a more jolly mood 
 than was natural to him, when there came a little 
 rap at the door, which reached his ear dully through 
 the smoke of his pipe and the noise of his own 
 voice — for In his merriment Morgan was singing a 
 roystering song, though he could not sing any better 
 than a haw — which is Welsh for a donkey. But 
 Morgan did not take the trouble to get up at sound 
 of the rap ; his manners were not the most refined ; 
 he thought it was quite enough for a man on 
 hospitable purposes bent to bawl forth In ringing 
 Welsh, ' Gwaed dyn a'i gilydd ! Why don't you 
 come In when you've got as far as the door ?' The 
 welcome was not very polite, but It was sufficient. 
 The door opened, and three travellers entered, 
 looking worn and weary. Now these were the 
 fairies from Cader Idris, disguised In this manner 
 for purposes of observation, and Morgan never 
 suspected they were other than they appeared. 
 ' Good sir,' said one of the travellers, 'we are worn 
 and weary, but all we seek Is a bite of food to put 
 In our wallet, and then we will go on our way.' 
 
g6 British Goblins. 
 
 ' Waw, lads ! is that all you want ? Well, there, 
 look you, is the loaf and the cheese, and the knife 
 lies by them, and you may cut what you like, and 
 fill your bellies as well as your wallet, for never 
 shall it be said that Morgan ap Rhys denied bread 
 and cheese to a fellow creature/ The travellers 
 proceeded to help themselves, while Morgan con- 
 tinued to drink and smoke, and to sing after his 
 fashion, which was a very rough fashion indeed. 
 As they were about to go, the fairy travellers 
 turned to Morgan and said, ' Since you have been 
 so generous we will show that we are grateful. It 
 is in our power to grant you any one wish you may 
 have ; therefore tell us what that wish may be.' 
 * Ho, ho!' said Morgan, 'is that the case? Ah, 
 I see you are making sport of me. Wela, wela, the 
 wish of my heart is to have a harp that will play 
 under my fingers no matter how ill I strike it ; a 
 harp that will play lively tunes, look you ; no 
 melancholy music for me !' He had hardly spoken, 
 when to his astonishment, there on the hearth 
 before him stood a splendid harp, and he was alone. 
 *Waw!' cried Morgan, * they're gone already.' 
 Then looking behind him he saw they had not 
 taken the bread and cheese they had cut off, after 
 all. *'Twas the fairies, perhaps,' he muttered, but 
 sat serenely quaffing his beer, and staring at the 
 harp. There was a sound of footsteps behind him, 
 and his wife came in from out doors with some 
 friends. Morgan feeling very jolly, thought he 
 would raise a little laughter among them by dis- 
 playing his want of skill upon the harp. So he 
 commenced to play — oh, what a mad and capering 
 tune it was ! 'Waw!' said Morgan, 'but this is a 
 harp. Holo ! what ails you all ?' For as fast as 
 he played his neighbours danced, every man, 
 
 i 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 97 
 
 woman, and child of them all footing it like mad 
 creatures. Some of them bounded up against the 
 roof of the cottage till their heads cracked again ; 
 others spun round and round, knocking over the 
 furniture ; and, as Morgan went on thoughtlessly- 
 playing, they began to pray to him to stop before 
 they should be jolted to pieces. But Morgan found 
 the scene too amusing to want to stop ; besides, he 
 was enamoured of his own suddenly developed 
 skill as a musician ; and he twanged the strings 
 and laughed till his sides ached and the tears rolled 
 down his cheeks, at the antics of his friends. Tired 
 out at last he stopped, and the dancers fell exhausted 
 on the floor, the chairs, the tables, declaring the 
 diawl himself was in the harp. ' I know a tune 
 worth two of that,' quoth Morgan, picking up the 
 harp again ; but at sight of this motion all the com- 
 pany rushed from the house and escaped, leaving 
 Morgan rolling merrily in his chair. Whenever 
 Morgan got a little tipsy after that, he would get 
 the harp and set everybody round him to dancing ; 
 and the consequence was he got a bad name, and 
 no one would go near him. But all their precau- 
 tions did not prevent the neighbours from being 
 caught now and then, when Morgan took his revenge 
 by making them dance till their legs were broken, 
 or some other damage was done them. Even 
 lame people and invalids were compelled to dance 
 whenever they heard the music of this diabolical 
 telyn. In short, Morgan so abused his fairy gift 
 that one night the good people came and took it 
 away from him, and he never saw it more. The 
 consequence was he became morose, and drank 
 himself to death — a warning to all who accept 
 from the fairies favours they do not deserve. 
 
98 
 
 British Goblins, 
 
 III. 
 
 The music of the Tylwyth Teg has been variously 
 described by people who claim to have heard it ; 
 but as a rule with much vagueness, as of a sweet 
 intangible harmony, recalling the experience of 
 Caliban : 
 
 The isle is full of noises ; 
 Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. 
 Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments 
 Will hum about mine ears.^ 
 
 One Morgan Gwilym, who saw the fairies by 
 Cylepsta Waterfall, and heard their music dying 
 away, was only able to recall the last strain, which 
 he said sounded something like this : 
 
 f=f' 
 
 ?=^ 
 
 Edmund Daniel, of the Arail, * an honest man 
 and a constant speaker of truth,* told the Prophet 
 Jones that he often saw the fairies after sunset 
 crossing the Cefn Bach from the Valley of the 
 Church towards Hafodafel, leaping and striking in 
 the air, and making a serpentine path through the 
 air, in this form : 
 
 The fairies were seen and heard by many persons 
 in that neighbourhood, and sometimes by several 
 persons together. They appeared more often by 
 night than by day, and in the morning and evening 
 more often than about noon. Many heard their 
 music, and said of it that it was low and pleasant ; 
 but that it had this peculiarity : no one could ever 
 
 Tempest,' Act III., Sc. 2. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 99 
 
 learn the tune. In more favoured parts of the 
 PrincipaHty, the words of the song were distinctly 
 heard, and under the name of the ' Can y Tylwyth 
 Teg ' are preserved as follows : 
 
 Dowch, dowch, gyfeillion man, 
 O blith marwolion byd, 
 
 Dowch, dowch, a dowch yn Ian. 
 Partowch partowch eich pibau can, 
 Gan ddawnsio dowch i gyd, 
 
 Mae yn hyfryd heno i hwn. 
 
 One is reluctant to turn into bald English this 
 goblin song, which in its native Welsh is almost as 
 impressive as ' Fi Fo Fum.' Let it suffice that the 
 song is an invitation to the little ones among the 
 dead of earth to come with music and dancing to 
 the delights of the night revel. 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the legend of lolo ap Hugh, than which no 
 story is more widely known in Wales, the fairy 
 origin of that famous tune * Ffarwel Ned Pugh ' is 
 shown. It is a legend which suggests the Enchanted 
 Flute fancy in another form, the instrument here 
 being a fiddle, and the victim and player one under 
 fairy control. In its introduction of bread and 
 cheese and candles it smacks heartily of the soil. 
 In North Wales there is a famous cave which is 
 said to reach from its entrance on the hill-side 
 * under the Morda, the Ceiriog, and a thousand 
 other streams, under many a league of mountain, 
 marsh and moor, under the almost unfathomable wells 
 that, though now choked up, once supplied Sycharth, 
 the fortress of Glyndwrdwy, all the way to Chirk 
 Castle.' Tradition said that whoever went within 
 five paces of its mouth would be drawn into it and 
 lost. That the peasants dwelling near it had a 
 thorough respect for this tradition, was proved by 
 
 H 
 
loo British Goblins, 
 
 the fact that all around the dangerous hole 'the 
 grass grew as thick and as rank as in the wilds of 
 America or some unapproached ledge of the Alps/ 
 Both men and animals feared the spot : * A fox, with 
 a pack of hounds in full cry at his tail/ once turned 
 short round on approaching it, 'with his hair all 
 bristled and fretted like frostwork with terror,' and 
 ran into the middle of the pack, ' as if anything 
 earthly — even an earthly death — was a relief to his 
 supernatural perturbations/ And the dogs in 
 pursuit of this fox all declined to seize him, on 
 account of the phosphoric smell and gleam of his 
 coat. Moreover, ' Elias ap Evan, who happened 
 one fair night to stagger just upon the rim of the 
 forbidden space,' was so frightened at what he saw 
 and heard that he arrived at home perfectly sober, 
 ' the only interval of sobriety, morning, noon, or 
 night, Elias had been afflicted with for upwards of 
 twenty years/ Nor ever after that experience — 
 concerning which he was wont to shake his head 
 solemnly, as if he might tell wondrous tales an' he 
 dared — could Elias get tipsy, drink he never so 
 faithfully to that end. As he himself expressed it, 
 ' His shadow walked steadily before him, that at one 
 time wheeled around him like a pointer over bog 
 and stone.' One misty Hallow E'en, lolo ap Hugh, 
 the fiddler, determined to solve the mysteries of the 
 Ogof, or Cave, provided himself with ' an immense 
 quantity of bread and cheese and seven pounds of 
 candles,' and ventured in. He never returned ; but 
 long, long afterwards, at the twilight of another 
 Hallow E'en, an old shepherd was passing that — as 
 he called it — ' Land-Maelstrom of Diaboly,' when he 
 heard a faint burst of melody dancing up and down 
 the rocks above the cave. As he listened, the music 
 gradually ' moulded itself in something like a tune, 
 
The Realm of Faeine. loi 
 
 though it was a tune the shepherd had never heard 
 before/ And it sounded as if it were being played 
 by some jolting fiend, so rugged was its rhythm, so 
 repeated its discordant groans. Now there appeared 
 at the mouth of the Ogof a figure well known to the 
 shepherd by remembrance. It was dimly visible ; 
 but it was lolo ap Hugh, one could see that at once. 
 He was capering madly to the music of his own 
 fiddle, with a lantern dangling at his breast. 
 * Suddenly the moon shone full on the cave's yellow 
 mouth, and the shepherd saw poor lolo for a single 
 moment — but it was distinctly and horribly. His 
 face was pale as marble, and his eyes stared fixedly 
 and deathfully, whilst his head dangled loose and 
 unjointed on his shoulders. His arms seemed to 
 keep his fiddlestick in motion without the least 
 sympathy from their master. The shepherd saw him 
 a moment on the verge of the cave, and then, still 
 capering and fiddling, vanish like a shadow from his 
 sight ; but the old man was heard to say he seemed 
 as if he slipped into the cave in a manner quite 
 different from the step of a living and a willing man ; 
 'he was dragged inwards like the smoke up the 
 chimney, or the mist at sunrise.' Years elapsed ; 
 'all hopes and sorrows connected with poor lolo 
 had not only passed away, but were nearly for- 
 gotten ; the old shepherd had long lived in a parish 
 at a considerable distance amongst the hills. One 
 cold December Sunday evening he and his fellow- 
 parishioners were shivering in their seats as the 
 clerk was beginning to light the church, when a 
 strange burst of music, starting suddenly from 
 beneath the aisle, threw the whole congregation 
 into confusion, and then it passed faintly along to 
 the farther end of the church, and died gradually 
 away till at last it was impossible to distinguish it 
 
 H 2 
 
I02 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 I 
 
 from the wind that was careering and wailing 
 through almost every pillar of the old church/ The 
 shepherd immediately recognised this to be the tune 
 lolo had played at the mouth of the Ogof. The 
 parson of the parish — a connoisseur in music — took 
 it down from the old man's whistling ; and to this 
 day, if you go to the cave on Hallow eve and put 
 your ear to the aperture, you may hear the tune 
 ' Ffarwel Ned Pugh ' as distinctly as you may hear 
 the waves roar in a sea-shell. * And it is said that 
 in certain nights in leap-year a star stands opposite 
 the farther end of the cave, and enables you to 
 view all through it and to see lolo and its other 
 
 mmates 
 
 » 1 
 
 Camb. Quarterly,' i., 45. 
 
 FFARWEL NED PUGH. 
 
 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 m 
 
 s 
 
 p^ 
 
 sg 
 
 m 
 
 '^^ 
 
 m^ 
 
 -m f ^ 
 
 ^stp 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 103 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Fairy Rings — The Prophet Jones and his Works — The Mysterious 
 Language of the Tylwyth Teg — The Horse in Welsh Folk-Lore — 
 Equestrian Fairies — Fairy Cattle, Sheep, Swine, etc. — The Flying 
 Fairies of Bedwellty — The Fairy Sheepfold at Cae'r Cefn. 
 
 I. 
 
 The circles In the grass of green fields, which 
 are commonly called fairy rings, are numerous in 
 Wales, and it is deemed just as well to keep out 
 of them, even in our day. The peasantry no 
 longer believe that the fairies can be seen dancing 
 there, nor that the cap of invisibility will fall on 
 the head of one who enters the circle ; but they 
 do believe that the fairies, in a time not long 
 gone, made these circles with the tread of their 
 tripping feet, and that some misfortune will probably 
 befall any person intruding upon this forbidden 
 ground. An old man at Peterstone-super-Ely told 
 me he well remembered in his childhood being 
 warned by his mother to keep away from the fairy 
 rings. The counsel thus given him made so deep 
 an impression on his mind, that he had never in his 
 life entered one. He remarked further, in answer 
 to a question, that he had never walked under a 
 ladder, because it was unlucky to walk under a 
 ladder. This class of superstitions is a very large 
 one, and is encountered the world over ; and the 
 fairy rings seem to fall into this class, so far as 
 present-day belief in Wales is concerned. 
 
I04 British Gobli?is. 
 
 II. 
 
 Allusion has been made In the preceding pages to 
 the Prophet Jones, and as some account of this per- 
 sonage Is Imperatively called for In a work treating 
 of Welsh folk-lore, I will give it here, before citing 
 his remarks respecting fairy circles. Edmund Jones, 
 * of the Tranch,* was a dissenting minister, noted In 
 Monmouthshire in the first years of the present cen- 
 tury for his fervent piety and his large credulity with 
 regard to fairies and all other goblins. He was 
 for many years pastor of the congregation of Pro- 
 testant Dissenters at the Ebenezer Chapel, near 
 Pontypool, and lived at a place called * The Tranch,' 
 near there. He wrote and published two books, one 
 an * Account of the Parish of Aberys truth/ printed 
 at Trevecca ; the other a * Relation of Apparitions 
 of Spirits In the County of Monmouth and the 
 Principality of Wales,' printed at Newport ; and they 
 have been referred to by most writers on folk-lore 
 who have attempted any account of Welsh super- 
 stitions during the past half-century ; but the books 
 are extremely rare, and writers who have quoted 
 from them have generally been content to do so at 
 second-hand. Kelghtley/ quoting from the * Appari- 
 tions,' misprints the author s name ' Edward Jones 
 of the TIarch,' and accredits the publication to ' the 
 latter half of the eighteenth century,' whereas it was 
 published in 1813. Keightley's quotations are taken 
 from Croker, who himself had never seen the book, 
 but heard of It through a Welsh friend. It is not in 
 the library of the British Museum, and I know of 
 but a few copies In Wales ; the one I saw is at Swan- 
 sea. The author of these curious volumes was called 
 the Prophet Jones, because of his gift of prophecy — 
 
 ^ ' Fairy Mythology,' 412. 
 
 I 
 
llie Realm of Faerie. 105 
 
 so a Welshman in Monmouthshire told me. In my 
 informant's words, * He was noted in his district for 
 foretelling things. He would, for instance, be asked 
 to preach at some anniversary, or quarterly meeting, 
 and he would answer, *' I cannot, on that day ; the 
 rain will descend in torrents, and there will be no 
 congregation." He would give the last mite he 
 possessed to the needy, and tell his wife, "God will 
 send a messenger with food and raiment at nine 
 o'clock to-morrow." And so it would be.' He was 
 a thorough-going believer in Welsh fairies, and full 
 of indignant scorn toward all who dared question 
 their reality. To him these phantoms were part and 
 parcel of the Christian faith, and those who dis- 
 believed in them were denounced as Sadducees and 
 infidels. 
 
 III. 
 
 With regard to the fairy rings, Jones held that the 
 Bible alludes to them. Matt. xii. 43 : ' The fairies 
 dance in circles in dry places ; and the Scripture saith 
 that the walk of evil spirits is in dry places.' They 
 favour the oak-tree, and the female oak especially, 
 partly because of its more wide-spreading branches 
 and deeper shade, partly because of the 'superstitious 
 use made of it beyond other trees ' in the days of the 
 Druids. Formerly, it was dangerous to cut down a 
 female oak in a fair dry place. ' Some were said to 
 lose their lives by it, by a strange aching pain which 
 admitted of no remedy, as one of my ancestors did ; 
 but now that men have more knowledge and faith, 
 this effect follows not.' William Jenkins was for a 
 long time the schoolmaster at Trefethin church, in 
 Monmouthshire, and coming home late in the even- 
 ing, as he usually did, he often saw the fairies under 
 an oak within two or three fields from the church. 
 He saw them more often on Friday evenings than 
 
io6 British Goblins. 
 
 any other. At one time he went to examine the 
 ground about this oak, and there he found the 
 reddish circle wherein the fairies danced, ' such as 
 have often been seen under the female oak, called 
 Brenhin-bren/ They appeared more often to an 
 uneven number of persons, as one, three, five, &c. ; 
 and oftener to men than to women. Thomas 
 William Edmund, of Hafodafel, 'an honest pious 
 man, who often saw them,' declared that they 
 appeared with one bigger than the rest going before 
 them in the company. They were also heard talking 
 together in a noisy, jabbering way ; but no one 
 could distinguish the words. They seemed, how- 
 ever, to be a very disputatious race ; insomuch, 
 indeed, that there was a proverb in some parts of 
 Wales to this effect : ' Ni chytunant hwy mwy na 
 Bendith eu Mammau,' (They will no more agree 
 than the fairies). 
 
 IV. 
 
 This observation respecting the mysterious lan- 
 guage used by fairies recalls again the medieval 
 story of Elidurus. The example of fairy words 
 there given by Giraldus is thought by the learned 
 rector of Llanarmon ^ to be 'a mixture of Irish and 
 Welsh. The letter U, with which each of the 
 words begins, is, probably, no more than the repre- 
 sentative of an indistinct sound like the E mute of 
 the French, and which those whose language and 
 manners are vulgar often prefix to words indifferently. 
 If, then, they be read dor dorum, and halgein 
 dorum, dor and halgein are nearly dwr (or, as it is 
 pronounced, door) and halen, the Welsh words for 
 water and salt respectively. Dorum therefore is 
 equivalent to *'give me," and the Irish expression for 
 "give me" is thorum ; the Welsh dyro i mi. The 
 
 ^ Rev. Peter Roberts, 'Cambrian Popular Antiquities,' 195. (1815.) 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 107 
 
 order of the words, however, is reversed. The order 
 should be thorum dor, and thorum halen in Irish, 
 and in Welsh dyro i mi ddwr, and dyro i mi halen, 
 but was, perhaps, reversed intentionally by the nar- 
 rator, to make his tale the more marvellous.'^ 
 
 The horse plays a very active part in Welsh fairy 
 tales. Not only does his skeleton serve for Mary 
 Lwyds^ and the like, but his spirit flits. The 
 Welsh fairies seem very fond of going horseback. 
 An old woman in the Vale of Neath told Mrs. 
 Williams, who told Thomas Keightley, that she had 
 seen fairies to the number of hundreds, mounted 
 on little white horses, not bigger than dogs, and 
 riding four abreast. This was about dusk, and the 
 fairy equestrians passed quite close to her, in fact 
 less than a quarter of a mile away. Another old 
 woman asserted that her father had often seen the 
 fairies riding in the air on little white horses ; but 
 he never saw them come to the ground. He heard 
 their music sounding in the air as they galloped by. 
 There is a tradition among the Glamorgan peasantry 
 of a fairy battle fought on the mountain between 
 Merthyr and Aberdare, in which the pigmy com- 
 batants were on horseback. There appeared to be 
 two armies, one of which was mounted on milk- 
 white steeds, and the other on horses of jet-black. 
 They rode at each other with the utmost fury, and 
 their swords could be seen flashing in the air like 
 so many penknife blades. The army on the white 
 horses won the day, and drove the black-mounted 
 force from the field. The whole scene then disap- 
 peared in a light mist. 
 
 ^ Supra, p. 67. ^ Sec Index. 
 
io8 British Goblins. 
 
 VI. 
 
 In the agricultural districts of Wales, the fairies 
 are accredited with a very complete variety of 
 useful animals ; and Welsh folk-lore, both modern 
 and medieval, abounds with tales regarding cattle, 
 sheep, horses, poultry, goats, and other features of 
 rural life. Such are the marvellous mare of Teirnyon, 
 which foaled every first of May, but whose colt 
 was always spirited away, no man knew whither ; 
 the Ychain Banog, or mighty oxen, which drew the 
 water-monster out of the enchanted lake, and by 
 their lowing split the rocks in twain ; the lambs of 
 St. Melangell, which at first were hares, and ran 
 frightened under the fair saint's robes ; the fairy 
 cattle which belong to the Gwralg Annwn ; the 
 fairy sheep of Cefn Rhychdir, which rose up out of 
 the earth and vanished Into the sky ; even fairy 
 swine, which the hay-makers of Bedwellty beheld 
 flying through the air. To some of these traditions 
 reference has already been made ; others will be 
 mentioned again. Welsh mountain sheep will run 
 like stags, and bound from crag to crag like wild 
 goats ; and as for Welsh swine, they are more 
 famed in Cambrian romantic story than almost any 
 other animal that could be named. Therefore the 
 tale told by Rev. Roger Rogers, of the parish of 
 Bedwellty, sounds much less absurd in Wales than 
 it might elsewhere. It relates to a very remarkable 
 and odd sight, seen by Lewis Thomas Jenkin's two 
 daughters, described as virtuous and good young 
 women, their father a substantial freeholder ; and 
 seen not only by them but by the man-servant and 
 the maid-servant, and by two of the neighbours, 
 viz., Elizabeth David, and Edmund Roger. All 
 these six people were on a certain day making hay 
 
 M 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 109 
 
 in a field called Y Weirglodd Fawr Dafolog, when 
 they plainly beheld a company of fairies rise up out 
 of the earth in the shape of a flock of sheep ; the 
 same being about a quarter of a mile distant, over a 
 hill, called Cefn Rhychdir ; and soon the fairy flock 
 went out of sight, as if they vanished in the air. 
 Later in the day they all saw this company of fairies 
 again, but while to two of the haymakers the fairies 
 appeared as sheep, to others they appeared as 
 greyhounds, and to others as swine, and to others as 
 naked infants. Whereupon the Rev. Roger remarks : 
 ' The sons of infidelity are very unreasonable not to 
 believe the testimonies of so many witnesses.' ^ 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Welsh sheep, it is affirmed, are the only 
 beasts which will eat the grass that grows in the 
 fairy rings ; all other creatures avoid it, but the 
 sheep eat it greedily — hence the superiority of 
 Welsh mutton over any mutton in the wide world. 
 The Prophet Jones tells of the sheepfold of the 
 fairies, which he himself saw — a circumstance to be 
 accorded due weight, the judicious reader will at 
 once perceive, because as a habit Mr. Jones was 
 not specially given to seeing goblins on his own 
 account. He believes in them with all his heart, 
 but it is usually a friend or acquaintance who has 
 seen them. In this instance, therefore, the excep- 
 tion is to be noted sharply. He thus tells the tale : 
 * If any think I am too credulous in these relations, 
 and speak of things of which I myself have had no 
 experience, I must let them know they are mistaken. 
 For when a very young boy, going with my aunt, 
 early in the morning, but after sun-rising, from 
 Hafodafel towards my father's house at Pen-y- 
 
 ^ Jones, * Apparitions,' 24. 
 
no British Goblins, 
 
 Llwyn, at the end of the upper field of Cae'r Cefn, 
 ... I saw the Hkeness of a sheepfold, with the 
 door towards the south, . . . and within the fold 
 a company of many people. Some sitting down, 
 and some going in, and coming out, bowing their 
 heads as they passed under the branch over the 
 door. ... I well remember the resemblance 
 among them of a fair woman with a high-crown hat 
 and a red jacket, who made a better appearance 
 than the rest, and whom I think they seemed to 
 honour. I still have a pretty clear idea of her white 
 face and well-formed countenance. The men wore 
 white cravats. ... I wondered at my aunt, going 
 before me, that she did not look towards them, and 
 we going so near them. As for me, I was loth to 
 speak until I passed them some way, and then told 
 my aunt what I had seen, at which she wondered, 
 and said I dreamed. . . . There was no fold in 
 that place. There is indeed the ruins of some 
 small edifice in that place, most likely a fold, but so 
 old that the stones are swallowed up, and almost 
 wholly crusted over with earth and grass.' 
 
 This tale has long been deemed a poser by the 
 believers in Cambrian phantoms ; but there is some- 
 thing to be said on the side of doubt. Conceding 
 that the Reverend Edmund Jones, the dissenting 
 minister, was an honest gentleman who meant to 
 tell truth, it is still possible that Master Neddy 
 Jones, the lad, could draw a long bow like another 
 boy ; and that having seen, possibly, some gypsy 
 group (or possibly nothing whatever) he embellished 
 his tale to excite wonderment, as boys do. Telling 
 a fictitious tale so often that one at last comes to 
 believe it oneself, is a well-known mental pheno- 
 menon. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 1 1 1 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The only other instance given by the Prophet 
 Jones as from the depths of his own personal 
 experience, is more vague in its particulars than the 
 preceding, and happened when he had presumably 
 grown to years of discretion. He was led astray, it 
 appears, by the Old Woman of the Mountain, on 
 Llanhiddel Bryn, near Pontypool — an eminence with 
 which he was perfectly well acquainted, and which 
 * is no more than a mile and a half long and about 
 half a mile broad.' But as a result of his going 
 astray, he came to a house where he had never been 
 before ; and being deeply moved by his uncanny 
 experience, ' offered to go to prayer, which they 
 admitted. ... I was then about twenty-three 
 years of age and had begun to preach the everlast- 
 ing gospel. They seemed to admire that a person 
 so young should be so warmly disposed ; few young 
 men of my age being religious in this country then. 
 Much good came into this house and still continues 
 in it. . . . So the old hag got nothing by leading 
 me astray that time.' 
 
112 British Goblins. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 II 
 
 Piety as a Protection from the Seductions of the Tyhvyth Teg — 
 
 Various Exorcisms — Cock-crowing — The Name of God — Fencing • 
 
 off the Fairies — Old Betty Griffith and her Eithin Barricade — | 
 
 Means of Getting Rid of the Tyhvyth Teg — The Bwbach of the ; 
 
 Hendrefawr Farm — The Pwca'r Trwyn's Flitting in a Jug of Barm. ' 
 
 I. ; 
 
 The extreme piety of his daily walk and conver- • 
 sation may have been held as an explanation why the 
 
 Prophet Jones saw so few goblins himself, and con- '! 
 sequently why most of his stories of the fairies are 
 
 related as coming from other people. The value of a ^, 
 
 general habit of piety, as a means of being rid of -^ 
 
 fairies, has already been mentioned. The more ] 
 
 worldly exorcisms, such as the production of a black- j 
 
 handled knife, or the turning one's coat wrongside out, \ 
 
 are passed over by the Prophet as trivial ; but by the A 
 
 student of comparative folk-lore, they are not deemed \ 
 
 unimportant. The last-mentioned exorcism, by the \ 
 
 way, is current among the Southern negroes of the j 
 
 United States. The more spiritual exorcisms are J 
 
 not less interesting than the others, however. First \ 
 
 among these is ranked the pronunciation of God's \ 
 
 name ; but the crowing of a cock is respectfully men- J 
 tioned, in connection with the story of our Saviour. 
 
 Jones gives many accounts which terminate in the i 
 
 manner of the following : Rees John Rosser, born at '• 
 
 Hendy, in the parish of Llanhiddel, ' a very religious \ 
 
 young man,' went one morning very early to feed j 
 the oxen in a barn called Ysgubor y Llan, and having 
 
 ■ 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 113 
 
 fed them lay himself upon the hay to rest. While 
 he lay there he heard the sound of music approaching, 
 and presently a large company of fairies came into 
 the barn. They wore striped clothes, some in gayer 
 colours than the others, but all very gay ; and they 
 all danced to the music. He lay there as quiet as 
 he could, thinking they would not see him, but he 
 was espied by one of them, a woman, who brought 
 a striped cushion with four tassels, one at each 
 corner of it, and put it under his head. After some 
 time the cock crew at the house of Blaen y Cwm, 
 hard by, upon which they appeared as if they were 
 surprised and displeased ; the cushion was hastily 
 whisked from under his head, and the fairies vanished. 
 * The spirits of darkness do not like the crowing of 
 the cock, because it gives notice of the approach of 
 day, for they love darkness rather than light. . . . 
 And it hath been several times observed that these 
 fairies cannot endure to hear the name of God.' 
 A modern Welsh preacher (but one whose opinions 
 contrast most decidedly with those of Jones) 
 observes : ' The cock is wonderfully well versed in 
 the circumstances of the children of Adam ; his 
 shrill voice at dawn of day is sufficient intimation to 
 every spirit, coblyn, wraith, elf, bwci, and apparition 
 to flee into their illusive country for their lives, 
 before the light of day will show them to be an 
 empty nothingness, and bring them to shame and 
 reproach.' ^ Shakspeare introduces this superstition 
 in Hamlet : 
 
 Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. 
 Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing 
 Upon a fearful summons.'^ 
 
 But the opinion that spirits fly away at cock-crow 
 
 ^ Rev. Robert ElHs, in ' Manion Hynafiaethol.' (Trehcrbert, 1873.) 
 ^ ' Hamlet,' Act I., Sc. i. 
 
114 British Goblins. 
 
 is of extreme antiquity. It is mentioned by the 
 Christian poet Prudentius (fourth century) as a 
 tradition of common beUef.' As for the effect of 
 the name of God as an exorcism, we still encounter 
 this superstition, a living thing in our own day, 
 and in every land where modern ' spiritualism ' finds 
 believers. The mischief produced at ' spiritual 
 seances ' by * bad spirits ' is well-known to those who 
 have paid any attention to this subject. The late 
 Mr. FitzHugh Ludlow once related to me, with 
 dramatic fervour, the result of his attempts to 
 exorcise a bad spirit which was in possession of a 
 female ' medium,' by trying to make her pronounce 
 the name of Christ. She stumbled and stammered 
 over this test in a most embarrassing way, and finally 
 emerged from her trance with the holy name un- 
 spoken ; the bad spirit had fled. This was in New 
 York, in 1867. Like many others who assert their 
 unbelief in spiritualism, Mr. Ludlow was intensely 
 impressed by this phenomenon. 
 
 Students of comparative folk-lore class all such 
 manifestations under a common head, whether related 
 of fairies or spirit mediums. They trace their origin 
 to the same source whence come the notions of pro- 
 pitiating the fairies by euphemistic names. The use 
 of such names as Jehovah, the Almighty, the Supreme 
 Being, etc., for the terrible and avenging God of the 
 Jewish theology, being originally an endeavour to 
 avoid pronouncing the name of God, it is easy to see 
 the connection with the exorcising power of that name 
 upon all evil spirits, such as fairies are usually held 
 to be. Here also, it is thought, is presented the 
 ultimate source of that horror of profane language 
 which prevails among the Puritanic peoples of 
 England and America. The name of the devil is 
 
 * Brand, * Popular Antiquities,' ii., 31. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 115 
 
 similarly provided with euphemisms, some of which 
 — such as the Old Boy — are not of a sort to offend 
 that personage's ears ; and until recently the word 
 devil was deemed almost as offensive as the word 
 God, when profanely used. 
 
 II. 
 
 A popular protection from the encroachments of 
 fairies is the eithin, or prickly furze, common in 
 Wales. It is believed that the fairies cannot pene- 
 trate a fence or hedge composed of this thorny 
 shrub. An account illustrating this, and otherwise 
 curious in its details, was given in 1871 by a 
 prominent resident of Anglesea : ^ ' One day, some 
 thirty years ago, Mrs. Stanley went to one of the 
 old houses to see an old woman she often visited. 
 It was a wretched hovel ; so unusually dark when 
 she opened the door, that she called to old Betty 
 Griffith, but getting no answer she entered the 
 room. A little tiny window of one pane of glass 
 at the further side of the room gave a feeble light. 
 A few cinders alight in the miserable grate also 
 gave a glimmer of light, which enabled her to see 
 where the bed used to be, in a recess. To her 
 surprise she saw it entirely shut out by a barricade 
 of thick gorse, so closely packed and piled up that 
 no bed was to be seen. Again she called Betty 
 Griffith ; no response came. She looked round the 
 wretched room ; the only symptom of life was a 
 plant of the Wandering Jew {Saxifraga tricolor), 
 so called by the poor people, and dearly loved to 
 grace their windows. It was planted in a broken 
 jar or teapot on the window, trailing its long tendrils 
 around, with here and there a new formed plant 
 seeming to derive sustenance from the air alone. 
 
 ^ Hon. W. O. Stanley, in ' Notes and Queries.' 
 
 I 
 
1 1 6 British Goblins. 
 
 As she stood, struck with the miserable poverty of 
 the human abode, a faint sigh came from behind 
 the gorse. She went close and said, " Betty, where 
 are you ? " Betty instantly recognised her voice, 
 and ventured to turn herself round from the wall. 
 Mrs. Stanley then made a small opening in the 
 gorse barricade, which sadly pricked her fingers ; 
 she saw Betty in her bed and asked her, " Are you 
 not well ? are you cold, that you are so closed up ? " 
 " Cold ! no. It is not cold, Mrs. Stanley ; it is the 
 Tylwyth Teg ; they never will leave me alone, 
 there they sit making faces at me, and trying to 
 come to me." '' Indeed ! oh how I should like to 
 see them, Betty." "• Like to see them, is it ? Oh, 
 don't say so." " Oh but Betty, they must be so 
 pretty and good." ** Good ? they are not good." 
 By this time the old woman got excited, and Mrs. 
 Stanley knew she should hear more from her about 
 the fairies, so she said, "Well, I will go out ; they 
 never will come if I am here." Old Betty replied 
 sharply, '* No, do not go. You must not leave me. 
 I will tell you all about them. Ah ! they come and 
 plague me sadly. If I am up they will sit upon the 
 table ; they turn my milk sour and spill my tea ; 
 then they will not leave me at peace in my bed, but 
 come all round me and mock at me." " But Betty, 
 tell me what is all this gorse for ? It must have 
 been great trouble for you to make it all so close." 
 "Is it not to keep them off? They cannot get 
 through this, it pricks them so bad, and then I get 
 some rest." So she replaced the gorse and left old 
 Betty Griffith happy in her device for getting rid of 
 the Tvlwyth Teg.' 
 
 III. 
 
 A common means of getting rid of the fairies is 
 to change one's place of residence ; the fair folk 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 117 
 
 will not abide in a house which passes into new 
 hands. A story is told of a Merionethshire farmer 
 who, being tormented beyond endurance by a 
 Bwbach of a mischievous turn, reluctantly resolved 
 to flit. But first consulting a wise woman at 
 Dolgelly, he was advised to make a pretended 
 flitting, which would have the same effect ; he need 
 only give out that he was going to move over the 
 border into England, and then get together his cattle 
 and his household goods, and set out for a day's 
 drive around the Arenig. The fairy would surely 
 quit the house when the farmer should quit it, and 
 especially would it quit the premises of a born Cymro 
 who avowed his purpose of settling in the foreign 
 land of the Sais. So then he could come back to 
 his house by another route, and he would find the 
 obnoxious Bwbach gone. The farmer did as he 
 was told, and set out upon his journey, driving his 
 cattle and sheep before him, and leading the cart 
 upon which his furniture was piled, while his wife 
 and children trudged behind. When he reached 
 Rhyd-y-Fen, a ford so called from this legend, 
 they met a neighbour, who exclaimed, ' Holo, Dewi, 
 are you leaving us for good ? ' Before the farmer 
 could answer there was a shrill cry from inside the 
 churn on the cart, ' Yes, yes, we are flitting from 
 Hendrefawr to Eingl-dud, where we've got a new 
 home/ It was the Bwbach that spoke. He was 
 flitting with the household gods, and the farmers 
 little plan to be rid of him was a complete failure. 
 The good man sighed as he turned his horses about 
 and went back to Hendrefawr by the same road he 
 had come. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The famous Pwca of the Trwyn Farm, in 
 Mynyddyslwyn parish, came there from his first 
 
 I 2 
 
ii8 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 abode, at Pantygasseg, in a jug of barm. One of the 
 farm-servants brought the jug to Pantygasseg, and as 
 she was being served with the barm in the jug, the 
 Pwca was heard to say, ' The Pwca is going 
 away now in this jug of barm, and he'll never come 
 back ;' and he was never heard at Pantygasseg again. 
 Another story tells that a servant let fall a ball of 
 yarn, over the ledge of the hill whose base is washed 
 by the two fishponds between Hafod-yr-Ynys and 
 Pontypool, and the Pwca said, * I am going in this 
 ball, and I'll go to the Trwyn, and never come 
 back,' — and directly the ball was seen to roll down 
 the hill-side, and across the valley, ascending the 
 hill on the other side, and trundling along briskly 
 across the mountain top to its new abode. 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 1 1 9 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Fairy Money and Fairy Gifts in General — The Story of Gitto Bach, 
 or Little Griffith — The Penahy of Blabbing — Legends of the 
 Shepherds of Cwm Llan — The Money Value of Kindness — lanto 
 Llewellyn and the Tylwyth Teg — The Legend of Hafod Lwyddog 
 — Lessons inculcated by these Superstitions. 
 
 I. 
 
 * This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so,' says 
 the old shepherd in ' Winter's Tale ;' sagely adding, 
 ' Up with it, keep it close ; home, home, the next 
 way. We are lucky, boy, and to be so still, requires 
 nothing but secrecy.' ^ Here we have the traditional 
 belief of the Welsh peasantry in a nut-shell. Fairy 
 money is as good as any, so long as its source is 
 kept a profound secret ; if the finder relate the par- 
 ticulars of his good fortune, it will vanish. Some- 
 times — especially in cases where the money has been 
 spent — the evil result of tattling consists in there 
 being no further favours of the sort. The same 
 law governs fairy gifts of all kinds. A Breconshire 
 legend tells of the generosity of the Tylwyth Teg in 
 presenting the peasantry with loaves of bread, which 
 turned to toadstools next morning ; it was necessary 
 to eat the bread in darkness and silence to avoid 
 this transformation. The story of Gitto Bach, a 
 familiar one in Wales, is a picturesque example. 
 Gitto Bach (little Griffith), a good little farmer's boy 
 of Glamorganshire, used often to ramble to the top 
 of the mountain to look after his father's sheep. 
 
 1 * Winter's Tale,' Act IIL, Sc. 3. 
 
120 British Goblins. 
 
 On his return he would show his brothers and sisters 
 pieces of remarkably white paper, like crown pieces, 
 with letters stamped upon them, which he said were 
 given to him by the little children with whom he 
 played on the mountain. One day he did not 
 return. For two years nothing was heard of him. 
 Meantime other children occasionally got like 
 crown-pieces of paper from the mountains. One 
 morning when Gitto's mother opened the door there 
 he sat^ — the truant ! — dressed exactly as he was 
 when she saw him last, two years before. He had 
 a little bundle under his arm. ' Where in the world 
 have you been all this time ? ' asked the mother. 
 * Why, it's only yesterday I went away ! ' quoth 
 Gitto. ' Look at the pretty clothes the children gave 
 me on the mountain, for dancing with them to the 
 music of their harps.' With this he opened his 
 bundle, and showed a handsome dress ; and behold, 
 it was only paper, like the fairy money. 
 
 n. 
 
 But usually, throughout Wales, it is simply a dis 
 continuance of fairy favour which follows blabbing. 
 A legend is connected with a bridge in Anglesea, of 
 a lad who often saw the fairies there, and profited 
 by their generosity. Every morning, while going to 
 fetch his father's cows from pasture, he saw them, 
 and after they were gone he always found a groat 
 on a certain stone of Cymmunod Bridge. The boy's 
 having money so often about him excited his father's 
 suspicion, and one Sabbath day he cross-questioned 
 the lad as to the manner in which it was obtained. 
 Oh, the meddlesomeness of fathers ! Of course the 
 poor boy confessed that it was through the medium 
 of the fairies, and of course, though he often went 
 after this to the field, he never found any money on 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 121 
 
 the bridge, nor saw the offended Tylwyth Teg again. 
 Through his divulging the secret their favour was 
 lost. 
 
 Jones tells a similar story of a young woman 
 named Anne William Francis, in the parish of 
 Bassalleg, who on going by night into a little grove of 
 wood near the house, heard pleasant music, and saw 
 a company of fairies dancing on the grass. She took 
 a pail of water there, thinking it would gratify them. 
 The next time she went there she had a shilling 
 given her, * and so had for several nights after, 
 until she had twenty-one shillings.' But her mother 
 happening to find the money, questioned her as to 
 where she got it, fearing she had stolen it. At first 
 the girl would not tell, but when her mother ' went 
 very severe on her,' and threatened to beat her, she 
 confessed she got the money from the fairies. After 
 that they never gave her any more. The Prophet 
 adds : ' I have heard of other places where people 
 have had money from the fairies, sometimes silver 
 sixpences, but most commonly copper coin. As they 
 cannot make money, it certainly must be money lost 
 or concealed by persons.' The Euhemerism of this is 
 hardly like the wonder-loving Jones. 
 
 III. 
 
 In the legends of the two shepherds of Cwm Llan 
 and their experience with the fairies, the first deals 
 with the secrecy feature, while the second reproduces 
 the often-impressed lesson concerning the money 
 value of kindness. The first is as follows : One 
 evening a shepherd, who had been searching for his 
 sheep on the side of Nant y Bettws, after crossing 
 Bwlch Cwm Llan, espied a number of little people 
 singing and dancing, and some of the prettiest damsels 
 he ever set eyes on preparing a feast. He went to 
 
122 British Goblins. 
 
 them and partook of the meal, and thought he had 
 never tasted anything to equal those dishes. When 
 it became dusk they pitched their tents, and the 
 shepherd had never seen before such beautiful things 
 as they had about them there. They provided him 
 with a soft feather-bed and sheets of the finest linen, 
 and he retired, feeling like a prince. But on the 
 morrow, lo and behold ! his bed was but a bush of 
 bulrushes, and his pillow a tuft of moss. He however 
 found in his shoes some pieces of silver, and after- 
 wards, for a long time, he continued to find once a 
 week a piece of silver placed between two stones 
 near the spot where he had lain. One day he 
 divulged his secret to another, and the weekly coin 
 was never placed there again. 
 
 There was another shepherd near Cwm Llan, who 
 heard some strange noise in a crevice of a rock, and 
 turning to see what it was, found there a singular 
 creature who wept bitterly. He took it out and saw 
 it to be a fairy child, but whilst he was looking at it 
 compassionately, two middle-aged men came to him 
 and thanked him courteously for his kindness, and on 
 leaving him presented him with a staff as a token of 
 remembrance of the occasion. The following year 
 every sheep he possessed bore two ewe lambs. They 
 continued to thus breed for years to come ; but one 
 very dark and stormy night, having stayed very late 
 in the village, in crossing the river that comes down 
 from Cwm Llan, there being a great flood sweeping 
 everything before it, he dropped his staff into the 
 river and saw it no more. On the morrow he found 
 that nearly all his sheep and lambs, like his staff, had 
 been swept away by the flood. His wealth had 
 departed from him in the same way as it came — with 
 the staff which he had received from the guardians 
 of the fairy child. 
 
 i 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 1 23 
 
 IV. 
 
 A Pembrokeshire Welshman told me this story as 
 a tradition well known in that part of Wales. lanto 
 Llewellyn was a man who lived in the parish of 
 Llanfihangel, not more than fifty or eighty years 
 ago, and who had precious good reason to believe in 
 the fairies. He used to keep his fire of coal balls 
 burning all night long, out of pure kindness of heart, 
 in case the Tylwyth Teg should be cold. That 
 they came into his kitchen every night he was well 
 aware ; he often heard them. One night when they 
 were there as usual, lanto was lying wide awake and 
 heard them say, ' I wish we had some good bread 
 and cheese this cold night, but the poor man has 
 only a morsel left ; and though it's true that would 
 be a good meal for us, it is but a mouthful to him, 
 and he might starve if we took it.' At this lanto 
 cried out at the top of his voice, * Take anything I've 
 got in my cupboard and welcome to you !' Then he 
 turned over and went to sleep. The next morning, 
 when he descended into the kitchen, he looked in 
 his cupboard, to see if by good luck there might be 
 a bit of crust there. He had no sooner opened the 
 cupboard door than he cried out, * O'r anwyl ! what's 
 this ?' for there stood the finest cheese he had ever 
 seen in his life, with two loaves of bread on top of 
 it. ' Lwc dda iti!' cried lanto, waving his hand 
 toward the wood where he knew the fairies lived ; 
 ' good luck to you ! May you never be hungry or 
 penniless ! * And he had not got the words out of 
 his mouth when he saw — what do you think ? — a 
 shilling on the hob ! But that was the lucky shilling. 
 Every morning after this, when lanto got up, there 
 was the shilling on the hob — another one, you mind, 
 for he'd spent the first for beer and tobacco to go 
 
124 British Goblins, 
 
 with his bread and cheese. Well, after that, no man 
 in the parish was better supplied with money than 
 lanto Llewellyn, though he never did a stroke of 
 work. He had enough to keep his wife in ease and 
 comfort, too, and he got the name of Lucky lanto. 
 And lucky he might have been to the day of his death 
 but for the curiosity of woman. Betsi his wife was 
 determined to know where all this money came from, 
 and gave the poor man no peace. * Wei, naw wfft T 
 she cried — which means in English, * Nine shames 
 on you ' — ' to have a bad secret from your own dear 
 wife !' * But you know, Betsi, if I tell you I'll never 
 get any more money.' * Ah,' said she, ' then it's the 
 fairies ! ' * Drato ! ' said he — and that means ' Bother 
 it all ' — ' yes — the fairies it is.' With that he thrust 
 his hands down in his breeches pockets in a sullen 
 manner and left the house. He had had seven shil- 
 lings in his pockets up to that minute, and he went 
 feeling for them with his fingers, and found they were 
 gone. In place of them were some pieces of paper 
 fit only to light his pipe. And from that day the ■ 
 fairies brought him no more money. 
 
 \ 
 
 m 
 
 The lesson of generosity is taught with force and 
 simplicity in the legend of Hafod Lwyddog, and the 
 necessity for secrecy is quite abandoned. Again it 
 is a shepherd, who dwelt at Cwm Dyli, and who 
 went every summer to live in a cabin by the Green ^ 
 Lake (Llyn Glas) along with his fold. One morning -^ 
 on awaking from sleep he saw a good-looking damsel 1 
 dressing an infant close by his side. She had very ^_ 
 little in which to wrap the babe, so he threw her an \ 
 old shirt of his own, and bade her place it about the | 
 child. She thanked him and departed. Every night 
 thereafter the shepherd found a piece of silver placed 
 
 m 
 
The Realm of Faerie, 125 
 
 in an old clog In his cabin. Years and years this 
 
 good luck continued, and Meirig the shepherd became 
 
 immensely wealthy. He married a lovely girl, and 
 
 went to the Hafod Lwyddog to live. Whatever 
 
 he undertook prospered — hence the name Hafod 
 
 Lwyddog, for Lwydd means prosperity. The fairies 
 
 paid nightly visits to the Hafod. No witch or evil 
 
 sprite could harm this people, as Bendith y Mammau 
 
 was poured down upon the family, and all their 
 
 descendants.^ 
 
 VI. 
 
 The thought will naturally occur that by fostering 
 belief in such tales as some of the foregoing, roguery 
 might make the superstition useful in silencing inquiry 
 as to Ill-gotten gains. But on the other hand the 
 virtues of hospitality and generosity were no doubt 
 fostered by the same Influences. If any one was 
 favoured by the fairies in this manner, the immediate 
 explanation was, that he had done a good turn to 
 them, generally without suspecting who they were. 
 The virtues of neatness, In young girls and servants, 
 were encouraged by the like notions ; the belief 
 that a fairy will leave money only on a clean-kept 
 hob, could tend to nothing more directly. It was 
 also made a condition of pleasing the Tylwyth Teg 
 that the hearth should be carefully swept and the 
 pails left full of water. Then the fairies would come 
 at midnight, continue their revels till daybreak, 
 sing the well-known strain of ' Toriad y Dydd,' or 
 ' The Dawn,' leave a piece of money on the hob, 
 and disappear. Here Is seen a precaution against 
 fire In the clean-swept hearth and the provision of 
 filled water-pails. That the promised reward did not 
 always arrive, was not evidence it would never arrive ; 
 and so the virtue of perseverance was also fostered. 
 
 ^ ' Cymru Fu,' 472. 
 
126 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 
 Superstitions of this class are widely prevalent 
 among Aryan peoples. The 'Arabian Nights ' story 
 of the old rogue whose money turned to leaves will 
 be recalled. In Danish folk-lore, the fairy money 
 bestowed on the boors turns sometimes to pebbles, 
 and sometimes grows hot and burns their fingers, 
 so that they drop it, when it sinks into the earth. 
 
 TORIAD Y DYDD. 
 
 t 
 
 -^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Jfe:±±: 
 
 m. 
 
 i 
 
 s 
 
 it— I g *: 
 
 W^^ 
 
 i^ 
 
 i:E^2 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 127 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Orif^ins of Welsh Fairies — The Realistic Theory — Legend of the 
 Baron's Gate — The Red Fairies — The Trwyn Fairy a Proscribed 
 Nobleman — The Theory of hiding Druids — Colour in Welsh 
 Fairy Attire — The Green Lady of Caerphilly — White the favourite 
 Welsh Hue — Legend of the Prolific Woman — The Poetico-Reli- 
 gious Theory — The Creed of Science. 
 
 L 
 
 Concerning the origin of the Tylwyth Teg, there 
 are two popular explanations, the one poetico-reli- 
 gious in its character, the other practical and realistic. 
 Both are equally wide of the truth, the true origin of 
 fairies being found in the primeval mythology ; but 
 as my purpose is to avoid enlarging in directions 
 generally familiar to the student, 1 have only to 
 present the local aspects of this, as of the other - 
 features of the subject. 
 
 The realistic theory of the origin of the Tylwyth 
 Teg must be mentioned respectfully, because among 
 its advocates have been men of culture and good 
 sense. This theory presumes that the first fairies 
 were men and women of mortal flesh and blood, 
 and that the later superstitions are a mere echo of 
 tales which first were told of real beings. In quasi- 
 support of this theory, there is a well-authenticated 
 tradition of a race of beings who, in the middle of 
 the sixteenth century, inhabited the Wood of the 
 Great Dark Wood (Coed y Dugoed Mawr) in 
 Merionethshire, and who were called the Red 
 Fairies. They lived in dens in the ground, had 
 fiery red hair and long strong arms, and stole sheep 
 
 ^ 
 
128 British Goblins. 
 
 and cattle by night. There are cottages In Cemmaes 
 parish, near the Wood of the Great Dark Wood, 
 with scythes in the chimneys, which were put there 
 to keep these terrible beings out. One Christmas 
 eve a valiant knight named Baron Owen headed 
 a company of warriors who assailed the Red Fairies, 
 and found them flesh and blood. The Baron hung 
 a hundred of them ; but spared the women, one of 
 whom begged hard for the life of her son. The 
 Baron refused her prayer, whereupon she opened 
 her breast and shrieked, ' This breast has nursed 
 other sons than he, who will yet wash their hands 
 in thy blood. Baron Owen ! ' Not very long there- 
 after, the Baron was waylaid at a certain spot by 
 the sons of the ' fairy ' woman, who washed their 
 hands in his warm and reeking blood, in fulfilment 
 of their mother's threat. And to this day that spot 
 goes by the name of Llidiart y Barwn (the Baron s 
 Gate) ; any peasant of the neighbourhood will tell 
 you the story, as one told it to me. There is of 
 course no better foundation for the fairy features of 
 it than the fancies of the ignorant mind, but the 
 legend itself is — very nearly in this shape — historical. 
 The beings in question were a band of outlaws, who 
 might naturally find it to their interest to foster 
 belief in their supernatural powers. 
 
 II. 
 
 The so-called Pwca r Trwyn, which haunted th" 
 farm-house in the parish of Mynyddyslwyn, is some- 
 times cited as another case in which a fairy was 
 probably a being of flesh and blood ; and if this be 
 true, it of course proves nothing but the adoption 
 of an ancient superstition by a proscribed Welsh 
 nobleman. There is a tradition that this fairy had 
 a name, and that this name was ' yr Arglwydd 
 
 II 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 129 
 
 Hywel/ which Is in English * Lord Howell.' And 
 it is argued that this Lord, in a contest with the 
 forces of the English king, was utterly worsted, 
 and driven into hiding ; that his tenants at Panty- 
 gasseg and the Trwyn Farm, loving their Lord, 
 helped to hide him, and to disseminate the belief 
 that he was a household fairy, or Bwbach. It is 
 related that he generally spoke from his own room 
 in this farm-house, in a gentle voice which * came 
 down between the boards ' into the common room 
 beneath. One day the servants were comparing 
 their hands, as to size and whiteness, when the 
 fairy was heard to say, * The Pwca's hand is the 
 fairest and smallest.' The servants asked if the 
 fairy would show its hand, and immediately a plank 
 overhead was moved and a hand appeared, small, 
 fair and beautifully formed, with a large gold ring 
 on the little finger. 
 
 III. 
 
 Curiously interesting is the hypothesis concerning 
 the realistic origin of the Tylwyth Teg, which was 
 put forth at the close of the last century by several 
 writers, among them the Rev. Peter Roberts, author 
 of the ' Collectanea Cambrica.' This hypothesis 
 precisely accounts for the fairies anciently as being 
 the Druids, in hiding from their enemies, or if not 
 they, other persons who had such cause for living 
 concealed in subterraneous places, and venturing 
 forth only at night. ' Some conquered aborigines,' 
 thought Dr. Guthrie ; while Mr. Roberts fancied 
 that as the Irish had frequently landed hostilely 
 in Wales, * it was very possible that some small 
 bodies of that nation left behind, or unable to return, 
 and fearing discovery, had hid themselves in caverns 
 during the day, and sent their children out at night, 
 fantastically dressed, for food and exercise, and thus 
 
130 British Goblins, 
 
 secured themselves/ But there were objections to 
 this presumption, and the Druidical theory was the 
 favourite one. Says Mr. Roberts : ' The fairy 
 customs appeared evidently too systematic, and too 
 general, to be those of an accidental party reduced 
 to distress. They are those of a consistent and 
 regular policy instituted to prevent discovery, and 
 to inspire fear of their power, and a high opinion of 
 their beneficence. Accordingly tradition notes, that 
 to attempt to discover them was to incur certain 
 destruction. "They are fairies," says Falstaff: "he 
 that looks on them shall die." They were not to be 
 impeded in ingress or egress ; a bowl of milk was to 
 be left for them at night on the hearth ; and, in 
 return, they left a small present in money when 
 they departed, if the house was kept clean ; if not, 
 they inflicted some punishment on the negligent, 
 which, as it was death to look on them, they were 
 obliged to suffer, and no doubt but many unlucky 
 tricks were played on such occasions. Their general 
 dress was green, that they might be the better con- 
 cealed ; and, as their children might have betrayed 
 their haunts, they seem to have been suffered to go 
 out only in the night time, and to have been enter- 
 tained by dances on moonlight nights. These 
 dances, like those round the May-pole, have been 
 said to be performed round a tree ; and on an 
 elevated spot, mostly a tumulus, beneath which was 
 probably their habitation, or its entrance. The 
 older persons, probably, mixed as much as they 
 dared with the world ; and, if they happened to be 
 at any time recognised, the certainty of their ven- 
 geance was their safety. If by any chance their 
 society was thinned, they appear to have stolen 
 children, and changed feeble for strong infants. 
 The stolen children, if beyond infancy, being brought 
 
 id 
 
 II 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 131 
 
 into their subterraneous dwellings, seem to have had 
 a soporific given them, and to have been carried to 
 a distant part of the country ; and, being there 
 allowed to go out merely by night, mistook the 
 night for the day, and probably were not undeceived 
 until it could be done securely. The regularity and 
 generality of this system shows that there was a 
 body of people existing in the kingdom distinct from 
 its known inhabitants, and either confederated, or 
 obliged to live or meet mysteriously ; and their 
 rites, particularly that of dancing round a tree, 
 probably an oak, as Herne-s, etc., as well as their 
 character for truth and probity, refer them to a 
 Druidic origin. If this was the case, it is easy to 
 conceive, as indeed history shows, that, as the 
 Druids were persecuted by the Romans and Chris- 
 tians, they used these means to preserve themselves 
 and their families, and whilst the country was thinly 
 peopled, and thickly wooded, did so successfully ; 
 and, perhaps, to a much later period than is 
 imagined : till the increase of population made it 
 impossible. As the Druidical was one of the most 
 ancient religions, so it must have been one of the 
 first persecuted, and forced to form a regular plan of 
 security, which their dwelling in caves may have 
 suggested, and necessity improved.' 
 
 IV. 
 
 It will be observed that one of the points in this 
 curious speculation rests on the green dress of the 
 fairies. I do not call attention to it with any Quixotic 
 purpose of disputing the conclusion it assists ; it is 
 far more interesting as one feature of the general 
 subject of fairies' attire. The Welsh fairies are 
 described with details as to colour in costume not 
 commonly met with in fairy tales, a fact to which I 
 
132 British Goblins, 
 
 I 
 
 have before alluded. In the legend of the Place of 
 Strife, the Tylwyth Teg encountered by the women 
 are called ' the old elves of the blue petticoat/ 
 A connection with the blue of the sky has here 
 been suggested. It has also been pointed out 
 that the sacred Druidical dress was blue. The 
 blue petticoat fancy seems to be local to North 
 Wales. In Cardiganshire, the tradition respecting 
 an encampment called Moyddin, which the fairies 
 frequented, is that they were always in green 
 dresses, and were never seen there but in the 
 vernal month of May. There is a Glamorgan- 
 shire goblin called the Green Lady of Caerphilly, 
 the colour of whose dress is indicated by her title. 
 She haunts the ruin of Caerphilly Castle at night, 
 wearing a green robe, and has the power of turn- 
 ing herself into ivy and mingling with the ivy 
 growing on the wall. A more ingenious mode of 
 getting rid of a goblin was perhaps never invented. 
 The fairies of Frennifawr, in Pembrokeshire, were 
 on the contrary gorgeous in scarlet, with red caps, 
 and feathers waving in the wind as they danced. 
 But others were in white, and this appears to be the 
 favourite hue of modern Welsh fairy costume, when 
 the Tylwyth Teg are in holiday garb. These various 
 details of colour are due to the fervour of the Welsh 
 fancy, of course, and perhaps their variety may in 
 part be ascribed to a keener sense of the fitness of 
 things among moderns than was current in earlier 
 times. White, to the Welsh, would naturally be 
 the favourite colour for a beautiful creature, dancing 
 in the moonlight on the velvet sward. The most 
 popular pet name for a Welsh lass is to-day exactly 
 what it has been for centuries, viz., Gwenny, the dimi- 
 nutive of Gwenllian (Anglicised into Gwendoline) — a 
 name which means simply white linen ; and the white 
 
 11 
 
The Realm of Faerie. 133 
 
 costume of the favourite fairies undoubtedly signifies 
 a dress of white Hnen. This fabric, common as it is 
 in our day, was In ancient times of inestimable value. 
 In the Mabinogion, linen Is repeatedly particularised 
 in the gorgeous descriptions of fabled splendour in 
 princely castles — linen, silk, satin, velvet, gold-lace, 
 and jewels, are the constantly-recurring features of 
 sumptuous attire. In his account of the royal tribes 
 of Wales, Yorke mentions that linen was so rare in 
 the reign of Charles VII. of France (I.e., in the fif- 
 teenth century) ' that her majesty the queen could 
 boast of only two shifts of that commodity.' The 
 first cause of the fairies' robes being white is evi- 
 dently to be discerned here ; and In Wales the 
 ancient sentiment as to whiteness remains. The 
 Welsh peasantry, coarsely and darkly clad them- 
 selves, would make white a purely holiday colour, 
 and devise some other hue for such commoner 
 fairies as the Bwbach and his sort : 
 
 The coarse and country fairy, 
 
 That doth haunt the hearth and dairy .^ 
 
 So the Bwbach Is usually brown, often hairy ; 
 and the Coblynau are black or copper-coloured In 
 face as well as dress. 
 
 V. 
 
 A local legend of the origin of fairies in Anglesea 
 mingles the practical and the spiritual in this manner : 
 * In our Saviour's time there lived a woman whose 
 fortune it was to be possessed of nearly a score of 
 children, . . . and as she saw our blessed Lord 
 approach her dwelling, being ashamed of being so 
 prolific, and that He might not see them all, she 
 concealed about half of them closely, and after his 
 departure, when she went In search of them, to her 
 
 ^ Jonson, Masque of * Oberon.' 
 
 K 2 
 
134 British Goblins, 
 
 great surprise found they were all gone. They never 
 afterwards could be discovered, for it was supposed 
 that as a punishment from heaven for hiding what 
 God had given her, she was deprived of them ; and 
 it is said these her offspring have generated the 
 race called fairies.' ^ 
 
 VI. 
 
 The common or popular theory, however, is in 
 Wales the poetico-religious one. This is, in a 
 word, the belief that the Tylwyth Teg are the souls 
 of dead mortals not bad enough for hell nor good 
 enough for heaven. They are doomed to live on 
 earth, to dwell in secret places, until the resurrec- 
 tion day, when they will be admitted into paradise. 
 Meantime they must be either incessantly toiling or 
 incessantly playing, but their toil is fruitless and 
 their pleasure unsatisfying. A variation of this 
 general belief holds these souls to be the souls of 
 the ancient Druids, a fancy which is specially im- 
 pressive, as indicating the duration of their penance, 
 and reminds us of the Wandering Jew myth. It is 
 confined mainly to the Coblynau, or dwellers in 
 mines and caves. Another variation considers the 
 fairies bad spirits of still remoter origin — the same 
 in fact who were thrown over the battlements of 
 heaven along with Satan, but did not fall into hell 
 — landed on the earth instead, where they are per- 
 mitted to tarry till doomsday as above. A detail 
 of this theory is in explanation of the rare appear- 
 ance of fairies nowadays ; they are refraining from 
 mischief in view of the near approach of the judg- 
 ment, with the hope of thus conciliating heaven. 
 
 The Prophet Jones, in explaining why the fairies 
 have been so active in Wales, expounds the poetico- 
 religious theory in masterly form. After stating that 
 
 ^ 'Camb. Sup,' 1 1 8. 
 
 I 
 
Tlie Realm of Faerie. 133 
 
 some in Monmouthshire were so ignorant as to think 
 the fairies happy spirits, because they had music and 
 dancing among them, he proceeds to assert, in the 
 most emphatic terms, that the Tylwyth Teg are 
 nothing else, 'after all the talking about them,' but 
 the disembodied spirits of men who lived and died 
 without the enjoyment of the means of grace and 
 salvation, as Pagans and others, and whose punish- 
 ment therefore is far less severe than that of those 
 who have enjoyed the means of salvation. ' But 
 some persons may desire to know why these fairies 
 hape appeared in Wales more than in some other 
 countries ? to which I answer, that I can give no 
 other reason but this, that having lost the light of 
 the true religion in the eighth and ninth centuries of 
 Christianity, and received Popery in its stead, it 
 became dark night upon them ; and then these 
 spirits of darkness became more bold and intruding; 
 and the people, as I said before, in their great igno- 
 rance seeing them like a company of children in dry 
 clean places, dancing and having music among them, 
 thought them to be some happy beings, . . . and 
 made them welcome in their houses. . . . The Welsh 
 entered into familiarity with the fairies in the time 
 of Henry IV., and the evil then increased ; the 
 severe laws of that prince enjoining, among other 
 things, that they were not to bring up their children 
 to learning, etc., by which a total darkness came upon 
 them ; ^ which cruel laws were occasioned by the 
 rebellion of Owen Glandwr, and the Welsh which 
 joined with him ; foolishly thinking to shake off the 
 Saxon yoke before they had repented of their sins.* 
 
 Whatever their locally accepted causes of being 
 may be, it is beyond any question that in the fairy 
 folk-lore of Wales, as of other lands, are to be found 
 the debris of ancient mythology — scintillant frag- 
 
136 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 I 
 
 ments of those magic constellations which glow in 
 the darkness of primeval time, grand and majestic 
 as the vast Unknown out of which they were evolved 
 by barbaric fancy. Through the aid of modern 
 scientific research, * those ages which the myths of 
 centuries have peopled with heroic shadows ' ^ are 
 brought nearer to us, and the humble Welsh Tylwyth 
 Teg may reach back and shake hands with the 
 Olympian gods. 
 
 ^ Marquis of Bute, address before the Royal Archaeological Institute, 
 Cardiff meeting. 
 
 'JK* VvvwTYvkU'*ji4luiytiv 9Cd' jkitkfr K<»<rtdlj wvttx CKe, O'^TAplo/n. ' C oJ-s 
 
( ^?>1 ) 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 THE SPIRIT-WORLD. 
 
 Where the wan spectres walk eternal rounds. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Miranda. What is't ? a spirit ? 
 
 Lord, how it looks about ! Believe me, sir, 
 It carries a brave form : — But 'tis a spirit. 
 
 Shakespeare : Tempest. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Modern Superstition regarding Ghosts — American * Spiritualism ' — 
 Welsh Beliefs — Classification of Welsh Ghosts — Departed Mortals 
 — Haunted Houses — Lady Stradling's Ghost — The Haunted 
 Bridge — The Legend of Catrin Gwyn— Didactic Purpose in 
 Cambrian Apparitions — An Insulted Corpse — Duty-performing 
 Ghosts — Laws of the Spirit- World — Cadogan's Ghost. 
 
 I. 
 
 In an age so given to mysticism as our own, it is 
 unnecessary to urge that the Welsh as a people are 
 not more superstitious regarding spirits than other 
 peoples. Belief in the visits to earth of disembodied 
 spirits is common to all lands. There are no doubt 
 differences in the degree of this belief, as there are 
 differences in matters of detail. Where or how 
 these spirits exist are questions much more difficult 
 to the average faith than why they exist. They 
 exist for the moral good of man ; of this there 
 prevails no doubt. The rest belongs to the still 
 
138 British Goblins, 
 
 unsettled science of the Unknowable. That form 
 of mysticism called ' spiritualism ' by its disciples is 
 dignified to the thoughtful observer by being viewed 
 as a remnant of the primeval philosophy. When 
 we encounter, in wandering among the picturesque 
 ghosts of the Welsh spirit-world, last-century stories 
 displaying details exactly similar to those of modern 
 spiritualism, our interest is strongly aroused. The 
 student of folk-lore finds his materials in stories and 
 beliefs which appear to be of a widespread family, 
 rather than in stories and beliefs which are unique ; 
 and the spirit of inquiry is constantly on the alert, in 
 following the details of a good old ghost story, 
 however fascinating it may be in a poetic sense. 
 The phantoms of the Welsh spirit-world are always 
 picturesque ; they are often ghastly ; sometimes 
 they are amusing to the point of risibility ; but 
 besides, they are instructive to him whose purpose 
 in studying is, to know. 
 
 That this age is superstitious with regard to 
 ghosts, is not wonderful ; all ages have been so ; the 
 wonder is that this age should be so and yet be the 
 possessor of a scientific record so extraordinary as 
 its own. An age which has brought forth the 
 magnetic telegraph, steamships and railway engines, 
 sewing-machines, mowing-machines, gas-light, and 
 innumerable discoveries and inventions of marvellous 
 utility — not to allude to those of our own decade — 
 should have no other use for ghostology than a 
 scientific one. But it would be a work as idle as 
 that of the Coblynau themselves, to point out how 
 universal among the most civilised nations is the 
 superstition that spirits walk. The ' controls ' of the 
 modern spiritualistic seance have the world for their 
 audience. The United States, a land generally 
 deemed — at least by its inhabitants — to be the most 
 
The Spirit- World. 139 
 
 advanced in these directions of any on God's foot- 
 stool, gave birth to modern spiritualism. Its disci- 
 ples there compose a vast body of people, respec- 
 table and worthy people in the main (as the victims 
 of superstition usually are), among whom are many 
 men of high intellectual ability. With the masses, 
 some degree of belief in the spirits is so nearly uni- 
 versal that I need hardly qualify the adjective. In 
 a country where there is practically no such class as 
 that represented in Europe by the peasantry, the 
 rampancy of such a belief is a phenomenon deserving 
 close and curious study. The present work affords 
 no scope for this study, of course. But I may here 
 mention in further illustration of my immediate theme, 
 the constant appearance, in American communities, 
 of ghosts of the old-fashioned sort. Especially in the 
 New England states, which are notable for their en- 
 lightenment, are ghost-stories still frequent — such as 
 that of the haunted school-house at Newburyport, 
 Mass., where a disembodied spirit related its own 
 murder ; of the ghost of New Bedford, which struck 
 a visitor in the face, so that he yet bears the marks of 
 the blow ; of the haunted house at Cambridge, in the 
 classic shadow of Harvard College. It is actually 
 on record in the last-named case, that the house fell 
 to decay on account of its ghastly reputation, as no 
 one would live in it ; that a tenant who ventured 
 to occupy it in 1877 was disturbed by the spirit of 
 a murdered girl who said her mortal bones were 
 buried in his cellar ; and that a party of men actually 
 dug all night in that cellar in search of those bones, 
 while the ghost waltzed in a chamber overhead. 
 The more common form of spirit peculiar to our 
 time appears constantly in various parts of the 
 country ; it is continually turning up in the Ameri- 
 can newspapers, rapping on walls, throwing stones, 
 
140 British Goblins. 
 
 tipping over tables, etc. * Mediums ' of every grade 
 of shrewdness and stupidity, and widely differing 
 degrees of education and ignorance, flourish abun- 
 dantly. Occasionally, where revelations of murder 
 have been made to a mortal by a spirit, the police 
 have taken the matter in hand. It is to be observed 
 as a commendable practice in such cases, that the 
 mortal is promptly arrested by the police if there has 
 really been a murder ; and when the fact appears, 
 as it sometimes does, that the mortal had need of no 
 ghost to tell him what he knows, he is hanged. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Welsh dearly love to discuss questions of a 
 spiritual and religious nature, and there are no 
 doubt many who look upon disbelief herein as some- 
 thing approaching paganism. That one should 
 believe in God and a future life, and yet be utterly 
 incredulous as to the existence of a mundane spirit- 
 world, seems to such minds impossible. It is not 
 many years since the clergy taught a creed of this 
 sort. One must not only believe in a spiritual 
 existence, but must believe in that existence here 
 below — must believe that ghosts walked, and 
 meddled, and made disagreeable noises. Our friend 
 the Prophet Jones taught this creed with energy. 
 In his relation of apparitions in Monmouthshire, he 
 says : * Enough is said in these relations to satisfy 
 any reasonable sober-minded person, and to confute 
 this ancient heresy, now much revived and spreading, 
 especially among the gentry, and persons much 
 estranged from God and spiritual things ; and such 
 as will not be satisfied with things plainly proved 
 and well designed ; are, in this respect, no better 
 than fools, and to be despised as such. . . . They are 
 chiefly women and men of weak and womanish 
 
The Spirit-World. 141 
 
 understandings, who speak against the accounts of 
 spirits and apparitions. In some women this comes 
 from a certain proud fineness, excessive delicacy, 
 and a superfine disposition which cannot bear to 
 be disturbed with what is strange and disagreeable 
 to a vain spirit.' Nor does the Prophet hesitate to 
 apply the term * Sadducees * to all doubters of his 
 goblins. His warrant for this is found in Wesley 
 and Luther. That Luther saw apparitions, or 
 believed he did, is commonly known. Wesley's 
 beliefs in this direction, however, are of a nearer 
 century, and strike us more strangely ; though it 
 must be said that the Prophet Jones, in our own 
 century, believed more than either of his eminent 
 prototypes. ' It is true,' wrote Wesley, 'that the 
 English in general, and indeed most of the men in 
 Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and 
 apparitions as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry 
 for it, and I willingly take this opportunity of 
 entering my solemn protest against this violent 
 compliment which so many that believe the Bible 
 pay to those who do not believe it. . . . They well 
 know, whether Christians know it or not, that the 
 giving up witchcraft is, in effect, giving up the Bible. 
 And they know, on the other hand, that if but one 
 account of the intercourse of men with separate 
 spirits be admitted, their whole castle in the air 
 — deism, atheism, materialism — falls to the ground.* 
 
 III. 
 
 The ghosts of Wales present many well-defined 
 features. It is even possible to classify them, after 
 a fashion. Of course, as with all descriptions of 
 phantoms, the vagueness inevitable in creatures of 
 the imagination is here ; but the ghosts of Welsh 
 tradition are often so old, and have been handed 
 
142- British Goblins. 
 
 down so cleanly through successive generations, 
 that in our day they have almost acquired defi- 
 nite outlines, as in the case of images arising 
 from the perceptions. Always bearing in mind 
 the risk of being lost in the labyrinthine eccen- 
 tricities of popular fancy, compared to which the 
 Arsinoe of Herodotus was unperplexing, I venture 
 to classify the inhabitants of the Welsh spirit-world 
 thus: I. Departed Mortals; 2. Goblin Animals; 
 3. Spectres of Natural Objects ; 4. Grotesque 
 Ghosts ; 5. Familiar Spirits ; 6. Death Omens. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The ghosts of departed mortals are usually the 
 late personal acquaintances of the people who see 
 them. But sometimes they are strangers whom 
 nobody knows, and concerning whom everybody is 
 curious. Two such ghosts haunted the streets of 
 Ebbw Vale, in Glamorganshire, in January, 1877. 
 One was in the shape of an old woman, the other in 
 that of a girl child. Timid people kept indoors 
 after nightfall, and there were many who believed 
 thoroughly in the ghostly character of the mysterious 
 visitors. Efforts were made to catch them, but they 
 eluded capture. It was hinted by materialists that 
 they were thieves ; by unbelievers in spiritualism 
 that they had perhaps escaped from a seance in 
 some adjoining town. These ghosts, however, are 
 not very interesting. A cultivated moderner can 
 have no satisfaction in forming the acquaintance of 
 a seance ghost ; it is quite otherwise in the case of 
 a respectable old family goblin which has haunted 
 a friend's house in the most orthodox manner for 
 centuries. Such ghosts are numerous in Wales, and 
 quite faithfully believed in by selected individuals. 
 Indeed one of the highest claims to a dignified 
 
The Spirit- World. 143 
 
 antiquity that can be put in by a Welsh family 
 mansion, is the possession of a good old-fashioned 
 blood-curdling spectre — like that, for example, which 
 has haunted Duffryn House, a handsome stone 
 manse near Cardiff, for the past two hundred years 
 and more. This is the ghost of the doughty admiral 
 Sir Thomas Button, famed in his day as an Arctic 
 navigator. Since his death he has faithfully haunted 
 (so the local farm folk say) the cellar and the garden 
 of Duffryn House, where he lived, when he did live, 
 which was in the 17th century. He has never been 
 known to appear in hall or chamber of the mansion, 
 within the memory of man, but has been seen 
 hovering over the beer butt or tun in the cellar, 
 commemorated in his name, and walking in the 
 flower-garden of a fine windy night. 
 
 It is noteworthy that in Wales it is by no means 
 necessary that a house should be tenantless, mortally 
 speaking, merely because a ghost haunts it. The 
 dreary picture of desolation drawn by Hood, the 
 all-sufficient explanation of which was — 
 
 . . . the place is haunted ! 
 
 would not recall the smug tidiness of Dufiryn House, 
 whose clean-cut lawns and well-trimmed hedges are 
 fit surroundings of a mansion where luxurious 
 comfort reigns. A ghost which confines itself to 
 the cellar and the garden need disturb neither the 
 merrymaking nor the slumbers of the guests. 
 
 St. Donat's Castle is down on the southern coast 
 of Glamorganshire, in a primitive region not yet 
 profaned by railroads, nor likely to be perhaps for 
 many years to come. It Is owned and Inhabited 
 by a worthy gentleman whose ancestors for seven 
 centuries sleep in the graveyard under the old 
 castle wall. Its favourite ghost — for to confine this 
 
144 British Goblins, 
 
 or any other ancient Welsh castle to a single ghost 
 would be almost disrespectful — is that of Lady 
 Stradling, who was done away with by some of her 
 family in those wicked old times when families did not 
 always dwell in peace together. This ghost makes 
 a practice of appearing when any mishap is about 
 to befall a member of the house of Stradling — the 
 direct line of which is, however, extinct, a fact not 
 very well apprehended among the neighbouring 
 peasantry. She wears high-heeled shoes and a long 
 trailing gown of the finest silk. In this guise doth 
 she wander up and down the long majestic halls and 
 chambers, and, while she wanders, the castle hounds 
 refuse to rest, but with their bowlings raise all the 
 dogs of the village under the hill. 
 
 Ghosts of this sort are vague and purposeless in 
 character, beyond a general blood-curdling office 
 which in all ghosts doth dwell. They haunt not 
 only castles and family mansions, but bridges, rocks, 
 and roads, objectless but frightful. The ghost of 
 Pont Cwnca Bach, near Yscanhir, in Carmarthen- 
 shire, frightens people off the bridge into the rivulet. 
 Many belated peasants have had this dire experience 
 at the little bridge, afterwards wandering away in a 
 dazed condition, and finding themselves on recover- 
 ing at some distance from home, often in the middle 
 of a bog. In crossing this bridge people were seized 
 with ' a kind of cold dread,' and felt * a peculiar 
 sensation ' which they could not describe, but which 
 the poorest fancy can no doubt imagine. Another 
 purposeless spectre exists in the legend of Catrin 
 Gwyn, told in Cardiganshire. The ruin of a shep- 
 herd's cottage, standing on a mountain waste near 
 the river Rheidol, is the haunt of this spectre. 
 
The Spirit-World. 145 
 
 A peasant who was asked to escort a stranger up 
 the narrow defile of rocks by the ruin, in horror ex- 
 claimed, ' Yn enw y daioni, peidiwch,' (in the name 
 of heaven, sir, don't go !) ' or you'll meet White 
 Catti of the Grove Cave.' * And what's that ? ' 
 * An evil spirit, sir/ And the superstitious peasant 
 would neither be laughed nor reasoned out of his 
 fears. Catrin was the bride of a young shepherd 
 living near Machynlleth in 1705. One day she 
 went to market with a party of other peasants, who 
 separated from her on the return way at a point two 
 miles from Gelli Gogo. She was never more seen 
 alive. A violent storm arose in the night, and next 
 day a scrap of her red cloak was found on the edge 
 of a frightful bog, in which she is believed to have 
 disappeared in the darkness and storm. The hus- 
 band went mad ; their cottage fell to decay ; and 
 to this day the shepherds declare that Catti's ghost 
 haunts the spot. It is most often seen, and in its 
 most terrific shape, during howling storms, when it 
 rides on the gale, shrieking as it goes.^ 
 
 VI. 
 
 Few Cambrian spirits are devoid of a didactic 
 purpose. Some teach reverence for the dead, — a 
 lesson in great request among the rising generation 
 in Wales and elsewhere. The church at Tregaron, 
 Cardiganshire, was being rebuilt in 1877, and certain 
 skulls were turned up by the diggers in making new 
 foundations. The boys of Tregaron amused them- 
 selves playing ball with the skulls, picking out their 
 teeth, banging them against the wall to see if they 
 would break, and the like.^ They probably never 
 heard the story told by Mrs. Morgan of Newport 
 
 Camb. Quarterly,' i., 452. 
 
146 British Goblins, 
 
 to the Prophet Jones : of some people who were 
 drinking at an inn there, ' two of them officers of 
 excise,' when one of the men, to show his courage, 
 declared he was afraid of no ghosts, and dared go to 
 the charnel house and fetch a skull from that ghastly 
 place. This bold and dangerous thing he did, and 
 the men debated, over their beer, whether it was a 
 male or a female skull, and concluded it was a 
 woman's, ' though the grave nearly destroys the 
 difference between male and female before the 
 bones are turned to dust, and the difference then 
 quite destroyed and known only to God.' After 
 a jolly hour over the skull, the bold one carried it 
 back and left it where he got it ; but as he was 
 leaving the church, suddenly a tremendous blast 
 like a whirlwind seized him, and so mauled and 
 hauled him that his teeth chattered in his head and 
 his knees knocked together, and he ever after 
 swore that nothing should tempt him to such a deed 
 again. He was still more convinced that the ghost 
 of the original owner of the skull had been after him, 
 when he got home, and his wife told him that his 
 cane, which hung in the room, had been beating 
 against the wall in a dreadful manner. 
 
 VII. 
 
 As a rule, the motive for the reappearance on 
 earth of a spirit lately tenanting a mortal body, 
 is found in some neglected duty. The spirit of a 
 suicide is morally certain to walk : a reason why 
 suicides are so unpopular as tenants of graveyards. 
 It is a brave man who will go to the grave of a 
 suicide and play ' Hob y deri dando ' on the ystur- 
 mant (jew's-harp), without missing a note. Many 
 are the tales displaying the motive, on the ghost's 
 part, of a duty to perform — sometimes clearly defining 
 
The Spirit-World, 147 
 
 it, sometimes vaguely suggesting it, as in the story 
 of Noe. * The evening was far gone when a 
 traveller of the name of Noe arrived at an inn in 
 Pembrokeshire, and called for refreshment. After 
 remaining some time he remarked that he must 
 proceed on his journey. ''Surely," said the astonished 
 landlord, '* you will not travel at night, for it is said 
 that a ghost haunts that road, crying out. The days 
 are long and the nights are cold to wait for Noe." 
 '' O, I am the man sought for," said he, and imme- 
 diately departed ; but strange to say, neither Noe 
 nor the ghost was ever heard of afterwards.' ^ 
 
 The ghost of a weaver, which appeared to Walter 
 John Harry, had a very clear idea of the duty he 
 must perform : Walter John Harry was a Quaker, 
 a harmless, honest man, and by trade a farrier, who 
 lived in the romantic valley of Ebwy Fawr. The 
 house he lived in was haunted by the ghost of 
 Morgan Lewis, a weaver, v/ho had died in that 
 house. One night, while lying awake in his bed, 
 with his wife sleeping by his side, Harry saw a 
 light slowly ascending the stairs, and being some- 
 what afraid, though he was naturally a fearless man, 
 strove to awake his wife by pinching her, but could 
 not awake her. So there he lay in great fear, and 
 with starting eyes beheld the ghost of the weaver 
 come up the stairs, bearing a candle in its hand, and 
 wearing a white woollen cap on its head, with other 
 garments usual to the weaver when alive. The 
 ghost came near the farrier's bed, who then mustered 
 up courage to speak to it. * Morgan Lewis,' said 
 Harry, ' why dost thou walk this earth ? ' The 
 ghost replied with great solemnity, that its reason 
 for so doing was that there were some ' bottoms of 
 wool ' hidden in the wall of this house, and until these 
 
 1 'Camb. Sup.' 31. 
 
148 British Goblins. 
 
 
 said bottoms were removed from the wall it could 
 not sleep. The ghost did not say this wool had 
 been stolen, but such was the inference. However, 
 the harmless farrier spoke severely to the ghost, 
 saying, * I charge thee, Morgan Lewis, in the name 
 of God, that thou trouble my house no more.' 
 Whereupon the ghost vanished, and the house 
 ceased thereafter to be haunted. 
 
 The motives animating ghosts are much the same 
 the world over, and these details have no greater 
 novelty than that of the local colouring. European 
 peoples are familiar with the duty-compelled ghost ; 
 but it is odd to encounter the same spectre in China. 
 The most common form of Chinese ghost-story is 
 that wherein the ghost seeks to bring to justice the 
 murderer who shuffled off its mortal coil. The 
 ghosts of suicides are also especially obnoxious 
 there. The spectres which are animated by a sense 
 of duty are more frequently met than any others : 
 now they seek to serve virtue in distress, now they 
 aim to restore wrongfully-held treasure.^ 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The laws governing the Welsh spirit-world are 
 clear and explicit. A ghost on duty bent has no 
 power of speech until first spoken to. Its persist- 
 ency in haunting Is due to its eager desire to speak, 
 and tell its urgent errand, but the person haunted 
 must take his courage in both hands and put the 
 question to the issue. Having done so, he is booked 
 for the end of the business, be it what It may. The 
 mode of speech adopted must not vary. In address- 
 ing a spirit ; in the name of the Father, Son, or 
 Holy Ghost it must be addressed, and not otherwise. 
 Its business must be demanded ; three times the 
 
 * Dennys, ' Folk-Lore of China,' 73. 
 
The Spirit-World. 149 
 
 question must be repeated, unless the ghost answer 
 earlier. When it answers, it speaks in a low and 
 hollow voice, stating its desire ; and it must not be 
 interrupted while speaking, for to interrupt it is 
 dangerous in the extreme. At the close of its 
 remarks, questions are in order. They must be 
 promptly delivered, however, or the ghost will vanish. 
 They must bear on the business in hand : it is 
 offended if asked as to its state, or other idle ques- 
 tions born of curiosity. Neglect to obey the ghost s 
 injunctions will lead to much annoyance, and even- 
 tually to dire results. At first the spirit will appear 
 with a discontented visage, next with an angry one, 
 and finally with a countenance distorted with the 
 most ferocious rage. Obedience is the only method 
 of escape from its revenge. Such is a restimS of 
 the laws. The illustrations thereof are generally 
 consistent in their details. 
 
 The story of Cadogan's ghost is one of many in 
 kind. Thomas Cadogan was the owner of a large 
 estate in the parish of Llanvihangel Llantarnam, 
 and being a covetous man did wickedly remove 
 his landmarks in such a way as to absorb to himself 
 part of the land of a widow his neighbour. After 
 his death this injustice troubled him, and as a 
 certain woman was going home one night, at a stile 
 she passed over she met Cadogan's ghost. By a 
 strange forgetfulness, this woman for the moment 
 lost sight of the fact that Cadogan was now a ghost ; 
 she had momentarily forgotten that Cadogan was 
 dead. * Mr. Cadogan,' said she, with ungrammatlcal 
 curiosity, 'what does you here this time o' night ?' 
 To which the ghost answered, ' I was obliged to 
 come.' It then explained the matter of the land- 
 marks, and begged the woman to request a certain 
 person (whom it mentioned) to remove them back 
 
 L 2 
 
ISO 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 
 to their proper places ; and then the ghost vanished. 
 At this unexpected termination of the interview, 
 the woman suddenly recollected Cadogan's death, 
 and fell into a state of extreme terror. She how- 
 ever did as the ghost had bidden her, and Cadogan 
 walked no more. 
 
( 151 ) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Household Ghosts and Hidden Treasures — The Miser of St. Donat's — 
 Anne Dewy's Ghost — The Ghost on Horseback— Hidden Objects 
 of Small Value — Transportation through the Air — From Brecon- 
 shire to Philadelphia, Pa., in Thirty-Six Hours — Sir David Llwyd, 
 the Magician — The Levitation of Walter Jones — Superstitions 
 regarding Hares — The Legend of Monacella's Lambs — Aerial 
 Transportation in Modern Spiritualism — Exorcising Household 
 Ghosts — The Story of Haunted Margaret. 
 
 I. 
 
 The majority of stories of this class turn on the 
 subject of hidden treasures. The popular belief is 
 that if a person die while any hoarded money — or 
 indeed metal of any kind, were it nothing more than 
 old iron — is still hidden secretly, the spirit of that 
 person cannot rest. Its perturbation can only be 
 relieved by finding a human hand to take the hidden 
 metal, and throw it down the stream of a river. To 
 throw it up the stream, will not do. The Ogmore 
 is the favourite river for this purpose in lower 
 Glamorganshire. The spirit selects a particular 
 person as the subject of its attentions, and haunts 
 that person till asked what it wants, when it prefers 
 its request. Some say it is only ill-gotten treasure 
 which creates this disturbance of the grave's repose. 
 A tailor's wife at Llantwit Major, who had been a 
 stout and jolly dame, was thus haunted until she was 
 worn to the semblance of a skeleton, 'for not 
 choosing to take a hoard honestly to the Ogmore.' 
 But flesh and blood could not resist for ever, and so 
 —this is her story : ' I at last consented, for the sake 
 
152 British Goblins. 
 
 of quiet, to take the treasure to the river ; and the 
 spirit wafted me through the air so high that I saw- 
 below me the church loft, and all the houses, as if I 
 leaned out of a balloon. When I took the treasure 
 to throw it into the river, in my flurry I flung it up 
 stream instead of down : and on this the spirit, 
 with a savage look, tossed me into a whirlwind, and 
 however I got back to my home I know not.' The 
 bell-ringers found her lying insensible in the church 
 lane, as they were going home from church late in 
 the evening. * 
 
 II. 
 
 There was an old curmudgeon of a money- hoarder 
 who lived in a cottage on the side of the cwm, or 
 dingle, at St. Donat's, not far from the Castle. His 
 housekeeper was an antique dame of quaint aspect. 
 He died, and the dame lived there alone ; but she 
 began to grow so gaunt and grizzly that people 
 wondered at it, and the children ran frightened from 
 her. Some one finally got from her the confession 
 that she was haunted by the miser's ghost. To 
 relieve her of its presence the Methodists resolved to 
 hold a prayer-meeting in the haunted house. While 
 they were there singing and praying the old woman 
 suddenly jumped up and screamed, ' There he is ! 
 there he is ! ' The people grew silent. Then some 
 one said, * Ask it what it wants.' ' What do you 
 want ? ' quavered the old woman. No one heard 
 the reply, except the dame, who presently said : 
 * Where is it ? ' Then the old woman, nodding and 
 staring as if obeying an invisible mandate, groped 
 her way to the chimney, thrust her gaunt arm up, 
 and drew down a bag of money. With this she 
 cried out, * Let me go ! let me go ! ' which, no one 
 preventing her, she did, as quickly as a flash of light. 
 Some young men by the door followed her, and, it 
 
The Spirit- World, 153 
 
 being a bright moonlight night, beheld her whisk 
 over the stile without touching it, and so off up the 
 road towards the Ogmore. The people now resumed 
 their praying and singing. It was an hour before 
 the old woman got back, and then she was found to 
 be spattered with mud and bedraggled with wet, as 
 if she had been having a terrific time. She had 
 indeed, as she confessed, been to the Ogmore, and 
 thrown the bag of money down the stream ; the 
 ghost had then taken off its hat, made a low bow, 
 and vanished, to trouble her no more. 
 
 III. 
 
 A young man from Llywel parish, who was court- 
 ing a lass who lodged at the house of Thomas 
 Richard, in the vale of Towy, found himself haunted 
 as he went to and fro by the ghost of Anne Dewy, 
 a woman who had hanged herself She would not 
 only meet him in the road, and frighten him, but 
 she would come to his bedside, and so scare him 
 that he fell ill. While he was ill his cousin came 
 to see him, and thinking his illness was due to his 
 being crossed in love, rallied him, saying, * Wfft ! 
 thou'rt sick because thy cariad has refused thee.' 
 But being gravely answered, and told of Anne 
 Dewy's ghost, this cousin advised the haunted man 
 to speak to her. ' Speak to her,' said he, ' or thou 
 wilt have no quiet. I will go with thee, and see 
 thou shalt have no harm.' So they went out, and 
 called at Tafarn y Garreg, an inn not far off; but 
 the haunted man could not drink, and often looked 
 towards the door. ' What ails the man ? ' asked the 
 tap-room loungers. He continued to be uneasy, 
 and finally went out, his cousin following him, and 
 then he saw the ghost again. ' Oh God, here she is ! ' 
 he cried out, his teeth chattering and his eyes rolling. 
 
154 British Goblins. 
 
 * This is a sad thing/ said his cousin : * I know 
 not what to think of thee ; but come, I will go with 
 thee, go where thou wilt/ They returned to the 
 ale-house, and after a while the haunted man started 
 up, saying he was called, but when others offered to 
 go with him he said no, he must go alone. He did 
 go alone, and spoke to the ghost, who said, ' Fear 
 nothing ; follow me/ She led him to a spot behind 
 the house where she had lived when in the flesh, 
 and where she had hanged herself, and bade 
 him take from the wall a small bag. He did so. 
 The bag contained ' a great sum of money,' in pieces 
 of gold ; he guessed it might be 200/. or more. But 
 the ghost, greatly to his regret, bade him go and 
 cast it into the river. He obeyed, against his better 
 judgment. The next day, and for many a day there- 
 after, people looked for that money where he had 
 thrown it in the river, but it never could be found. 
 The Rev. Thomas Lewis, a dissenting minister in 
 those parts, saw the place in the wall where the 
 money had been hid, in the haunted house, and 
 wondered how the young man could reach it, it 
 being so very high ; but thought it likely he was 
 assisted by the ghost. 
 
 IV. 
 
 This same Rev. Thomas Lewis was well acquainted 
 with a man who was similarly employed by a per- 
 turbed spirit, and was at the man's bedside when 
 he died. This ghost was in appearance a clergy- 
 man, dressed in black clothes, with a white wig 
 on. As the man was looking out of an ale-house 
 window one night, he saw this ghost on horseback, 
 and went out to him. The ghost bowed and silently 
 offered him drink ; but this was declined. There- 
 upon the ghost lifted his hat, crooked his elbow, and 
 said in a hollow tone, ' Attoch chwi, syr,' (to- 
 
The Spirit-World. 155 
 
 wards you, sir). But others who were there could 
 see nothing and hear nothing. The ghost then said, 
 ' Go to CHfford Castle, in Radnorshire, take out 
 some money which lies hidden there, and throw it 
 into the river. Do this, I charge thee, or thou shalt 
 have no rest.' Further and more explicit directions 
 were then given, and the unhappy man set out, 
 against his will, for Clifford Castle, which is the 
 castle in which was born Fair Rosamond, King 
 Henry II.'s beautiful favourite. No one but himself 
 was allowed to enter the castle, although he was 
 permitted to have a friend's company to the ruined 
 gate thereof. It was dark when they came to the 
 castle, but he was guided to the place where the 
 money was, and ran with it and flung it into the 
 river. After that he was haunted no more. 
 
 An old house at Ty'n-y-Twr, in Carnarvonshire, 
 was haunted by a ghost whose troubles were a 
 reversal of the rule. A new tenant, who took 
 possession of the house a few years ago, was so 
 bothered by this spectre that he resolved to ques- 
 tion it. He did so and got for answer the infor- 
 mation that if he would deposit a particular sum of 
 money in a specified place, his ghostship would cease 
 to walk. The man actually did this, and it acted 
 like magic. The money disappeared with prompti- 
 tude, and the ghost came there no more. 
 
 A man at Crumlyn, Monmouthshire, was haunted 
 by a ghost whose trouble related to a hidden object 
 of small value. Nevertheless the spectre was so 
 importunate that the man set out one night to 
 accompany It to the scene of perturbation. In due 
 time they came to a huge stone, which the ghost 
 bade its friend lift up, who replied that he had not 
 sufficient strength, it being a pretty large rock he 
 was thus requested to move. ' But try,' said the 
 
156 British Goblins. 
 
 ghost. So he tried, and lo ! it was lifted as if it had 
 been a feather. He drew forth a pike, or mattock ; 
 * and the Hght,* the man afterwards related, ' was as 
 great as if the sun shone ; and in the snow there was 
 no impression of the feet of either of us.' They 
 went to the river, and by the ghost's command the 
 man threw the pike over his head into the water, 
 standing with his back to the flood. The ghost 
 then conducted him home, and never troubled him 
 more. But for a long time after he was out of his 
 senses. 
 
 This was an illustration, according to the popular 
 belief, of the wickedness of hiding anything, however 
 trifling its value — a practice strongly condemned by 
 the Welsh peasantry. 
 
 There is a Glamorganshire story about a certain 
 young man who, returning late at night from 
 courting his sweetheart, felt tired, and sitting down 
 fell asleep. He had not slept long when he was 
 aroused by a strange noise, and looking up recog- 
 nised the ghost of his departed grandfather. 
 Enquiring the cause of the old gentleman's visit to 
 this scene of trials, he got this answer : ' Under the 
 corner of the thatch of your roof, look and you will 
 find a pair of silver spurs, surreptitiously obtained 
 by me when in the flesh, and hidden there. Throw 
 them into the river Taff, and I shall be at peace.' 
 The young man obeyed these instructions, and 
 found the spurs accordingly ; and although many 
 persons were present when he climbed to the 
 roof and fumbled under the thatch, and saw him in 
 the very act, not one among them could see the 
 spurs, which were to them invisible. They said, 
 however, that when the purloined spurs had been 
 thrown into the river, a bright flame was seen to 
 flash along the water. 
 
The Spirit- World. 157 
 
 A large proportion of these stories of ghostly 
 perturbation concerning hidden treasure include ?. 
 further feature of great interest, relating to trans 
 portation through the air. I have mentioned tha. 
 ghosts sometimes employ the services of the fairy 
 Boobach in thus carrying mortals from place to place. 
 The fairies of Wales are indeed frequently found to 
 be on the best of terms with the ghosts. Their 
 races have much in common, and so many of their 
 practices are alike that one Is not always absolutely 
 sure whether he is dealing with a fairy or a spectre, 
 until some test-point crops up. However, in trans- 
 porting a mortal through the air, ghost and fairy 
 work together. The Boobach being set his task, 
 complaisantly gives the mortal the choice of being 
 transported above wind, amid wind, or below wind. 
 The value of knowing beforehand what to expect, 
 was never better illustrated than in this place. The 
 mortal who, with a natural reluctance to get into an 
 unpleasantly swift current, avoids travelling mid- 
 wind, misses a pleasant journey, for mid-wind is the 
 only agreeable mode of being borne by a Boobach. 
 Should you choose to go above wind, you are trans- 
 ported so high that you skim the clouds and are in 
 danger of being frightened to death. But choosing 
 the below-wind course is even worse, for then you 
 are dragged through bush, through briar, in a way 
 to impress upon you the advice of Apollo to 
 Phaeton, and teach you the value of the golden 
 mean. In medio hitissimus ibis, 
 
 VI. 
 
 In the parish of Ystradgynlals, in Breconshire, 
 Thomas Llewellyn, an innkeeper's son, was often 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 troubled by the spirit of a well-dressed woman, who 
 used to stand before him in narrow lanes, as if to bar 
 his passage, but he always got by her, though in 
 great alarm. One night he mustered up courage to 
 speak to her, and ask her what she wanted with him. 
 To which she replied, ' Be not afraid ; I will not 
 hurt thee.' Then she told him he must go to 
 ' Philadelphia in Pennsylvania,' and take a box from 
 a house there, (which she described,) in which there 
 was a sum of 200/. But as he did not know how to 
 go to that far-off place, he said as much. ' Meet me 
 here next Friday night,' said the phantom ; * meet 
 me, I charge thee.' She then vanished. The young 
 man went home and told this story to his neigh- 
 bours and friends. They held a consultation with 
 the curate of the parish, who promptly appointed a' 
 prayer-meeting for that Friday night, to which the 
 young man was bidden, and by which it was hoped 
 the purpose of the ghost to spirit him off to Phila- 
 delphia might be circumvented. The meeting con- 
 tinued until midnight, and when it broke up the 
 young man's friends stayed with him ; but they had 
 no sooner got beyond the parson's stables than he 
 was taken from among them. His subsequent 
 adventures are thus related by himself : ' The appari- 
 tion carried me away to a river, and threw me into 
 it, chiding me for telling the people of our appointed 
 meeting and for not coming to meet her as she had 
 charged me ; but bade me be not afraid, that she 
 would not hurt me, because she had not charged me 
 to be silent on the subject ; nevertheless I had done 
 wrong to go to the parson's house. Now, said she, 
 we begin the journey. I was then lifted up and 
 carried away I know not how. When I came to the 
 place,' (in Philadelphia,) ' I was taken into a house, 
 and conducted to a fine room. The spirit then bade 
 
The Spirit- World. 159 
 
 me lift up a board, which I did. I then saw the box, 
 and took it. Then the spirit said I must go three 
 miles and cast it into the black sea. We went, as I 
 thought, to a lake of clear water, where I was 
 commanded to throw the box into it ; which when I 
 did there was such a noise as if all about was going 
 to pieces. From thence I was taken up and carried 
 to the place where I was first taken up. I then 
 asked her. Am I free now ? She said I was ; and 
 then she told me a secret, which she strictly charged 
 me to tell no person.' Extensive and ingenious 
 guessing was indulged in by all Ystradgynlais, as to 
 what this secret might be ; and one woman made 
 herself popular by remembering that there was a 
 certain Elizabeth Gething in other days who had 
 gone from this neighbourhood to Pennsylvania, and 
 the conclusion was eagerly arrived at, that this was 
 the woman whose phantom the young man saw, and 
 that the secret she told him was her name when 
 alive. They questioned him as to her appearance, 
 and he said she was largely made, very pale, her 
 looks severe, and her voice hollow, different from a 
 human voice. This was considered by the Ystrad- 
 gynlaisians, with many nods to each other, as a most 
 accurate description of what Elizabeth Gething would 
 probably be, after having shuffled off this mortal coil. 
 The time occupied in this mysterious transportation 
 and ghostly enterprise was three days and three 
 nights ; that is, from Friday night to Monday night ; 
 and when the voyager came home he could scarcely 
 speak. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Sir David Llwyd, the Welsh magician, was once 
 at Lanidloes town, in Montgomeryshire, and as he 
 was going home late at night, saw a boy there from 
 his neighbourhood. He asked the lad if he would 
 
i6o British Goblins, 
 
 like to ride home behind him, and receiving an 
 affirmative reply, took the boy up behind on the 
 horse's back. They rode so swiftly that they were 
 home in no time, and the boy lost one of his garters 
 in the journey. The next day, seeing something 
 hanging in the ash-tree near the church, he climbed 
 up to learn what it was, and to his great surprise 
 found it was the garter he had lost. * Which shows 
 they rode home in the air,' observes the Prophet 
 Jones in telling the story. Mr. Jones has a number 
 of extraordinary narratives of this class — e.g., the 
 following, which I condense : 
 
 Henry Edmund, of Hafodafel, was one night 
 visiting Charles Hugh, the conjuror of Aberystruth, 
 and they walked together as far as Lanhiddel, where 
 Hugh tried to persuade his companion to stay all 
 night with him at a public house. Edmund refused, 
 and said he would go home. ' You had better stay,' 
 said Hugh in a meaning tone. But Edmund went 
 out into the street, when he was seized by invisible 
 hands and borne through the air to Landovery, in 
 Carmarthenshire, a distance of fully fifty miles as 
 the crow flies. There he was set down at a public 
 house where he had before been, and talked with 
 people who knew him. He then went out into the 
 street, when he was seized again and borne back to 
 Lanhiddel, arriving there the next morning at day- 
 break. The first man he met was the conjuror 
 Charles Hugh, who said, * Did I not tell you you 
 had better stay with me ? ' 
 
 The landlord of the inn at Langattock Crickhowel]^^ 
 in Breconshire, was a man called Richard the Tailor. 
 He was more than suspected of resorting to the 
 company of fairies, and of practising infernal arts. 
 
The Spirit-World. i6i 
 
 One day a company of gentlemen were hunting in 
 that vicinity, when the hounds started a hare, which 
 ran so long and so hard that everybody was pros- 
 trated with fatigue ; and this hare disappeared from 
 view at the cellar window of the inn kept by Richard 
 the Tailor. The circumstance begat a suspicion 
 among the hunters that the hare which had so 
 bothered them was none other than Richard the 
 Tailor himself, and that his purpose in taking that 
 form had been to lead them a dance and bring them 
 to the door of his inn at an hour too late for them 
 to return home, thus compelling them to spend their 
 money there. They stayed, however, being very 
 tired. But they growled very hard at their landlord 
 and were perfectly free with their comments on his 
 base conduct. One of their party, having occasion 
 to go out-doors during the evening, did not come 
 back ; his name was Walter Jones, and he was well 
 known in that part of the country. The company 
 became uneasy at his absence, and began to abuse 
 the landlord roundly, threatening to burn the house 
 if Walter Jones did not return. Notwithstanding 
 their threats, Walter Jones came not back all night. 
 Late the next morning he made his appearance, 
 looking like one who had been drawn through thorns 
 and briars, with his hair in disorder, and his whole 
 aspect terribly demoralised. His story was soon 
 told. He had no sooner got out-doors than invisible 
 hands had whisked him up, and whirled him along 
 rough ways until daybreak, when he found himself 
 near by the town of Newport, helping a man from 
 Risca to raise a load of coal upon his horse. 
 Suddenly he became insensible, and was whisked 
 back again to the inn where they now saw him. 
 The distance he traversed in going to and fro was 
 about forty miles. And Walter Jones, who had 
 
1 62 British Goblins. 
 
 hitherto been an ungodly man, mended his ways 
 from that time forth. 
 
 IX. 
 
 There are many points in all these traditional 
 stories which are suggestive of interesting com- 
 parisons, and constantly remind us of the significance 
 of details which, at first sight, seem trivial. The 
 supposed adoption of the hare form by the tailor 
 recalls a host of mythological details. The hare 
 has been identified with the sun-god Michabo of the 
 American Indians, who sleeps through the winter 
 months, and symbolises the sleep of nature precisely 
 as in the fairy myth of the Sleeping Maiden, and 
 the Welsh legends of Sleeping Heroes. Among 
 the Hottentots, the hare figures as the servant of 
 the moon. In China, the hare is viewed as a 
 telluric genius in one province, and everywhere as 
 a divine animal. In Wales, one of the most 
 charming of the local legends relates how a hare 
 flying from the hounds took refuge under a fair saint's 
 robes, so that hares were ever after called Mona- 
 cella's Lambs in that parish. Up to a comparatively 
 recent time, no person in the parish would kill a 
 hare. When a hare was pursued by dogs, it was 
 firmly believed that if any one cried, ' God and St. 
 Monacella be with thee,' it was sure to escape. The 
 legend is related by Pennant, in his tour through 
 Montgomeryshire : * At about two miles distant 
 from Llangynog, I turned up a small valley to the 
 right, to pay my devotions to the shrine of St. 
 Monacella, or, as the Welsh style her, Melangell. . . . 
 She was the daughter of an Irish monarch, who 
 had determined to marry her to a nobleman of his 
 court. The princess had vowed celibacy. She fled 
 from her father's dominions, and took refuge in this 
 place, where she lived fifteen years without seeing 
 
The Spirit-World. 163 
 
 the face of man. Brochwel Yscythrog, prince of 
 Powys, being one day a hare-hunting, pursued his 
 game till he came to a great thicket ; when he was 
 amazed to find a virgin of surprising beauty engaged 
 in deep devotion, with the hare he had been pur- 
 suing under her robe, boldly facing the dogs, who 
 retired to a distance, howling, notwithstanding all 
 the efforts of the sportsmen to make them seize their 
 prey. When the huntsman blew his horn, it stuck 
 to his lips. Brochwel heard her story, and gave 
 to God and her a parcel of lands to be a sanctuary 
 to all who fled there. He desired her to found an 
 abbey on the spot. She did so, and died abbess of 
 it, in a good old age. She was buried in the neigh- 
 bouring church. ... Her hard bed is shown in the 
 cleft of a neighbouring rock. Her tomb was in a 
 little chapel, or oratory, adjoining to the church 
 and now used as a vestry-room. This room is still 
 called cell y bedd, (cell of the grave). . . . The 
 legend is perpetuated by some rude wooden carvings 
 of the saint, with numbers of hares scuttling to her 
 for protection.' 
 
 X. 
 
 It is interesting to observe, in connection with 
 the subject of transportation through the air, with 
 what vitality this superstition lingers in modern 
 spiritualism. The accounts of such transportation 
 are familiar to every reader of newspapers. That 
 Mr. Home was seen, by a learned English noble- 
 man, sailing through the moonlight seventy feet from 
 the ground, is on record ; that Mrs. Guppy was 
 transported from Highbury Park to Lamb's Conduit 
 Street, in London, in a trance and a state of partial 
 dishabille^ is also on record ; and that a well-known 
 American spiritualist was borne by invisible hands 
 from Chicago to Milwaukee and back, between mid- 
 
 M 
 
164 British Goblins. 
 
 night and 4 a.m., I have been assured by a number 
 of persons in Illinois who thoroughly believed it, or 
 said they did. But it certainly is not too much 
 to demand, that people who give credence to these 
 instances of aerial transportation should equally be- 
 lieve in the good old ghost stories of the Welsh. 
 The same consistency calls for credulity as to the 
 demoniacal elevation of Simon Magus, and the 
 broomstick riding of the witches whose supernatural 
 levitation was credited by Lord Bacon and Sir 
 Matthew Hale, not to speak of Addison and 
 Wesley. 
 
 There is something peculiarly fascinating to the 
 gross denizens of earth in this notion of skimming 
 like a bird over house-tops. No dreams, save those 
 of love and dalliance, are so charming to the dreamer 
 as visions of flying ; to find oneself floating along 
 over the tops of trees, over the streets where less 
 favoured mortals walk, to look down on them as 
 they stroll, is to feel an exquisite pleasure. The 
 mind of childhood and that of ignorance, alike 
 unable to discriminate between reality and illusion, 
 would naturally retain the impression of such a 
 dream with peculiar vividness. The superstition 
 has no doubt been fostered by this fact, although it, 
 like most superstitions, began its career in pre-historic 
 days. The same class of belief attaches to the 
 magical lore of widely separated lands, in all ages. 
 The magic carpet of the Arabian Nights finds its 
 parallel to-day in the enchanted mat of the Chinese 
 conjuror, which carries him from place to place, at a 
 height of twenty or thirty feet in the air. The 
 levitation involved is in Welsh story embodied in 
 the person of Sgilti Yscawndroed ; when he was 
 sent on a message through the wood he went along 
 the tops of the trees ; in his whole life, a blade of 
 
The Spirit-World. 165 
 
 reed grass never bent beneath his feet, so Hght was 
 his tread/ 
 
 XL 
 
 It remains but to add, in connection with our 
 household ghosts, that the method of exorcising such 
 gobhns in Wales is explicit. The objectionable 
 spectre must be conjured, in the name of Heaven, to 
 depart, and return no more. Not always is this 
 exorcism effective ; the ghost may have a specific 
 purpose in hand, or it may be obstinate. The 
 strength of the exorcism is doubled by employing 
 the Latin language to deliver it ; it receives its 
 utmost power, however, through the clergy ; three 
 clergymen, it is thought, will exorcise any ghost that 
 walks. The exorcism is usually for a stated period ; 
 seven years is the favourite time ; one hundred years 
 the limit. There are many instances where a ghost 
 which had been laid a hundred years returned at the 
 end of the time to its old haunts. In all cases it is 
 necessary the ghost should agree to be exorcised ; 
 no power can lay it if it be possessed of an evil 
 demon — a spirit within a spirit, as it were — which 
 stubbornly refuses to listen to argument. In such 
 cases the terrors of Heaven must be rigorously in- 
 voked ; but the result is only temporary. Properly 
 constituted family ghosts, however, will lend a rea- 
 sonable ear to entreaty, backed by prayer. There 
 are even cases on record where the ghost has been 
 the entreater, as in the story of Haunted Margaret. 
 
 Haunted Margaret, or Marget yr Yspryd, was a 
 servant-girl who lived in the parish of Panteg. She 
 had been seduced by a man who promised to marry 
 her, and a day was set for their wedding ; but when 
 the day came, the man was not on hand, and Mar- 
 garet thereupon fell on her knees in the church and 
 
 ^ Lady Charlotte Guest's ' Mabinogion,' 225. 
 
 M 2 
 
i66 
 
 British Goblins, 
 
 prayed Heaven that her seducer might have no rest 
 either in this world or in the world to come. In 
 due course the man died, and immediately his ghost 
 came to haunt Margaret Richard. People heard 
 her in the night saying to the ghost, * What dost 
 thou want ? ' or * Be quiet, let me alone ;' and hence 
 it was that she came to be known in that parish by 
 the nickname of Marget yr Yspryd. One evening 
 when the haunted woman was at the house of Mrs. 
 Hercules Jenkins, at Trosdra, she began to be 
 uneasy, and as it grew late said, * I must go now, or 
 else I shall be sure to meet him on the way home/ 
 Mrs. Jenkins advised Margaret to speak to him ; 
 * and tell him thou dost forgive him,' said the good 
 dame. Margaret went her way, and as she drew 
 near a stile at the end of a foot-bridge, she saw the 
 ghost at the stile waiting for her. When she came 
 up to it the ghost said, ' Do thou forgive me, and 
 God will forgive thee. Forgive me and I shall be 
 at rest, and never trouble thee any more.' Margaret 
 then forgave him, and he shook hands with her in a 
 friendly way, and vanished. 
 
( i67 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Spectral Animals— The Chained Spirit — The Gwyllgi, or Dog of Dark- 
 ness — The Legend of Lisworney-Crossways — The Gwyllgi of the 
 Devil's Nags — The Dog of Pant y Madog — Terrors of the Brute 
 Creation at Phantoms — Apparitions of Natural Objects — Phantom 
 Ships and Phantom Islands. 
 
 I. 
 
 Of spectral animals there is no great diversity in 
 Cambria, unless one should class under this head 
 sundry poetic creatures which more properly belong 
 to the domain of magic, or to fairyland. The spirits 
 of favourite animals which have died return occasion- 
 ally to visit their masters. Sometimes it is a horse, 
 which Is seen on a dark night looking in at the 
 window, its eyes preternaturally large. More often 
 it is the ghost of a dog which revisits the glimpses 
 of the moon. Men sometimes become as fondly 
 attached to a dog as they could to any human being, 
 and, where the creed of piety Is not too severe, the 
 possibility of a dog's surviving after death in a better 
 world is admitted. * It is hard to look in that dog's 
 eyes and believe,' said a Welshman to me, * that he 
 has not a bit of a soul to be saved.' The almost 
 human companionship of the dog for man is a 
 familiar fact. It is not strange, therefore, that the 
 dog should be the animal whose spirit, in popular 
 belief, shares the nature of man's after death. 
 
 II. 
 
 Sometimes the spirit in animal form Is the spirit 
 of a mortal, doomed to wear this shape for some 
 
1 68 British Goblins. 
 
 offence. This again trenches on the ground of 
 magic ; but the ascription to the spirit-world is 
 distinct in modern instances. There was a Rev. 
 Mr.- Hughes, a clergyman of the Church of England, 
 in the isle and county of Anglesea, who was esteemed 
 the most popular preacher thereabout in the last 
 century, and upon this account was envied by the 
 rest of the clergy, * which occasioned his becoming 
 a field preacher for a time, though he was received 
 into the Church again.' ^ As he was going one night 
 to preach, he came upon an artificial circle in the 
 ground, between Amlwch village and St. Elian 
 Church, where a spirit in the shape of a large grey- 
 hound jumped against him and threw him from 
 his horse. This experience was repeated on a 
 second night. The third night he went on foot, and 
 warily ; and now he saw that the spirit was chained. 
 He drew near, but keeping beyond the reach of 
 the chain, and questioned the spirit : * Why troublest 
 thou those that pass by ? ' The spirit replied that 
 its unrest was due to a silver groat it had hidden 
 under a stone when in the flesh, and which belonged 
 to the church of St. Elian. The clergyman being 
 told where the groat was, found it and paid it over 
 o the church, and the chained spirit was released. 
 
 III. 
 
 In the Gwyllgi, or Dog of Darkness, is seen a 
 spirit of terrible form, well known to students of 
 folk-lore. This is a frightful apparition of a mastiff, 
 with a baleful breath and blazing red eyes which 
 shine like fire in the night. It is huge in size, and 
 reminds us of the ' shaggy mastiff larger than a 
 steed nine winters old,' which guarded the sheep 
 before the castle of Yspaddaden Pencawr. * All 
 
 * Jones, ' Apparitions.' 
 
The Spirit- World. 169 
 
 the dead trees and bushes in the plain he burnt with 
 his breath down to the very ground.'^ The lane 
 leading from Mousiad to Lis worney-Cross ways, is 
 reported to have been haunted by a Gwyllgi of the 
 most terrible aspect. Mr. Jenkin, a worthy farmer 
 living near there, was one night returning home 
 from market on a young mare, when suddenly the 
 animal shied, reared, tumbled the farmer off, and 
 bolted for home. Old Anthony the farm-servant, 
 found her standing trembling by the barn-door, 
 and well knowing the lane she had come through 
 suspected she had seen the Gwyllgi. He and the 
 other servants of the farm all went down the road, 
 and there in the haunted lane they found the 
 farmer, on his back in the mud. Being questioned, 
 the farmer protested it was the Gwyllgi and nothing 
 less, that had made all this trouble, and his nerves 
 were so shaken by the shock that he had to be 
 supported on either side to get him home, slipping 
 and staggering in the mud in truly dreadful fashion 
 all the way. It is the usual experience of people 
 who meet the Gwyllgi that they are so overcome with 
 terror by its unearthly howl, or by the glare of its 
 fiery eyes, that they fall senseless. Old Anthony, 
 however, used to say that he had met the Gwyllgi 
 without this result. As he was coming home from 
 courting a young woman of his acquaintance (name 
 delicately withheld, as he did not marry her) late 
 one Sunday night — or it may have been Monday 
 morning — he encountered in the haunted lane two 
 large shining eyes, which drew nearer and nearer 
 to him. He was dimly able to discern, in con- 
 nection with the gleaming eyes, what seemed a 
 form of human shape above, but with the body and 
 limbs of a large spotted dog. He threw his hat 
 
 ^ * Mabinogion,' 230. 
 
170 British Goblins. 
 
 « 
 
 at the terrible eyes, and the hat went whisking right 
 through them, falhng in the road beyond. However, 
 the spectre disappeared, and the brave Anthony 
 hurried home as fast as his shaking legs would 
 carry him. 
 
 As Mr. David Walter, of Pembrokeshire, ' a 
 religious man, and far from fear and superstition,' 
 was travelling by himself through a field called the 
 Cot Moor, where there are two stones set up called 
 the Devil's Nags, which are said to be haunted, he 
 was suddenly seized and thrown over a hedge. He 
 went there another day, taking with him for protec- 
 tion a strong fighting mastiff dog. When he had 
 come near the Devil's Nags there appeared in his 
 path the apparition of a dog more terrible than any 
 he had ever seen. In vain he tried to set his 
 mastiff on ; the huge beast crouched frightened by 
 his master's feet and refused to attack the spectre. 
 Whereupon his master boldly stooped to pick up a 
 stone, thinking that would frighten the evil dog ; 
 but suddenly a circle of fire surrounded it, which 
 lighting up the gloom, showed the white snip down 
 the dog's nose, and his grinning teeth, and white 
 tail. ' He then knew it was one of the infernal 
 dogs of hell.' ^ 
 
 Rebecca Adams was * a woman who appeared to 
 be a true living experimental Christian, beyond 
 many,' and she lived near Laugharne Castle, in Car- 
 marthenshire. One evening when she was going 
 to Laugharne town on some business, her mother 
 dissuaded her from going, telling her she would be 
 benighted, and might be terrified by some appari- 
 tion at Pant y Madog. This was a pit by the side 
 of the lane leading to Laugharne, which was never 
 known to be dry, and which was haunted, as many 
 
 ^ Jones, ' Apparitions.' 
 
The Spirit-World. 171 
 
 had both seen and heard apparitions there. But 
 the bold Rebecca was not to be frighted at such 
 nonsense, and went her way. It was rather dark 
 when she was returning, and she had passed by 
 the haunted pit of Pant y Madog, and was con- 
 gratulating herself on having seen no ghost. Sud- 
 denly she saw a great dog coming towards her. 
 When within about four or five yards of her it 
 stopped, squatted on its haunches, ' and set up 
 such a scream, so loud, so horrible, and so strong, 
 that she thought the earth moved under her.' Then 
 she fell down in a swoon. When she revived it 
 was gone ; and it was past midnight when she 
 got home, weak and exhausted. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Much stress is usually laid, in accounts of the 
 Gwyllgi, on the terror with which it inspires domestic 
 animals. This confidence in the ability of the brute 
 creation to detect the presence of a spirit, is a 
 common superstition everywhere. An American 
 journal lately gave an account of an apparition seen 
 in Indiana, whose ghostly character was considered 
 by the witnesses to be proven by the terror of 
 horses which saw it. They were drawing the 
 carriage in which drove the persons to whom the 
 ghost appeared, and they shied from the road at 
 sight of it, becoming unmanageable. The spectre 
 soon dissolved in thin air and vanished, when the 
 horses instantly became tractable. In Wales it is 
 thought that horses have peculiarly this ' gift ' of 
 seeing spectres. Carriage horses have been known 
 to display every sign of the utmost terror, when 
 the occupants of the carriage could see no cause 
 for fright ; and in such cases a funeral is expected 
 to pass there before long, bearing to his grave some 
 
172 British Goblins. 
 
 person not dead at the time of the horses' fright. 
 These phenomena are certainly extremely interest- 
 ing, and well calculated to 'bid us pause,' though 
 not, perhaps, for the purpose of considering whether 
 a horse's eye can receive an image which the human 
 retina fails to accept. Much weight will not be 
 given to the fright of the lower animals, I fear, by 
 any thoughtful person who has witnessed the terror 
 of a horse at sight of a flapping shirt on a clothes- 
 line, or that hideous monster a railway engine. 
 Andrew Jackson Davis has a theory that we all 
 bear about us an atmosphere, pleasing or re- 
 pulsive, which can be detected by horses, dogs, 
 and spiritual * mediums ;' this aura, being spiritual, 
 surrounds us without our will or wish, goes where 
 we go, but does not die when we die, and is the 
 means by which a bloodhound tracks a slave, or a 
 fond dog finds its master. Without denying the 
 possibility of this theory, I must record that in my 
 observation a dog has been found to smell his 
 master most successfully when that master was 
 most in need of a bath and a change of linen. 
 Also, that when the master leaves off his coat he 
 clearly leaves — if a dog's conduct be evidence — a 
 part of his aura with it. More worthy of serious 
 attention is August Comte's suggestion that dogs 
 and some other animals are perhaps capable of 
 forming fetlchistic notions. That dogs accredit in- 
 animate objects with volition, to a certain extent, I 
 am quite convinced. The thing which constitutes 
 knowledge, in dogs as in human beings — that is to 
 say, thought, organised by experience — corrects this 
 tendency in animals as they grow older, precisely as' 
 it corrects the false conclusions of children, though 
 never to the same extent. That a dog can think, I 
 suppose no well-informed person doubts in these days. 
 
The Spirit-World. 173 
 
 V. 
 
 The Gwyllgi finds its counterpart in the Mauthe 
 Doog of the Isle of Man and the Shock of the 
 Norfolk coast. It there comes up out of the sea 
 and travels about in the lanes at night. To meet it 
 is a sign of trouble and death. The Gwyllgi also is 
 confined to sea-coast parishes mainly, and although 
 not classed among death-omens, to look on it is 
 deemed dangerous. The hunting dogs, Cwn Annwn, 
 or dogs of hell, whose habitat is the sky overhead, 
 have also other attributes which distinguish them 
 clearly from the Gwyllgi. They are death-omens, 
 ancient of lineage and still encountered. The 
 Gwyllgi, while suggesting some interesting com- 
 parisons with the old mythology, appears to have 
 lost vogue since smuggling ceased to be profitable. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Confined to the coast, too, are those stories of 
 phantom ships and phantom islands which, too 
 familiar to merit illustration here, have their origin 
 in the mirage. That they also touch the ancient 
 mythology is undoubted ; but their source in the 
 mirage is probably true of the primeval belief as well 
 as of the medieval, and that of our time. The 
 Chinese also have the mirage, but not its scientific 
 explanation, and hence of course their belief in its 
 supernatural character is undisturbed. 
 
British Goblins, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Grotesque Ghosts — The Phantom Horseman — Gigantic Spirits — The 
 Black Ghost of Ffynon yr Yspryd — Black Men in the Mabinogion 
 — Whirling Ghosts — Antic Spirits — The Tridoll Valley Ghost — 
 Resemblance to Modern Spiritualistic Performances — Household 
 Fairies. 
 
 I. 
 
 The grotesque ghosts of Welsh folk-lore are often 
 most diverting acquaintances. They are ghosts on 
 horseback, or with coloured faces, or of huge and 
 monstrous form ; or they indulge in strange gym- 
 nastics, in whirling, throwing stones, or whistling. 
 A phantom horseman, encountered by the Rev. John 
 Jones, of Holywell, in Flintshire, as described by 
 himself, is. worthy of Heinrich Zschokke. This 
 Mr. Jones was a preacher of extraordinary power, 
 renowned and respected throughout Wales. He 
 was one day travelling alone on horseback from 
 Bala, in Merionethshire, to Machynlleth, Mont- 
 gomeryshire, and as he approached a forest which 
 lay in his way he was dogged by a murderous- 
 looking man carrying a sharp sickle. The minister 
 felt sure this man meditated an attack on his life, 
 from his conduct in running crouched along behind 
 hedges, and from his having met the man at the 
 village inn of Llanuwchllyn, wheVe the minister ex- 
 posed his watch and purse. Presently he saw the 
 man conceal himself at a place where the hedge was 
 thick, and where a gate crossed the road ; and feeling 
 sure that here he should be attacked, he stopped his 
 horse to reflect on the situation. No house was in 
 
The Spirit-World. 175 
 
 sight, and the road was hidden by high hedges on 
 either side. Should he turn back ? * In despair, 
 rather than in a spirit of humble trust and con- 
 fidence,' says the good man, * I bowed my head, 
 and offered up a silent prayer. At this juncture my 
 horse, growing impatient of the delay, started off. I 
 clutched the reins, which I had let fall on his neck, 
 when, happening to turn my eyes, I saw, to my utter 
 astonishment, that I was no longer alone : there, by 
 my side, I beheld a horseman in a dark dress, 
 mounted on a white steed. In intense amazement 
 I gazed upon him. Where could he have come 
 from ? He appeared as suddenly as if he had sprung 
 from the earth ; he must have been riding behind 
 and have overtaken me, and yet I had not heard 
 the slightest sound. It was mysterious, inexplicable ; 
 but joy overcame my feelings of wonder, and I began 
 at once to address my companion. I asked him if 
 he had seen any one, and then described to him 
 what had taken place, and how relieved I felt by 
 his sudden appearance. He made no reply, and on 
 looking at his face he seemed paying but slight 
 attention to my words, but continued intently gazing 
 in the direction of the gate, now about a quarter of a 
 mile ahead. I followed his gaze, and saw the reaper 
 emerge from his concealment and run across a field 
 to our left, resheathing his sickle as he hurried along. 
 He had evidently seen that I was no longer alone, 
 and had relinquished his intended attempt.' Seek- 
 ing to converse with the mysterious horseman, the 
 minister found the phantom was speechless. In vain 
 he addressed it in both Welsh and English ; not a 
 word did it utter, save that once the minister thought 
 it said ' Amen,' to a pious remark. Suddenly it was 
 gone. * The mysterious horseman was gone ; he 
 was not to be seen ; he had disappeared as myste- 
 
176 BriitsJi Gvotms. 
 
 riously as he had come. What could have become 
 of him ? He could not have gone through the gate, 
 nor have made his horse leap the high hedges, which 
 on both sides shut in the road. Where was he ? had 
 I been dreaming ? was it an apparition — a spectre, 
 which had been riding by my side for the last ten 
 minutes ? was it but a creature of my imagination ? 
 I tried hard to convince myself that this was the 
 case ; but why had the reaper resheathed his mur- 
 derous-looking sickle and fled ? And then a feeling 
 of profound awe began to creep over my soul. I 
 remembered the singular way of his first appearance, 
 his long silence, and the single word to which he had 
 given utterance after I had mentioned the name of 
 the Lord ; the single occasion on which I had done 
 so. What could I then believe but that ... in the 
 mysterious horseman I had a special interference of 
 Providence, by which I was delivered from a position 
 of extreme danger ? ' 
 
 II. 
 
 Of gigantic ghosts there are many examples 
 which are very grotesque indeed. Such was the 
 apparition which met Edward Frank, a young man 
 who lived in the parish of Lantarnam. As he was 
 coming home one night he heard something walking 
 towards him, but at first could see nothing. Suddenly 
 his way was barred by a tall dismal object which 
 stood in the path before him. It was the ghost of 
 a marvellous thin man, whose head was so high 
 above the observer's line of vision that he nearly 
 fell over backward in his efforts to gaze at it. His 
 knees knocked together and his heart sank. With 
 great difficulty he gasped forth, ' In the name of 
 God what is here ? Turn out of my way or I will 
 strike thee ! ' The giant ghost then disappeared, 
 and the frightened Edward, seeing a cow not far 
 
The Spirit- World. 177 
 
 off, went towards her to lean on her, which the cow 
 stood still and permitted him to do. The naivet6 
 of this conclusion is convincing. 
 
 Equally prodigious was the spectre seen by 
 Thomas Miles Harry, of the parish of Aberystruth. 
 He was coming home by night from Abergavenny, 
 when his horse took fright at something which it 
 saw, but which its master could not see. Very 
 much terrified, the latter hastened to guide the 
 animal into an adjoining yard, and dismount; where- 
 upon he saw the apparition of a gigantic woman. 
 She was so prodigiously tall, according to the 
 account of the horrified Harry, that she was fully 
 half as high as the tall beech trees on the other 
 side of the road ; and he hastened to hide from his 
 eyes the awful sight, by running into the house, 
 where they listened open-mouthed to his tale Con- 
 cerning this Mr. Harry we are assured that he was 
 of an affable disposition, innocent and harmless, 
 and the grandfather of that eminent and famous 
 preacher of the Gospel, Thomas Lewis, of Llan- 
 haran, in Glamorganshire.^ The same narrator 
 relates that Anne, the daughter of Herbert Jenkins, 
 of the parish of Trefethin, ' a young woman well dis- 
 posed to what is good,' was going one evening to 
 milk the cows by Rhiw-newith, when as she passed 
 through a wood she saw a horrible black man 
 standing by a holly tree. She had with her a dog, 
 which saw it also, and ran towards it to bark at it, 
 upon which it stretched out a long black tongue, 
 and the dog ran affrighted back to the young 
 woman, crawling and cringing about her feet for 
 fear. She was in great terror at all this, but had 
 the courage still to go on after the cows, which 
 had strayed into another field. She drove them 
 
 ^ Jones, 'Apparitions.' 
 
178 ^ ' * British GooEns. 
 
 back to their own field, and in passing the holly- 
 tree avoided looking that way for fear of seeing 
 the black man again. However, after she had 
 got safely by she looked back, and saw the 
 monster once more, ' very big in the middle and 
 narrow at both ends,' and as it walked away the 
 ground seemed to tremble under its heavy tread. It 
 went towards a spring in that field called Ffynon 
 yr Yspryd, (the Fountain of the Spirit,) where 
 ghosts had been seen before, and crossing over the 
 stile into the common way, it whistled so loud and 
 strong that the narrow valley echoed and re-echoed 
 with the prodigious sound. Then it vanished, much 
 to the young woman's relief. 
 
 III. 
 
 That giants should appear in the Welsh spirit- 
 land will surprise no one, but the apparition of 
 black men is more unique. The Mabinogion, how- 
 ever, are full of black men, usually giants, always 
 terrible to encounter. The black man whom Pere- 
 dur slew had but one eye, having lost the other in 
 fighting with the black serpent of the Carn. * There 
 is a mound, which is called the Mound of Mourning; 
 and on the mound there is a carn, and in the carn 
 there is a serpent, and on the tail of the serpent 
 there is a stone, and the virtues of the stone are 
 such, that whosoever should hold it in one hand, 
 in the other he will have as much gold as he may 
 desire. And in fighting with this serpent was it 
 that I lost my eye.' ^ In the ' Lady of the Foun- 
 tain ' mabinogi the same character appears : ' a black 
 man . . . not smaller in size than two of the men 
 of this world,' and with 'one eye in the middle of 
 his forehead.' ^ And there are other black men in 
 
 ^ * Mabinogion,' 106. '^ Ibid., 6. 
 
The Spirit-World. 179 
 
 ^ — — — ^ 
 
 other Mablnoglon, indicating the extremely ancient 
 Hneage of the spectre seen by Anne Jenkins at the 
 Fountain of the Spirit. Whatever Anglo-Saxon 
 scoffers may say of Welsh pedigrees of mere flesh 
 and blood, the antiquity of Its spectral hordes may 
 not be disputed. The black giant of Sindbad the 
 Sailor and the monster woodward of Cynan alike 
 descend from the Polyphemus blinded by Odysseus. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Another grotesque Welsh goblin goes whirling 
 through the world. Three examples are given by 
 the Prophet Jones. First: Lewis Thomas, the 
 father of the Rev. Thomas Lewis, was on his 
 return from a journey, and in passing through a 
 field near Bedwellty, saw this dreadful apparition, 
 to wit, the spectre of a man walking or whirling 
 along on its hands and feet ; at sight of which 
 Lewis Thomas felt his hair to move on his head ; 
 his heart panted and beat violently, ' his body 
 trembled, and he felt not his clothes about him.' 
 Second: John Jenkins, a poor man, who lived near 
 Abertillery, hanged himself in a hay-loft. His 
 sister soon after came upon his dead body there 
 hanging, and screamed loudly. Jeremiah James, 
 who lived In Abertillery House, hearing the scream, 
 looked in that direction and saw the 'resemblance 
 of a man ' coming from the hay-loft ' and violently 
 turning upwards and downwards topsy turvy' to- 
 wards the river, 'which was a dreadful sight to a 
 serious godly man.' Third: Thomas Andrew, living 
 at a place called The Farm, in the parish of Lan- 
 hiddel, coming home late at night saw a whirling 
 goblin on all fours by the side of a wall, which fell 
 to scraping the ground and wagging its head, ' look- 
 ing aside one way and the other,' making at the 
 
 N 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 same time a horrible mowing noise ; at which 
 Thomas Andrew ' was terribly frightened/ 
 
 The antics of these and similar inhabitants of the 
 Cambrian spirit-world at times outdo the most absurd 
 capers of modern spiritualism. At the house of a 
 certain farmer in the parish of Llanllechid, in Car- 
 narvonshire, there was great disturbance by a spirit 
 which threw stones into the house, and from one 
 room to another, which hit and hurt the people who 
 lived there. The stones were of various sizes, the 
 largest weighing twenty-seven pounds. Most of 
 them were river stones, from the stream which runs 
 hard by. Some clergymen came from Bangor and 
 read prayers in the house, to drive the spirit away, 
 but their faith was not strong enough, and stones 
 were thrown at them, so that they retired from the 
 contest. The family finally had to abandon the 
 house. 
 
 On the farm of Edward Roberts, in the parish of 
 Llangunllo, in Radnorshire, there was a spirit whose 
 antics were somewhat remarkable. As the servant- 
 man was threshing, the threshel was taken out of his 
 hand and thrown upon the hay-loft. At first he did 
 not mind this so much, but when the trick had been 
 repeated three or four times he became concerned 
 about it, and went into the house to tell of it. The 
 master of the house was away, but the wife and the 
 maid-servant' laughed at the man, and merrily said 
 they would go to the barn to protect him. So they 
 went out there and sat, the one to knit and the other 
 to wind yarn. They were not there long before their 
 things were taken from their hands and tumbled 
 about the barn. On returning to the house, they 
 perceived the dishes on the shelves move to and fro, 
 
The Spirit- World. i8i 
 
 and some were thrown on to the stone floor and 
 broken. That night there was a terrible clattering 
 among the dishes, and next morning they could 
 scarcely tread without stepping on the wrecks of 
 crockery which lay about. This pleasant experience 
 was often repeated. Neighbours came to see. People 
 even came from far to satisfy their curiosity — some 
 from so far as Knighton ; and one who came from 
 Knighton to read prayers for the exorcising of the 
 spirit, had the book taken out of his hand and 
 thrown upstairs. Stones were often cast at the 
 people, and once iron was projected from the chim- 
 ney at them. At last the spirit set the house on fire, 
 and nothing could quench it ; the house was burnt 
 down : nothing but the walls and the two chimneys 
 stood, long after, to greet the eyes of people who 
 passed to and from Knighton market. 
 
 VI. 
 
 A spirit which haunted the house of William 
 Thomas, in TridoU Valley, Glamorganshire, used to 
 hit the maid-servant on the side of her head, as it 
 were with a cushion, when she was coming down the 
 stairs. * One time she brought a marment of water 
 into the house,' and the water was thrown over her 
 person. Another time there came so great an 
 abundance of pilchards in the sea, that the people 
 could scarcely devour them, and the maid asked 
 leave of her master to go and fetch some of them. 
 * No,* said he, being a very just man, * the pilchards 
 are sent for the use of poor people ; we do not want 
 them.' But the maid was very fond of pilchards, 
 and so she went without leave, and brought some to 
 the house. After giving a turn about the house, she 
 went to look for her fish, and found them thrown out 
 upon the dunghill. *Well,' said her master, 'did 
 
 N 2 
 
82 British Goblins. 
 
 I 
 
 not I tell thee not to go ? ' Once a pot of meat was 
 on the fire, and when they took it off they found both 
 meat and broth gone, none knew where, and the pot 
 as empty as their own bellies. Sometimes the clasped 
 Bible would be thrown whisking by their heads ; 
 and ' so it would do with the gads of the steller, and 
 once it struck one of them against the screen where 
 a person then sat, and the mark of it still to be seen 
 in the hard board.' Once the china dishes were 
 thrown off the shelf, and not one broke. * It was a 
 great business with this light-hating spirit to throw 
 an old lanthorn about the house without breaking it.' 
 When the maid went a-milking to the barn, the barn- 
 door would be suddenly shut upon her as she was 
 milking the cow ; then when she rose up the spirit 
 began to turn the door backwards and forwards with 
 an idle ringing noise. Once it tried to make trouble 
 between the mistress and the maid by strewing char- 
 coal ashes on the milk. When William Evans, a 
 neighbour, went there to pray, as he knelt by the 
 bedside, it struck the bed such a bang with a trencher 
 that it made a report like a gun, so that both the bed 
 and the room shook perceptibly. On another occa- 
 sion it made a sudden loud noise, which made the 
 master think his house was falling down, and he 
 was prodigiously terrified ; it never after that made 
 so loud a noise. 
 
 The Rev. R. Tibbet, a dissenting minister from 
 Montgomeryshire, was one night sleeping in the 
 house, with another person in the bed with him ; 
 and they had a tussle with the Tridoll spirit for 
 possession of the bed-clothes. By praying and pull- 
 ing with equal energy, the parson beat the spirit, 
 and kept the bed-clothes. But the spirit, apparently 
 angered by this failure, struck the bed with the 
 cawnen (a vessel to hold grain) such a blow that 
 
The Spirit- World. 183 
 
 the bed was knocked out of its place. Then they 
 lit a light and the spirit left them alone. It was a 
 favourite diversion with this goblin to hover about 
 William Thomas when he was shaving, and occa- 
 sionally cuff him on the side of his head — the con- 
 sequence being that the persecuted farmer shaved 
 himself by fits and starts, in a very unsatisfactory 
 manner, and in a most uncomfortable state of mind. 
 For about two years it troubled the whole of that 
 family, during which period it had intervals of quiet 
 lasting for a fortnight or three weeks. Once it 
 endeavoured to hinder them from going to church, 
 by hiding the bunch of keys, on the Lord's day, so 
 that for all their searching they could not find them. 
 The good man of the house bade them not to yield 
 to the devil, and as they were loth to appear in their 
 old clothes at meeting, they were about to break 
 the locks ; but first concluded to kneel in prayer, 
 and so did. After their prayers they found the 
 keys where they used to be, but where they could 
 not find them before. One night the spirit divided 
 the books among the members of the family, after 
 they had gone to bed. To the man of the house it 
 gave the Bible, to the woman of the house ' Allen's 
 Sure Guide,' and upon the bed of the maid-servant 
 (whom it was specially fond of plaguing) it piled a lot 
 of English books, which language she did not under- 
 stand. The maid was heartily afraid of the spirit, 
 and used to fall on her knees and go to praying 
 with chattering teeth, at all hours of the day or 
 night ; and prayer this spirit could not abide. 
 When the maid would go about in the night with a 
 candle, the light thereof would diminish, grow feeble 
 as if in dampness, and finally go out. The result 
 was the maid was generally excused from making 
 journeys into cellar or garret after dark, very much 
 to her satisfaction. 
 
184 British Goblins, 
 
 Particularly did this frisky TrldoU spirit trouble 
 the maid-servant after she had gone to bed — In 
 winter hauling the bed-clothes off her ; in summer 
 piling more on her. Now there was a young man, 
 a first cousin to William Thomas, who could not be 
 got to believe there was a spirit at his kinsman's 
 house, and said the family were only making tricks 
 with one another, * and very strong he was, a hero 
 of an unbeliever, like many of his brethren in 
 infidelity.' One night William Thomas and his wife 
 went to a neighbour s wake, and left the house in 
 charge of the doubting cousin, who searched the 
 place all over, and then went to bed there ; and no 
 spirit came to disturb him. This made him stronger 
 than ever In his unbelief. But soon after he slept 
 there again, when they were all there, and before 
 going to bed he said aloud to the maid, ' If anything 
 comes to disturb thee. Ally, call upon me, as I lie 
 in the next room to you.' During the night the 
 maid cried out that the spirit was pulling the clothes 
 off her bed, and the doubting cousin awoke, jumped 
 out of bed, and ran to catch the person he believed 
 to be playing tricks with the maid. But there was 
 no creature visible, although there rained upon his 
 doubting head a series of cuffs, and about his person 
 a fusillade of kicks, which thrust the unbelief quite 
 out of him, so that he doubted no more. The 
 departure of this spirit came about thus : William 
 Thomas being In bed with his wife, heard a voice 
 calling him. He awaked his wife, and rising on 
 his elbow said to the Invisible spirit, ' In the name 
 of God what seekest thou in my house ? Hast 
 thou anything to say to me ?' The spirit answered, 
 * I have,' and desired him to remove certain things 
 out of a place where they had been mislaid. 
 ' Satan,' answered William Thomas, In a candid 
 manner, ' I'll do nothing thou biddest me ; I 
 
 ^1 
 
The Spirit- World. 185 
 
 command thee, in the name of God, to depart from my 
 house/ And it obeyed. 
 
 VII. 
 
 This long and circumstantial account, which I 
 have gathered from different sources, but mainly 
 from the two books of the Prophet Jones, will 
 impress the general reader with its resemblance, in 
 many respects, to modern newspaper ghost stories. 
 The throwing about of dishes, books, keys, etc.; 
 its raps and touches of the person ; its making of 
 loud noises by banging down metal objects ; all 
 these antics are the tricks of contemporaneous 
 spiritualism. But this spectre is of . a date when 
 our spiritualism was quite unknown. The same is 
 true of the spirit which threw stones, another 
 modern spiritualistic accomplishment.^ The spirit- 
 ualists will argue from all this that their belief is 
 substantiated, not by any means that it is shaken. 
 The doubter will conclude that there were clever 
 tricksters in humble Welsh communities some time 
 before the American city of Rochester had produced 
 its ' mediums.' 
 
 ^ For the sake of comparison, I give the latest American case 
 which comes under my notice. The scene is Akron, a bustling town 
 in the State of Ohio ; the time October, 1878. ' Mr. and Mrs. Michael 
 Metzler, middle-aged Germans, with their little daughter, ten years of 
 age, and Mrs. Knoss, Metzler's mother-in-law, recently moved to a 
 brick house in the suburbs known as Hell's Half Acre. The house is 
 a good, substantial building, situated in a somewhat open space, and 
 surrounded by a lonesome deserted air. A few days after they had 
 moved, they were disturbed by sharp rappings all over the house, 
 produced by small stones or pebbles thrown against the window panes. 
 Different members of the family were hit by these stones coming to 
 and going from the house. Other persons were hit by them, the 
 stones varying in size from a pea to a hen's ^g<g. Mrs. Metzler said 
 that when she went after the cow in the evening, she could hear these 
 stones whisthng around her head. Mr. and Mrs. Metzler, who are 
 devout Catholics, had Father Brown come to the house to exorcise 
 the spirits which were tormenting them. The reverend father, in the 
 midst of his exercises, was struck by a stone, and so dismayed thereby 
 that he went home in despair.' (Newspaper account.) 
 
86 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 The student of comparative folk-lore, in read- 
 ing these accounts, will be equally impressed with 
 their resemblance to phenomena noted in many 
 other lands. The conclusion is irresistible that we 
 here encounter but another form of the fairy which 
 goes in Wales by the name of the Bwbach, and in 
 England is called the Hobgoblin, in Denmark the 
 Nis, in Scotland the Brownie. Also, the resem- 
 blance is strong in all stories of this class to certain 
 of the German Kobolds. In several of these 
 accounts of spirits in Wales appear the leading 
 particulars of the Kobold Hinzelmann, as condensed 
 by Grimm from Feldman's long narrative.^ There 
 is also a close correspondence to certain ghost 
 stories found in China. In the story of Woo, from 
 the 'Che-wan-luk,'^ appear details much like those 
 in Hinzelmann, and equally resembling Welsh 
 particulars, either in the stories given above, or 
 those which follow. But we are now drawn so near 
 to the division of Familiar Spirits that we may as 
 well enter it at once. 
 
 ^ 'Deutsche Sagen,' i. 103. 
 
 2 Dennys, * Folk-Lore of China,' 86. 
 
( 18? ) 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Familiar Spirits— The Famous Sprite of Trwyn Farm— Was it a 
 Fairy ? — The Famihar Spirits of Magicians— Sir David Lhvyd's 
 Demon— Famihar Spirits in Female Form — The Legend of the 
 Lady of the Wood — The Devil as a Familiar Spirit — His Disguises 
 in this Character— Summoning and Exorcising Famihars — Jenkin 
 the Pembrokeshire Schoolmaster — The Terrible Tailor of Glanr 
 bran. 
 
 L 
 
 Innumerable are the Welsh stories of familiar 
 spirits. Sometimes these are spectres of the sort 
 whose antics we have just been observing. More 
 often they are confessedly demons, things of evil. 
 In numberless cases it is no less a personage than 
 the diawl himself who makes his appearance in the 
 guise of a familiar spirit. The familiar spirit which 
 takes up its abode in the household is, as we have 
 seen, a pranksome goblin. Its personal appearance 
 — or rather its invisibility — is the saving circum- 
 stance which prevents it from being deemed a fairy. 
 The familiar spirit which haunted the house of Job 
 John Harry, at the Trwyn Farm, in the parish of 
 Mynyddyslwyn, was a stone-thrower, a stroker of 
 persons, etc., but could not be seen. It is famous 
 in Wales under the cognomen of Pwca 'r Trwyn, 
 and is referred to in my account of the Ellylldan.^ 
 The tenants at present residing on the Trwyn 
 Farm are strangers who have recently invaded 
 the home of this ancestral spook, but I was able 
 to glean abundant information concerning it from 
 people thereabout. It made a home of Mr. Harrys 
 
 ^ Supra, p. 21. 
 
1 88 British Goblins, 
 
 house some time in the last century, for a period 
 beginning some days before Christmas, and ending 
 with Easter Wednesday, on which day it departed. 
 During this time it spoke, and did many remark- 
 able things, but was always invisible. It began at 
 first to make its presence known by knocking at the 
 outer door in the night ; but when persons went to 
 open the door there was no one there. This 
 continued for some time, much to the perplexity 
 of the door-openers. At last one night it spoke 
 to the one who opened the door, and the family 
 were in consequence much terrified. Some of the 
 neighbours, hearing these tales, came to watch with 
 the family ; and Thomas Evans foolishly brought 
 a gun with him, * to shoot the spirit,' as he said. 
 But as Job John Harry was coming home that 
 night from a journey, the familiar spirit met him 
 in the lane and said, 'There is a man come to 
 your house to shoot me, but thou shalt see how 
 I will beat him.' So Job went on to the house, 
 and immediately stones were thrown at the un- 
 believing Thomas who had brought the gun, stones 
 from which he received severe blows. The com- 
 pany tried to defend him from the stones, which 
 did strike and hurt him, and no other person ; but 
 their efforts were in vain. The result was, that 
 Thomas Evans took his gun and ran home as fast 
 as his legs would carry him, and never again en- 
 gaged in an enterprise of that sort. 
 
 As this familiar spirit got better acquainted with 
 its quarters, it became more talkative, and used 
 often to speak from out of an oven by the hearth's 
 side. It also took to making music o' nights with 
 Job's fiddle. One night as Job was going to bed, 
 the familiar spirit gave him a gentle stroke on the 
 toe. ' Thou art curious in smiting,' said Job. ' I 
 
The Spirit-World. 189 
 
 can smite thee where I please/ replied the spirit. 
 As time passed on the family became accustomed 
 to their ghostly visitor, and seeing it never did 
 them any harm, but on the contrary was a source 
 of recreation to them, they used to boldly speak 
 to it, and indulge in entertaining conversation. 
 One old man, a neighbour, more bold than wise, 
 hearing the spirit just by his side, but being unable 
 to see it, threatened to stick it with his knife. 
 * Thou fool,' quoth the spirit, ' how canst thou stick 
 what thou canst not see with thine eyes ?' When 
 questioned about its antecedents, the spirit said, 
 ' 1 came from Pwll y Gasseg ' (Mare's Pit, a place 
 in the adjacent mountain), ' and I knew ye all 
 before I came hither.' The wife of Morris Roberts 
 desired one of the family to ask the spirit who it 
 was that killed William Reilly the Scotchman ; 
 which being done, the spirit said, * It was Blanch y 
 Byd who bade thee ask that question ; ' and Blanch 
 y Byd (Worldly Blanche) was Morris Roberts' wife 
 ever after called. On Easter Wednesday the spirit 
 departed, saying, * Dos yn iach, Job,' (fare thee 
 well. Job,) and Job asked the spirit, * Where goest 
 thou ?' The reply was, ' Where God pleases.' ^ 
 
 There are other accounts of this Trwyn sprite 
 which credit it to a time long anterior to last 
 century ; but all are consistent in this, that the 
 goblin is always invisible. The sole exception to 
 this rule is the legend about its having once shown a 
 white hand to some girls in the kitchen, thrusting it 
 
 ^ Let me recommend the scene of this story to tourists. It is a 
 most romantic spot, on the top of a mountain, a glorious tramp from 
 Crumlyn, returning by another road to Abercarne. Wheels cannot go 
 there, though a sure-footed horse might bear one safely up. The 
 ancient farmhouse is one of the quaintest in Wales, and must be 
 hundreds of years old ; and its front porch looks out over a ravine 
 hardly less grand and lonely than a Cahfornian gulch. 
 
iQo British Goblins, 
 
 through the floor of its room overhead for that pur- 
 pose. Now invisibihty is a violation of fairy tradi- 
 tions, while ghosts are very often invisible — these 
 rapping and stone-throwing ghosts, always. It might 
 be urged that this spirit was a Bwbach, if a fairy 
 at all, seeing that it kept pretty closely to the 
 house ; but on the whole I choose to class it among 
 the inhabitants of the spirit-world ; and really, 
 the student of folk-lore must classify his materials 
 distinctly in some understandable fashion, or go 
 
 daft. 
 
 II. 
 
 The sort of familiar spirit employed by magicians 
 in the eighteenth and preceding centuries was dis- 
 tinctly a demon. The spirit of this class which 
 was ^controlled by Sir David Llwyd is celebrated in 
 Wales. This Sir David was a famous dealer in 
 the black art, who lived in Cardiganshire. He was 
 a physician, and at one time a curate ; but being 
 known to deal in the magic art, he was turned out 
 of the curacy, and obliged to live by practising 
 physic. It was thought he learned the magic art 
 in Oxford. * It was this man's great wickedness,' 
 says the Prophet Jones, ' to make use of a familiar 
 spirit. . . . The bishop did well in turning him out 
 of the sacred office, though he was no ill-tempered 
 man, for how unfit was such a man to read the 
 sacred Scripture ! With what conscience could he 
 ask the sponsors in baptism to undertake for the 
 child to renounce the world, the flesh and the devil, 
 who himself was familiar with one of the spirits of 
 darkness ? ... Of this Sir David I have heard 
 much, but chiefly depend upon what was told to 
 me by the Rev. Mr. Thomas Lewis, the curate of 
 Landdw and Tolachdy, an excellent preacher of 
 the gospel ; and not sufficiently esteemed by his 
 
The Spirit- Wor la. 191 
 
 people, (which likely will bring a judgment on them 
 in time to come.) Mr. Lewis knew the young 
 woman who had been Sir David's maid servant, 
 and the house where he lived.' His familiar spirit 
 he kept locked up in a book. Once while he was 
 in Radnorshire, in going from one house to another 
 he accidentally left this book behind him, and sent 
 his boy back to fetch it. The boy, being of an 
 inquisitive turn of mind, opened the book — a thing 
 his master had expressly charged him not to do — 
 and the familiar spirit immediately demanded to be 
 set at work. The boy, though very much alarmed, 
 had the wit to answer, * Tafl gerrig o'r afon,' 
 (throw stones out of the river,) which the spirit 
 immediately did, so that the air was for a time full 
 of flying stones, and the boy was fain to skip about 
 in a surprisingly active manner in order to dodge 
 the same. After a while, having thrown up a great 
 quantity of stones out of the river, (the Wye,) the 
 spirit again, with the pertinacity of its kind, asked 
 for something to do ; whereupon the boy bade it 
 throw the stones back again, which it did. Sir 
 David having waited a long time for the boy to 
 return, began to suspect that things had gone 
 wrong, and so hastened back after him, and com- 
 manded the familiar spirit again into his book. 
 
 III. 
 
 Familiar spirits of this class are not always in- 
 visible ; and they can assume such forms as may 
 be necessary to serve their purposes. A favourite 
 shape with them is that of a young and lovely 
 woman. Comparisons are here suggested with the 
 water-maidens, and other like forms of this fancy ; 
 but they need not be pursued. It is necessary for 
 the student of phantoms to constantly remind him- 
 
ig^ 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 « 
 
 self of the omnipresent danger of being enticed too 
 far afield, unless he keep somewhat sternly to the 
 path he has marked out. How ancient is the notion 
 of a familiar spirit in female form, may be seen from 
 accounts which are given by Giraldus and other old 
 writers. Near Caerleon, (Monmouthshire,) in the 
 twelfth century, Giraldus tells us ^ there lived ' a 
 Welshman named Melerius, who by the following 
 means acquired the knowledge of future events and 
 the occult sciences : Having on a certain night met a 
 damsel whom he loved, in a pleasant and convenient 
 place, while he was indulging in her embraces, in- 
 stead of a beautiful girl he found in his arms a hairy, 
 rough and hideous creature, the sight of which 
 deprived him of his senses ; and after remaining 
 many years in this condition he was restored to 
 health in the church of St. David's, through the 
 merits of its saints. But having always had an ex- 
 traordinary familiarity with unclean spirits, by seeing 
 them, knowing them, talking with them, and calling 
 each by his proper name, he was enabled through 
 their assistance to foretell future events ; he was 
 indeed often deceived (as they are) with respect to 
 circumstances at a great distance ; iDut was less mis- 
 taken in affairs which were likely to happen soon, or 
 within the space of a year. They appeared to him 
 on foot, equipped as hunters, with horns suspended 
 from their necks, and truly as hunters not of animals 
 but of souls ; he particularly met them near monas- 
 teries and religious places ; for where rebellion exists 
 there is the greatest need of armies and strength. 
 He knew when anyone spoke falsely in his presence, 
 for he saw the devil as it were leaping and exulting 
 upon the tongue of the liar ; and if he looked into a 
 book faultily or falsely written, although wholly 
 
 * Sir R. C. Hoare's Trans., i. 105. 
 
 I 
 
The Spirit-World. 193 
 
 illiterate he would point out the place with his 
 
 finger. Being questioned how he could gain such 
 
 knowledge, he said he was directed by the demon's 
 
 finger to the place.' In the same connection Giraldus 
 
 mentions a familiar spirit which haunted Lower 
 
 Gwent, ' a demon incubus, who from his love for a 
 
 certain young woman, and frequenting the place 
 
 where she lived, often conversed with men, and 
 
 frequently discovered hidden things and future 
 
 events.' 
 
 IV. 
 
 The legend of the Lady of the Wood is contained 
 in the lolo MSS., and is of considerable antiquity. 
 It is a most fascinating tale : Einion, the son of 
 Gwalchmai, ' was one fine summer morning walk- 
 ing in the woods of Treveilir,' when ' he beheld a 
 graceful slender lady of elegant growth, and delicate 
 feature, and her complexion surpassing every white 
 and red in the morning dawn and the mountain 
 snow, and every beautiful colour in the blossoms of 
 wood, field, and hill. And then he felt in his heart 
 an inconceivable commotion of affection, and he 
 approached her in a courteous manner, and she also 
 approached him in the same manner ; and he saluted 
 her, and she returned his salutation ; and by these 
 mutual salutations he perceived that his society was 
 not disagreeable to her. He then chanced to cast 
 his eye upon her foot, and he saw that she had hoofs 
 Instead of feet, and he became exceedingly dissatis- 
 fied,' as well he might. But the lady gave him to 
 understand that he must pay no attention to this 
 trifling freak of nature. ' Thou must,' she said, 
 ' follow me wheresoever I go, as long as I continue 
 In my beauty.' The son of Gwalchmai thereupon 
 asked permission to go and say good-bye to his wife, 
 at least. This the lady agreed to; 'but,' said she, 
 
194 British Goblins. 
 
 * I shall be with thee, invisible to all but thyself.' * So 
 he went, and the goblin went with him ; and when 
 he saw Angharad, his wife, he saw her a hag like 
 one grown old, but he retained the recollection of 
 days past, and still felt extreme affection for her, but 
 he was not able to loose himself from the bond in 
 which he was. ** It is necessary for me," said he, *' to 
 part for a time, I know not how long, from thee, 
 Angharad, and from thee, my son, Einion," and they 
 wept together, and broke a gold ring between them ; 
 he kept one half and Angharad the other, and they 
 took their leave of each other, and he went with the 
 Lady of the Wood, and knew not where ; for a 
 powerful illusion was upon him, and he saw not any 
 place, or person, or object under its true and proper 
 appearance, excepting the half of the ring alone. 
 And after being a long time, he knew not how long, 
 with the goblin, the Lady of the Wood, he looked 
 one morning as the sun was rising upon the half of 
 the ring, and he bethought him to place it in the 
 most precious place he could, and he resolved to put 
 it under his eyelid ; and as he was endeavouring to 
 do so, he could see a man in white apparel, and 
 mounted on a snow-white horse, coming towards 
 him, and that person asked him what he did there ; 
 and he told him that he was cherishing an afflicting 
 remembrance of his wife Angharad. " Dost thou 
 desire to see her ?" said the man in white. " I do," 
 said Einion, " above all things, and all happiness of 
 the world." '* If so," said the man in white, *'get 
 upon this horse, behind me ;" and that Einion did, 
 and looking around he could not see any appearance 
 of the Lady of the Wood, the goblin, excepting the 
 track of hoofs of marvellous and monstrous size, as 
 if journeying towards the north. *' What delusion 
 art thou under ? " said the man in white. Then 
 
The Spirit' World. 195 
 
 Einion answered him and told everything how it 
 occurred 'twixt him and the goblin. "Take this 
 white staff in thy hand," said the man in white, and 
 Einion took it. And the man in white told him to 
 desire whatever he wished for. The first thing he 
 desired was to see the Lady of the Wood, for he 
 was not yet completely delivered from the illusion. 
 And then she appeared to him in size a hideous and 
 monstrous witch, a thousand times more repulsive of 
 aspect than the most frightful things seen upon 
 earth. And Einion uttered a cry of terror ; and the 
 man in white cast his cloak over Einion, and in less 
 than a twinkling Einion alighted as he wished on 
 the hill of Treveilir, by his own house, where he 
 knew scarcely any one, nor did any one know him.' 
 The goblin meantime had gone to Einion's wife, in 
 the disguise of a richly apparelled knight, and made 
 love to her, pretending that her husband was dead. 
 * And the illusion fell upon her ; and seeing that she 
 should become a noble lady, higher than any in 
 Wales, she named a day for her marriage with him. 
 And there was a great preparation of every elegant 
 and sumptuous apparel, and of meats and drinks, 
 and of every honourable guest, and every excellence 
 of song and string, and every preparation of banquet 
 and festive entertainment.' Now there was a beau- 
 tiful harp in Angharad's room, which the goblin 
 knight desired should be played on ; ' and the harp- 
 ers present, the best in Wales, tried to put it in tune, 
 and were not able.' But Einion presented himself 
 at the house, and offered to play on it. Angharad, 
 being under an illusion, ' saw him as an old, de- 
 crepit, withered, grey-haired man, stooping with age, 
 and dressed in rags.' Einion tuned the harp, * and 
 played on it the air which Angharad loved. And 
 she marvelled exceedingly, and asked him who he 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 was. And he answered in song : . . . " Einion the 
 golden-hearted." . . . 
 
 " Where hast thou been ! " 
 "In Kent, in Gwent, in the wood, in Monmouth, 
 In Maenol, Gorwenydd ; 
 And in the valley of Gwyn, the son of Nudd ; 
 See, the bright gold is the token." 
 
 And he gave her the ring. 
 
 " Look not on the whitened hue of my hair, 
 
 Where once my aspect was spirited and bold ; 
 
 Now gray, without disguise, where once it was yellow. 
 
 Never was Angharad out of my remembrance, 
 But Einion was by thee forgotten." 
 
 But Angharad ' could not bring him to her recol- 
 lection. Then said he to the guests : 
 
 " If I have lost her whom I loved, the fair one of polished mind, 
 The daughter of Ednyved Vychan, 
 I have not lost (so get you out !) 
 
 Either my bed, or my house, or my fire." 
 
 ' And upon that he placed the white staff in 
 Angharad's hand, and instantly the goblin which 
 she had hitherto seen as a handsome and honour- 
 able nobleman, appeared to her as a monster, 
 inconceivably hideous ; and she fainted from fear, 
 and Einion supported her until she revived. And 
 when she opened her eyes, she saw there neither 
 the goblin, nor any of the guests, nor of the minstrels, 
 nor anything whatever except Einion, and her son, 
 and the harp, and the house in its domestic arrange- 
 ment, and the dinner on the table, casting its 
 savoury odour around. And they sat down to eat 
 . . . and exceeding great was their enjoyment. 
 And they saw the illusion which the demoniacal 
 goblin had cast over them. . . . And thus it ends.'^ 
 
 1 lolo MSS. 587, et seq. 
 
The Spirit- World. 197 
 
 There is hardly a goblin in the world more widely 
 known than this spectre of the forest. Her story 
 appears in the legends of very many lands, including 
 China. Its ancient Grecian prototype is found in 
 the Odyssey.^ 
 
 When it is the Diawl himself who appears in the 
 role of the familiar spirit, his majesty is usually in 
 some other form than that of a man, with hoofs, 
 horns, and tail. The orthodox form of Satan has 
 indeed been seen in many parts of Wales, but not 
 when doing duty as a familiar spirit. A Welsh poet 
 of the thirteenth century mentions this form : 
 
 And the horned devil, 
 With sharp hoofs 
 On his heels.^ 
 
 He is variously called cythraul, dera, diafol, all 
 euphemisms for devil, equivalent to our destroyer, 
 evil one, adversary — as well as plain diawl, devil. 
 In his character of a familiar spirit he assumes the 
 shape of a fiery ball, a donkey, a black calf, a round 
 bowl, a dog, a roaring flame, a bull, a goose, and 
 numberless others, including the imp that goes into 
 a book. In all this he bears out the character given 
 him in old mythology, where he grows big or little 
 at pleasure, and roars in a gale as Herm.es, the wind- 
 god, howls as a dog, enters a walnut as in the 
 Norse Tale, or is confined in a bottle as the genie 
 of the ' Arabian Nights.' 
 
 ^ In his fascinating essay on the ' Folk- Lore of France,' in the 
 *Folk-Lore Record' for 1878 (published by the Folk-Lore .Society) 
 Mr. A. Lang says : ' So widespread is this superstition, that a friend 
 of mine declares he has met with it among the savages of New Cale- 
 donia, and has known a native who actually died, as he himself said 
 he would, after meeting one of the fairy women of the wild wood ' 
 
 2 Gruffydd ab yr Ynad Coch. 
 
 O 2 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 To that eminent nonconformist preacher, Vavasor 
 Powell, the devil once appeared in shape like a 
 house. ' Satan . . . appeared several times, and 
 in several wayes, to me : as once like a house, stood 
 directly in my way, with which sight I fell on my 
 face as dead. . . . Another time, being alone in my 
 chamber ... I perceived a strong cold wind to 
 blow ... it made the hair of my flesh to stand 
 up, and caused all my bones to shake ; and on the 
 suddain, I heard one walk about me, tramping upon 
 the chamber floor, as if it had been some heavie big 
 man . . . but it proved in the end to be no other 
 than . . . Satan.' ^ 
 
 A black calf, which haunted a Pembrokeshire 
 brook early in the present century, was believed to 
 be the devil in familiar guise. It appeared at a 
 certain spot near the village of Narberth — a village 
 which has figured actively in mythic story since 
 the earliest ages of which there is any record. 
 One night two peasants caught the terrible calf 
 and took it home, locking it up safely in a stable 
 with some other cattle, but it had vanished when 
 morning came. 
 
 Henry Llewelyn, of Ystrad Defoe parish, Glamor- 
 ganshire, was beset by the devil in the shape of 
 a round bowl. He had been sent by his minister 
 (Methodist) to fetch from another parish a load of 
 religious books — Bibles, Testaments, Watts' ' Psalms, 
 Hymns and Songs for Children ' — and was coming 
 home with the same, on horseback, by night, when 
 he saw a living thing, round like a bowl, moving 
 to and fro across the lane. The bold Llewelyn 
 
 ^ * The Life and Death of Mr. Vavasor Powell,' p. 8. (A curious 
 seventeenth century book, no two existing copies of which appear to 
 be alike. I here cite from that in the library of the Marquis of Bute, 
 than which a more perfect copy is rarely met with.) 
 
 n 
 
The Spirit- World. 199 
 
 having concluded it was the devil, resolved to 
 
 speak to it. ' What seekest thou, thou foul thing ?' 
 
 he demanded, adding, ' In the name of the Lord 
 
 Jesus go away!' And to prove that it was the 
 
 adversary, at these words it vanished into the 
 
 ground, leaving a sulphurous smell behind. 
 
 To William Jones, a sabbath-breaker, of Risca 
 
 village, the devil appeared as an enormous mastiff 
 
 dog, which transformed itself into a great fire and 
 
 made a roaring noise like burning gorse. And to 
 
 two men at Merthyr Tydfil, in Glamorganshire, 
 
 the fiend appeared in the shape of a gosling. 
 
 These men were one night drinking together at 
 
 the Black Lion Inn, when one dared the other 
 
 to go to conjure. The challenge was accepted, 
 
 and they went, but conducted their emprise with 
 
 such drunken recklessness, that the devil put out 
 
 the eyes of one of them, so that he was blind the 
 
 rest of his days. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The mode of summoning and of exorcising 
 familiar spirits — in other words, of laying and 
 raising the devil — varies little the world over. 
 Even in China, the magic circle is entered and 
 incantations are muttered when the fiend is sum- 
 moned ; and for the exorcism of devils there are 
 laws like our own — though since modern Christianity 
 has been introduced in China the most popular 
 exorcist is the Christian missionary.^ In Wales, 
 the popular belief is compounded of about equal 
 parts of foul magic and fair Biblical text ; magic 
 chiefly for summoning, the Book for exorcising. 
 
 John Jenkin, a schoolmaster in Pembrokeshire, 
 was a conjuror of renown in that part of Wales. 
 One of his scholars who had a curiosity to see the 
 
 ^ Dennys, ' Folk-Lore of China,' 89. 
 
200 British Goblins. 
 
 devil made bold to ask the master to assist him 
 to that entertainment. ' May see him/ said the 
 master, 'if thou hast the courage for it. Still,' he 
 added, ' I do not choose to call him till I have 
 employment for him.' So the boy waited ; and not 
 long after a man came to the master saying he had 
 lost some money, and wished to be told who had 
 stolen it. ' Now,' the master said to the scholar, 
 * I have some business for him.' At night they 
 went into the wood together and drew a circle, 
 which they entered, and the schoolmaster called 
 one of the spirits of evil by its name. Presently 
 they saw a light in the sky, which shot like lightning 
 down to the circle, and turned round about it. The 
 conjuror asked it who had stolen the man's money ; 
 the spirit did not know, and it disappeared. Then 
 the schoolmaster called another evil spirit by its 
 name ; and presently they saw the resemblance of 
 a bull flying through the air towards them, so swiftly 
 and fiercely as if it would go through them ; and it 
 also turned about the circle. But the conjuror 
 asked it in vain who had the stolen money. ' I 
 must call still another,' said he. The schoolboy was 
 now almost dead with fear, and the conjuror con- 
 siderately waited till he was somewhat revived 
 before calling the third spirit. But when he did 
 call, there came out of the wood a spirit dressed 
 in white, and went about the circle. ' Ah,' said 
 the schoolmaster, * we shall now hear something 
 from this.' And sure enough ' this ' told the con- 
 juror (in a language the boy could not understand) 
 where the money was, and all about it. Then it 
 vanished in red fire ; and that boy ' has never been 
 well since, the effect of the great fright still cleaving 
 to him.' 
 
 Not far from Glanbran, in Carmarthenshire, lived 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
The Spirit-World. 201 
 
 a tailor, who added to his trade as a breeches- 
 mender the loftier, if wickeder, employments of a 
 worker in magic. A certain Mr. Gwynne, living 
 at Glanbran, took it upon himself to ridicule this 
 terrible tailor, for the tailor was a little man, and 
 Mr. Gwynne was a burly six-footer, who feared 
 nobody. ' Thou have the courage to look upon 
 the devil ! ' sneered Gwynne ; * canst thou show him 
 to me ? ' ' That I can,' said the tailor, his eyes 
 flashing angrily ; ' but you are not able to look at 
 him.' ' What ! ' roared Gwynne, ' thou able to look 
 at him, and not I ? ' ' Very well,' quoth the tailor ; 
 if you are able to look at him I will show him to 
 you.' It was in the day time, but the tailor went 
 immediately into a little grove of wood in a field 
 hard by, and made a circle in the usual manner. 
 In a short time he returned to fetch the incredulous 
 Mr. Gwynne, saying, ' Come with me and you shall 
 see him.' The two then crossed the field until 
 they came to the stile by the wood, when suddenly 
 the tailor cried, ' Look yonder ! there it is ! ' And 
 looking, Mr. Gwynne saw, in the circle the tailor 
 had drawn, 'one of the fallen angels, now become 
 a devil.' It was so horrible a sight that the terrified 
 Mr. Gwynne was never after able to describe it ; 
 but from that time forth he had a proper respect for 
 the tailor. 
 
202 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Evil Spirit in his customary Form — The stupid Medieval Devil 
 in Wales — Sion Cent — The Devil outwitted — Pacts with the Fiend 
 and their Avoidance — Sion Dafydd's Foul Pipe — The Devil's 
 Bridge and its Legends — Similar Legends in other Lands — The 
 Devil's Pulpit near Tintern — Angelic Spirits — Welsh Superstitions 
 as to pronouncing the Name of the Evil Spirit — The Bardic Tradition 
 of the Creation— The Struggle between Light and Darkness and its 
 Symbolization. 
 
 I. 
 
 The devil has often appeared in Wales in his cus- 
 tomary form, or with his distinctive marks covered 
 up by such clothing as mortals wear. There was 
 even a tailor in Cardiganshire who had the honour 
 of making a suit of clothes for his sulphuric majesty. 
 The medieval view of this malignant spirit — which 
 makes the devil out as dull and stupid as he is men- 
 dacious and spiteful — still lingers in some parts. 
 Those formal pacts with the devil, the first traces of 
 which are found in the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
 turies, have been made in great numbers in Wales ; 
 and tales in which the devil is outwitted by a mortal 
 are still preserved with much distinctness in various 
 localities. That the myth of Polyphemus reappears 
 in all accounts of this sort, is pretty well agreed 
 among students of folk-lore. Hercules and Cacus, 
 Polyphemus and Odysseus, Peredur and the one- 
 eyed monster of the Mabinogion, Gambrinus and 
 der Teufel, Jack the Giant- Killer, Norse Jotuns and 
 Arabian genii tricked and bottled ; all these are 
 deemed outgrowths of the same primeval idea, to 
 wit, the victory of the sun-god over the night-fiend ; 
 
The Spirit-World. 203 
 
 and the story of Sion Cent's compact with the diawl 
 is doubtless from the same root. Certain it is that 
 were not the devil at times gullible, he never would 
 have been so useful as a familiar spirit, never could 
 have been made so completely a slave to his mortal 
 masters. The Pope (Benedict IX.) who had seven 
 evil spirits in a sugar-bottle, merely subdivided the 
 arch-fiend in the same way the genii of the old 
 tales are subdivided — now existing as a dense and 
 visible form, again expanding to blot out the sky, 
 and again entering the narrow compass of a bottle 
 or a nut-shell ; co-existing in a million places at the 
 same instant, yet having a single individuality. 
 
 II. 
 
 Tradition relates that Sion Cent was a famous 
 necromancer in Monmouthshire, who outwitted the 
 devil, not once but many times. He lives in popular 
 legend simply as a worker in magic, but in reality 
 he was a worthy minister, the Rev. John Kent, who 
 flourished from 1420 to 1470, and wrote several 
 theological works in Latin. In his native Welsh he 
 confined himself to poetry, and Sion Cent was his 
 Cymric pseudonym. Like many learned men in 
 those days, he was accredited with magical powers 
 by the ignorant peasantry, and of his transactions 
 with the devil many stories were then invented 
 which still survive. One relates that he once served 
 as a farmer's boy, and was set to keep the crows 
 from the corn, but preferring to go to Grosmont 
 fair, he confined the crows in an old roofless barn 
 by a magic spell till the next day, when he returned. 
 His compact with the devil enabled him to build the 
 bridge over the Monnow, near Grosmont, which still 
 bears his name. The compact gave the devil the 
 man's soul, as all such compacts do — the stipulation 
 
204 British Goblins. 
 
 being that if his body were buried either in or out of 
 the church, his soul should be forfeit to the diawl. 
 But the shrewd Welshman gave orders that he should 
 be buried exactly under the chancel wall, so that he 
 should lie neither in the church nor out of it ; and 
 the devil was made a fool of by this device. A 
 precisely similar tradition exists concerning an old 
 gentleman in Carmarthenshire. 
 
 III. 
 
 A popular legend giving the origin of the jack-o'- 
 lantern in Wales deals with the idea of a stupid 
 devil : A long time ago there lived on the hills of 
 Arfon an old man of the name of Sion Dafydd, who 
 used to converse much with one of the children of 
 the bottomless pit. One morning Sion was on his 
 way to Llanfair-Fechan, carrying a flail on his 
 shoulder, for he had corn there, when whom should 
 he meet but his old friend from the pit, with a bag 
 on his back, and in it two little devils like himself. 
 After conversing for some time they began to 
 quarrel, and presently were in the midst of a 
 terrible fight. Sion fell to basting the devils with 
 his flail, until the bag containing the two little ones 
 went all to pieces, and the two tumbling out, fled 
 for their lives to Rhiwgyfylchi, which village is con- 
 sidered to this day a very wicked place from this fact. 
 Sion then went his way rejoicing, and did not for a 
 long time encounter his adversary. Eventually, 
 however, they met, and this time Sion had his gun 
 on his shoulder. 'What's that long thing you're 
 carrying?' inquired the devil. 'That's my pipe,' 
 said Sion. Then the devil asked, 'Shall I have a 
 whiff out of it ?' ' You shall,' was Sion s reply, and 
 he placed the mouth of his gun in the devil's throat 
 and drew the trigger. Well ; that was the loudest 
 
The Spirit-World. 205 
 
 report from a gun that was ever heard on this earth. 
 
 * Ach ! — tw ! — tw !' exclaimed the smoker, ' your 
 pipe is very foul,' and he disappeared in a flame. 
 After a lapse of time, Sion met him again in the 
 guise of a gentleman, but the Welshman knew it 
 was the tempter. This time he made a bargain for 
 which he was ever afterwards sorry, i.e., he sold 
 himself to the devil for a sum down, but with the 
 understanding that whenever he could cling to 
 something the devil should not then control him. 
 One day when Sion was busily gardening, the evil 
 one snatched him away into the air without warning, 
 and Sion was about giving up all hopes of again 
 returning to earth, when he thought to himself, 
 
 * I'll ask the devil one last favour.' The stupid 
 devil listened. ' All I want is an apple,' said Sion, 
 ' to moisten my lips a bit down below ; let me go 
 to the top of my apple-tree, and I'll pick one.' ' Is 
 that all ?' quoth the diawl, and consented. Of 
 course Sion laid hold of the apple-tree, and hung 
 on. The devil had to leave him there. But the 
 old reprobate was too wicked for heaven, and the 
 devil having failed to take him to the other place, 
 he was turned into a fairy, and is now the jack-o'- 
 lantern.^ 
 
 IV. 
 
 Best known among the natural objects in various 
 parts of Wales which are connected with the devil 
 in popular lore, is the Devil's Bridge, in Cardigan- 
 shire. Associated with this bridge are several 
 legends, which derive their greatest interest from 
 their intrinsic evidences of an antiquity in common 
 with the same legends in other lands. The guide- 
 books of the region, like guide-books everywhere, in 
 their effort to avoid being led into unwarranted 
 
 * * Cyraru Fu,' 355 et seq. 
 
2o6 British Goblins. 
 
 
 statement, usually indulge in playfully sarcastic refer- 
 ences to these ancient tales. They are much older, 
 however, than the bridge itself can possibly be. The 
 devil's activity in bridge-building is a myth more 
 ancient than the medieval devil of our acquaintance. 
 The building story of the Devil's Bridge in Cardigan- 
 shire runs briefly thus : An old woman who had lost 
 her cow spied it on the other side of the ravine, and 
 was in great trouble about it, not knowing how to 
 get over where the animal was. The devil, taking 
 advantage of her distress, offered to throw a bridge 
 over the ravine, so that she might cross and get her 
 cow ; but he stipulated that the first living creature 
 to cross the bridge should be his. The old woman 
 agreed ; the bridge was built ; and the devil waited 
 to see her cross. She drew a crust of bread from 
 her pocket, threw it over, and her little black dog 
 flew after it. ' The dog's yours, sir,' said the dame ; 
 and Satan was discomfited. In the story told of the 
 old bridge over the Main at Frankfort, a bridge- 
 contractor and his troubles are substituted for the 
 old woman and her cow ; instead of a black dog 
 a live rooster appears, driven in front of him by 
 the contractor. The Welsh Satan seems to have 
 received his discomfiture good-naturedly enough ; in 
 the German tale he tears the fowl to pieces in his 
 rage. In Switzerland, every reader knows the story 
 told of the devil's bridge in the St. Gothard pass. 
 A new bridge has taken the place, for public use, of 
 the old bridge on the road to Andermatt, and to the 
 dangers of the crumbling masonry are added super- 
 stitious terrors concerning the devil's power to catch 
 any one crossing after dark. The old Welsh bridge 
 has been in like manner superseded by a modern 
 structure ; but I think no superstition like the last 
 noted is found at Hafod. 
 
The Spirit- World, 207 
 
 V. 
 
 The English have a saying that the devil lives in 
 the middle of Wales. There is in every part of 
 Wales that I have seen a custom of whitening the 
 doorsteps with chalk, and it is said to have originated 
 in the belief that his Satanic majesty could not enter 
 a door thus protected. The devil of slovenliness 
 certainly would find difficulty in entering a Welsh 
 cottage if the tidiness of its doorstep is borne out 
 in the interior. But out-of-doors everywhere there 
 are sisfns of the devil's active habits. His flowers 
 grow on the river-banks ; his toes are imprinted on 
 the rocks. Near Tintern Abbey there is a jutting 
 crag overhung by gloomy branches of the yew, called 
 the Devil's Pulpit. His eminence used In other 
 and wickeder days to preach atrocious morals, or 
 immorals, to the white-robed Cistercian monks of 
 the abbey, from this rocky pulpit. One day the 
 devil grew bold, and taking his tail under his arm in 
 an easy and dSgag^e manner, hobnobbed familiarly 
 with the monks, and finally proposed, just for a 
 lark, that he should preach them a nice red-hot 
 sermon from the rood-loft of the abbey. To this 
 the monks agreed, and the devil came to church in 
 high glee. But fancy his profane perturbation (I 
 had nearly written holy horror) when the treacherous 
 Cistercians proceeded to shower him with holy 
 water. The devil clapped his tail between his legs 
 and scampered off howling, and never stopped 
 till he got to Llandogo, where he leaped across the 
 river into England, leaving the prints of his talons 
 on a stone. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Where accounts of the devil's appearance are so 
 numerous, it is perhaps somewhat surprising so little 
 
2o8 British Goblins. 
 
 is heard of apparitions of angels. There are reasons 
 for this, however, which might be enlarged upon. 
 Tradition says that ' in former times ' there were 
 frequent visits of angels to Wales ; and their rare 
 appearance in our days is ascribed to the completion 
 of revelation. One or two modern instances of 
 angelic visitation are given by the Prophet Jones. 
 There was David Thomas, who lived at a place 
 called the Pantau, between the towns of Carmarthen 
 and Laugharne ; he was ' a gifted brother, who 
 sometimes preached,' in the dissenting way. One 
 night, when he was at prayer alone in a room which 
 stood apart from his house, there was suddenly a 
 great light present, which made the light of the 
 candle no longer visible. And in that light appeared 
 a band of angels, like children, very beautiful in 
 bright clothing, singing in Welsh these words : 
 
 Pa hyd ? Pa hyd ? Dychwelwch feibion Adda ! 
 Pa hyd .? Pa hyd yr erhdiwch y Cristnogion duwiol ? 
 
 How long ? How long ? Return ye sons of Adam ! 
 
 How long ? How long will ye persecute the godly Christians ?' 
 
 After a time they departed ; reappeared ; departed 
 again ; the great light faded ; and the light of Mr. 
 Thomas's candle was once more visible on his table. 
 There was also Rees David, a man of more than 
 common piety, who lived in Carmarthenshire, near 
 Whitlands. At the time of his death, it was testified 
 by 'several religious persons who were in the room,' 
 that there was heard, by them and by the dying 
 man, the singing of angels. It drew nearer and 
 nearer as his death-struggle grew imminent, and 
 after his death they ' heard the pleasant incompar- 
 able singing gradually depart, until it was out of 
 hearing.' 
 
 That the dying do see something more, in the 
 last moment of expiring nature, than it is given to 
 
The Spirit-World. 209 
 
 living eyes to see, is a cherished belief by numberless 
 Christian men and women, whom to suspect of 
 superstitious credulity were to grossly offend. This 
 belief is based on exclamations uttered by the dying, 
 while with fixed and staring eyes they appeared to 
 gaze intently at some object not visible to the by- 
 standers. But that the bystanders also saw, or 
 heard, voice or vision from the Unknown, is not often 
 
 pretended. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Reference has been made to the euphemisms in 
 use among all peoples to avoid pronouncing the 
 name of the devil. That many good folk still 
 consider the word devil, lightly spoken, a profane 
 utterance only second to a similar utterance of God's 
 name, is a curious survival of old superstitions. No 
 prohibition of this sort attaches to the words demon, 
 fiend, etc., nor to such euphemisms, common in both 
 Welsh and English, as the adversary, the evil one, 
 etc. It is an old custom in North Wales to spit at 
 the name of the devil, even when so innocently used 
 as in pronouncing the name of the Devil's Bridge. 
 The peasantry prefer to call the bridge ' Pont y Gwr 
 Drwg,' the Bridge of the Wicked One ; and spitting 
 and wiping off the tongue are deemed a necessary 
 precaution after saying devil, diafol, or diawl. The 
 phrase ' I hope to goodness,' so common in Wales 
 and elsewhere, is clearly but another euphemism for 
 God ; the goodness meant is the Divine beneficence. 
 ' Goodness' sake ' is but a contraction of ' For God's 
 sake!' The Hebrew tetragrammaton which was 
 invested with such terror, as representing the great 
 ' I am,' finds an explanation, according to the ideas 
 of Welsh scholars, in the Bardic traditions. These 
 relate that, by the utterance of His Name, God 
 created this world ; the Name being represented 
 
2IO British Goblins. 
 
 by the symbol /|\, three lines which typify the 
 focusing of the rising sun's rays at the equinoxes 
 and solstices. The first ray is the Creator, the 
 second the Preserver, and the third the Destroyer ; 
 the whole are God's Name. This name cannot be 
 uttered by a mortal ; he has not the power ; there- 
 fore it remains for ever unuttered on earth. At the 
 creation the universe uttered it in joy at the new- 
 born world ; * the morning stars sang together.' At 
 the last day it will be uttered again. Till then it 
 is kept a secret, lest it be degraded, as it has been 
 by the Hindus, who, from the three rays created 
 their three false gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. 
 Tradition relates that Einigan Gawr saw the Divine 
 Name appear, and inscribed it on three rods of 
 mountain ash. The people mistook the three rods 
 thus inscribed for God himself, and Einigan died 
 from grief at their error. ^ 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The devil with which we are acquainted is ~ 
 character unknown to Greek or Roman mythology ; 
 this devil was a later invention ; but his identity 
 with the genii, or jinns of the * Arabian Nights,' the 
 Divs of Persian history, is clear enough. Ahriman, 
 the evil spirit, king of the realms of darkness and 
 of fire, was apparently the progenitor of Satan, as 
 Vritra was of Ahriman. Both these ancient arch- 
 fiends appeared as serpents in form, and were myths 
 representing the darkness, slain by the light, or the 
 sun-god, in the one case called Indra, in the other 
 Ormuzd. The medieval devil with horns and hoofs 
 does not appear in the records of Judaism. He is 
 an outgrowth of the moral principle of the Christian 
 era ; and traced to his origins he is simply a 
 
 ^ ' Dosparth Edeyrn Dafod Aur,' 3. 
 
 I 
 
The Spirit- World. 1 1 1 
 
 personification of the adversary in the never-ending- 
 struggle on earth between light and darkness. 
 That struggle is not, in nature, a moral one ; but 
 it remains to-day, as it was in the beginning, the 
 best type we have of the battle between right and 
 wrong, and between truth and error. When God 
 said, ' Let there be light,' the utterance became 
 the symbol and guide of virtue, of brave endeavour, 
 and of scientific research, until the end. 
 
212 British Goblins. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 I 
 
 Cambrian Death-Portents — The Corpse-Bird — The Tan-Wedd — List- 
 ening at the Church-Door — The Lledrith — The Gwrach y Rhibyn — 
 The Llandaff Gwrach — UgHness of this Female Apparition — The 
 Black Maiden — The Cyhyraeth, or Crying Spirit — Its Moans on 
 Land and Sea — The St. Mellons Cyhyraeth — The Groaning Spirit 
 of Bedwellty. 
 
 I. 
 
 There are death portents In every country, and in 
 endless variety ; in Wales these portents assume 
 distinct and striking individuaHties, in great number 
 and with clearly defined attributes. The banshee, 
 according to Mr. Baring-Gould, has no correspond- 
 ing feature in Scandinavian, Teutonic, or classic 
 mythology, and belongs entirely to the Celts. The 
 Welsh have the banshee in its most blood-curdling 
 form under the name of the Gwrach y Rhibyn ; 
 they have also the Cyhyraeth, which Is never seen, 
 but Is heard, moaning dolefully and dreadfully in 
 the night ; the Tolaeth, also only heard, not groaning 
 but Imitating some earthly sound, such as sawing, 
 singing, or the tramping of feet ; the Cwn Annwn 
 and Cwn y Wybr, Dogs of Hell and Dogs of the 
 Sky ; the Canwyll Corph, or Corpse Candle ; the 
 Teulu, or Goblin Funeral, and many others — all of 
 them death-portents. These, as the more Important 
 and striking, I will describe further ; but there are 
 several others which must first be mentioned. 
 
 The Aderyn y Corph is a bird which chirps at the 
 door of the person who is about to die, and makes 
 a noise that sounds like the Welsh word for 
 
The Spirit-World. 213 
 
 ' Come ! come ! ' the summons to death. ^ In ancient 
 tradition, it had no feathers nor wings, soaring with- 
 out support high in the heavens, and, when not 
 engaged upon some earthly message, dwelHng in 
 the land of illusion and phantasy.^ This corpse-bird 
 may properly be associated with the superstition 
 regarding the screech-owl, whose cry near a sick-bed 
 inevitably portends death. The untimely crowing 
 of a cock also foretells the sudden demise of some 
 member of the family. In North Wales the cry 
 of the golden plover is a death-omen ; these birds 
 are called, in this connection, the whistlers.^ The 
 same superstition prevails in Warwickshire, and the 
 sound is called the seven whistlers. 
 
 Thunder and lightning in mid-winter announce 
 the death of the great man of the parish. This 
 superstition is thought to be peculiar to Wales, or 
 to the wilder and more secluded parts of North 
 Wales.* Also deemed peculiar to Wales is the 
 Tan-wedd, a fiery apparition which falls on the 
 lands of a freeholder who is about to die. It is 
 described as appearing somewhat similar to falling 
 stars, but slower of motion. ' It lighteneth all the 
 air and ground where it passeth,' says * the honest 
 Welshman, Mr. Davis, in a letter to Mr. Baxter,' 
 adding, ' lasteth three or four miles or more, for 
 aught is known, because no man seeth the rising 
 or beginning of it ; and when it falls to the ground 
 it sparkleth and lighteth all about.' ^ It also comes 
 as a duty-performing goblin, after a death, haunting 
 the graveyard, and calling attention to some special 
 grave by its conduct, as in the following account : 
 Walter Watkins, of the Neuadd, in a parish of 
 
 ^ ' Dewch ! dewch ! ' ^ < Cymru Fu,' 299. 
 
 ^ ' Camb. Quarterly,' iv., 487. "* ' Arch. Camb.' 4th Se., iii., 333. 
 
 ° Brand, ' Pop. Ant.' iii., 127. 
 
 P 2 
 
214 British Goblins. 
 
 I 
 
 Brecknockshire, was going one dark night towards 
 Taf Fechan Chapel, not far from his house, when 
 he saw a light near the chapel. It increased till 
 it was as big as a church tower, and decreased 
 again till it was as small as a star ; then enlarged 
 again and decreased as before ; and this it did 
 several times. He went to his house and fetched 
 his father and mother to see it, and they all saw it 
 plainly, much to their astonishment and wonder. 
 Some time after, as a neighbour was ploughing in 
 a field near the chapel, about where the mysterious 
 light had been seen, the plough struck against a large 
 flat stone. This the ploughman raised up, after a 
 deal of difficulty, and under it he found a stone chest, 
 in which was the jawbone of a man, and nought 
 else except an earthen jug. The bone was supposed 
 to be the remains of a man who had disappeared 
 long before, and whose wife had since married ; 
 and on her being told of it, she fell ill and died. 
 The light, which had often been seen before by 
 various persons, was after this seen no more. It 
 was believed to be the spirit of the murdered man, 
 appearing as a light. 
 
 Listening at the church-door in the dark, to hear 
 shouted by a ghostly voice in the deserted edifice 
 the names of those who are shortly to be buried in 
 the adjoining churchyard, is a Hallow E'en custom 
 in some parts of Wales. In other parts, the window 
 serves the same purpose. There are said to be still 
 extant, outside some village churches, steps which 
 were constructed in order to enable the superstitious 
 peasantry to climb to the window to listen. The 
 principle of ' expectant attention,' so well known to 
 physiological science, would be likely in this case 
 to act with special force as a ghost-raiser. In an 
 ancient MS. by Llywelyn Sion, of Llangewydd, 
 
The Spirit- World. 215 
 
 there is mention of a frightful monster called the 
 Fad Felen, which was seen through the key-hole 
 of Rhos church by Maelgwn Gwynedd, who ' died 
 in consequence.' This monster was predicted in 
 a poem by Taliesin, as a ' strange creature ' which 
 should come from the sea marsh, with hair and 
 teeth and eyes like gold. The yellow fever plague, 
 which raged in Wales during some five years in the 
 sixth century, is the monster referred to in this 
 legend. 
 
 The Scotch wraith and Irish fetch have their 
 parallel in Wales in the Lledrith, or spectre of a 
 person seen before his death ; it never speaks, and 
 vanishes if spoken to. It has been seen by miners 
 previous to a fatal accident in the mine. The story 
 is told of a miner who saw himself lying dead and 
 horribly maimed in a phantom tram-car, led by a 
 phantom horse, and surrounded by phantom miners. 
 As he watched this dreadful group of spectres they 
 passed on, looking neither to the right nor the 
 left, and faded away. The miners dog was as 
 frightened as its master at the sight, and ran 
 howling into the darkness. Though deeming 
 himself doomed, the miner continued to work in 
 the pit ; and as the days passed on, and no harm 
 came to him, he grew more cheerful, and was so 
 bold as to laugh at the superstition. The day he 
 did this, a stone fell from the roof and broke his 
 arm. As soon as he recovered he resumed work 
 in the pit ; his death followed instantly. A stone 
 crushed him, and he was borne maimed and dead 
 in the tram along the road where his lledrith had 
 appeared, ' a mile below the play of sunshine and 
 wave of trees.' ^ 
 
 The Mallt y Nos, or night-fiend, is a death-omen 
 
 1 ' Tales and Sketches of Wales/ in ' Weekly Mail' 
 
2i6 British Goblins, 
 
 mentioned by Rev. D. R. Thomas in the ' Archaeo- 
 logia Cambrensis'; and Croker^ gives as the Welsh 
 parallel of the Irish death-coach a spectre called 
 ceffyl heb un pen, or the headless horse. The 
 marw coel, or ' yellow spot before death,' is another 
 death-omen which I have been able to trace no 
 further than the pages where I find it.^ 
 
 II. 
 
 A frightful figure among Welsh apparitions is 
 
 the Gwrach y Rhibyn, whose crowning distinction is 1 
 
 its prodigious ugliness. The feminine pronoun is I 
 
 generally used in speaking of this goblin, which \ 
 
 unlike the majority of its kind, is supposed to be « 
 
 a female. A Welsh saying, regarding one of her | 
 
 sex who is the reverse of lovely, is, ' Y mae mor | 
 
 salw a Gwrach y Rhibyn,' (She is as ugly as the \ 
 
 Gwrach y Rhibyn.) The spectre is a hideous being I 
 
 with dishevelled hair, long black teeth, long, lank, ^ 
 
 withered arms, leathern wings, and a cadaverous \ 
 
 appearance. In the stillness of night it comes and j 
 
 flaps its wings against the window, uttering at the j 
 
 same time a blood-curdling howl, and calling by \ 
 
 name on the person who is to die, in a lengthened 1 
 
 dying tone, as thus : ' Da-a-a-vy ! ' ' De-i-i-o-o-o ■ 
 
 ba-a-a-ch 1' The effect of its shriek or howl is in- \ 
 
 describably terrific, and its sight blasting to the vj 
 
 eyes of the beholder. It is always an omen of ; 
 
 death, though its warning cry is heard under vary- J 
 
 ing circumstances ; sometimes it appears in the mist "! 
 
 on the mountain side, or at cross-roads, or by a piece \ 
 
 of water which it splashes with its hands. The i 
 
 gender of apparitions is no doubt as a rule the ^ 
 
 neuter, but the Gwrach y Rhibyn defies all rules j 
 
 ^ ' Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland,' 341. 
 ' ' The Vale of Glamorgan.' 
 
 ■ 
 
The Spirit-World. 217 
 
 by being a female which at times sees fit to be 
 a male. In its female character it has a trick of 
 crying at intervals, in a most doleful tone, ' Oh ! 
 oh ! fy ngwr, fy ngwr !' (my husband ! my hus- 
 band !) But when it chooses to be a male, this 
 cry is changed to * Fy ngwraig ! fy ngwraig!' (my 
 wife ! my wife !) or ' Fy mlentyn, fy mlentyn bach !' 
 (my child, my little child !) There is a frightful 
 story of a dissipated peasant who met this goblin 
 on the road one night, and thought it was a living 
 woman ; he therefore made wicked and improper 
 overtures to it, with the result of having his soul 
 nearly frightened out of his body in the horror 
 of discovering his mistake. As he emphatically 
 exclaimed, ' Och, Dduw ! it was the Gwrach y 
 Rhibyn, and not a woman at all.' 
 
 III. 
 
 The Gwrach y Rhibyn recently appeared, accord- 
 ing to an account given me by a person who claimed 
 to have seen it, at Llandaff. Surely, no more 
 probable site for the appearance of a spectre so 
 ancient of lineage could be found, than that ancient 
 cathedral city where some say was the earliest 
 Christian fane in Great Britain, and which was 
 certainly the seat of the earliest Christian bishopric. 
 My narrator was a respectable-looking man of the 
 peasant-farmer class, whom I met in one of my 
 walks near Cardiff, in the summer of 1878. * It was 
 at Llandaff,' he said to me, ' on the fourteenth of 
 last November, when I was on a visit to an old 
 friend, that I saw and heard the Gwrach y Rhibyn. 
 I was sleeping in my bed, and was woke at midnight 
 by a frightful screeching and a shaking of my 
 window. It was a loud and clear screech, and the 
 shaking of the window was very plain, but it seemed 
 
2 1 B ^BruufiUoolins. 
 
 to go by like the wind. I was not so much 
 frightened, sir, as you may think ; excited I was — 
 that's the word — excited ; and I jumped out of bed 
 and rushed to the window and flung it open. Then 
 I saw the Gwrach y Rhibyn, saw her plainly, sir, a 
 horrible old woman with long red hair and a face 
 like chalk, and great teeth like tusks, looking back 
 over her shoulder at me as she went through the air 
 with a long black gown trailing along the ground 
 below her arms, for body I could make out none. 
 She gave another unearthly screech while I looked 
 at her ; then I heard her flapping her wings against 
 the window of a house just below the one I was in, 
 and she vanished from my sight. But I kept on 
 staring into the darkness, and as I am a living man, 
 sir, I saw her go in at the door of the Cow and 
 Snuffers Inn, and return no more. I watched the 
 door of the inn a long time, but she did not come 
 out. The next day, it's the honest truth I'm 
 telling you, they told me the man who kept the 
 Cow and Snuffers Inn was dead — had died in the 
 night. His name was Llewellyn, sir — you can ask 
 any one about him, at Llandaff — he had kept the 
 inn there for seventy years, and his family before 
 him for three hundred years, just at that very spot. 
 It's not these new families that the Gwrach y 
 Rhibyn ever troubles, sir, it's the old stock.' i 
 
 In^^ ' 
 
 The close resemblance of this goblin to the 
 banshee (or benshi) will be at once perceived. The 
 same superstition is found among other peoples of 
 Celtic origin. Sir Walter Scott mentions it among 
 the highlands of Scotland.^ It is not traced among 
 other than Celtic peoples distinctly, but its associa- 
 
 ^ ' Demonology and Witchcraft,' 351. 
 
 i 
 
The Spirit- World. 219 
 
 tion with the primeval mythology is doubtless to be 
 found in the same direction with many other death- 
 omens, to wit, the path of the wind-god Hermes. 
 
 The frightful ugliness of the Gwrach y Rhibyn is 
 a consistent feature of the superstition, in both its 
 forms ; it recalls the Black Maiden who came to 
 Caerleon and liberated Peredur : ^ ' Blacker were 
 her face and her two hands than the blackest iron 
 covered with pitch ; and her hue was not more 
 frightful than her form. High cheeks had she, and 
 a face lengthened downwards, and a short nose with 
 distended nostrils. And one eye was of a piercing 
 mottled gray, and the other was as black as jet, 
 deep-sunk in her head. And her teeth were long 
 and yellow, more yellow were they than the flower 
 of the broom. And her stomach rose from the 
 breast-bone, higher than her chin. And her back 
 was in the shape of a crook, and her legs were large 
 and bony. And her figure was very thin and spare, 
 except her feet and legs, which were of huge size.' 
 The Welsh word ' gwrach ' means a hag or witch, 
 and it has been fancied that there is a connection 
 between this word and the mythical Avagddu,^ 
 whose wife the gwrach was. 
 
 The Gwrach y Rhibyn appears also as a river- 
 spectre, in Glamorganshire. 
 
 V. 
 
 A death-portent which is often confused with the 
 Gwrach y Rhibyn, yet which is rendered quite dis- 
 tinct by its special attributes, is the Cyhyraeth. 
 This is a groaning spirit. It is never seen, but the 
 noise it makes is no less terrible to the ear than the 
 
 ^ ' Mabinogion,' 114. 
 
 ^ Avagddu means both hell and the devil, as our word Heaven 
 means both the Deity and his abode. 
 
220 British Goblins, 
 
 I 
 
 appearance of Its visible sister Is to the eye. Among 
 groaning spirits It Is considered to be the chief. The 
 Prophet Jones succinctly characterises It as ' a dole- 
 ful, dreadful noise In the night, before a burying.' 
 David Prosser, of Llanybyther parish, ' a sober, sen- 
 sible man and careful to tell the truth,' once heard 
 the Cyhyraeth in the early part of the night, his 
 wife and maid-servant being together In the house, 
 and also hearing it ; and when it came opposite the 
 window. It ' pronounced these strange words, of no 
 signification that we know of,' viz. ' Woolach I 
 Woolach I ' Some time afterward a funeral passed 
 that way. The judicious Joshua Coslet, who lived 
 by the river Towy in Carmarthenshire, testified 
 that the Cyhyraeth Is often heard there, and that it 
 is ' a doleful, disagreeable sound heard before the 
 deaths of many, and most apt to be heard before 
 foul weather. The voice resembles the groaning of 
 sick persons who are to die ; heard at first at a dis- 
 tance, then comes nearer, and the last near at hand ; 
 so that it Is a threefold warning of death. It begins 
 strong, and louder than a sick man can make ; the 
 second cry is lower, but not less doleful, but rather 
 more so ; the third yet lower, and soft, like the 
 groaning of a sick man almost spent and dying.' A 
 person 'well remembering the voice' and coming to 
 the sick man's bed, 'shall hear his groans exactly 
 like' those which he had before heard from the 
 Cyhyraeth. This crying spirit especially affected 
 the twelve parishes in the hundred of Inis Cenin, 
 which lie on the south-east side of the river Towy, 
 * where some time past it groaned before the death 
 of every person who lived that side of the country.' 
 It also sounded before the death of persons 'who 
 were born in these parishes, but died elsewhere.' 
 Sometimes the voice is heard long before death, but 
 
The Spirit-World. 221 
 
 not longer than three quarters of a year. So com- 
 mon was it in the district named, that among the 
 people there a familiar form of reproach to any one 
 making a disagreeable noise, or ' children crying or 
 groaning unreasonable,' was to ejaculate, ' Oh 'r 
 Cyhyraeth ! ' A reason why the Cyhyraeth was 
 more often heard in the hundred of Inis Cenin was 
 thought to be that Non, the mother of St. David, 
 lived in those parts, where a village is called after 
 her name, Llan-non, the church of Non. 
 
 On the southern sea-coast, in Glamorganshire, 
 the Cyhyraeth is sometimes heard by the people 
 in the villages on shore passing down the channel 
 with loud moans, while those dismal lights which 
 forebode a wreck are seen playing along the waves. 
 Watchers by the sea-shore have also heard its moan 
 far out on the ocean, gradually drawing nearer and 
 nearer, and then dying away ; and when they 
 thought it gone it has suddenly shrieked close to 
 their startled ears, chilling their very marrows. 
 Then, long after, they would hear it, now faint, now 
 loud, going along the sands into the distant darkness. 
 One or more corpses were usually washed ashore 
 soon after. In the villages the Cyhyraeth is heard 
 passing through the empty streets and lanes by 
 night, groaning dismally, sometimes rattling the 
 window-shutters, or flinging open the door as it 
 flits by. When going along the country lanes it 
 will thus horrify the inmates of every house it 
 passes. Some old people say it is only heard 
 before the death of such as are of strayed mind, 
 or who have long been ill ; but it always comes 
 when an epidemic is about to visit the neighbour- 
 hood. 
 
 A tradition of the Cyhyraeth is connected with 
 the parish churchyard at St. Mellons, a quaint old- 
 
222 British Goblifts. 
 
 fashioned village within easy tramping distance of 
 Cardiff, but in Monmouthshire. It is of a boy who 
 was sent on an errand, and who heard the Cyhyraeth 
 crying in the churchyard, first in one place, then in 
 another, and finally in a third place, where it rested. 
 Some time after, a corpse was brought to that 
 churchyard to be buried, but some person came and 
 claimed the grave. They went to another place, 
 but that also was claimed. Then they went to 
 a third place, and there they were allowed to bury 
 their dead in peace. And this going about with the 
 corpse was *just the same as the boy declared it.' 
 Of course the boy could not know what was to 
 come to pass, * but this crying spirit knew exactly 
 what would come to pass.' I was also told by a 
 person at St. Mellons that a ghost had been seen 
 sitting upon the old stone cross which stands on the 
 hillside near the church. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Other groaning spirits are sometimes heard. A 
 girl named Mary Morgan, living near Crumlyn 
 Bridge, while standing on the bridge one evening 
 was seized with mortal terror on hearing a groaning 
 voice going up the river, uttering the words, * O 
 Dduw, beth a wnaf fi ?' (O God, what shall I do ?) 
 many times repeated, amid direful groans. The 
 conclusion of this narration is a hopeless mystery, 
 as Mary fainted away with her fright. 
 
 Much more satisfactory, as a ghost-story with a 
 moral, is the tale of the groaning spirit of Bedwellty.^ 
 There was one night a wake at the house of 
 Meredith Thomas, over the body of his four-year- 
 old child, at which two profane men (named Thomas 
 Edward Morgan and Anthony Aaron) began playing 
 
 * Jones, * Apparitions,' 24. 
 
The Spirit-World, 223 
 
 at cards, and swearing most horribly. In the parish 
 of BedweUty, the wakes — or watch-nights, as they 
 are more commonly called in Wales — were at that 
 time very profanely kept. ' Few besides the dis- 
 senters,' says Jones (who was himself a dissenter, it 
 must be remembered), ' had the sense and courage 
 to forbid' this wickedness, but * suffered it as a 
 custom, because the pretence was to divert the 
 relations of the dead, and lessen their sorrows.' 
 While the aforementioned profane men were playing 
 cards and swearing, suddenly a dismal groaning 
 noise was heard at the window. At this the com- 
 pany was much frightened, excepting the card- 
 players, who said ' Pw ! ' and went on playing. But 
 to pacify the rest of the company they finally desisted, 
 and at once the groaning ceased. Soon after they 
 began playing again, when at once the groaning 
 set up in most lamentable tones, so that people 
 shuddered ; but the profane men again said, * Pw ! 
 it is some fellow playing tricks to frighten us.' 
 ' No,' said William Harry Rees, a good man of the 
 Baptist persuasion, ' it is no human being there 
 groaning, but a spirit,' and again he desired them 
 to give over. But though they were so bold with 
 their card-playing, these wicked men had not the 
 hardihood to venture out and see who it was 
 ' playing tricks,' as they called it. However, one 
 of the company said, * I will go, and take the dogs 
 with me, and see if there be any human being there.' 
 The groaning still continued. This bold person 
 then * took the prime staff, and began to call the 
 dogs to go with him ;' but the dogs could not be 
 induced to go out, being in great terror at the 
 groaning noise, and sought to hide themselves 
 under the stools, and about the people's feet. In 
 vain they beat the dogs, and kicked and scolded 
 
224 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 them, outdoor they would not go. This at last 
 convinced the profane men, and they left off play- 
 ing, for fear the devil should come among them. 
 For it was told in other places that people had 
 played cards till his sulphurous majesty appeared in 
 person. 
 
( 225 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Tolaeth Death Portent— Its various Forms— The Tolaeth before 
 Death— Ewythr Jenkin's Tolaeth — A modern Instance — The Rail- 
 way Victim's Warning — The Goblin Voice — The Voice from the 
 Cloud — Legend of the Lord and the Beggar — The Goblin Funeral 
 —The Horse's Skull— The Goblin Veil— The Wraith of Llanllwch 
 — Dogs of Hell — The Tale of Pwyll — Spiritual Hunting Dogs — 
 Origin of the Cwn Annwn. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Tolaeth is an ominous sound, imitating some 
 earthly sound of one sort or another, and always 
 heard before either a funeral or some dreadful 
 catastrophe. Carpenters of a superstitious turn of 
 mind will tell you that they invariably hear the 
 Tolaeth when they are going to receive an order to 
 make a coffin ; in this case the sound is that of the 
 sawing of wood, the hammering of nails, and the 
 turning of screws, such as are heard in the usual 
 process of making a coffin. This is called the 
 * Tolaeth before the Coffin.' The ' Tolaeth before 
 Death ' is a supernatural noise heard about the 
 house, such as a knocking, or the sound of footsteps 
 in the dead of night. Sometimes it is the sound of 
 a tolling bell, where no bell is ; and the direction 
 in which the ear is held at the time points out the 
 place of the coming death. Formerly the veritable 
 church-bell in its steeple would foretell death, by 
 tolling thrice at the hour of midnight, unrung by 
 human hands. The bell of Blaenporth, Cardigan- 
 shire, was noted for thus warning the neighbours. 
 The ' Tolaeth before the Burying ' is the sound of 
 the funeral procession passing by, unseen, but heard. 
 
226 British Goblins, 
 
 The voices are heard singing the ' Old Hundredth/ 
 which is the psalm tune usually sung by funeral 
 bands ; the slow regular tramp of the feet is heard, 
 and the sobbing and groaning of the mourners. 
 The Tolaeth touches but one sense at a time. When 
 this funeral procession is heard it cannot be seen. 
 But it is a peculiarity of the Tolaeth that .after it 
 has been heard by the ear, it sometimes makes itself 
 known to the eye also — but in silence. The funeral 
 procession will at first be heard, and then if the 
 hearer stoop forward and look along the ground, 
 it may perhaps be seen ; the psalm-singers, two 
 abreast, with their hats off and their mouths open, 
 as in the act of singing ; the coffin, borne on the 
 shoulders of four men who hold their hats by the 
 side of their heads ; the mourners, the men with 
 long black hatbands streaming behind, the women 
 pale and sorrowful, with upheld handkerchiefs ; and 
 the rest of the procession stretching away dimly 
 into shadow. Not a sound is heard, either of foot 
 or voice, although the singers' mouths are open. 
 After the procession has passed, and the observer 
 has risen from his stooping posture, the Tolaeth 
 again breaks on the ear, the music, the tread of 
 feet, and the sobbing, as before. A real funeral is 
 sure to pass that way not long afterwards. 
 
 This form of the Tolaeth should not be confused 
 with the Teulu, or Goblin Funeral proper, which is 
 a death-warning occupying its own place. 
 
 II. 
 
 John Clode, an honest labouring man living on 
 the coast of Glamorganshire, near the Sker Rocks, 
 had just gone to bed one night, when he and his 
 wife heard the door open, the tread of shuffling feet, 
 the moving about of chairs, and the grunting of men 
 
The Spirit-World. 227 
 
 as if setting down a load. This was all in the room 
 where they lay, it being the only room their cottage 
 afforded, except the one upstairs. ' John, John ! ' 
 cried his wife in alarm, ' what is this ? ' In vain 
 John rubbed his eyes and stared into the darkness. 
 Nothing could he see. Two days afterward their 
 only son was brought home drowned ; and his 
 corpse being borne into the house upon a ladder, 
 there were the same noises of opening the door, the 
 shuffling of feet, the moving of chairs, the setting 
 down of the burden, that the Tolaeth had touched 
 their ears with. ' John, John ! ' murmured poor Mrs. 
 Clode ; ' this is exactly what I heard in the night.' 
 * Yes, wife,' quoth John, * it was the Tolaeth before 
 Death; 
 
 Before Ewythr Jenkin of Nash died, his daughter 
 Gwenllian heard the Tolaeth. She had taken her 
 old father's breeches from under his pillow to mend 
 them (for he was very careful always to fold and put 
 his breeches under his pillow, especially if there was 
 a sixpence in the pocket), and just as she was about 
 sitting down at the table on which she had thrown 
 them, there came a loud rap on the table, which 
 startled her very much. * Oh, Jenny, what was 
 that ?' she asked of the servant girl ; but Jenny 
 could only stare at her mistress, more frightened 
 than herself. Again did Gwenllian essay to sit 
 and take the breeches in hand, when there came 
 upon the table a double rap, much louder than the 
 first, a rap, in fact, that made all the chairs and 
 kettles ring. So then Gwenllian fainted away. 
 
 At a place called by its owner Llynwent, in 
 Radnorshire, at a certain time the man of the house 
 and his wife were gone from home. The rest of 
 the family were sitting at supper, when three of the 
 servants heard the sound of horses coming toward 
 
 Q 
 
228 B^^itish Goblins. 
 
 the house, and cried out, ' There, they are coming T 
 thinking it was their master and mistress returning 
 home. But on going out to meet them, there was 
 nobody near. They re-entered the house, some- 
 what uneasy in their minds at this strange thing, 
 and clustered about the fire, with many expressions 
 of wonderment. While they were so seated, ' Hark !' 
 said one, and all listening intently, heard footsteps 
 passing by them and going up stairs, and voices of 
 people talking among themselves. Not long after- 
 ward three of the family fell sick and died. 
 
 I 
 
 { 
 
 III. 
 
 An instance of recent occurrence is given by a \ 
 
 local newspaper correspondent writing from the \ 
 
 scene of a Welsh railway accident in October, 1878. j 
 
 It was at Pontypridd, famous the world over for \ 
 
 its graceful bridge, (now old and superannuated,) j 
 
 and renowned in Druidic story as a seat of learning. ': 
 A victim of the railway accident was, a few days 
 
 before the collision, ' sitting with his wife at the .] 
 
 fireside, when he had an omen. The house was 1 
 
 still, and they were alone, only a little servant girl \ 
 
 being with them. Then, while so sitting and talking, j 
 
 they both heard a heavy footstep ascending the I 
 
 stairs, step by step, step by step, as that of one j 
 
 carrying a burden. They looked at one another, \ 
 
 and the husband called, " Run, Mary, upstairs ; \ 
 
 some one has gone up." Mary did run, but there i 
 was no one. She was told to look in every room, 
 
 and she did so, and it was put down as fancy. \ 
 
 When the news was borne to the poor wife on i 
 
 Saturday night, she started up and said, *' There I 
 
 now, that was the omen ! '" ^ That his readers J 
 may not by any perversity fail to understand him as 
 
 1 'Western Mail,' Oct. 23, 1878. 
 
 I 
 
The Spirit' World. 229 
 
 alluding to the Tolaeth before Death, our newspaper 
 correspondent states his creed : * I believe in omens. 
 I knew a lady who heard distinctly three raps at 
 her door. Another lady was sitting with her near 
 it too. The door was an inner door. No servant 
 was in the house. The two ladies heard it, and 
 yet no human hand touched that door, and at the 
 time when the knock was heard a dear brother was 
 dying. I know of strange things of this sort. Of 
 voices crying the names of half-sleeping relatives 
 when the waves were washing some one dear away 
 to the mighty deep ; but then the world laughs at 
 all this and the world goes on.' The correspondent 
 is severe ; there is nothing here to laugh at. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The Tolaeth has one other form — that of a Voice 
 which speaks, in a simple and natural manner, but 
 very significant words. Thus Edward Lloyd, in 
 the parish of Llangurig, was lying very ill, when the 
 people that were with him in his chamber heard a 
 voice near them, but could see no one ; nor could 
 they find any one anywhere about the house, to 
 whom the voice might belong. Soon afterwards 
 they heard it utter, so distinctly that it seemed to be 
 in the room where they were, these words, ' Y mae 
 nenbren y ty yn craccio,' (the upper beam of the 
 house cracketh.) Soon the Voice spoke again, 
 saying, ' Fe dor yn y man,' (it will presently break.) 
 And once more it spoke : ' Dyna fe yn tori,' (there 
 it breaks.) That moment the sick man gave up 
 the ghost. 
 
 John, the son of Watkin Elias Jones, of the parish 
 of Mynyddyslwyn, was one day ploughing in the 
 field, when the oxen rested, and he sent the lad 
 who drove the oxen, to fetch something which he 
 
 Q 2 
 
230 British Goblins. 
 
 fl 
 
 wanted ; and while thus alone in the fieir"' he saw 
 a cloud coming across the field to him. When the 
 cloud had come to that part of the field where he 
 was, it stopped, and shadowed the sun fi-om him ; 
 and out of the cloud came a Voice, which asked 
 him which of these three diseases he would choose 
 to die of — fever, dropsy, or consumption. Being 
 a man who could give a plain answer to a plain 
 question, he replied that he would rather die of 
 consumption. The lad now returning, he sent him 
 home with the oxen, and then, feeling inclined to 
 sleep, lay down and slept. When he awoke he was 
 ill, and fell by degrees into a consumption, of which 
 he died one year from the day of this warning. He 
 did not tell of this apparition, however, until within 
 six weeks of his death. 
 
 V. 
 
 One of the most beautiful legends in the lolo 
 MSS. gives an ancient tale of the Tolaeth which 
 may be thus condensed : A great and wealthy lord, 
 rich in land, houses and gold, enjoying all the 
 luxuries of life, heard a voice proclaim thrice dis- 
 tinctly : * The greatest and richest man of this 
 parish shall die to-night.' At this he was sadly 
 troubled, for he knew that the greatest and richest 
 man of that parish could be no other than he ; so 
 he sent for the physician, but made ready for death. 
 Great, however, was his joy when the night passed, 
 the day broke, and he was yet alive. At sunrise 
 the church bell was heard tolling, and the lord sent 
 in haste to know who was dead. Answer came 
 that it was an old blind beggar man, who had 
 asked, and been refused, alms at the great man's 
 gate. Then the lord knew the meaning of the 
 warning voice he had heard : that very great and 
 
The Spirit- World. 231 
 
 very rich man had been the poor beggar — his 
 treasures and weahh in the kingdom of heaven. 
 He took the warning wisely to heart, endowed 
 rehgious houses, reheved all who were in poverty, 
 and when at last he was dying, the voices of angels 
 were heard to sing a hymn of welcome ; and he 
 was buried, according to his desire, in the old 
 beggar's grave. ^ 
 
 VI. 
 
 Of the Teulu, or Goblin Funeral, a death-portent 
 of wide prevalence in Wales, numberless stories 
 are told. This omen is sometimes a form of the 
 Tolaeth, but in itself constitutes an omen which is 
 simple and explicit. A funeral procession is seen 
 • passing down the road, and at the same time it is 
 heard. It has no shadowy goblin aspect, but 
 appears to be a real funeral. Examination shows 
 its shadowy nature. Subsequently a real funeral 
 passes the same way, and is recognised as the fulfil- 
 ment of the omen. The goblin funeral precedes 
 the other sometimes by days, sometimes by weeks. 
 Rees Thomas, a carpenter of Carmarthenshire, pass- 
 ing by night through Rhiw Edwst, near Capel 
 Ywen, heard a stir as of a procession of people 
 coming towards him, walking and speaking ; and 
 when they were close to him he felt the touch of 
 an unseen hand upon his shoulder, and a voice 
 saying to him, * Rhys bach, pa fodd yr y'ch chwi ? ' 
 (my dear Rees, how are you ?) A month after, 
 passing that way again, he met a funeral in that 
 very place, and a woman of the company put her 
 hand upon his shoulder and spoke exactly the same 
 Welsh words to him that the invisible spirit had 
 spoken. Rev. Howel Prosser, many years ago 
 curate of Aberystruth, late one evening saw a 
 
 1 lolo MSS., 592. 
 
I 
 
 232 British Goblins. 
 
 funeral procession going down the church lane. 
 Supposing it to be the funeral of a man who had 
 recently died in the upper part of his parish, yet 
 wondering he had not been notified of the burial, 
 he put on his band in order to perform his office 
 over the dead, and hastened to meet the procession. 
 But when he came to it he saw that it was com- 
 posed of strangers, whom he had never seen before. 
 Nevertheless, he laid his hand on the bier, to help 
 carry the corpse, when instantly the whole vanished, 
 and he was alone ; but in his hand he found the 
 skull of a dead horse. ' Mr. Prosser was my school- 
 master, and a right honest man,* says Edmund 
 J ones, ^ who is responsible for this story, as well as 
 for the ensuing : Isaac William Thomas, who lived 
 not far from Hafodafel, once met a Goblin Funeral 
 coming down the mountain toward Llanhiddel church. 
 He stood in a field adjoining the highway, and 
 leaned against the stone wall. The funeral came 
 close to the other side of the wall, and as the bier 
 passed him he reached forth his hand and took off 
 the black veil which was over the bier. This he 
 carried to his home, where many people saw it. 
 ' It was made of some exceeding fine stuff, so that 
 when folded it was a very little substance, and very 
 light.' That he escaped being hurt for this bold act 
 was long the marvel of the parish ; but it was be- 
 lieved, by their going aside to come so near him, that 
 the goblins were willing he should do as he did. 
 
 An old man who resided near Llanllwch church, 
 in Carmarthenshire, used to assert in the most 
 solemn manner that he had seen the Teulu going 
 to church again and again. On a certain evening 
 hearing one approaching, he peeped over a wall to 
 look at it. The persons composing the procession 
 
 * 'Account of the Parish of Abt rystruth,' 17. 
 
The Spirit-World. 233 
 
 were all acquaintances of his, with the exception of 
 one who stood apart from the rest, gazing mourn- 
 fully at them, and who appeared to be a stranger. 
 Soon afterwards there was a real burying, and the 
 old man, determined to see if there would be in the 
 scene any resemblance to his last Teulu, went to 
 the churchyard and waited. When the procession 
 arrived, all were there as he had seen them, except 
 the stranger. Looking about him curiously, the old 
 man was startled by the discovery that he was 
 himself the stranger ! He was standing on the 
 identical spot where had stood the man he did not 
 recognise when he saw the Teulu. It was his own 
 ghost. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The death portent called Cwn Annwn, or Dogs 
 of Hell, is a pack of hounds which howl through 
 the air with a voice frightfully disproportionate to 
 their size, full of a wild sort of lamentation. There 
 is a tradition that one of them once fell on a tomb- 
 stone, but no one was able to secure it. A pecu- 
 liarity of these creatures is that the nearer they are 
 to a man the less loud their voice sounds, resembling 
 then the voice of small beagles, and the farther off 
 they are the louder is their cry. Sometimes a voice 
 like that of a great hound is heard sounding among 
 them — a deep hollow voice, as if it were the voice 
 of a monstrous bloodhound. Although terrible to 
 hear, and certain portents of death, they are in 
 themselves harmless. ' They have never been 
 known,' says a most respectable authority,^ *to 
 commit any mischief on the persons of either man 
 or woman, goat, sheep, or cow.' Sometimes they 
 are called Cwn y Wybr, or Dogs of the Sky, but the 
 mo sulphreurous name is the favourite one. They 
 
 * ' Cambro-Briton,' i.. 350. 
 
^34 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 are also sometimes called Dogs of the Fairies. 
 Their origin in fairyland is traced to the famous 
 mabinogi of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed ; but in that 
 fascinating tale of enchantment their right to be 
 called Cwn Annwn is clearly set forth, for they are 
 there the hounds of a King of Annwn. There are 
 several translations of this mabinogi in existence, 
 and its popularity in South Wales is great, for the 
 villages, vales, and streams mentioned in it are 
 familiar to residents in Pembroke, Carmarthen, and 
 Cardigan shires. Pwyll, the Prince, was at Nar- 
 berth, where was his chief palace, when he went 
 one day to a wood in Glyn Cych. Here ' he 
 sounded his horn and began to enter upon the 
 chase, following his dogs and separating from his 
 companions. And as he was listening to the cry 
 of his pack, he could distinctly hear the cry of 
 another pack, different from that of his own, and 
 which was coming in an opposite direction. He 
 could also discern an opening in the woods towards 
 a level plain ; and as his pack was entering the 
 skirt of the opening he perceived a stag before the 
 other pack, and about the middle of the glade the 
 pack in the rear coming up and throwing the stag 
 on the ground. Upon this he fixed his attention 
 on the colour of the pack, without recollecting to 
 look at the stag : and of all the hounds in the 
 world he had ever seen he never saw any like them 
 in colour. Their colour was a shining clear white, 
 with red ears ; and the whiteness of the dogs and 
 the redness of their ears were equally conspicuous.'* 
 They were the hounds of Arawn, a crowned king 
 in the land of Annwn, the shadow-land of Hades. 
 
 The Cwn Annwn are sometimes held to be the 
 hell-hounds which hunt through the air the soul of 
 
 * Dr. W, Owen Pughe's Trans., ' Camb.-Briton,' ii., 271. 
 
The Spirit-World. 235 
 
 the wicked man, the instant it quits the body — a 
 truly terrific idea to the vulgar mind. The Prophet 
 Jones has several accounts of them : Thomas 
 Phillips, of Trelech parish, heard them with the 
 voice of the great dog sounding among them, and 
 noticed that they followed a course that was never 
 followed by funerals, which surprised him very 
 much, as he had always heard that the Dogs of the 
 Sky invariably went the same way that the corpse 
 was to follow. Not long after a woman from an 
 adjoining parish died at Trelech, and being carried 
 to her own parish church to be buried, her corpse 
 did actually pass the same way in which the spirit 
 dogs had been heard to hunt. Thomas Andrew, 
 of the parish of Llanhiddel, heard them one night 
 as he was coming home. ' He heard them coming 
 towards him, though he saw them not.' Their cry 
 grew fainter as they drew near him, passed him, 
 and louder again as they went from him. They 
 went down the steeps towards the river Ebwy. 
 And Thomas Andrew was * a religious man, who 
 would not have told an untruth for fear or for 
 favour.' 
 
 VIII. 
 
 No form of superstition has had a wider popu- 
 larity than this of spiritual hunting dogs, with which 
 was usually connected In olden time the wild hunts- 
 man, a personage who has dropped quite out of 
 modern belief, at least in Wales. In France this 
 goblin was called Le Grand Veneur, and hunted 
 v/ith his dogs In the forests of Fontalnebleau ; in 
 Germany it was Hackelberg, who sold himself to 
 the devil for permission to hunt till doomsday. In 
 Britain It was King Arthur who served as the 
 goblin huntsman. Peasants would hear the cry of 
 the hounds and the sounding of the horns, but the 
 
236 British Goblins, 
 
 huntsman was invisible. When they called out after 
 him, however, the answer came back : ' We are 
 King Arthur and his kindred.' Mr. Baring-Gould,^ 
 in giving an account of the myth of Odin, the Wild 
 Huntsman, who rides over the forests by night on a 
 white horse, with his legion of hell-hounds, seems to 
 ascribe the superstition to the imagination of a 
 belated woodcutter frightened by the wind in the 
 tree-tops. William Henderson^ presumes the belief 
 in the Wild Huntsman's pack, which prevails in the 
 North of England, to come from the strange 
 unearthly cries uttered by wild fowl on their passage 
 southward, and which sound like the yelping of 
 dogs. These natural phenomena have not served, 
 however, to keep the old belief alive in Wales. 
 
 That the Cwn Annwn are descendants of the 
 wish-hound of Hermes, hardly admits of doubt. 
 The same superstition prevails among all Aryan 
 peoples, with details differing but little. The souls 
 of the dying are carried away by the howling 
 winds, the dogs of Hermes, in the ancient mytho- 
 logy as in surviving beliefs ; on this follows the 
 custom of opening the windows at death, so that the 
 released soul may escape. In Devonshire they say 
 no soul can escape from the house in which its body 
 dies, unless all the locks and bolts are opened. In 
 China a hole is made in the roof for a like purpose. 
 The early Aryan conception of the wind as a howl- 
 ing dog or wolf speeding over the house-tops caused 
 the inmates to tremble with fear, lest their souls 
 should be called to follow them. It must be con- 
 stantly borne in mind that all these creatures of 
 fancy were more or less interchangeable, and the 
 god Hermes was at times his own dog, which 
 
 ^ ' Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas,' 199-203. 
 2 ' Notes on Folk-Lore,' 97. 
 
The Spirit-World. 237 
 
 escorted the soul to the river Styx. The winds 
 were now the maruts, or spirits of the breeze, 
 serving Indra, the sky-god ; again they were the 
 great psychopomp himself. The peasant who to-day 
 tells you that dogs can see death enter the house 
 where a person is about to die, merely repeats the 
 idea of a primeval man whose ignorance of physical 
 science was complete. 
 
238 British Goblins. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I 
 
 The Corpse Candle — Its Peculiarities — The Woman of Caerau — 
 Grasping a Corpse Candle — The Crwys Candle — Lights issuing 
 from the Mouth — Jesting with the Canwyll Corph — The Candle at 
 Pontfaen — The Three Candles at Golden Grove — Origin of Death- 
 Portents in Wales — Degree of Belief prevalent at the Present Day 
 — Origin of Spirits in General — The Supernatural — The Question of 
 a Future Life. 
 
 I. 
 
 Perhaps the most picturesque of the several death- 
 omens popular in Wales is the Canwyll Corph, or 
 Corpse Candle. It is also, according to my obser- 
 vation, the most extensively believed in at the pre- 
 sent day. Its details are varied and extremely 
 interesting. The idea of a goblin in the form of a 
 lighted tallow candle is ludicrous enough, at first 
 sight ; and indeed I know several learned Welsh 
 gentlemen who venture to laugh at it ; but the 
 superstition grows more and more grim and less 
 risible the better one becomes acquainted with it. 
 It is worth noting here that the canwyll, or candle, 
 is a more poetic thing among the Welsh — has a 
 higher literary place, so to speak — than among 
 English-speaking peoples. In the works of their 
 ancient poets the candle is mentioned in passages 
 where we should use the word light or lamp — as in 
 this verse, which is attributed to Aneurin (sixth 
 century) : 
 
 The best candle for man is prudence. 
 
 The candle is the favourite figure for mental 
 guidance among the Welsh ;^ there is no book in 
 
 ^ Stephens, * Lit. of the Kymry,* 287. (New Ed., 1876.) 
 
The Spirit-World. 239 
 
 the Welsh language so popular as a certain work of 
 religious counsel by a former Vicar of Llandovery, 
 called ' The Candle of the Cymry/ The Corpse 
 Candle is always and invariably a death-warning. 
 It sometimes appears as a stately flambeau, stalking 
 along unsupported, burning with a ghastly blue 
 flame. Sometimes it is a plain tallow ' dip ' in the 
 hand of a ghost, and when the ghost is seen dis- 
 tinctly it is recognised as the ghost of some person 
 yet living, who will now soon die. This, it will be 
 noticed, is a variation upon the wraith, or Lledrith. 
 Sometimes the goblin is a light which issues from a 
 person's mouth or nostrils. According to the belief 
 of some sections, the size of the candle indicates the 
 age of the person who is about to die, being large 
 when it is a full-grown person whose death is fore- 
 told, small when it is a child, still smaller when an 
 infant. Where two candles together are seen, one 
 of which is large and the other small, it is a mother 
 and child who are to die. When the flame is white, 
 the doomed person is a woman ; when red, a man. 
 
 II. 
 
 Among the accounts of the Corpse Candle which 
 have come under my notice none are more interest- 
 ing than those given me by a good dame whom I 
 encountered at Caerau, near Cardiff. Caerau is a 
 little village of perhaps one hundred souls, crouched 
 at the foot of a steep hill on whose summit are the 
 ancient earthworks of a Roman camp. On this 
 summit also stands the parish church, distinctly 
 visible from Cardiff streets, so ponderous is its 
 square tower against the sky. To walk there is a 
 pleasant stroll from the late Marquis of Bute's statue 
 in the centre of the seaport town. I am thus par- 
 ticular merely for emphasis of the fact that this 
 
240 
 
 British Goblins, 
 
 superstition is not confined to remote and out-of-the- 
 way districts. Caerau is rural, and its people are 
 all poor people, perhaps ; but its church is barely 
 three miles from the heart of a busy seaport. In 
 this church I met the voluble Welshwoman who 
 gave me the accounts referred to. One was to this 
 effect : One night her sister was lying very ill at the 
 narrator's house, and she was alone with her children, 
 her husband being in the lunatic asylum at Cardiff 
 She had just put the children to bed, and had set 
 her candle on the floor preparatory to going to bed 
 herself, when there came a ' swish ' along the floor, 
 like the rustling of grave-clothes, and the candle 
 was blown out. The room, however, to her surprise, 
 remained glowing with a feeble light as from a very 
 small taper, and looking behind her she beheld ' old 
 John Richards,' who had been dead ten years. He 
 held a Corpse Candle in his hand, and he looked at 
 her in a chill and steadfast manner which caused the 
 blood to run cold in her veins. She turned and 
 woke her eldest boy, and said to him, ' Don't you 
 see old John Richards ? ' The boy asked ' Where ?' 
 rubbing his eyes. She pointed out the ghost, and 
 the boy was so frightened at sight of it that he cried 
 out ' O wi ! O Dduw ! I wish I may die ! ' The 
 ghost then disappeared, the Corpse Candle in its 
 hand ; the candle on the floor burned again with a 
 clear light, and the next day the sick sister died. 
 
 Another account ran somewhat thus : The nar- 
 rator's mother-in-law was ill with a cancer of the 
 breast. ' Jenny fach,' she said to the narrator one 
 night, * sleep by me — I feel afraid.' * Hach ! ' said 
 Jenny, thinking the old woman was foolishly nervous ; 
 but she stayed. As she was lying in bed by the side 
 of her mother-in-law, she saw at the foot of the bed 
 the faint flame of a Corpse Candle, which shed no 
 
 ^1 
 
The Spirit-World. 241 
 
 light at all about the room ; the place remained as 
 dark as it was before. She looked at it in a sort of 
 stupor for a short time, and then raised herself 
 slowly up in bed and reached out to see if she 
 could grasp the candle. Her fingers touched it, 
 but it immediately went out in a little shower of 
 pale sparkles that fell downward. At that moment 
 her mother-in-law uttered a groan, and expired. 
 
 * Do you know Thomas Mathews, sir ?' she asked 
 me ; 'he lives at Crwys now, but he used to live 
 here at Caerau.' 'Crwys?' I repeated, not at 
 once comprehending. * Oh, you must know Crwys, 
 sir ; it's just the other side of Cardiff, towards New- 
 port.' * Can you spell it for me ? ' ^ The woman 
 blushed. ' 'Deed, sir,' said she, ' I ought to be a 
 scholar, but I've had so much trouble with my old 
 man that I've quite forgot my spellin'.' However, 
 the story of Thomas Mathews was to the effect 
 that he saw a Corpse Candle come out of his father's 
 mouth and go to his feet, and away a bit, then back 
 again to the mouth, which it did not exactly enter, 
 but blended as it were with the sick man's body. 
 I asked if the candle was tallow at any point 
 in its excursion, to which I was gravely answered 
 that it was the spirit of tallow. The man died 
 not long after, in the presence of my informant, 
 who described the incident with a dramatic force 
 and fervour peculiarly Celtic, concluding with the 
 remark : ' Well, well, there's only one way to come 
 into the world, but there's a many ways to go out 
 of it.' 
 
 The light issuing from the mouth is a fancy fre- 
 quently encountered. In the 'Liber Landavenis' 
 it is mentioned that one day as St. Samson was 
 celebrating the holy mysteries, St. Dubricius with 
 
 ^ It is pronounced Croo-iss. 
 
242 British Goblins. 
 
 
 two monks saw a stream of fire to proceed glittering 
 from his mouth/ In old woodcuts, the souls of the 
 dying are represented as issuing from the mouth in 
 the form of small human figures ; and the Tyrolese 
 peasants still fancy the soul is seen coming out of 
 the mouth of a dying man like a little white cloud.^ 
 From the mouth of a patient in a London hospital 
 some time since the nurses observed issuing a pale 
 bluish flame, and soon after the man died. The 
 frightened nurses — not being acquainted with the 
 corpse-candle theory of such things — imagined the 
 torments of hell had already begun in the still 
 living body. A scientific explanation of the pheno- 
 menon ascribed it to phosphuretted hydrogen, a 
 result of incipient decomposition.^ 
 
 III. 
 
 It IS ill jesting with the Corpse Candle. Persons 
 who have endeavoured to stop it on its way have 
 come severely to grief thereby. Many have been 
 struck down where they stood, In punishment of 
 their audacity, as In the case of William John, a 
 blacksmith of Lanboydi. He was one night going 
 home on horseback, when he saw a Corpse Candle, 
 and his natural caution being at the moment some- 
 what overcome by potables, he resolved to go out 
 of his way to obstruct its passage. As the candle 
 drew near he saw a corpse upon a bier, the corpse 
 of a woman he knew, and she held the candle 
 between her forefingers, and dreadfully grinned at 
 him. Then he was struck from his horse, and lay 
 in the road a long time Insensible, and was 111 for 
 weeks thereafter. Meantime, the woman whose 
 
 ^ ' Liber Landavensis,' 299. 
 
 ^ Tylor, ' Primitive Culture,' 391. 
 
 ^ ' Transactions Cardiff Nat. Soc.,' iv. 5. 
 
The Spirit' World. 243 
 
 spectral corpse he had seen, died and was buried, 
 her funeral passing by that road. 
 
 A clergyman's son in Carmarthenshire, (subse- 
 quently himself a preacher,) who in his younger 
 days was somewhat vicious, came home one night 
 late from a debauch, and found the doors locked. 
 Fearing to disturb the folk, and fearing also their 
 reproaches and chidings for his staying out so late, 
 (as many a young fellow has felt before and since,) 
 he went to the man-servant, who slept in an out- 
 room, as is sometimes the custom in Welsh rural 
 districts. He could not awake the man-servant, 
 but while standing over him, he saw a small light 
 issue from the servant s nostrils, which soon became 
 a Corpse Candle. He followed it out. It came 
 to a foot-bridge which crossed a rivulet. Here 
 the young man became inspired with the idea of 
 trying an experiment with the Corpse Candle. He 
 raised the end of the foot-bridge off the bank, and 
 watched to see what the ghostly light would do. 
 When it came to the rivulet it seemed to offer to 
 go over, but hesitated, as if loth to cross except 
 upon the bridge. So the young man put the bridge 
 back in its^lace, and stayed to see how the candle 
 would act. It came on the bridge, and as it passed 
 the young man it struck him, as with a handkerchief. 
 But though the blow was thus light and phantom- 
 like, it doubled the young man up and left him a 
 senseless heap on the ground, where he lay till 
 morning, when he recovered and went home. It 
 is needless to add that the servant died. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Morris Griffith was once schoolmaster in the 
 parish of Pontfaen, in Pembrokeshire, but subse- 
 quently became a Baptist preacher of the Gospel. 
 
244 British Goblins. 
 
 
 He tells this story: ' As I was coming from a place 
 called Tre-Davydd, and was come to the top of the 
 hill, I saw a great light down in the valley, which 
 I wondered at ; for I could not imagine what it 
 meant. But it came to my mind that it was a light 
 before a burying, though I never could believe 
 before that there was such a thing. The light 
 which I saw then was a very red light, and it stood 
 still for about a quarter of an hour in the way which 
 went towards Llanferch-Llawddog church. I made 
 haste to the other side of the hill, that I might see 
 it farther ; and from thence I saw it go along to 
 the churchyard, where it stood still for a litde time 
 and entered into the church. I remained waiting 
 to see it come out, and it was not long before it 
 came out, and went to a certain part of the church- 
 yard, where it stood a little time, and then vanished 
 out of my sight. A few days afterwards, being in 
 school with the children about noon, I heard a great 
 noise overhead, as if the top of the house was 
 coming down. I ran out to see the garret, and 
 there was nothing amiss. A few days afterwards, 
 Mr. Higgon of Pontfaen's son died. When the 
 carpenter came to fetch the boards tq make the 
 coffin, (which were in the garret,) he made exactly 
 such a stir, in handling the boards in the garret, as 
 was made before by some spirit, who foreknew the 
 death that was soon to come to pass. In carrying 
 the body to the grave, the burying stood where the 
 light had stood for about a quarter of an hour, be- 
 cause there was some water crossing the way, and 
 the people could not go over it without wetting their 
 feet, therefore they were obliged to wait till those 
 that had boots helped them over. The child was 
 buried in that very spot of ground in the church- 
 yard, where I saw the light stop after it came out 
 
The Spirit- World. 245 
 
 of the church. This is what I can boldly testify, 
 having seen and heard what I relate — a thing which 
 before I could not believe.' 
 
 Joshua Coslet, before mentioned in these pages, 
 suddenly met a Corpse Candle as he was going 
 through Heol Bwlch y Gwynt, (Windgap Lane) in 
 Llandilo Fawr parish. It was a small light when 
 near him, but increased as it went farther from him. 
 He could easily see that there was some dark 
 shadow passing along with the candle, and the 
 shadow of a man carried it, holding it ' between 
 his three forefingers over against his face.' He 
 might perhaps have seen more, but he was afraid 
 to look too earnestly upon it. Not long after, a 
 burying passed through Heol Bwlch y Gwynt. 
 Another time he saw the likeness of a candle carried 
 in a skull. ' There is nothing unlikely or unreason- 
 able in either of these representations,' says the 
 Prophet Jones, their historian. 
 
 A Carmarthenshire tradition relates that one day, 
 when the coach which runs between Llandilo and 
 Carmarthen was passing by Golden Grove, the 
 property of the Earl of Cawdor, three Corpse 
 Candles were observed on the surface of the water 
 gliding down the stream which runs near the road. 
 All the passengers saw them. A few days after, 
 some men were about crossing the river near there 
 in a coracle, when one of them expressed his fear at 
 venturing, as the river was flooded, and he remained 
 behind. Thus the fatal number crossed the river — 
 three — three Corpse Candles having foretold their 
 fate ; and all were drowned. 
 
 V. 
 
 Tradition ascribes the origin of all these death- 
 portents to the efforts of St. David. This saint 
 
 R 2 
 
246 British Goblins. 
 
 appears to have been a great and good man, and a 
 zealous Catholic, who, as a contemporary of the 
 historical Arthur, is far enough back in the dim past 
 to meet the views of romantic minds. And a 
 prelate who by his prayers and presence could 
 enable King Arthur to overthrow the Saxons in 
 battle, or who by his pious learning could single- 
 handed put down the Pelagian heresy in the 
 Cardiganshire synod, was surely strong enough to 
 invoke the Gwrach y Rhibyn, the Cyhyraeth, the 
 Corpse Candle, and all the dreadful brood. This 
 the legend relates he did by a special appeal to 
 Heaven. Observing that the people in general 
 were careless of the life to come, and could not be 
 brought to mind it, and make preparation for it, St. 
 David prayed that Heaven would give a sign of the 
 immortality of the soul, and of a life to come, by a 
 presage of death. Since that day, Wales, and par- 
 ticularly that part of Wales included in the bishopric 
 of St. David, has had these phantoms. More ma- 
 terialistic minds consider these portents to be a re- 
 mainder of those practices by which the persecuted 
 Druids performed their rites and long kept up their 
 religion in the land which Christianity had claimed : 
 a similar origin, in fact, is here found for goblin 
 omens as for fairies. 
 
 That these various portents are extensively 
 believed in at the present day there cannot be a 
 doubt ; with regard to the most important of them, I 
 am able to testify with the fullest freedom ; I have 
 heard regarding them story after story, from the lips 
 of narrators whose sincerity was expressed vividly in 
 face, tones, and behaviour. The excited eye, the 
 paling cheek, the bated breath, the sinking voice, 
 the intense and absorbed manner — familiar pheno- 
 mena in every circle where ghost stories are told 
 
The Spirit-World, 247 
 
 — evidenced the perfect sincerity, at least, of the 
 speakers. 
 
 It is unnecessary here to repeat, what I for my 
 own part never forget, nor, I trust, does the reader, 
 that Wales is no exception to the rest of the world 
 in its credulity. That it is more picturesque is true, 
 and it is also true that there is here an unusual 
 amount of legend which has not hitherto found its 
 way into books. Death-omens are common to all 
 lands ; even in America, there are tales of the 
 banshee, imported from Ireland along with the sons 
 of that soil. In one recent case which came under 
 my notice the banshee belonged to a Cambridgeshire 
 Englishman. This was at Evansville, Indiana, and 
 the banshee had appeared before the deaths of five 
 members of a family, the last of whom was the 
 father. His name was Feast, and the circumstances 
 attending the banshee's visits were gravely described 
 in a local journal as a matter of news. Less dis- 
 tinguished death-portents are common enough in the 
 United States. That the Cambrian portents are 
 so picturesque and clearly defined must be considered 
 strong testimony to the vivid imagination of the 
 Welsh. Figures born of the fancy, as distinguished 
 from creatures born of the flesh, prove their parent- 
 age by the vagueness of their outlines. The outlines 
 of the Cyhyraeth and the Gwrach y Rhibyn some- 
 times run into and mingle with each other, and so do 
 those of the Tolaeth and the Goblin Funeral ; but 
 the wonder is they are such distinct entities as they 
 are. 
 
 VI. 
 
 To say that all the visible inhabitants of the 
 mundane spirit-world are creatures of the dis- 
 ordered human liver, is perhaps a needless harsh- 
 ness of statement. The question of a future life 
 
248 British Goblins. 
 
 
 is not involved in this subject, nor raised by the 
 best writers who are studying it ; but, religious 
 belief quite apart, it remains to be proved that 
 spirits of a supernatural world have any share in 
 the affairs of a world governed by natural law. 
 A goblin which manifests itself to the human eye, 
 it seems to me, becomes natural, by bowing before 
 the natural laws which rule in optics. Yet be- 
 lievers in ghosts find no difficulty in this direction ; 
 the word * supernatural ' covers a multitude of sins. 
 ' What is the supernatural ?' asks Disraeli, in 
 ' Lothair.' * Can there be anything more mira- 
 culous than the existence of man and the world ? 
 anything more literally supernatural than the origin 
 of things ?' 
 
 Surely, in this life, nothing ! The student who 
 endeavours to govern his faith by the methods 
 of science asks no more of any ghost that ever 
 walked the earth, than that it will prove itself a 
 reality. Man loves the marvellous. The marvels 
 of science, however, do not melt away into thin 
 air on close examination. They thrive under the 
 severest tests, and grow more and more extra- 
 ordinary the more they are tried. The spectro- 
 scope and the radiometer are more wonderful than 
 any ' supernatural ' thing yet heard of. Trans- 
 portation through the air in the arms of a spirit 
 is a clear impossibility; but it is less wonderful 
 than the every-day feats of electricity in our time, 
 the bare conception of which would have filled 
 Plato and Aristotle with awe. 
 
 The actual origin of the phantoms of the spirit- 
 world is to be found in the lawless and luxuriant 
 fancy of primeval man. The creatures of this 
 fancy have been perpetuated throughout all time, 
 unto our own day, by that passionate yearning in 
 
The Spirit-World. 249 
 
 men for continued life and love, which is ineradi- 
 cable in our nature. Men will not, they can not, 
 accept the doubt which plunges an eternal future 
 into eternal darkness, and separates them for ever 
 from the creatures of their love. Hence, when 
 the remorseless fact of Death removes those 
 creatures, they look, with a longing which is inde- 
 scribably pathetic, into the Unknown where their 
 beloved have gone, and strive to see them in their 
 spirit-life. 
 
 On this verge the finite mind must pause ; to 
 question that life is to add a terrible burden to 
 all human woe ; it need not be questioned. But 
 to question the power of anything in that life to 
 manifest itself to man through natural law, is to do 
 what science has a right to do. ' The living know 
 that they shall die : but the dead know not any 
 thing . . . neither have they any more a portion 
 for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.' ^ 
 
 ^ * Eccles.' ix., 5, 6. 
 
250 
 
 British Goblins, 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 QUAINT OLD CUSTOMS. 
 
 Where in an agede cell with moss and iveye growne, 
 In which nor to this daye the sunn had ever showne, 
 Their reverend British saint, in zealous ages paste, 
 To contemplation lived, and did so truly faste. 
 As he did onlie drink what chrystal [rivers] yields, 
 And fed upon the leakes he gather'd in the fields : 
 I n memory of whom, in the revolving year. 
 The Welchman on that daye that sacred herb doth wear. 
 
 MS. in Bodleian Library. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Serious Significance of seemingly Trivial Customs — Their Origins — 
 Common Superstitions —The Age we Live in — Days and Seasons 
 — New Year's Day — The Apple Gift — Lucky Acts on New Year's 
 Morning — The First Foot — Showmen's Superstitions — Levy Dew 
 Song — Happy New Year Carol — Twelfth Night — The Mari Lwyd 
 — The Penglog — The Cutty Wren — Tooling and Sowling— St. 
 Valentine's Day — St. Dewi's Day — The Wearing of the Leek — 
 The Traditional St. David— St. Patrick's Day — St. Patrick a 
 Welshman — Shrove Tuesday. 
 
 I. 
 
 Numberless customs in Wales which appear to 
 be meaningless, to people of average culture, are 
 in truth replete with meaning. However trivial 
 they may seem, they are very seldom the offspring 
 of mere fooling. The student of comparative folk- 
 lore is often able to trace their origin with surprising 
 distinctness, and to evolve from them a significance 
 before unsuspected. In many cases these quaint 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 251 
 
 old customs are traced to the primeval mytho- \ 
 logy. Others are clearly seen to be of Druidical 
 origin. Many spring from the rites and observ- I 
 ances of the Roman Catholic Church in the early j 
 days of Christianity on Welsh soil — where, as is 
 now generally conceded, the Gospel was first 
 preached in Great Britain. Some embody his- \ 
 torical traditions ; and some are the outgrowth of / 
 peculiar states of society in medieval times. 
 Directly or indirectly, they are all associated with 
 superstition, though in many instances they have 
 quite lost any superstitious character in our 
 day. 
 
 Modern society is agreed, with respect to many 
 curious old customs, to view them as the peculiar 
 possession of ignorance. It is very instructive to 
 note, in this connection, how blandly we accept 
 some of the most superstitious of these usages, 
 with tacit approval, and permit them to govern our 
 conduct. In every civilised community, in every 
 enlightened land on earth, there are many men and 
 women to whom this remark applies, who would 
 deem themselves shamefully insulted should you 
 doubt their intelligence and culture. Men and 
 women who ' smile superior ' at the idea of Luther 
 hurling inkstands at the devil, or at the Welsh 
 peasant who thinks a pig can see the wind, will 
 themselves avoid beginning a journey on a Friday, 
 view as ominous a rainy wedding-day, throw an old 
 slipper after a bride for luck, observe with interest 
 the portents of their nightly dreams, shun seeing 
 the new moon over the left shoulder, throw a pinch 
 of salt over the same member when the salt-cellar 
 is upset, tie a red string about the neck to cure 
 nose-bleed, and believe in the antics of the modern 
 spiritualistic ' control.' Superstition, however, they 
 
252 British Goblins, 
 
 leave to the ignorant ! The examples of every-day 
 fetichism here cited are familiar to us, not specially 
 among the Welsh, but among the English also, and 
 the people of the United States — who, I may again 
 observe, are no doubt as a people uncommonly free 
 from superstition, in comparison with the older 
 nations of the earth ; but modesty is a very be- 
 coming wear for us all, in examining into other 
 people's superstitions. 
 
 Aside from their scientific interest, there is a 
 charm about many of the quaint customs of the 
 Welsh, which speaks eloquently to most hearts. 
 They are the offspring of ignorance, true, but they 
 touch the ' good old times ' of the poet and the 
 romancer, when the conditions of life were less 
 harsh than now. So we love to think. As a matter 
 of scientific truth, this idea is itself, alas ! but a 
 superstition. This world has probably never been 
 so fair a place to live in, life never so free from 
 harsh conditions, as now ; and as time goes on, 
 there can be no doubt the improving process will 
 continue. The true halcyon days of man are to be 
 looked for in the future — not in the past ; but with 
 that future we shall have no mortal part. 
 
 II. 
 
 In treating of customs, no other classification ts 
 needful than their arrangement in orderly sequence 
 in two divisions : first, those which pertain to certain 
 days and seasons ; second, those relating to the 
 most conspicuous events in common human life, 
 courtship, marriage, and death. 
 
 Beginning with the year : there is in Glamorgan- 
 shire a . New Year's Day custom of great antiquity 
 and large present observance, called the apple gift, 
 or New Year's gift. In every town and village you 
 
 
Quaint Old Ctistoms. 
 
 253 
 
 will encounter children, on and about New Year's 
 Day, going from door to door of shops and houses, 
 bearing an apple or an orange curiously tricked out. 
 Three sticks in the form of a tripod are thrust into 
 it to serve as a rest ; its sides are smeared with 
 flour or meal, and stuck over with oats or wheat. 
 
 THE NEW year's APPLE. 
 
 or bits of broken lucifer matches to represent oats ; 
 its top is covered with thyme or other sweet ever- 
 green, and a skewer is inserted in one side as a 
 handle to hold it by. In its perfection, this piece of 
 work is elaborate ; but it is now often a decrepit 
 affair, in the larger towns, where the New Year is 
 
254 BnA 
 
 welcomed (as at Cardiff) by a midnight chorus of 
 steam-whistles. 
 
 The Christian symbolism of this custom Is sup- 
 posed to relate to the offering, by the Wise Men, of 
 gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus. 
 The older interpretation, however, takes the custom 
 back to the Druidic days, and makes it a form of 
 the solar myth. In the three supporting sticks of 
 the apple are seen the three rays of the sun, /|\, 
 the mystic Name of the Creator ; the apple is the 
 round sun Itself; the evergreens represent Its per- 
 ennial life ; and the grains of wheat, or oats, Avag- 
 ddu's spears. Avagddu is the evil principle of 
 darkness — hell, or the devil — with which the sun 
 fights throughout the winter for the world's life. 
 
 Thousands of children in Wales seek to win from 
 their elders a New Year s copper by exhibiting the 
 apple gift, or by singing in chorus their good wishes. 
 A popular verse on this occasion hopes the hearer 
 will be blessed with an abundance of money in his 
 pocket and of beer in his cellar, and draws attention 
 to the singers' thin shoes and the bad character of 
 the walking. In many cases the juvenile population 
 parades the street all night, sometimes with noisy 
 fife bands, which follow the death knell, as it sounds 
 from the old church tower, with shrill peals of a 
 merrier if not more musical sort. 
 
 In Pembrokeshire, to rise early on New Year's 
 morning is considered luck-bringing. On that 
 morning also it is deemed wise to bring a fresh loaf 
 into the house, with the superstition that the succes- 
 sion of loaves throughout the year will be influenced 
 by that Incident. A rigid quarantine is also set up, 
 to see that no female visitor cross the threshold first 
 on New Year's morning ; that a male visitor shall 
 be the first to do so is a lucky thing, and the 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 255 
 
 reverse unlucky. A superstition resembling this 
 prevails to this day in America among showmen. 
 ' There's no showman on the road,' said an 
 American manager of my acquaintance, ' who would 
 think of letting a lady be first to pass through the 
 doors when opening them for a performance. 
 There's a sort of feeling that it brings ill-luck. 
 Then there are cross-eyed people ; many a veteran 
 ticket-seller loses all heart when one presents him- 
 self at the ticket-window. A cross-eyed patron and 
 a bad house generally go together. A cross-eyed 
 performer would be a regular Jonah. With circuses 
 there is a superstition that a man with a yellow 
 clarionet brings bad luck.' Another well-known 
 New York manager in a recent conversation 
 assured me that to open an umbrella in a new play 
 is deemed certain failure for the piece. An umbrella 
 may be carried closed with impunity, but it must 
 not be opened unless the author desire to court 
 failure. The Chinese have the Pembrokeshire 
 superstition exactly, as regards the first foot on 
 New Year's Day. They consider a woman pecu- 
 liarly unlucky as a first foot after the New Year 
 has begun, but a Buddhist priest is even more 
 unlucky than a woman, in this light.^ 
 
 Another Pembrokeshire custom on New Year's 
 morning is quaint and interesting. As soon as it is 
 light, children of the peasantry hasten to provide a 
 small cup of pure spring water, just from the well, 
 and go about sprinkling the faces of those they 
 meet, with the aid of a sprig of evergreen. At the 
 same time they sing the following verses : 
 
 Here we bring new water from the well so clear, 
 For to worship God with, this happy new year ; 
 
 ^ Dennys, ' Folk- Lore of China,' 31. 
 
2C,6 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 Sing levy dew, sing levy dew, the water and the wine, 
 With seven bright gold wires, and bugles that do shine ; 
 Sing reign of fair maid, with gold upon her toe ; 
 Open you the west door and turn the old year go ; 
 Sing reign of fair maid, with gold upon her chin ; 
 Open you the east door and let the new year in ! 
 
 This custom also is still observed extensively. 
 The words ' levy dew ' are deemed an English 
 version of Lief i Dduw, (a cry to God). 
 
 A Welsh song sung on New Year's Day, in 
 Glamorganshire, by boys in chorus, somewhat after 
 the Christmas carol fashion, is this : 
 
 Blwyddyn newydd dda i chwi, 
 
 Gwyliau llawen i chwi, 
 
 Meistr a meistres bob un trwy'r ty, 
 
 Gwyliau llawen i chwi, 
 
 Codwch yn foreu, a rheswch y tan, 
 
 A cherddwch i'r ffynon i ymofyn dwr glan. 
 
 A happy new year to you, 
 
 Merry be your holidays. 
 
 Master and mistress — every one in the house ; 
 
 Arise in the morning ; bestir the fire, 
 
 And go to the well to fetch fresh water. 
 
 i 
 
 III. 
 
 Among Twelfth Night customs, none is more 
 celebrated than that called Mary Lwyd. It prevails 
 in various parts of Wales, notably in lower Glamor- 
 ganshire. The skeleton of a horse's head is pro- 
 cured by the young men or boys of a village, and 
 adorned with ' favours ' of pink, blue, yellow, etc. 
 These are generally borrowed from the girls, as it 
 is not considered necessary the silken fillets and 
 rosettes should be new, and such finery costs money. 
 The bottoms of two black bottles are inserted in the 
 sockets of the skeleton head to serve as eyes, and a 
 substitute for ears is also contrived. On Twelfth 
 Night they carry this object about from house to 
 house, with shouts and songs, and a general cultiva- 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 257 
 
 tion of noise and racket. Sometimes a duet is sungf 
 in Welsh, outside a door, the singers begging to be 
 invited in ; if the door be not opened they tap on it, 
 and there is frequently quite a series of awen sung, 
 the parties within denying the outsiders admission, 
 and the outsiders urging the same. At last the door 
 is opened, when in bounces the merry crowd, among 
 them the Mary Lwyd, borne by one personating a 
 horse, who is led by another personating the groom. 
 The horse chases the girls around the room, caper- 
 ing and neighing, while the groom cries, ' So ho, my 
 boy — gently, poor fellow ! ' and the girls, of course, 
 scream with merriment. A dance follows — a reel, 
 performed by three young men, tricked out with 
 ribbons. The company is then regaled with cakes 
 and ale, and the revellers depart, pausing outside the 
 door to sing a parting song of thanks and good 
 wishes to their entertainers. 
 
 The penglog (a skull, a noddle) is a similar 
 custom peculiar to Aberconwy (Conway) in Car- 
 narvonshire. In this case the horse's skull is an 
 attention particularly bestowed upon prudes. 
 
 Mary Lwyd may mean Pale Mary, or Wan Mary, 
 or Hoary Mary, but the presumption is that it means 
 in this case Blessed Mary, and that the custom is of 
 papal origin. There is, however, a tradition which 
 links the custom with enchantment, in connection 
 with a warlike princess, reputed to have flourished in 
 Gwent and M organ wg in the early ages, and who is 
 to be seen to this day, mounted on her steed, on a 
 rock in Rhymney Dingle.^ 
 
 The cutty wren is a Pembrokeshire Twelfth Night 
 custom prevailing commonly during the last century, 
 but now nearly extinct. A wren was placed in a 
 little house of paper, with glass windows, and this 
 
 ^ Vide W. Roberts's ' Crefydd yr Oesoedd Tywyll,' i. 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 was hoisted on four poles, one at each corner. Four 
 men bore it about, singing a very long ballad, of 
 which one stanza will be enough : 
 
 ^ 
 
 i^i=i 
 
 ^ 
 
 --^^=X 
 
 O ! where are you go - ing ? says Mil - der 
 
 to 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 1^s=1: 
 
 r=^ 
 
 :^pt=^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 JitzithKtzzt 
 
 Mel - der, O! where are you go -ing? says the youn-ger to the 
 
 i 
 
 s 
 
 T^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 -M=3L 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Hiit-^^ 
 
 el - der ; O ! I can - not tell, says Fes - tel to Fose ; We're 
 
 feE3 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 -i:^. 
 
 go - ing to the woods, said John the Red Nose, We're 
 
 ^^ 
 
 2:± 
 
 go - ing to the woods, said John the Red Nose ! 
 
 The immediate purpose of this rite was to levy 
 contributions. Another such custom was called 
 'tooling,' and its purpose was beer. It consisted in 
 calling at the farm-houses and pretending to look for 
 one's tools behind the beer cask. ' I've left my saw 
 behind your beer cask,' a carpenter would say ; * my 
 whip,' a carter ; and received the tool by proxy, in the 
 shape of a cup of ale. The female portion of the 
 poorer sort, on the other hand, practised what was 
 called sowling, viz., asking for *sowl,' and receiving, 
 accordingly, any food eaten with bread, such as 
 cheese, fish, or meat. This custom is still main- 
 tained, and * sowling day ' fills many a poor woman's 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 259 
 
 bag. The phrase is supposed to be from the French 
 soul, signifying one's fill. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Connected with St. Valentine's Day, there is no 
 Welsh custom which demands notice here ; but 
 it is perhaps worthy of mention that nowhere in 
 the world is the day more abundantly productive 
 of its orthodox crop — love-letters. The post-offices 
 in the Principality are simply deluged with these 
 missives on the eve and morning of St. Valentine's. 
 In Cardiff the postmaster thinks himself lucky if 
 he gets off with fifteen thousand letters in excess 
 of the ordinary mail. Nineteen extra sorters and 
 carriers were employed for this work on February 
 14th, 1878, and the regular force also was heavily 
 worked beyond its usual hours. The custom is 
 more Norman than Cambrian, I suppose ; the word 
 Valentine comes from the Norman word for a 
 lover, and the saint is a mere accident in this 
 connection. 
 
 v. 
 
 St. Dewi is to the Welsh what St. George is 
 to the English, St. Andrew to the Scotch, and 
 St. Patrick to the Irish. His day is celebrated 
 on the I St of March throughout Wales, and indeed 
 throughout the world where Welshmen are. In 
 some American ports (perhaps all) the British con- 
 sulate displays its flag in honour of the day. In 
 Wales there are processions, grand dinners ; places 
 of business are closed ; the poor are banqueted ; 
 speeches are made and songs are sung. The most 
 characteristic feature of the day is the wearing of 
 the leek. This feature is least conspicuous, it may 
 be noted, in those parts of Wales where the English 
 residents are fewest, and least of all in the ultra- 
 
26o British ^Mtns. 
 
 Welsh shires of Cardigan and Carmarthen, where 
 St. David is pecuHarly honoured. The significance 
 of this fact no doubt Hes in the absence of any 
 necessity for asserting a Cambrianism which there 
 are none to dispute. In the border towns, every 
 Welshman who desires to assert his national right 
 wears the leek in his hat or elsewhere on his 
 person ; but in the shadow of St. David's College 
 at Lampeter, not a leek is seen on St. Dewi's Day. 
 In Glamorganshire may be found the order of ' 
 Knights of the Leek, who hold high festival on the ; 
 I St of every March, gathering in the Welsh bards \ 
 and men of letters. \ 
 
 Why is the leek worn ? Practically, because the ] 
 wearer is a Welshman who honours tradition. But i 
 the precise origin of the custom is involved in an 
 obscurity from which emerge several curious and \ 
 interesting traditions. The verses cited at the j 
 opening of this Part refer to one of these ; they j 
 are quoted by Manby^ without other credit than \ 
 * a very antient manuscript.' Another tradition is 1 
 thus given in a pamphlet of 1642:^ ' S. David ! 
 when hee always went into the field in Martiall 
 exercise he carried a Leek with him, and once j 
 being almost faint to death, he immediately re- 1 
 membred himself of the Leek, and by that means j 
 not only preserved his life but also became vie- \ 
 torious : hence is the Mythologie of the Leek de- | 
 rived.' The practice is traced by another writer^ j 
 to ' the custom of Cymhortha, or the neighbourly j 
 
 1 ' Hist, and Ant. of the Parish of St. David,' 54. ' 
 
 2 ' The Welchmen's Ivbilee to the honour of St. David, shewing the ' 
 manner of that solemn celebration which the Welchmen annually hold ' 
 in honour of St. David, describing likewise the trve and reall cause j 
 why they wear that day a Leek on their Hats, with an excellent merry ' 
 Sonnet annexed unto it, composed by T. Morgan Gent. London. 
 Printed for I. Harrison.' 
 
 3 Owen, ' Camb. Biog.' 86. 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 261 
 
 aid practised among farmers, which is of various 
 kinds. In some districts of South Wales all the 
 neighbours of a small farmer without means appoint 
 a day when they all attend to plough his land, and 
 the like ; and at such a time it is a custom for each 
 individual to bring his portion of leeks, to be used 
 in making pottage for the whole company ; and 
 they bring nothing else but the leeks in particular 
 for the occasion.' Some find the true origin of the 
 custom in Druidical days, but their warrant is not 
 clear, nor how it came to be associated with the 
 1st of March in that case. The military origin 
 bears down the scale of testimony, and gives the 
 leek the glory of a Cambrian victory as its conse- 
 crator to ornamental purposes. Whether this 
 victory was over the Saxon or the Gaul does not 
 exactly appear ; some traditions say one, some the 
 other. The battle of Poictiers has been named ; 
 also that of Cressy, where the Welsh archers did 
 good service with the English against a common 
 enemy ; but an older tradition is to the effect that 
 the Saxon was the foe. The invaders had assumed 
 the dress of the Britons, that they might steal upon 
 them unsuspected ; but St. David ordered the 
 Welshmen to stick leeks in their caps as a badge 
 of distinction. This he did merely because there 
 was a large field of leeks growing near the British 
 camp. The precaution gave the day to the favoured 
 of St. Dewi. 
 
 It cannot be denied that there have been found 
 Englishmen rude enough to ridicule this honourable 
 and ancient custom of the Welsh, though why they 
 should do so there is no good reason. The leek 
 is not fragrant, perhaps ; but if an old custom must 
 smell sweet or be laughed at, there is work enough 
 for our risibles in every English parish. The fol- 
 
 s 2 
 
262 British Goblins. 
 
 lowing is one of the foolish legends of the English 
 respecting the leek : ' The Welsh in olden days 
 were so infested by ourang outangs that they 
 could obtain no peace day or night, and not being 
 themselves able to extirpate them they invited 
 the English to assist, who came ; but through 
 mistake killed several of the Welsh, so that in 
 order to distinguish them from the monkeys they 
 desired them to stick a leek in their hats.' The 
 author of this ridiculous tale deserves the fate of 
 Pistol, whom Fluellen compelled to eat his leek, 
 skin and all. 
 
 Flu. I peseech you heartily, scurvy lowsy knave, at my desires, 
 and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, this leek ; because, 
 look you, you do not love it, nor your affections, and your appetites, 
 and your digestions, does not agree with it, I would desire you to 
 eat it. 
 
 Pist. Not for Cadwallader, and all his goats. 
 
 Flu. There is one goat for you. [_Strikes him.'] Will you be so 
 good, scald knave, as eat it ? 
 
 Pist. Base Trojan, thou shalt die. 
 
 I{lu. You say very true, scald knave, when Got's will is : I will 
 desire you to live in the meantime, and eat your victuals. ... If you 
 can mock a leek you can eat a leek. . . . 
 
 Pist. Quiet thy cudgel ; thou dost see, I eat. 
 
 Flu. Much goot do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay, 'pray you, 
 throw none away ; the skin is goot for your proken coxcomb. When 
 you take occasions to see leeks hereafter, I pray you, mock at them ! 
 that is all.^ 
 
 VI. 
 
 The traditional St. David Is a brilliant figure In 
 Welsh story ; with the historical character this work 
 has not to deal. The legendary account of him 
 represents a man of gigantic stature and fabulous 
 beauty, whose age at his death was 147 years. He 
 was a direct descendant of the sister of the Virgin 
 Mary, and his first miracles were performed while 
 he was yet unborn. In this condition he regulated 
 the diet of his virgin mother, and struck dumb a 
 
 1 Shaks., K. Henry V., Act V., Sc. i. 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 263 
 
 preacher who presumed to preach In her presence. 
 At the hour of his birth St. Dewi performed a 
 miracle ; another when he was baptized ; and he 
 was taught his lessons (at a place called The Old 
 Bush, in South Wales) by a pigeon with a golden 
 beak, which played about his lips. As he grew up, 
 his miraculous powers waxed stronger ; and magi- 
 cians who opposed him were destroyed by fire which 
 he called from heaven to consume them. Thirsty, 
 a fountain rose in Glyn Hodnant at his call, and 
 from this fountain ran not water but good wine. 
 When he went about the country he was always 
 accompanied by an angel. On the banks of the 
 river Teify, a miserable woman wept over her son 
 who lay dead ; she appealed to Dewi, who laid hold 
 of the boy's right hand and he arose from the dead 
 as if from a sleep. At Llandewi Brefi, in Cardigan- 
 shire, as he was preaching on the surface of the flat 
 ground, the ground rose as a high mount under his 
 feet, so that the people all about could see him as 
 well as hear him. A labourer lifted his pickaxe to 
 strike a friend of Dewi's, which the saint seeing 
 from afar off, raised his hand and willed that the 
 labourer s hand should become stiff — which It did. 
 Another friend, going away to Ireland, forgot and 
 left behind him a little bell that Dewi had given 
 him ; but Dewi sent the bell across the sea by an 
 angel, so that It arrived there next day without the 
 aid of human hands. And finally, having made up 
 his mind that he would die and go to heaven, he did 
 so — but quite of his own will — at his own request, so 
 to speak. Having asked that his soul might be 
 taken, an angel informed him It would be taken on 
 the first of March proximo. So David bade his 
 friends good-bye on the 28th of February, greatly 
 to their distress. 'Alas!' they cried, 'the earth 
 
264 British Goblins. 
 
 i 
 
 will not swallow us ! Alas ! fire will not consume 
 us ! Alas ! the sea will not come over the land ! 
 Alas ! the mountains will not fall to cover us ! * On 
 Tuesday night, as the cocks were crowing, a host 
 of angels thronged the streets of the city, and filled 
 it with joy and mirth ; and Dewi died. ' The angels 
 took his soul to the place where there is light 
 without end, and rest without labour, and joy without 
 sorrow, and plenty of all good things, and victory, 
 and brightness, and beauty/ There Abel is with 
 the martyrs, Noah is with the sailors, Thomas is 
 with the Indians, Peter is with the apostles, Paul is 
 with the Greeks, other saints are with other suitable 
 persons, and David is with the kings/ 
 
 On the summit which rose under St. Dewi while 
 he stood on it and preached, now stands St. David's 
 church, at Llandewi Brefi. In the days of its glory 
 — i.e. during nearly the whole period of Roman 
 Catholic rule — it was renowned beyond all others in 
 Britain. To go twice to St. David's was deemed 
 equal to going once to Rome, and a superstitious 
 belief prevailed that every man must go to St. 
 David's once, either alive or dead. William the 
 Conqueror marched through Wales in hostile array 
 In 1080, but arriving at St. David's shrine laid aside 
 the warrior for the votary. 
 
 VII. 
 
 St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in Wales with 
 much enthusiasm. The Welsh believe that St. 
 Patrick was a Welshman. Born at Llandeilo Taly- 
 bont, in Glamorganshire, and educated at the famous 
 college of Llantwit Major, he held St. David's place 
 till the coming of Dewi was announced to him ; 
 then he went into Ireland, to do missionary work, 
 
 * Cambro-British Saints,' 402, etc. 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 265 
 
 as it were. This is the monastic tale. Patrick was 
 comfortably settled in the valley of Rosina, and 
 intended to pass his life there, but an angel came to 
 him and said, ' Thou must leave this place to one 
 who is not yet born.* Patrick was annoyed, even 
 angered, but obedient, and went off to Ireland, 
 where he became a great man. ^ The story of the 
 lolo MSS., however, presents the matter in a dif- 
 ferent light : ' About a.d. 420 the Island of Britain 
 seemed to have neither ruler nor proprietor.' The 
 Irish took advantage of this state of things to invade 
 and oppress Britain, robbing her of corn, cattle, ' and 
 every other moveable property that they could lay 
 their hands on.' Among other things, they stole 
 away St. Patrick from the college at Llantwit Major, 
 ' whence that college became destitute of a principal 
 and teacher for more than forty years, and fell into 
 dilapidation ' — a condition it remains in at present, 
 by the way. ' Patrick never returned to Wales, 
 choosing rather to reside in Ireland ; having ascer- 
 tained that the Irish were better people than the 
 Welsh, in those times.' ^ Still, it is not the native 
 Welsh who are as a rule the celebrators of St. 
 Patrick's Day in Wales. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Shrove Tuesday was once characterised by a cus- 
 tom called throwing at cocks, now obsolete. Hens 
 which had laid no eggs before that day were threshed 
 with a flail, as being good for nothing. The person 
 who hit the hen with the flail and killed her got her 
 for his reward. 
 
 The more reputable custom of cramming with 
 crammwythau (pancakes) still survives, and is un- 
 doubtedly of extreme antiquity. 
 
 ^ ' Cambro-British Saints,' 403. ^ Iq\q mSS., 455. 
 
266 British Goblins, 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I 
 
 Flower- 
 
 Sundry Lenten Customs— Mothering Sunday — Palm Sunday — FT 
 
 ing Sunday — Walking Barefoot to Church — Spiritual Potency of 
 Buns — Good Friday Superstitions — Making Christ's Bed — Bad 
 Odour of Friday— Unlucky Days — Holy Thursday — The Eagle of 
 Snowdon — New Clothing at Easter — Lifting — The Crown of Por- 
 celain — Stocsio — Ball-Playing in Churchyards — The Tump of Lies 
 — Dancing in Churchyards— Seeing the Sun Dance — Calan Ebrill, 
 or All Fools' Day^ — May Day — The Welsh Maypole — The Daughter 
 of Lludd Llaw E'reint — Carrying the Kings of Summer and Winter. 
 
 I. 
 
 Wearing mourning throughout Lent was formerly 
 common in Wales. In Monmouthshire, Mothering 
 Sunday — the visiting of parents on Mid- Lent Sunday 
 — was observed in the last century, but is nowhere 
 popular in Wales at present. Palm Sunday takes 
 precedence among the Welsh, and is very exten- 
 sively and enthusiastically observed. The day is 
 called Flowering Sunday, and its peculiar feature 
 is strewing the graves of the dead with flowers. 
 The custom reaches all classes, and all parts of the 
 Principality. In the large towns, as Cardiff, many 
 thousands of people gather at the graves. The 
 custom is associated with the strewing of palms 
 before Christ on his entry into Jerusalem, but was 
 observed by the British Druids in celebration of the 
 awakening life of the earth at this season. 
 
 II. 
 
 In Pembrokeshire, it was customary up to the 
 close of the last century, to walk barefoot to church 
 on Good Friday, as had been done since times 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 267 
 
 prior to the Reformation. The old people and the 
 young joined in this custom, which they said was 
 done so as not to ' disturb the earth.' All business 
 was suspended, and no horse nor cart was to be seen 
 in the town. 
 
 Hot-cross buns also figured in a peculiar manner 
 at this time. They were eaten in Tenby after the 
 return from church. After having tied up a certain 
 number in a bag, the folk hung them in the kitchen, 
 where they remained till the next Good Friday, for 
 use as m.edicine. It was believed that persons 
 labouring under any disease had only to eat a 
 portion of a bun to be cured. The buns so pre- 
 served were used also as a panacea for all the 
 diseases of domestic animals. They were further 
 believed to be serviceable in frightening away 
 goblins of an evil sort. 
 
 That these buns are of Christian invention is the 
 popular belief, and indeed this notion is not alto- 
 gether exploded among the more intelligent classes. 
 Their connection with the cross of the Saviour is 
 possible by adoption — as the early Christians 
 adopted many pagan rites and customs — but that 
 they date back to pre-historic times there is 
 abundant testimony. 
 
 Innumerable are the superstitious customs and 
 beliefs associated with Good Friday. In Pembroke- 
 shire there was a custom called ' making Christ's 
 bed.' A quantity of long reeds were gathered 
 from the river and woven into the shape of a man. 
 This effigy was then stretched on a wooden cross, 
 and laid in some retired field or garden, and left 
 there. 
 
 The birth of a child on that day is very unlucky — 
 indeed a birth on any Friday of the whole year is to 
 be deprecated as a most unfortunate circumstance. 
 
268 BrthshGoSltns. 
 
 III. 
 
 The bad odour in which Friday is everywhere 
 held is naturally associated, among Christians, with 
 the crucifixion ; but this will not account for the 
 existence of a like superstition regarding Friday 
 among the Brahmins of India, nor for the preva- 
 lence of other lucky and unlucky days among both 
 Aryan and Mongolian peoples. In the Middle Ages 
 Monday and Tuesday were unlucky days. A 
 Welshman who lived some time in Russia, tells 
 me Monday is deemed a very unlucky day there, 
 on which no business must be begun. In some 
 English districts Thursday is the unlucky day. In 
 Norway it is lucky, especially for marrying. In 
 South Wales, Friday is the fairies' day, when they 
 have special command over the weather ; and it is 
 their whim to make the weather on Friday dififer 
 from that of the other days of the week. ' When 
 the rest of the week is fair, Friday is apt to be 
 rainy, or cloudy ; and when the weather is foul, 
 Friday is apt to be more fair.' 
 
 The superstitious prejudice of the quarrymen in 
 North Wales regarding Holy Thursday has been 
 cited. It is not a reverential feeling, but a purely 
 superstitious one, and has pervaded the district from 
 ancient times. It has been supposed that Thursday 
 was a sacred day among the Druids. There is a 
 vulgar tradition (mentioned by Giraldus), that 
 Snowdon mountains are frequented by an eagle, 
 which perches on a fatal stone on every Thursday 
 and whets her beak upon it, expecting a battle to 
 occur, upon which she may satiate her hunger with 
 the carcases of the slain ; but the battle is ever 
 deferred, and the stone has become almost per- 
 forated with the eagle's sharpening her beak upon 
 
 i 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 269 
 
 it. There may perhaps be a connection traced 
 between these superstitions and the Hghtning-god 
 Thor, whose day Thursday was. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Easter is marked by some striking customs. It 
 is deemed essential for one's well-being that some 
 new article of dress shall be donned at this time, 
 though it be nothing more than a new ribbon. This 
 is also a Hampshire superstition. A servant of 
 mine, born in Hampshire, used always to say, ' If 
 you don't have on something new Easter Sun- 
 day the dogs will spit at you.' This custom is 
 associated with Easter baptism, when a new life was 
 assumed by the baptized, clothed in righteousness 
 as a garment. A ceremony called ' lifting ' is 
 peculiar to North Wales on Easter Monday and 
 Tuesday. On the Monday bands of men go about 
 with a chair, and meeting a woman in the street 
 compel her to sit, and be lifted three times in the 
 air amidst their cheers : she is then invited to bestow 
 a small compliment on her entertainers. This per- 
 formance is kept up till twelve o'clock, when it 
 ceases. On Easter Tuesday the women take their 
 turn, and go about in like manner lifting the men. 
 It has been conjectured that in this custom an 
 allusion to the resurrection is intended. 
 
 A custom, the name of which is now lost, was 
 that the village belle should on Easter Eve and 
 Easter Tuesday carry on her head a piece of 
 chinaware of curious shape, made expressly for this 
 purpose, and useless for any other. It may be 
 described as a circular crown of porcelain, the 
 points whereof were cups and candles. The cups 
 were solid details of the crown : the candles were 
 stuck with clay upon the spaces between the cups. 
 
270 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 
 The cups were filled with a native beverage called 
 bragawd, and the candles were lighted. To drink 
 
 LiFTiNc;. {From an old di'mving.) 
 
 the liquor without burning yourself or the damsel 
 at the candle was the difficulty involved in thisj 
 
Quaint Old Cttstoms. 271 
 
 performance. A stanza was sung by the young 
 woman's companions, the last Hne of which was, 
 
 Rhag i'r feinwen losgi ei thalcen. 
 (Lest the maiden burn her forehead.^) 
 
 Stocsio is an Easter Monday custom observed 
 from time immemorial in the town of Aberconwy, 
 and still practised there in 1835. On Easter 
 Sunday crowds of men and boys carrying wands 
 of gorse went to Pen Twthil, and there proclaimed 
 the laws and regulations of the following day. 
 They were to this effect : all men under sixty to 
 be up and out before 6 a.m. ; all under forty, before 
 4 A.M. ; all under twenty, to stay up all night. 
 Penalty for disobedience : the stocks. The crier 
 who delivered this proclamation was the man last 
 married in the town previous to Easter Sunday. 
 Other like rules were proclaimed, amid loud cheers. 
 Early next morning a party, headed by a fife and 
 drum, patrolled the town with a cart, in search of 
 delinquents. When one was discovered, he was 
 hauled from his bed and made to dress himself; 
 then put in the cart and dragged to the stocks. 
 His feet being secured therein, he was duly lectured 
 on the sin of laziness, and of breaking an ancient 
 law of the town by lying abed in violation thereof. 
 His right hand was then taken, and he was asked a 
 lot of absurd questions, such as ' Which do you like 
 best, the mistress or the maid ? ' * Which do you 
 prefer, ale or buttermilk ? ' 'If the gate of a field 
 were open, would you go through it, or over the 
 stile ? ' and the like. His answers being received 
 with derision, his hand was smeared with mud, 
 and he was then released amid cheers. ' This 
 sport, which would be impracticable in a larger and 
 
 ^ Arch. Camb. 4 Sc., iii., 334. 
 
272 BrtttsnGoblins. 
 
 
 less intimate community, is continued with the 
 greatest good humour until eight ; when the rest ! 
 of the day is spent in playing ball at the Castle.' ^ j 
 
 Ball-playing against the walls of the churcn 
 between hours of service was a fashion of Easter I 
 which is within recollection. It was also common 
 on the Sabbath day itself in many parishes, in the 
 days when dissent was unknown and parishioners 
 had long distances to traverse on a Sunday ; 
 * and that, too, with the sanction of the clergyman, 
 and even his personal superintendence. Old people 
 can remember such a state of things, when the 
 clergyman gave notice that the game must cease 
 by putting the ball into his pocket and marched his 
 young friends Into church.' ^ Nowhere less than in a 
 custom like this would the ordinary observer look 
 for traditionary significance ; yet there is no doubt 
 our Easter eggs are but another surviving form of 
 the same ancient rite. Before the Reformation 
 there was a Church of England custom of playing 
 ball in church at Easter, according to Dr. Fos- 
 brooke, the dean and clergy participating. 
 
 There were other sports and pastimes common 
 alike to Easter and to the Sabbath day, which are 
 full of curious interest. Some of them no doubt 
 arose out of the social exigencies of sparsely settled 
 neighbourhoods, which caused people to remain at 
 the church between services, instead of returning to 
 distant homes ; but a Druidic origin seems neces- 
 sary to account for others. That the people should 
 between services gather near the church to talk 
 over the gossip of the day, is natural enough, and 
 
 ^ * Hist, and Ant. of Aberconwy,' 108. 
 ^ ' Arch. Camb.' 4 Se., iii., 333. 
 
 I 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 273 
 
 is a phenomenon which may still be witnessed in 
 remote parts of the United States. In St. Dog- 
 mell's parish, Pembrokeshire, there is a tump which 
 bears the name of ' Cnwc y Celwydd,' videHcet, the 
 Tump of Lies. Here were men and women 
 formerly in the habit of gathering together on the 
 Lord's day in great crowds, and entertaining each 
 other with the inventing and telling of the most 
 lying and wonderful yarns they could conjure up 
 with the aid of an imagination spurred to exercise 
 by rivalry and applause. The custom is discon- 
 tinued ; but there is still hardly a neighbourhood in 
 Wales so rich in tales of fairies and other goblins. 
 
 The custom of dancing in churchyards was 
 common in many parts of the Principality in the 
 early part of this century. At Aberedwy, Malkin 
 saw a large yew tree in the churchyard under which 
 as many as sixty couples had been seen dancing at 
 once.^ The dancing was not in that part of the 
 yard consecrated to the dead, but on the north side 
 of the church, where it was not the custom to bury. 
 A tradition is preserved by Giraldus of a solemn 
 festival dance which took place in the churchyard at 
 St, Almedha's church, Breconshire, on that saints 
 day. The dance was 'led round the churchyard 
 with a song,' and succeeded by the dancers falling 
 down in a trance, followed by a sort of religious 
 frenzy. This is believed to have been a Druidical 
 rite, described on hearsay by Giraldus, and embel- 
 lished by him with those pious inventions not 
 uncommon in his day. 
 
 One of the customs of Easter, at a comparatively 
 recent period in Wales, was getting the children up 
 early in the morning to see the sun dance. This 
 exercise the sun was said to perform at rising on 
 
 ^ Malkin's ' South Wales,' 281. 
 
British Goblins. 
 
 Easter Day, In honour of the rising of our Lord. 
 The sun was sometimes aided in this performance 
 by a bowl of clear water, into which the youth must 
 look to see the orb dance, as it would be dangerous 
 to look directly on the sun while thus engaged. 
 The religious dance of the ancient Druids is 
 believed to exist in modern times in a round dance 
 wherein the figures imitate the motions of the sun 
 and moon. The ball-playing in church mentioned 
 above was also accompanied by dancing. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The first of April Is In Welsh called Calan Ebrlll, 
 and an April Fool a Ffwl Ebrill ; the similarity of 
 English and Welsh words may be said to typify the 
 similarity of observance. The universality of this 
 observance among Aryan peoples would certainly 
 indicate an origin in a time preceding the dispersion 
 of the human family over the world. The Druids, 
 tradition says, celebrated the revival of Nature's 
 powers In a festival which culminated on the first 
 of April in the most hilarious foolery. The Roman 
 Saturnalia or feast of fools perpetuated the rite, 
 though the purpose of the Christian revelry may 
 quite possibly have been to ridicule the Druidic 
 ceremonies. 
 
 The festivities of May-day are in like manner 
 associated with the powers of Nature, whose vigour 
 and productiveness were symbolized by the Maypole 
 round which village lads and lasses danced. The 
 rites of love were variously celebrated at this time, 
 and some of these customs locally have long sur- 
 vived the Maypole Itself. The ordinance for the 
 destruction of Maypoles In England and Wales, 
 printed In 1 644, declared them * a heathenish vanity, 
 generally abused to superstition and wickedness,' 
 
Quamt Old Customs. 
 
 75 
 
 wherefore it was ordained that they should be 
 destroyed, and that no Maypole should thereafter 
 be ' set up, erected, or suffered to be within this 
 kingdom of England or dominion of Wales.' 
 
 The Maypole in Wales was called Bedwen, be- 
 cause it was always made of birch, bedw, a tree still 
 associated with the gentler emotions. To give a 
 lover a birchen branch, is for a maiden to accept 
 his addresses ; to give him a collen, or hazel, the 
 reverse. Games of various sorts were played around 
 the bedwen. The fame of a village depended on 
 its not being stolen away, and parties were con- 
 stantly on the alert to steal the bedwen, a feat which, 
 when accomplished, was celebrated with peculiar 
 festivities. This rivalry for the possession of the 
 Maypole was probably typical of the ancient idea 
 that the first of May was the boundary day divid- 
 ing the confines of winter and summer, when a 
 fight took place between the powers of the air, 
 on the one hand striving to continue the reign of 
 winter, on the other to establish that of summer. 
 Here may be cited the Mabinogi of Kilhwch and 
 Olwen, where it speaks of the daughter of Llud 
 Llaw Ereint. * She was the most splendid maiden 
 in the three Islands of the Mighty, and in the three 
 Islands adjacent,' and for her does Gwyn ap Nudd, 
 the fairy king, fight every first of May till the 
 day of doom.^ She was to have been the bride of 
 Gwythyr, the son of Greidawl, when Gwyn ap Nudd 
 carried her off by force. The bereaved bridegroom 
 followed, and there was a bloody struggle, in which 
 Gwyn was victorious, and which he signalized by 
 an act of frightful cruelty ; he slew an old warrior, 
 took out his heart from his breast, and constrained 
 the warrior's son to eat the heart of his father. 
 
 Mabinogion,' 229. 
 
270 British Goblins. 
 
 When Arthur heard of this he summoned Gwyn ap 
 Nudd before him, and deprived him of the fruits 
 of his victory. But he condemned the two com- 
 batants to fight for the radiant maiden henceforth 
 for ever on every first of May till doomsday ; the 
 victor on that day to possess the maiden.^ 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In the remote and primitive parish of Defynog, \ 
 
 in Breconshire, until a few years since, a custom ! 
 
 survived of carrying the King of Summer and the \ 
 
 King of Winter. Two boys were chosen to serve \ 
 
 as the two kings, and were covered all over with a ! 
 dress of brigau bedw, (birchen boughs,) only their 
 faces remaining visible. A coin was tossed and the 
 
 boy chosen was the summer king ; a crown of bright- \ 
 
 hued ribbons was put upon his head. Upon the other j 
 
 boy's head was placed a crown of holly, to designate \ 
 
 the winter king. Then a procession was formed, < 
 
 headed by two men with drawn swords to clear the | 
 
 way. Four men supported the summer king upon ' 
 two poles, one under his knees and the other under 
 his arms ; and four others bore the winter king in a 
 
 similar undignified posture. The procession passed \ 
 
 round the village and to the farm-houses near by, : 
 
 collecting largess of coin or beer, winding up the S 
 
 perambulation at the churchyard. Here the boys | 
 
 were set free, and received a dole for their services, j 
 
 the winter king getting less than the other. ^ 
 
 Another May-day custom among the boys of •' 
 
 that parish, was to carry about a rod, from which \ 
 
 the bark had been partly peeled in a spiral form, j 
 
 and upon the top of which was set either a cock or | 
 
 a cross, the bearers waking the echoes of the village \ 
 with * Yo ho ! yo ho ! yo ho ! ' ^ 
 
 * ' Mabinogion,' 2^1, ^ 'Arch. Camb.,' 2 Se., iv., 326. 
 
( 277 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Midsummer Eve — The Druidic Ceremonies at Pontypridd — The Snake 
 Stone — Beltane Fires — Fourth of July Fires in America — St. Ulric's 
 Day — Carrying Cynog — Marketing on Tombstones — The First 
 Night of Winter — The Three Nights for Spirits — The Tale of 
 Thomas Williams the Preacher — All Hallows Eve Festivities — 
 Running through Fire — Quaint Border Rhymes — The Puzzling Jug 
 — Bobbing for Apples— The Fiery Features of Guy Fawkes' Day — 
 St. Clement's Day — Stripping the Carpenter. 
 
 Midsummer Eve, or St. John's Eve (June 23rd), Is 
 one of the ancient Druldic festivals, still liberally 
 honoured In Wales. The custom of lighting bonfires 
 survives In some of the villages, and at Pontypridd 
 there are ceremonies of a solemn sort. Midsummer 
 Eve, In 1878, fell on a Sunday. Upon that day the 
 • Druids and bards ' at Pontypridd held the usual 
 feast of the summer solstice In the face of the sun. 
 There Is a breezy common on the top of a high hill 
 overlooking the town, where stand a logan stone 
 and a circle of upright stones constituting the 
 'temple of the Druids.' Here It Is the custom of 
 the present-day adherents of that ancient religion, 
 beside which Christianity Is an Infant, to celebrate 
 their rites 'within the folds of the serpent,' a circle 
 marked with the signs of the zodiac. The venerable 
 archdruld, Myfyr Morganwg, stands on the logan 
 stone, with a mistletoe sprig In his button-hole, and 
 prays to the god Kali, ' creator of sun, moon, stars, 
 and universe.' Then the white-bearded old man 
 delivers a discourse, and new members are initiated 
 into the ' mysteries.' Occasionally these new mem- 
 
 T 2 
 
27B British Goblins. 
 
 bers are Americans from over the sea, and they 
 include both sexes. Large crowds gather to witness 
 the impressive spectacle — a shadow of the ancient 
 rites when from Belenian heights flamed high the 
 sacrificial fires. It was a former beHef that these 
 fires protected the lands within their light from the 
 machinations of sorcery, so that good crops would 
 follow, and that their ashes were valuable as a 
 medicinal charm. 
 
 The Snake-stone is another striking Welsh tradi- 
 tion, associated with Midsummer eve. At this time 
 of the year there are certain convocations of snakes, 
 which, hissing sociably together among one another, 
 hiss forth a mystic bubble, which hardens into the 
 semblance of a glass ring. The finder of this ring 
 is a lucky man, for all his undertakings will prosper 
 while he retains it. These rings are called Gleiniau 
 Nadroedd in Welsh — snake-stones in English. They 
 are supposed to have been used by the ancient 
 Druids as charms. There is a Welsh saying, 
 respecting people who lay their heads together in 
 conversation, that the talkers are 'blowing the gem.' 
 
 11. 
 
 The traditions connected with the Beltane fires 
 are very interesting, but the subject has received so 
 much attention in published volumes that it need 
 not here be dwelt upon. The lad who in the United 
 States capers around a bonfire on the night of Inde- 
 pendence Day has not a suspicion that he is imi- 
 tating the rites of an antiquity the most remote ; 
 that in burning a heap of barrels and boxes in a 
 public square the celebrators of the American Fourth 
 of July imitate the priests who thus worshipped the 
 sun-god Beal. The origins of our most familiar 
 customs are constantly being discovered in such 
 
 \ 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 279 
 
 directions as this. On the face of the thing, nothing 
 could be more absurd as a mode of jolHfication, in a 
 little American town, with its wooden architecture, 
 on a hot night in the midst of summer, than building 
 a roarlnof fire to make the air still hotter and en- 
 danger the surrounding houses. The reason for the 
 existence of such a custom must be sought in another 
 land and another time ; had reflection governed the 
 matter, instead of tradition, the American anniver- 
 sary would have found some more fitting means of 
 celebration than Druidic fires and Chinese charms. 
 (For it may be mentioned further, In this connection, 
 that the fire-crackers of our urchins are quite as 
 superstitious in their original purpose as the bonfire 
 is. In China, even to this day, fire-crackers are 
 charms pure and simple, their office to drive away 
 evil spirits, their use as a means of jollification quite 
 unknown to their inventors.) A far more sensible 
 Midsummer rite, especially in a hot country, would 
 have been to adopt the custom of St. Ulric's day, 
 and eat fish. This saint's day falls on the fourth of 
 July, and Barnabe Googe's translation of Naogeor- 
 gius has this couplet concerning it : 
 
 Wheresoeuer Huldryche hath his place, the people there brings in 
 Both carpes and pykes, and mullets fat, his fauour here to win. 
 
 III. 
 
 The Welsh saint called Cynog was one of the 
 numberless children of that famous old patriarch 
 Brychan Brycheiniog, and had his memory honoured, 
 until a comparatively recent period, in the parish 
 of Defynog. Here, on this saint's feast Monday, 
 which fell in October, there was a custom called 
 ' carrying Cynog.' Cynog was represented by a 
 man who was paid for his services with money, or 
 with a suit of clothes — sometimes a ' stranger ' from 
 
2 8o British Gob lifts. 
 
 an adjoining parish, but on the last recorded 
 occasion a drunken farmer of the neighbourhood. 
 He was clad in dilapidated garments, and borne 
 through the village ; after which he was tumbled 
 headlong into the river amid the jeers of the crowd, 
 to scramble out as best he might. It was not a 
 very respectful way of commemorating a saint who 
 had been buried a thousand years or thereabouts ; 
 but such as it was it died out early in the present 
 century. The ducking which ended the perform- 
 ance has been supposed to be a puritan improve- 
 ment on what was before a religious ceremony, or 
 mystery. It is more than possibly a relic of the 
 Druidic sacrificial rites ; in cases where a river ran 
 near, at the time of the Beltane fires, a sacrifice by 
 water was substituted for that of flame. 
 
 The feast of St. Cynog continued for a week. 
 On the Tuesday there was a singular marketing in 
 the churchyard ; from all about the farmers brought 
 their tithe of cheese, and taking it to the church- 
 yard, laid it on the tombstones, where it was sold 
 for the parson's behoof. 
 
 > 
 
 IV. 
 
 All Hallows eve is by the Welsh called ' Nos Calan 
 Gauaf,' meanhig 'the first night of winter;' some- 
 times, * Nos Cyn Gauaf,' the 'night before winter.' 
 It is one of the * Teir Nos Ysprydnos,' or ' three 
 nights for spirits,' upon which ghosts walk, fairies 
 are abroad, mysterious influences are in the air, 
 strange sights are seen, and in short goblins of 
 every sort are to be with special freedom encoun- 
 tered. They may be conjured to appear, by certain 
 enchantments, and to give their visitors glimpses 
 of the future, especially as regards the subject of 
 marrying. On this night it is customary for the 
 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 281 
 
 young people, gathered in many a merry circle, to 
 seek by tricks and charms of various sort to become 
 acquainted with their future lovers and sweethearts. 
 Not that it is always necessary to employ such 
 aids, for on the Teir Nos Ysprydnos the phantoms 
 of future companions have been known to appear 
 unsummoned There are many such stories as that 
 of Thomas Williams, the preacher, who slept in the 
 hills on a Nos Ysprydnos, and although he used no 
 charms nor tricks of any sort, he saw his future wife. 
 As he was just about putting out his light, having 
 jumped into bed, the door opened and the goblin 
 mother of the young woman he subsequently 
 married walked into the room, leading her daughter. 
 * Here, Thomas,' said she, ' 1 am going, but I 
 leave you Mary.' And when he came down home 
 out of the mountains he found that the old mother 
 had died in her bed at the very moment he saw her 
 goblin. To have done less than marry the girl, after 
 that, would have been to insult the good old lady's 
 ghost, and cast reflections on the reputation of All 
 Hallows eve. 
 
 The two other spirit-nights, it may here be 
 mentioned, are May-day eve and Midsummer eve ; 
 which with All Hallows were three great festivals 
 of the ancient Druids, when they commemorated 
 the powers of Nature and love in the manner which 
 has been alluded to. I have two accounts of this 
 matter, however, and I know not which is the older 
 in tradition, as I have both from the mouths of the 
 people ; but one account calls Christmas-night the 
 third spirit-night. 
 
 The festivities of All Hallows in Wales are in 
 the main like those of other Christian lands, in so 
 far as they consist of feasting and making merry. 
 Bonfires were kindled in many places until recently, 
 
282 British Goblins, 
 
 and perhaps are still, in some parts, again in pur- 
 suance of the Druidic rites, which the Christian 
 Church adopted and continued while changing their 
 significance. In Owen's account of the Bards 
 occurs a curious description of the autumnal fires 
 kindled in North Wales on the eve of the first of 
 November, and the attendant ceremonies. There 
 was running through the fire and smoke, and casting 
 of stones into the fire, ' all running off at the con- 
 clusion to escape from the black short-tailed sow.' ^ 
 This custom of running through the fire is said to 
 survive in Ireland. It is no doubt related to the 
 ancient sacrificial rites. As testimonies to the kin- 
 ship of our race, all these customs possess a deep 
 interest, which is increased in this direction as they 
 lose in the charm of the unique. 
 
 On the Welsh Border there prevails a Hallow- . 
 e'en custom among the children of going about to j 
 
 thp hnnc;pc; Qi'no-ino* thp rhvmpQ -whirh fnlloAAf ! t 
 
 the houses singing the rhymes which follow 
 
 Wissel wassel, bread and possel, 
 Cwrw da, pi as yma : 
 An apple or a pear, a plum or a cherry. 
 Or any good thing to make us merry. 
 
 Sol cakes, sol cakes, 
 
 Pray you, good missus, a sol cake ; 
 
 One for Peter, and two for Paul, 
 
 And three for the good man that made us all. 
 
 The roads are very dirty, 
 
 My shoes are very thin, 
 I've got a little pocket. 
 
 To put a penny in. 
 Up with the kettle and down with the pan, 
 Give us an answer and we'll be gan. 
 
 {A loud rap at the door.) 
 Spoken. Please to give us a 'apenny. 
 
 Some of these rhymes are heard in Glamorgan- 
 shire and elsewhere at Christmas and New Year's. 
 
 ^ Brand, ' Pop. Ant.,' i., 191. 
 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 283 
 
 The puzzling jug is a vessel in use in some quar- 
 ters as a means of increasing the hilarity of a Hallow- 
 e'en party. It is a stone jug, ' out of which each 
 person is compelled to drink. From the brim, ex- 
 tending about an inch below the surface, it has holes 
 fantastically arranged so as to appear like orna- 
 mental work, and which are not perceived except by 
 the perspicacious ; three projections, of the size and 
 shape of marbles, are around the brim, having a hole 
 of the size of a pea in each ; these communicate 
 with the bottom of the jug through the handle, which 
 is hollow, and has a small hole at the top, which, 
 with two of the holes being stopped by the fingers, 
 and the mouth applied to the one nearest the handle, 
 enables one to suck the contents with ease ; but this 
 trick is unknown to every one, and consequently a 
 stranger generally makes some mistake, perhaps 
 applying his mouth as he would to another jug, in 
 which case the contents (generally ale) issue through 
 the fissures on his person, to the no small diversion 
 of the spectators. ' ^ 
 
 Another merry custom of All Hallows was — and 
 is — twco am 'falau, bobbing for apples. A large 
 tub (crwc) is brought into the kitchen of a farm- 
 house and filled with water; a dozen apples are 
 thrown into it, and the rustic youths bob for them 
 with their mouths. To catch up two apples at a 
 single mouthful is a triumphant achievement. Again 
 the revellers will form a semicircle before the fire, 
 while there depends above their mouths from a hook 
 in the ceiling, a string with a stick attached. At 
 one end of the stick is an apple, at the other end a 
 candle. To snatch the apple with the lips, and yet 
 avoid the candle, is the aim of the competitors. 
 The stick is so hung that it turns easily on its axis, 
 
 1 ' Camb. Sup.,' I74- 
 
284 British Goblins. 
 
 
 and the bobbers often find themselves catching the 
 candle In their hair while aiming at the apple. This 
 appears to be a relic of the ancient Welsh game of 
 quintain, or gwyntyn. 
 
 V. 
 
 November the Fifth, the anniversary of the Gun- 
 powder Plot, is much observed in Wales. ' God 
 grant,' said Bishop Sanderson in one of his sermons, 
 ' that we nor ours ever live to see November the 
 Fifth forgotten, or the solemnity of it silenced.' The 
 words are similar to those used by a great Ame- 
 rican, of the early days of the Republic, with regard 
 to the 4th of July — God grant it might never be 
 forgotten. But the rites by which both days are 
 celebrated are as old as tradition, and much older 
 than history. As the Americans have given a his- 
 torical significance to bonfires and fireworks, so the 
 English before them did to sacrificing a puppet on 
 Guy Fawkes Day ; and so again some Catholic 
 nations have made the rite a religious one, in the 
 hanging of Judas. All three customs are traced to 
 the same original — the ancient Druidic sacrifices 
 to the sun-god Beal or Moloch. It is noteworthy 
 that the Fifth of November and the Fourth of July 
 — or rather the fiery features of these days — are 
 alike voted a nuisance by respectable and steady- 
 going people in the countries to which they respec- 
 tively belong. 
 
 VI. 
 
 On St. Clement's Day (the 23rd of November) it 
 was customary in Pembrokeshire in the last century 
 to parade an effigy of a carpenter, which had been 
 hung to the church steeple the night before. Cut- 
 ting the effigy down from where it hung, the people 
 carried it about the village, repeating loudly some 
 doggerel verses which purported to be the last will 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 285 i 
 
 and testament of St. Clement, distributing to the ' 
 
 different carpenters in town the several articles of j 
 
 dress worn by the effigy. After the image was j 
 thus stripped of its garments, one by one, the padded 
 
 remains were thrown down and carefully kicked to j 
 
 pieces by the crowd. ! 
 
286 British Goblins, 
 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Nadolig, the Welsh Christmas —Bell-Ringing — Carols — Dancing to 
 the Music of the Waits— An Evening in Carmarthenshire — Shenkin 
 Harry, the Preacher, and the Jig Tune — Welsh Morahty — Eistedd- 
 fodau — Decorating Houses and Churches — The Christmas Thrift- 
 box— The Colliers' Star — The Plygain — Pagan Origin of Christmas 
 Customs. 
 
 I. 
 
 We come now to the most interesting holiday 
 season of the year, by reason of its almost univer- 
 sality of observance among Christian peoples, and 
 the variety of customs peculiar to it. In the land 
 of Arthur and Merlin it is a season of such earnest 
 and wide-spread cordiality, such warm enthusiasm, 
 such hearty congratulations between man and man, 
 that I have been nowhere equally impressed with 
 the geniality and joyousness of the time. In some 
 Catholic countries one sees more merriment on the 
 day itself; indeed, the day itself is not especially 
 merry in Wales, at least in its out-door aspects. It 
 is the season rather than the day which is merry in 
 Wales. The festival is usually understood, through- 
 out Christendom, to include twelve days ; the Welsh 
 people not only make much of the twelve days, but 
 they extend the peculiar festivities of the season far 
 beyond those limits. Christmas has fairly begun in 
 Wales a week or two before Christmas-day. The 
 waits are patrolling the streets of Cardiff as early as 
 December 5th, and Christmas festivals are held as 
 early as December 19th, at which Christmas-trees 
 are displayed, and their boughs denuded of the toys 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 287 
 
 and lollipops in which the juvenile heart delights. 
 After Christmas-day the festival continues I know 
 not just how long, but apparently for weeks. 
 
 The characteristic diversions of the Christmas 
 season are, in the main, alike in all Christian coun- 
 tries. In Wales many well-known old customs are 
 retained which in some other parts of Great Britain 
 have disappeared, such as the mummers, the waits, 
 carols, bell-ringings, etc. Not only do the bell- 
 ringers of the several churches throughout the prin- 
 cipality do their handsomest on their own particular 
 bells, but there are grand gatherings, at special points, 
 of all the bell-ringers for leagues around, who vie 
 with each other in showing what feats they can per- 
 form, how they can astonish you with their majors, 
 bob-majors, and triple bob-majors, on the brazen 
 clangers of the steeples. At Cowbridge, for instance, 
 on Christmas will come together the ringers from 
 Aberdare, Penarth, St. Pagan's, Llantrisant, Llan- 
 blethian, and other places, thirty or forty in number, 
 and after they have rung till the air above the town 
 is black with flying clefs and quavers from the 
 steeples, they will all sit down to a jolly Christmas- 
 dinner at the Bear. The bands of waits, or ' pipers 
 of the watch,' who wake the echoes of the early 
 morning with their carols, are heard in every Welsh 
 town and village. In some towns there are several 
 bands and much good-natured rivalry. The uni- 
 versal love of music among the Welsh saves the 
 waits from degenerating into the woe-begone crea- 
 tures they are in some parts, where the custom has 
 that poor degree of life which can be kept in it by 
 shivering clusters of bawling beggars who cannot 
 sing. Regularly organised and trained choirs of 
 Welshmen perambulate the Cambrian country, 
 chanting carols at Christmas-tide, and bands of mu- 
 
288 Brtttsh Modems. 
 
 sicians play who, in many cases, would not discredit 
 the finest military orchestras. Carols are sung in 
 both Welsh and English ; and, generally, the waits 
 are popular. If their music be not good, they are 
 not tolerated ; irate gentlemen attack them savagely 
 and drive them off. Not exactly that boot-jacks 
 and empty bottles are thrown at them, but they are 
 excoriated in 'letters to the editor,' in which strong 
 language is hurled at them as intolerable nuisances, 
 ambulatory disturbers of the night's quiet, and in- 
 flicters of suffering upon the innocent. But such 
 cases are rare. The music is almost invariably 
 good, and the effect of the soft strains of melo- 
 diously-warbled Welsh coming dreamily to one's 
 ears through the darkness and distance on a winter 
 morning is sweet and soothing to most ears. Some- 
 times small boys will pipe their carols through the 
 key-holes. The songs vary greatly in character, but 
 usually the religious tone prevails, as in this case : 
 
 As I sat on a sunny bank, a sunny bank, a sunny bank, 
 
 All on a Christmas morning, 
 Three ships came sailing by, sailing by, sailing by. 
 Who do you think was in the ships ? 
 Who do you think was in the ships ? 
 Christ and the Virgin Mary. 
 
 Both English and Welsh words are sung. Some- 
 times a group of young men and women will be seen 
 dancing about the waits to the measure of their 
 music, in the hours ' ayont the twal.' In one aspect 
 the Welsh people may be spoken of as a people 
 whose lives are passed in the indulgence of their 
 love for music and dancing. The air of Wales seems 
 always full of music. In the Christmas season there 
 is an unending succession of concerts and of miscel 
 laneous entertainments. of which music forms a part,- 
 while you cannot enter an inn where a few are 
 
 •I 
 
 t 
 
Quaint Old Customs, 289 
 
 gathered together, without the imminent probability 
 that one or more will break forth in song. By this 
 is not meant a general musical howl, such as is apt 
 to be evoked from a room full of men of any nation- 
 ality when somewhat under the influence of the rosy 
 god, but good set songs, with good Welsh or 
 English words to them, executed with respect for 
 their work by the vocalists, and listened to with a 
 like respect by the rest of the company. When an 
 Englishman is drunk he is belligerent ; when a 
 Frenchman is drunk he is amorous ; when an Italian 
 is drunk he is loquacious ; when a Scotchman is 
 drunk he is argumentative ; when a German is 
 drunk he is sleepy ; when an American is drunk he 
 brags ; and when a Welshman is drunk he sings. 
 Sometimes he dances ; but he does not do himself 
 credit as a dancer under these circumstances ; for 
 when I speak of dancing I do not refer to those 
 wooden paces and inflections which pass for dancing 
 in society, and which are little more than an amiable 
 pretext for bringing in contact human elements 
 which are slow to mix when planted in chairs 
 about a room : I refer to the individual dancing of 
 men who do not dance for the purpose of touching 
 women's hands, or indulging in small talk, but for 
 the purpose of dancing ; and who apply themselves 
 seriously and skilfully to their work — to wit, the 
 scientific performance of a jig. 
 
 I chanced to pass one evening, in the Christmas- 
 time, at a country inn in a little Carmarthenshire 
 village remote from railways. Certain wanderings 
 through green lanes (and the lanes were still green, 
 although it was cold, mid-winter weather) had 
 brought me to the place at dusk, and, being weary, 
 I had resolved to rest there for the night. Some 
 local festivity of the season had taken place during 
 
290 jJrulsh ijohlins. 
 
 the day, which had drawn into the village an unusual 
 number of farmer-folk from the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood. After a simple dinner off a chop and a 
 half-pint of cwrw da, I strolled into what they called 
 the smoke-room, by way of distinguishing it from the 
 tap-room adjoining. It was a plain little apartment, 
 with high-backed wooden settles nearly up to the 
 ceiling, which gave an old-fashioned air of comfort 
 to the place. Two or three farmers were sitting 
 there drinking their beer and smoking their pipes, 
 and toastinor their trouserless shins before the blazinof 
 fire. Presently a Welsh harper with his harp entered 
 from out-doors, and, seating himself in a corner of 
 the room, began to tune his instrument. The room 
 quickly filled up with men and women, and though 
 no drinks but beer and ' pop ' were indulged in (save 
 that some of the women drank tea), Bacchus never 
 saw a more genial company. Some one sang an 
 English song with words like these : 
 
 Thrice welcome, old Christmas, we greet thee again, 
 
 With laughter and innocent mirth in thy train ; 
 
 Let joy fill the heart, and shine on the brow, 
 
 While we snatch a sweet kiss 'neath the mistletoe-bough — 
 
 The mistletoe-bough, 
 
 The mistletoe-bough, 
 We will snatch a sweet kiss 'neath the mistletoe-bough. 
 
 The words are certainly modern, and as certainly 
 not of a high order of literary merit, but they are ex- 
 tremely characteristic of life at this season in Wales, 
 where kissing under the mistletoe is a custom still 
 honoured by observance. There was dancing, too, 
 in this inn company — performed with stern and 
 determined purpose to excel, by individuals who 
 could do a jig, and wished to do it well. The 
 harper played a wild lilting tune ; a serious indi- 
 vidual who looked like a school-teacher took off his 
 hat, bowed to the company, jumped into the middle 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 291 
 
 of the floor, and began to dance like a madman. It 
 was a strange sight. With a face whose grave 
 earnestness relaxed no whit, with firmly compressed 
 lips and knitted brow, the serious person shuffled 
 and double-shuffied, and swung and teetered, and 
 flailed the floor with his rattling soles, till the 
 perspiration poured in rivulets down his solemn 
 face. The company was greatly moved ; enthusi- 
 astic ejaculations in Welsh and English were heard ; 
 shouts of approbation and encouragement arose ; 
 and still the serious person danced and danced, 
 ending at last with a wonderful pigeon-wing, and 
 taking his seat exhausted, amid a tremendous roar 
 of applause. 
 
 Scenes like this are common throughout Wales 
 at the Christmas-time ; and they contrast strangely 
 with the austerities of religious observance which 
 are everywhere proceeding. But there is not so 
 wide a chasm between the two as would exist in 
 some countries. The best church-members fre- 
 quently do not deem a little jollity of this sort a 
 hanging matter, and there are ministers who can do 
 a double-shuffle themselves if the worst comes to the 
 worst. A worthy pastor in Glamorganshire related 
 to me, with a suspicious degree of relish, a story 
 about two ministers who were once riding through 
 a certain village of Wales on horseback. One was 
 the Rev. Evan Harris, the other a celebrated old 
 preacher named Shenkin Harry. And, as they rode 
 on, Harris noticed his companion's legs twitching 
 curiously on his horse's sides. * Why, what ails your 
 leg?' he asked. 'Don't you hear the harp,' was 
 the reply, * in the public-house yonder? It makes 
 my old toes crazy for a jig.' But the moral tone of 
 Wales is certainly better, on the whole, than that of 
 most countries — better even than that of Great 
 
292 British Goblins, 
 
 Britain generally, I should say. There is, I know, 
 a prevailing impression quite to the contrary ; but it 
 is utterly absurd. It is an impression which has 
 grown, I imagine, out of English injustice to Welsh- 
 men in former times, allied to English ignorance in 
 those times concerning this people. Until within 
 the last hundred years, English writers habitually 
 wrote of Wales with contempt and even scurrility. 
 But no one can live in Wales and not form the 
 opinion that the Welsh are, in truth, an exception- 
 ally moral people ; and the nature of their public 
 entertainments throughout the Christmas-time en- 
 forces this conclusion. Stendhal's declaration that, 
 in true Biblical countries, religion spoils one day out 
 of seven, destroys the seventh part of possible 
 happiness, would find strong illustration in Wales. 
 It is not my purpose to argue whether the illustra- 
 tion would prove or disprove Stendhal's assertion, 
 though one might fairly ask whether religious people 
 are not, perhaps, as happy in going to church on 
 Sunday as irreligious people are in staying away. 
 
 II. 
 
 Let it not be supposed that there is any lack of 
 amusement on Christmas-day for people who are 
 willing to be amused in a God-fearing manner. 
 Although you cannot go to the theatre or the circus, 
 you can have a wide liberty of choice among 
 oratorios, concerts, examinations, exhibitions, eistedd- 
 fodau, and other odd diversions. Concerts especially 
 thrive. The halls in which they are held are 
 decorated with evergreens, and the familiar custom 
 is in Wales habitually and commonly associated with 
 the ancient Druids, who viewed the green twigs as 
 the symbols of perennial life. Thus a peculiar 
 poetic grace rests with a custom beautiful in itself, 
 
 I 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 293 
 
 and capable in any land of being poetized by any 
 one poetically inclined. Many of those unique 
 gatherings called eisteddfodau are held in different 
 parts of the principality, when poetry, music, and 
 essays, in Welsh and in English, are put forth by 
 the strivers in these Olympian games of intellect and 
 culture, after the prizes which in Hellas would have 
 given them crowns of olive-leaves instead of gold- 
 coins of the realm. When Pindar and Sophocles 
 handed in poems, and Herodotus competed among 
 the essayists, and Phidias and Praxiteles among the 
 cutters of stone, there was no Christmas, — but it is 
 claimed there were eisteddfodau, here in Wales ; ay, 
 and before that ; for has not Herodotus spoken of 
 the British bards who held them ? 
 
 III. 
 
 In the family circle, the rules which regulate the 
 Sabbath in Wales — which are almost as repressive 
 as those of bonnie Scotland, where, by the way, 
 Christmas-day is scarcely observed at all — are relaxed, 
 and the aspect of the home is as bright as can be. 
 The rooms are elaborately decorated with flowers 
 and evergreens, holly and ivy, ferns and rare plants. 
 In Glamorganshire, and other of the southern 
 counties looking on the sea, roses and hawthorn- 
 sprays may be sometimes seen in full bloom out-of- 
 doors at Christmas. The decoration of churches 
 is also elaborate beyond anything I have elsewhere 
 seen. It is a sight to behold, the preparations for 
 and the work of decorating a vast pile of ecclesiastical 
 buildings like Llandaff Cathedral — the huge quan- 
 tities of evergreens and holly, flowers, cedars, etc., 
 which are day by day accumulated by the ladies 
 who have the business in charge ; and the slow, 
 continual growth of forms of grace — arches, crosses, 
 
 u 2 
 
294 British Goblins. 
 
 wreaths, festoons ; green coverings to font, altar, 
 pulpit, choir-stalls, pillars, reredos, and rood-screen ; 
 panels faced with scarlet cloth bearing sacred 
 devices worked in evergreen ; the very window-sills 
 glowing with banks of colour — until all the wide 
 spaces in chancel, nave, and transepts, are adorned. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Of common prevalence formerly, and still ob- 
 served in numerous parishes, is the custom called 
 the Plygain, or watching for the dawn. This con- 
 sists in proceeding to the church at three o'clock on 
 Christmas morning, and uniting in a service which 
 is held by the light of small green candles made for 
 the purpose. Sometimes this ceremony is observed 
 at home, the people in a farmhouse holding a jolli- 
 fication on the Christmas eve, and sitting up all 
 night to greet the dawn. If the east wind blew on 
 the Christmas eve the circumstance was deemed 
 propitious in this connection. This wind was called 
 ' gwynt traed y meirw,' (the wind blowing over the 
 feet of the corpses,) because it blew towards the 
 foot of the graves in the churchyards. It was also 
 believed that the dumb animals paid their tribute 
 of respect to this night ; the bees would hum 
 loudly in their hives at midnight, and the cattle 
 in the cow-houses would bend their knees as in 
 adoration.^ 
 
 A Christmas-eve custom among Welsh colliers 
 is to carry from house to house a board stuck over 
 with lighted candles, or to wheel a handbarrow 
 containing a bed of clay in which the candles are 
 stuck. This is called 'the Star,' sometimes 'the 
 Star of Bethlehem,' and when stopping before a 
 house the men kneel about it and sing a carol. A 
 
 ^ * Cymru Fu,' 403. 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
Quaint Old Customs, 295 
 
 like custom exists in Belgium, among children. The 
 
 purpose is to solicit a Rhodd Nadolig, or Christmas 
 
 dft. 
 
 ^ V. 
 
 The British Boxing-day is well known, both as 
 to its customs and its origin. The Christmas-box, 
 or thrift-box, is still to be seen in barber shops in 
 Wales, fastened to the wall, or standing conveniently 
 under the looking-glass among the pots and brushes. 
 At one time the custom became such a nuisance 
 throughout Britain that an outcry was raised about 
 it. It got to that pass that the butcher and baker 
 would send their apprentices around among their 
 customers to levy contributions. The English 
 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in 1837, sent 
 a circular to the different embassies requesting their 
 excellencies and charges d'affaires to discontinue the 
 customary Christmas-boxes to the * messengers of 
 the Foreign Department, domestic servants of 
 Viscount Palmerston, foreign postmen, etc' The 
 nuisance is hardly less prevalent now. The faithful 
 postman in Wales not only expects to be remem- 
 bered at Christmas, but he expects to be given a 
 precise sum, and if he does not get it he is capable 
 of asking for it. In one case, a postman accustomed 
 to receive five shillings at a certain office, on asking 
 for his ' box,' was told the usual donor was absent 
 in London, whereupon he requested the clerk to 
 write up to him in London immediately on the sub- 
 ject. These things strike a stranger as very singular, 
 among a people usually so self-respecting. Warnings 
 are from time to time issued on this subject by those 
 in authority, but the custom is likely to survive so 
 long as it is not ranked outright with beggary. 
 Like the Christmas-tree, it is a graceful thing 
 among the children, or among friends or household 
 
296 British Goblins. 
 
 I 
 
 servants, if spontaneous ; but as a tax, it is an 
 odious perversion/ 
 
 VI. 
 
 The pagan origin of most of our Christmas cus- 
 toms is undoubted. Even the cheery Christmas- 
 tree is a symbol of heathen rites in times long ante- 
 dating Christ. The early Christian fathers, in 
 adopting the popular usages of their predecessors, 
 and bending them to the service of Christianity, 
 made wondrous little change in them, beyond the 
 substitution of new motives and names for the old 
 festivals peculiar to several seasons of the year. 
 The British Druids' feast of Alban Arthur, cele- 
 brating the new birth of the sun, occurred at our 
 Christmas time, and is still celebrated at Ponty- 
 pridd, Glamorganshire, every year. It begins on the 
 22nd of December, and lasts three days, during which 
 period the sun is supposed to fight with Avagddu, 
 the spirit of darkness, the great luminary having 
 descended into hell for that purpose. On the third 
 day he rose, and the bards struck their harps, re- 
 joicing that the sun had again been found. The 
 Pontypridd ceremonies are similar to those of Mid- 
 summer-day, already mentioned. The Arch-Druid 
 presides in the folds of the serpent circle — when he 
 can get there, that is, for he is old, past eighty, and 
 the Druidic hill is apt to be slippery with snow and 
 ice at this time of the year. He prays to the pagan 
 god, and perhaps chants a poem in Welsh.^ The 
 
 ^ Among those who last Christmas applied at my house for * his box, 
 sir, if you please '(as my maid put it), quite as a matter of course, were 
 the postman, the leader of the waits, the boy who brings the daily news- 
 papers, the bookseller's boy, the chimney-sweep, the dustman, the 
 grocer's man, etc., etc., no one of whom I had ever set eyes on. The 
 equal of this I never encountered, except in Paris, on \}c\QJour de Van. 
 
 ^ I give a free translation of this effort as delivered on Sunday, 
 December 24th, 1876 (which proved a mild day), and which I find 
 reported in the ' Western Mail ' of the 26th as follows : ' The day 
 
 1 
 
Quaint Old Ctistoms. 297 
 
 Druidic fires of the winter solstice feast were con- 
 tinued in customs like that which survived in Here- 
 fordshire until recent years, when on old Christmas- 
 eve thirteen fires were lighted in a cornfield, twelve 
 of them being in a circle round a central one which 
 burned higher than the rest. The circle fires were 
 called the Twelve Apostles, and the central one 
 the Virgin Mary. In a shed near by was a cow 
 with a plum-cake between or upon her horns, into 
 whose face a pail of cider was dashed, with a 
 rhyming address, and the cow tossing her horns 
 from her unexpected baptism naturally threw the 
 plum-cake down. If it fell forward, good harvests 
 were predicted ; if backward, the omen was evil. 
 A feast among the peasants followed. In the 
 Plygain in like manner survives the Druidic custom 
 of going to the sacred groves before dawn on this 
 morning, to greet the rising of the new-born sun 
 after his struggle with the evil principle. 
 
 of the winter solstice has dawned upon us ; httle is the smile and 
 the halo of Hea. The depth of winter has been reached, but the muse 
 of Wales is budding still. Cold is the snow on the mountains ; 
 naked are the trees, and the meadows are bare ; but while nature is 
 withering the muse of Wales is budding. When the earth is decked 
 in mourning, and the birds are silent, the muse of Wales, with its harp, 
 is heard in the gorsedd of the holy hill. On the stone ark, within the 
 circle of the caldron of Ceridwen, are throned the sons of Awen ; 
 though through their hair the frozen mist is wafted, their bosoms are 
 sympathetic and they rejoice. Peace, love, and truth, encircle our 
 throne ; throne without a beginning and without ending, adorned with 
 uchelwydd (mistletoe), symbol of perennial life. Tlie throne of the 
 British Bard — which remains a throne while other thrones decay into 
 dust around it : an everlasting throne ! The great wheel of ages 
 revolves and brings around our festivities ; repeating our joys it does 
 perpetually. Muse, awake ; awake, ye harps ; let not any part of the 
 year be forgotten wherein to crown usage (defod), morals (moes), and 
 virtue. The Saviour Hea is about to be born of the winter solstice. 
 He will rise higher still and higher shiningly, and we will have again a 
 new year. Haste hail, haste falhng snow, hasten rough storms of 
 winter — hasten away that we may see the happy evidences of the new 
 year.' 
 
298 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Courtship and Marriage — Planting Weeds and Rue on the Graves 
 Old Bachelors — Special Significance of Flowers in connection with 
 Virginity — The Welsh Venus— Bundling, or Courting Abed — Kissing 
 Schools — Rhamanta — Lovers' Superstitions — The Maid's Trick — 
 Dreaming on a Mutton Bone — Wheat and Shovel — Garters in a 
 Lovers' Knot — Egg-Shell Cake — Sowing Leeks— Twca and Sheath. 
 
 L 
 
 Welsh courtship is a thorough-going business, early- 
 entered upon by the boys and girls of the Princi- 
 pality ; and, consequently most Welsh women marry 
 young. The ancient laws of Howell the Good (died 
 948) expressly provided that a woman should be 
 considered marriageable from fourteen upwards, and 
 should be entitled to maintenance from that age 
 until the end of her fortieth year ; * that is to say, 
 from fourteen to forty she ought to be considered in 
 her youth.' By every sort of moral suasion it is 
 deemed right in Wales to encourage matrimony, 
 and no where are old bachelors viewed with less 
 forbearance. There used to be a custom — I know 
 not whether it be extinct now — of expressing the 
 popular disapprobation for celibacy by planting on 
 the graves of old bachelors that ill-scented plant, the 
 rue, and sometimes thistles, nettles, henbane, and 
 other unlovely weeds. The practice was even ex- 
 tended, most illiberally and unjustly, to the graves 
 of old maids, who certainly needed no such insult 
 added to their injury. Probably the custom was 
 never very general, but grew out of similar — but 
 other-meaning — customs which are still prevalent, 
 
 t 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 299 
 
 and which are very beautiful. I refer to the plant- 
 ing of graves with significant flowers in token of the 
 virtues of the dead. Thus where the red rose is 
 planted on a grave, its tenant is indicated as having 
 been in life a person of peculiar benevolence of 
 character. The flower specially planted on the 
 grave of a young virgin is the white rose. There 
 is also an old custom, at the funeral of a young 
 unmarried person, of strewing the way to the grave 
 with evergreens and sweet-scented flowers, and the 
 common saying in connection therewith is that the 
 dead one is going to his or her marriage-bed. Sad ex- 
 tremely, and touchingly beautiful, are these customs ; 
 but wherever such exist, there are sure to be ill-con- 
 ditioned persons who will vent spiteful feelings by 
 similar means. Hence the occasional affront to the re- 
 mains of antiquated single folk, who had been perhaps 
 of a temperament which rendered them unpopular. 
 
 The Welsh being generally of an affectionate dis- 
 position, courtship, as I have said, is a thorough- 
 going business. To any but a people of the strongest 
 moral and religious tendencies, some of their customs 
 would prove dangerous in the extreme ; but no 
 people so link love and religion. More of their 
 courting is done while going home from church than 
 at any other time whatever ; and the Welsh Venus 
 is a holy saint, and not at all a wicked Pagan cha- 
 racter like her classic prototype. ' Holy Dwynwen, 
 goddess of love, daughter of Brychan,' had a church 
 dedicated to her in Anglesea in 590 ; and for ages 
 her shrine was resorted to by desponding swains 
 and lovesick maidens. Her name — Dwyn, to carry 
 off, and wen, white — signifies the bearer off of the 
 palm of fairness ; and, ruling the court of love while 
 living, when dead 
 
 A thousand bleeding hearts her power invoked. 
 
300 British Goblins. 
 
 Throughout the poetry of the Cymric bards you 
 constantly see the severest moral precepts, and the 
 purest pictures of virtuous fehcity, mingHng in sin- 
 gularly perfect fusion with the most amorous strains. 
 Among the ' Choice Things ' of Geraint, the famous 
 Blue Bard, were : 
 
 A song of ardent love for the lip of a fair maid ; 
 A softly sweet glance of the eye, and love without wantonness ; 
 A secluded walking-place to caress one that is fair and slender ; 
 To reside by the margin of a brook in a tranquil dell of dry soil ; 
 A house small and warm, fronting the bright sunshine. 
 
 With these, versifications of all the virtues and 
 moralities. * In the whole range of Kymric poetry,* 
 says the learned Thomas Stephens,^ * there is not, I 
 venture to assert, a line of impiety.' 
 
 II. 
 
 The Welsh custom of Bundling, or courting abed, 
 needs no description. The Welsh words sopen and 
 
 sypio mean a bundle and to bundle, and they mean % 
 a squeezed-up mass, and to squeeze together ; but 
 there is a further meaning, equivalent to our word 
 
 baggage, as applied to a strumpet.^ The custom of ■: 
 
 bundling is still practised in certain rural neighbour- | 
 
 hoods of Wales. To discuss its moral character is | 
 
 not my province in these pages ; but I may properly "% 
 
 record the fact that its practice is not confined to the | 
 
 irreligious classes. It is also pertinent here to recall \ 
 
 the circumstance that among these people anciently, 1 
 
 courtship was guarded by the sternest laws, so that any \ 
 
 % 
 
 ^ Vide ' Lit. of the Kymry.' 
 
 ^ The Rev. Dr. Thomas, late President of Pontypool College, whose 
 acquaintance with Welsh customs is very extensive, (and to whose \ 
 erudition I have been frequently indebted during the progress of these \ 
 pages through the press,) tells me he never heard the word sopen or \ 
 sypio, synonymous with bundling, used for the old custom, but only 
 * caru yn y gwclu,' (courting abed.) 
 
Qtiaint Old Cttstoms. 301 
 
 other issue to courtship than marriage was practically 
 impossible. If a maiden forgot her duty to herself, 
 her parents, and her training, when the evil result 
 became known she was to be thrown over a 
 precipice ; the young man who had abused the 
 parents' confidence was also to be destroyed. 
 Murder itself was punished less severely. Customs 
 of promiscuous sleeping arose in the earliest times, 
 out of the necessities of existence in those primitive 
 days, when a whole household lay down together on 
 a common bed of rushes strewn on the floor of the 
 room. In cold weather they lay close together for 
 greater warmth, with their usual clothing on. 
 Caesar's misconception that the ancient Britons were 
 polyandrous polygamists evidently had here its 
 source. 
 
 It is only by breathing the very atmosphere of an 
 existence whose primitive influences we may thus 
 ourselves feel, that we can get a just conception of 
 the underlying forces which govern a custom like 
 this. Of course it is sternly condemned by every 
 advanced moralist, even In the neighbourhoods 
 where it prevails. An instance came to my know- 
 ledge but a short time ago, (in 1877,) where the 
 vicar of a certain parish (Mydrim, Carmarthenshire) 
 exercised himself with great zeal to secure its 
 abolition. Unfortunately, in this instance, the good 
 man was not content with abolishing bundling, he 
 wanted to abolish more innocent forms of courting ; 
 and worst of all, he turned his ethical batteries 
 chiefly upon the lads and lasses of the dissenting 
 congregation. Of course, it was not the vicar's 
 fault that the bundlers were among the meeting- 
 house worshippers, and not among the established 
 church-goers, but nevertheless it injured the im- 
 partiality of his championship in the estimation of 
 
302 British Goblins, 
 
 * the Methodys.' I am not sure the bundling might 
 not have ceased, in deference to his opinions, notwith- 
 standing, if he had not, in the excess of his zeal, 
 complained of the young men for seeing the girls 
 home after meeting, and casually stretching the 
 walk beyond what was necessary. Such inter- 
 meddling as this taxed the patience of the courting 
 community to its extreme limit, and it assumed a 
 rebellious front. The vicar, quite undaunted, pur- 
 sued the war with vigour ; he smote the enemy hip 
 and thigh. He returned to the charge with the 
 assertion that these young people had ' schools for 
 the art of kissing,' a metaphorical expression, I sup- 
 pose ; and that they indulged in flirtation. This was 
 really too much. Bundling might or might not be 
 an exclusively dissenting practice, but the most un- 
 reasonable of vicars must know that kissing and 
 flirtation were as universal as the parish itself ; and 
 so there was scoffing and flouting of the vicar, and, 
 as rebounds are proverbially extreme, I fear there 
 is now more bundling in Mydrim than ever. 
 
 III. 
 
 The customs of Rhamanta, or romantic divination, 
 by which lovers and sweethearts seek to pierce the 
 future, are many and curious, in all parts of Wales. 
 Besides such familiar forms of this widely popular 
 practice as sleeping on a bit of wedding-cake, etc., 
 several unique examples may be mentioned. One 
 known as the Maid's Trick is thus performed ; and 
 none must attempt it but true maids, or they will 
 get themselves into trouble with the fairies : On 
 Christmas eve, or on one of the Three Spirit Nights, 
 after the old folks are abed, the curious maiden puts 
 a good stock of coal on the fire, lays a clean cloth 
 on the table, and spreads thereon such store of eat- 
 
Qttaint Old Customs. 303 
 
 ables and drinkables as her larder will afford. 
 Toasted cheese is considered an appropriate luxury 
 for this occasion. Having prepared the feast, the 
 maiden then takes off all her clothing, piece by 
 piece, standing before the fire the while, and her last 
 and closest garment she washes in a pail of clear 
 spring water, on the hearth, and spreads it to dry 
 across a chair-back turned to the fire. She then 
 goes off to bed, and listens for her future husband, 
 whose apparition is confidently expected to come 
 and eat the supper. In case she hears him, she is 
 allowed to peep into the room, should there be a 
 convenient crack or keyhole for that purpose ; and 
 it is said there be unhappy maids who have believed 
 themselves doomed to marry a monster, from 
 having seen through a cranny the horrible spectacle 
 of a black-furred creature with fiery eyes, its tail 
 lashing its sides, its whiskers dripping gravy, 
 gorging itself with the supper. But if her lover 
 come, she will be his bride that same year. 
 
 In Pembrokeshire a shoulder of mutton, with 
 nine holes bored in the blade bone, is put under the 
 pillow to dream on. At the same time the shoes of 
 the experimenting damsel are placed at the foot of 
 the bed in the shape of a letter T, and an incantation 
 is said over them, in which it is trusted by the damsel 
 that she may see her lover in his every-day clothes. 
 
 In Glamorganshire a form of rhamanta still exists 
 which is common in many lands. A shovel being 
 placed against the fire, on it a boy and a girl put 
 each a grain of wheat, side by side. Presently these 
 edge towards each other ; they bob and curtsey, 
 or seem to, as they hop about. They swell and grow 
 hot, and finally pop off the shovel. If both grains 
 go off together, it is a sign the young pair will jump 
 together into matrimony ; but if they take different 
 
304 British Goblins, 
 
 directions, or go off at different times, the omen Is 
 unhappy. In Glamorganshire also this Is done : 
 A man gets possession of a girl's garters, and 
 weaves them into a true lover's knot, saying over 
 them some words of hope and love in Welsh. This 
 he puts under his shirt, next his heart, till he goes to 
 bed, when he places it under the bolster. If the 
 test be successful the vision of his future wife appears 
 to him in the night. 
 
 IV. 
 
 A curious rhamanta among farm-women Is thus 
 described by a learned Welsh writer : ^ The maiden 
 would get hold of a pullet's first ^g<g, cut it through 
 the middle, fill one half-shell with wheaten flour 
 and the other with salt, and make a cake out of the 
 ^gg, the flour, and the salt. One half of this she 
 would eat ; the other half was put in the foot of her 
 left stocking under her pillow that night ; and after 
 offering up a suitable prayer, she would go to sleep. 
 What with her romantic thoughts, and her thirst 
 after eating this salty cake. It was not perhaps sur- 
 prising that the future husband should be seen, in a 
 vision of the night, to come to the bedside bearing 
 a vessel of water or other beverage for the thirsty 
 maid. Another custom was to go into the garden 
 at midnight, In the season when ' black seed ' was 
 sown, and sow leeks, with two garden rakes. One 
 rake was left on the ground while the young woman 
 worked away with the other, humming to herself 
 the while, 
 
 Y sawl sydd i gydfydio, 
 Doed i gydgribinio ! 
 
 Or In English : 
 
 He that would a life partner be, 
 Let him also rake with me. 
 
 Cynddelw, * M anion Hynafiaethol,' 53. 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 305 
 
 There was a certain young Welshwoman who, 
 about eighty years ago, performed this rhamanta, 
 when who should come into the garden but her 
 master ! The lass ran to the house in great fright, 
 and asked her mistress, ' Why have you sent 
 master out into the garden to me?' * Wei, wel,' 
 replied the good dame, in much heaviness of heart, 
 * make much of my little children ! ' The mistress 
 died shortly after, and the husband eventually mar- 
 ried the servant. 
 
 The sterner sex have a form of rhamanta in 
 which the knife plays a part. This is to enter the 
 churchyard at midnight, carrying a twca, which is a 
 sort of knife made out of an old razor, with a handle 
 of sheep or goat-horn, and encircle the church edifice 
 seven times, holding the twca at arm's length, and 
 saying, ' Dyma'r twca, p'le mae'r waiii ?' (Here's 
 the twca — where's the sheath ?) 
 
3o6 British Goblins. 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Wedding Customs — The Bidding — Forms of Cymmhorth — The 
 Gwahoddwr — Horse-Weddings — SteaHng a Bride — Obstructions 
 to the Bridal Party — The Gwyntyn —Chaining — Evergreen Arches 
 — Strewing Flowers — Throwing Rice and Shoes — Rosemary in 
 the Garden — Names after Marriage — The Coolstrin — The Ceffyl 
 Pren. 
 
 I. 
 
 Wales retains several ancient customs in connec- 
 tion with weddings, which are elsewhere extinct. 
 No one who has ever paid any attention to Wales and 
 its ways can have failed to hear of that most 
 celebrated rite the Bidding, which is, however, one 
 of several picturesque survivals less well known to j 
 the outer world. The Bidding wedding must be \ 
 spoken of as an existing custom, although it be con- \ 
 fined to rural neighbourhoods in South Wales, and to 
 obscure and humble folk. Those who strive to prove 
 that all such customs are obsolete everywhere— a 
 thankless and even ungraceful task, it seems to me — 
 will not admit that the Bidding has been known since 
 1870. I have evidence, however, that in Pembroke, 
 Cardigan, and Carmarthen shires, the custom did not 
 cease on the date named, and there is every proba- 
 bility that it prevails to-day. Nothing could be of 
 smaller importance, it is true, than the precise date 
 on which a given custom recently ceased, since any 
 one may revive it next year who chooses to do so. 
 The Bidding is an invitation sent by a couple who 
 are about to be married, soliciting the presence and 
 donations of the neighbours on their behalf. The 
 
Quaint Old Cttstoms. 307 
 
 presents may be either sums of money or necessaries. 
 Gifts of bread, butter, cheese, tea, sugar, and the 
 like, are common, and sometimes articles of farming 
 stock and household furniture. All gifts of money 
 are recognized by a sort of promissory note, i.e., by 
 setting down the name and residence of the donor, 
 with the amount given ; and when a like occasion 
 arises on the part of the giver, the debt is religiously 
 paid. The obligation is an absolute one, and its 
 legality has actually been recognized by the Court 
 of Great Sessions at Cardiff. The gift is even 
 claimable under other circumstances than the donor s 
 getting married. Another sort of contribution Is 
 the eatables and drinkables which are set before the 
 guests ; these are only repayable when required on 
 a like occasion. 
 
 The method of bidding the guests was until lately 
 through a personage called the gwahoddwr (Invlter 
 or bidder) who tramped about the country some days 
 beforehand, proclaiming the particulars to everybody 
 he met. He usually recited a doggerel set of 
 rhymes before and after the special Invitation — a 
 composition of his own, or understood to be such, 
 for rhyme-making was a part of the talent of a 
 popular bidder. Frequently no little humour was 
 displayed in the bidding song. But since the printing 
 press became the cheap and ready servant of the 
 humblest classes, the occupation of the bidder has 
 gradually fallen to decay ; a printed circular serves 
 In his place. At the shop of a printer in Carmarthen 
 I procured a copy of the following bidding circular, 
 which may be a real document, or a fictitious one : 
 
 Carmarthenshire, July 4TH, 1862. 
 
 As we intend to enter the Matrimonial State, on Wednesday, the 
 30th of July instant, we purpose to make a Bidding on the occasion, 
 the same day, at the Young Man's Father's House, called Ty'r Bwci, 
 
 X 
 
3o8 British Goblins. 
 
 in the Parish of Llanfair ar y Bryn, when and where the favour of | 
 
 your good and agreeable company is respectfully soHcited, and what- \ 
 
 ever donation you may be pleased to confer on us then will be thank- ii 
 
 fully received, warmly acknowledged, and cheerfully repaid whenever 1 
 called for on a similar occasion. 
 
 By your most obedient Servants, j; 
 
 Owen Gwyn, j 
 Elen Morgan. 
 
 The Young Man, his Father and Mother (Llewelyn and Margaret 
 Gwyn, of Ty'r Bwci), his Brother (Evan Gwyn, Maes y Blodau), his 
 Sisters (Gwladys and Hannah), and his Aunt (Mary Bowen, Llwyn y 
 Fedwen, Llannon), desire that all gifts of the above nature due to them 
 be returned to the Young Man on the above day, and will be thank- 
 ful for all additional favours granted. 
 
 The Young Woman, her Father (Rhys Morgan, Castell y Moch) 
 and her Brothers and Sister (Howel, Gruffydd, and Gwenllian 
 Morgan), desire that all gifts of the above nature due to them be 
 returned to the Young Woman on the above day, and will be thankful 
 for all additional favours conferred on her. 
 
 The Young Man's company will meet in the Morning at Ty'r Bwci ; 
 and the Young Woman's at Pant y Clacwydd, near the Village of 
 Llansadwrn. 
 
 The Bidding is sometimes held on the day of the 
 wedding, and sometimes on the day and night before 
 it ; the custom varies in different districts, as all 
 these customs do. When the latter is the case, the 
 night is an occasion of great merry-making, with much 
 consumption of cwrw da, and dancing to the music 
 of the harp, for poor indeed would be the Welsh 
 community that could not muster up a harper. This 
 festival is called Nos Blaen, or preceding night, and 
 is a further source of income to the couple, from the 
 sale of cakes and cwrw. * Base is the slave who 
 pays ' is a phrase emphatically reversed at a Welsh 
 wedding. 
 
 The Bidding is but one form of a feature of Welsh 
 life which extensively prevails, known by the term 
 Cymmhorth. The Bidding is a Priodas Cymmhorth ; 
 the Cyfarfod Cymmhorth, or Assistance Meeting, is 
 much the same thing, minus the wedding feature. 
 
 J 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 
 
 309 
 
 The customs of the latter festival are, however, often 
 of a sort distinctly tending toward matrimonial 
 
 THE OLD-TIME GWAHODDWR. 
 
 results as an eventuality. A number of farmer girls 
 of the humbler sort will gather at a stated time 
 
 X 2 
 
3IO British Goblins, 
 
 and place to give a day's work to one needing as- 
 sistance, and after a day spent in such toil as may be 
 required, the festival winds up with jollity in the 
 evening. The day is signalized on the part of those 
 youths of the neighbourhood who are interested in 
 the girls, by tokens of that interest in the shape of 
 gifts. The lass who receives a gift accompanied by 
 a twig of birch Is thereby assured of her lover's 
 constancy. To her whom the young man would 
 inform of his change of heart, a sprig of hazel 
 is given. An earlier feature of this ceremony was 
 the Merry Andrew, who presented the gifts in the 
 name of the lover. This personage was disguised 
 fantastically, and would lead the young woman he 
 selected into another room, where he would deliver 
 the gift and whisper the giver's name. 
 
 The antiquity of the Bidding as a local custom Is 
 undoubted. The old-time gwahoddwr was a person 
 of much Importance, skilled in pedigrees and family 
 traditions, and himself of good family. A chieftain 
 would assume the character in behalf of his vassal, 
 and hostile clans respected his person as he went 
 about from castle to castle, from hall to hall. He 
 bore a garlanded staff as the emblem of his office, 
 and on entering a dwelling would strike his staff 
 upon the floor to command the attention of the group 
 before hirA, and then begin his address. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Horse-Wedding Is of more ancient origin 
 than the Bidding, and Is still a living custom in some 
 parts of Wales, especially Carmarthenshire and 
 western Glamorganshire. It was In other days 
 common throughout South Wales, and was scolded 
 about by old Malkin (generally very cordial in his 
 praise of Welsh customs) in these spicy terms : ' 111 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 3 1 1 
 
 may it befal the traveller, who has the misfortune of 
 meeting a Welsh wedding on the road. He would 
 be inclined to suppose that he had fallen in with a 
 company of lunatics, escaped from their confinement. 
 It is the custom of the whole party who are invited, 
 both men and women, to ride full speed to the 
 church porch, and the person who arrives there first 
 has some privilege or distinction at the marriage 
 feast. To this important object all inferior consider- 
 ations give way ; whether the safety of his majesty's 
 subjects, who are not going to be married, or their 
 own, incessantly endangered by boisterous, unskilful 
 and contentious jockeyship.' ^ Glamorganshire is 
 here spoken of. The custom varies somewhat in 
 different localities, but it preserves the main feature, 
 to force the bride away from her friends, who then 
 gallop after her to church, arriving toujour s trop tard, 
 of course, like the carabineers in ' Les Brigands.' 
 
 There have been cases, however, when the bride 
 was caught by a member of the pursuing party, and 
 borne away — an incident which occurred in the 
 knowledge of an acquaintance, who related it to me. 
 As may readily be inferred, the bride in this case 
 was not unwilling to be caught ; in fact she was 
 averse to marrying the man who was taking her to 
 church, and who was her parent's choice, not her own. 
 The lover who had her heart caught up with her by 
 dint of good hard riding, and whisked her on his 
 horse within sight of the church-door, to the intense 
 astonishment of the bridegroom, who gazed at them 
 open-mouthed as they galloped away. He thought 
 at first it was a joke, but as the lovers disappeared 
 in the distance the truth dawned upon him : a Welsh 
 custom had served something like its original pur- 
 pose. 
 
 1 Malkin's ' South Wales,' 67. 
 
312 British Goblins. 
 
 But usually, the whole performance is a vehicle for 
 fun of the most good-natured and innocent sort. It 
 begins by the arrival of the neighbours on horseback 
 at the residence of the expectant bridegroom. An 
 eye-witness to a certain wedding gathering in Gla- 
 morganshire a few years ago states that the horsemen 
 exceeded one hundred in number. From among 
 them a deputation was chosen to go (still on horse- 
 back) to the bride's residence to make formal demand 
 for her. Her door was barred inside, and the 
 demand was made in rhyme, and replied to in the 
 same form from within. It often happens that a 
 brisk contest of wits signalizes this proceeding, for if 
 the voice of any one within is recognized by one of 
 those outside, his personal peculiarities are made the 
 subject of satirical verses. A voice inside being 
 recognized as that of a man who was charged with 
 sheep-stealing, this rhyme was promptly shouted at 
 him : 
 
 Gwrando, leidr hoyw'r ddafad, 
 Ai ti sydd yma heddy w'n geidwad ? 
 Ai dyna y rheswm cloi y drysau, 
 Rhag dwyn y wreigan liw dydd goleu ? 
 
 (Ah, sheep-stealer, art thou a guardian of the fair one ? If the 
 doors were not locked thou wouldst steal the bride in broad daylight.) 
 
 The doors are opened in the end, of course, and after 
 refreshments the wedding party gallops off to church. 
 The bride is stolen away and borne off to a distance 
 on her captor s horse, but only in sport ; her captor 
 brings her back to the church, where she is quietly 
 married to the proper person. Sometimes the pre- 
 caution is taken of celebrating the marriage privately 
 at an early hour, and the racing takes place after- 
 ward. 
 
 Obstructions are raised by the bride's friends, 
 to prevent the bridegroom's party from coming to 
 her house, and these difficulties must be overcome 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 313 
 
 ere the bride can be approached. Sometimes a mock 
 battle on the road is a feature of the racing to church. 
 The obstructions placed in the road in jformer days 
 included the Gwyntyn, a sort of game of skill which 
 seems to have been used by most nations in Europe, 
 called in English the quintain. It was an upright 
 post, upon which a cross-piece turned freely, at one 
 end of which hung a sand-bag, the other end pre- 
 senting a flat side. At this the rider tilted with his 
 lance, his aim being to pass without being hit in the 
 rear by the sand-bag. Other obstructions in use are 
 ropes of straw and the like. 
 
 There is a Welsh custom called Chaining, which 
 probably arose out of the horse-wedding, and still 
 prevails. In the village of Sketty, Glamorganshire, 
 in August, 1877, I saw a chaining, on the occasion of 
 a marriage between an old lady of eighty and a man 
 of fifty. The affair had made so much talk, owing to 
 the age of the bride, that the whole village was in 
 the streets. While the wedding ceremony was in 
 progress, a chain was stretched across the street, 
 forming a barrier which the wedding party could not 
 pass till the chainers were ' tipped.' The driver of the 
 carriage containing the newly wedded pair was an 
 Englishman, and ignorant of the custom, at which he 
 was naturally indignant. His angry efforts to drive 
 through the barrier made great sport for the 
 Welshmen. 
 
 The origin of the Welsh horse-wedding may be 
 traced to the Romans, if no further back, and may 
 thus be connected with the rape of the Sabines. 
 That the Romans had an exactly similar custom is 
 attested by Apuleius, and it is said to have been 
 established by Romulus in memory of the Sabine 
 virgins. It is not improbable that the Romans may 
 have left the custom behind them when they quitted 
 
314 British Goblins, 
 
 this territory in the fifth century, after nearly three 
 hundred years' rule. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Among the wealthier classes of Wales, certain 
 joyous and genial wedding customs prevail, such as 
 are common in most parts of the British isles, but 
 which do not reappear in the new world across the 
 Atlantic, — a fact by which American life is a heavy 
 loser, in my opinion. When the Rector of Merthyr's 
 daughter (to use the form of speech common) was 
 married, a few months since, the tenants of the estate 
 erected arches of evergreens over the roads, and 
 adorned their houses with garlands, and for two or 
 three days the estate was a scene of festivity, ending 
 with the distribution of meat to the poor of the 
 parish. Such festivities and such decorations are com- 
 mon on the estates of the country gentry not only, 
 but in the towns as well. At Tenby, when the High 
 Sheriffs son was married to the Rector of Tenby's 
 daughter, in 1877, garlands of flowers were hung 
 across the High Street, bearing pleasant mottoes, 
 while flags and banners fluttered from house-tops in 
 all directions. Children strewed flowers in the bride's 
 path as she came out of church, while the bells in 
 the steeple chimed a merry peal, and a park of 
 miniature artillery boomed from the pier-head. This 
 custom of children strewing flowers in the path of 
 the new-made bride is common ; so also is that of 
 throwing showers of rice after the wedded pair, by 
 way of expressing good wishes — a pleasanter thing 
 to be thrown under these circumstances than the old 
 shoes of tradition. However, since fashion has 
 taken up the custom of rice-throwing and shoe- 
 throwing, the shoes have become satin slippers. 
 
 As far back as the i6th century, throwing an 
 old shoe after any one going on an important errand 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 315 
 
 was deemed lucky in Wales. It is thought that in 
 the case of a bride, the custom is derived from the 
 old Jewish law of exchange, when a shoe was given 
 in token that the parents for ever surrendered all 
 dominion over their daughter. But a precisely 
 similar custom prevails in China, where it is usual 
 for the bride to present her husband with a pair of 
 shoes, by way of signifying that for the future she 
 places herself under his control. ' These are carefully 
 preserved in the family and are never given away, 
 like other worn-out articles, it being deemed, that to 
 part with them portends an early separation between 
 husband and wife. '^ The custom of rice-throwing is 
 also Chinese, the rice being viewed as a sign of 
 abundance. In Sicily, as in some parts of England, 
 wheat is thrown on the bride's head ; in Russia, a 
 handful of hops ; in the north of England a plateful 
 of shortcake ;^ in Yorkshire, bits of the bride-cake. 
 All these customs, while popularly done ' for luck,' 
 are apparently symbolical of the obedience and the 
 fruitfulness of the newly-wedded wife. And as in 
 Scandinavia the bride tries to get her husband to 
 pick up her handkerchief as an omen of his obeying 
 instead of compelling obedience, so in China the 
 bride tries to sit on a part of her husband's dress. 
 The vulgar story and adage, ' Bandbox now, band- 
 box always,' expresses the superstition succinctly. 
 
 There is a saying current on the Welsh border, 
 that when rosemary flourishes in the garden of a 
 married pair, the lady 'rules the roast,' as the 
 phrase is — though if there is anything a woman 
 should rule, one would think the ' roast ' is that 
 thing. ' That be rosemary, sir,' said an old gardener 
 in Herefordshire, pointing to where the plant grew; 
 
 ^ Dennys, ' Folk-Lore of China,' i8. 
 ^ Henderson, ' Notes on Folk- Lore,' 22. 
 
3i6 British Goblins. 
 
 * they say It grows but where the missus is master, 
 and it do grow here Hke wildfire.' The idea of 
 feminine obedience to masculine will, merely because 
 it is masculine, is in itself looked upon as a super- 
 stition by all cultivated people in these days, I 
 suppose. Sex aside, if the truth were known, it 
 would be found that the stronger is the ruler, in all 
 lands, under all customs, be the outward show of 
 the ruling more or less ; and it is not always where 
 the public sees it most clearly, or fancies it does, 
 that the rule of the dame is sternest. The strength 
 here employed is not virile strength ; there is nothing 
 necessarily masculine about it. The severest 
 mistress of her lord I ever knew was a feeble little 
 woman with hands like a baby's, and a face of wax, 
 with no more will-power apparently than a week- 
 old kitten, but whose lightest whim lay on her lord 
 like iron, and was obeyed as faithfully as if it were 
 backed by a cat-o'-nine-tails and a six-shooter. 
 
 To return for a moment to our Welsh wedding 
 customs among the wealthier classes. When the 
 couple return from their bridal tour, the fun often 
 begins all over again. Thus at Lampeter, on the 
 edge of Cardiganshire, last September, when Mr. 
 and Mrs. Jones of Glandennis (Jones of Glandennis, 
 Roberts of the Dingle, Williams of Pwlldu, — such 
 cognomens take the place in Wales of the distinctive 
 names which separate Englishmen one from another, 
 and from Jones of Nevada), — when Jones of 
 Glandennis brought home his bride, the whole 
 neighbourhood was agog to greet them. Thousands 
 of people gathered in a field near the station, 
 and passed their time in athletic sports till the train 
 arrived, when they woke the echoes with their cheers. 
 The Joneses entered their carriage, the horses were 
 unharnessed, and a long procession of tenantry, 
 
 ri 
 
Quaint Old Ctistoms. 317 
 
 headed by a brass band, dragged the carriage all the 
 way to Glandennis, two miles off, some bearing 
 torches by the side of the carriage. Arches of 
 evergreens were everywhere ; and when they got to 
 the house, nothing would do but Mrs. Jones must 
 appear at a window and make a little speech of 
 thanks to the crowd ; which she did accordingly — 
 a thing in itself shocking to superstitious ideas 
 of chivalry, but in strictest accord with the true 
 chivalric spirit toward woman. Then fireworks 
 blazed up the sky, and bonfires were lighted on 
 the tops of all the adjoining hills. Lampeter town 
 was illuminated, and nobody went to bed till the 
 small hours. 
 
 After marriage, Welshwomen still in some cases 
 retain their maiden names, a custom formerly 
 universal among them. The wife of John Thomas, 
 though the mother of a houseful of children, may be 
 habitually known among her neighbours as Betty 
 Williams. In other cases, she not only assumes her 
 husband's name, but the name of his calling as well ; 
 if he is Dick Shon the tailor, she is simply Mrs. Dick 
 Shon the tailor. 
 
 V. 
 
 A custom called the Coolstrin is now apparently 
 obsolete, unless in occasional rural communities 
 remote from railroads. It resembles the old custom 
 once known in certain parts of England, called the 
 skimitry or skimmington, in which a man whose 
 wife had struck him was forced to ride behind a 
 woman, with his face to the horse's tail, while a band 
 of pans and cow-horns made music for them. The 
 Welsh custom is, however, more elaborate, and more 
 comical, while it is less severe on the man. A 
 husband who is suspected of having a termagant 
 wife, is made the subject of espionage. If it be found 
 
3i8 British Goblins. 
 
 I 
 
 that he drinks his mug of ale standing, with his eye 
 twinkhng toward the door, the circumstance is con- 
 sidered most suspicious. Efforts are accordingly 
 made to induce the henpecked man to stay and be 
 merry, and if he can be made drunk a great point is 
 gained, as then a squad of volunteers take him 
 inside his own door and critically observe his recep- 
 tion. A moral point involved appears to be that a 
 henpecked husband is a disgrace to manhood in 
 general ; and the purpose of the coolstrin is to reform 
 it altogether. However, although it may even be 
 proved that a woman is in the habit of cuffing her 
 husband, the case does not come under the juris- 
 diction of the coolstrin court until she has * drawn 
 blood on him/ Then the court is convened. It 
 is composed, no doubt, of any rakehelly youngsters, 
 married or single, who are ripe for sport. One of 
 them is chosen for judge ; a special point is that he 
 must be a married man who is not afraid of his wife ; 
 and he is invested with robe and gown, that is to 
 say, the collar-bone of a horse is set on his head, 
 around the crown of a slouch hat, and a bed-quilt is 
 made fast to his shoulders. He marches through 
 the streets, with a youth behind him bearing his 
 bed-quilt train, and mounts a chosen wall for a judge's 
 bench. Officers with long white wands range 
 themselves solemnly on either side of him ; men are 
 chosen as advocates ; and a posse of rustics with 
 pitchforks keeps order. The court is opened by a 
 crier who calls on all good men who as yet wear 
 their own clos,^ to attend the court. The case is 
 argued by the advocates ; witnesses are examined 
 to prove, first, that the man is henpecked, second, 
 that his wife has struck him and drawn blood with 
 the blow. In one case it was proved that the wife 
 
 * Breeches. 
 
Quaini Old Customs. 319 
 
 had knocked her beery lord down, and that his nose, 
 striking a stool, had bled. The wife's advocate 
 nearly gravelled the judge, by holding that blood 
 drawn by a stool could not be said to have been 
 drawn by the woman. The judge got over this by 
 deciding that if the woman had taken the stool by 
 one of its three legs, and hit the man, drawing blood, 
 the blood would be clearly chargeable to her. ' And 
 where is the difference,' asked he, triumphantly, 
 ' between knocking the stool against him, and 
 knocking him against the stool ? ' The woman was 
 found guilty. ' For,' said the prosecuting attorney 
 indignantly, ' if a man shan't drink a blue of beer 
 with a neighbour or so, to what won't it come ? ' 
 Her condemnation followed ; to be ridden on the 
 Ceffyl Pren. A derisive procession was formed, and 
 two fellows were rigged up to personate the husband 
 and wife. The male bore a broom, and the female 
 brandished a ladle, and the two were paraded 
 through the town. A band of ' musicians ' marched 
 before them, beating frying-pans with marrow bones, 
 banging gridirons and kettles with pokers, tongs 
 and shovels, and two playing on a fife and drum. 
 These were followed by two standard bearers, one 
 bearing a petticoat on top of a pole, the other a 
 pair of breeches in the same manner. Other orts and 
 ends of rabble made up the procession, which with 
 antic and grimace marched about the village and 
 neighbourhood. The orgie ended by the planting 
 in front of the culprit's house of the pole and 
 petticoat, and the pelting of it with addled eggs, 
 stones, and mud, till it fell to the ground. The 
 noble bifurcated emblem of manhood, the clos, was 
 then elevated proudly aloft, and the woman's 
 punishment was deemed complete. 
 
 This is the story of a rural village in Glamorgan- 
 
m 
 
 320 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 shire. The custom was known in other counties, 
 and varied in its details. In Breconshire, the 
 virago was punished through the ceffyl pren merely 
 by the moral influence of parading it before her 
 cottage. Quarrelsome wives were said to stand in 
 great and constant dread of its possible appearance 
 before their doors. In Cardiganshire, on the con- 
 trary, the custom termed the coolstrin is vice versa, 
 and it is only husbands who ill-use their wives who 
 are amenable to its discipline. 
 
(• 321 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Death and Burial— The Gwylnos— Beer-drinking at Welsh Funerals — 
 Food and Drink over the Coffin — Sponge Cakes at Modern 
 Funerals — The Sin-eater— Welsh Denial that this Custom ever 
 existed — The Testimony concerning it — Superstitions regarding 
 Salt— Plate of Salt on Corpse's Breast— The Scapegoat— The 
 St. Tegla Cock and Hen — Welsh Funeral Processions — Praying 
 at Cross-roads — Superstition regarding Criminals' Graves— Hang- 
 ing and Welsh Prejudice — The Grassless Grave — Parson's Penny, 
 or Offrwm— Old Shoes to the Clerk— Arian y Rhaw, or Spade 
 Money— Burials without Coffin— The Sul Coffa— Planting and 
 Strewing Graves with Flowers. 
 
 I. 
 
 With the growth of modern refinement the people 
 of every land have become constantly more decorous 
 in their grief. The effort of the primitive and 
 untutored mind to utter its sorrow in loud and wild 
 lamentations, and of friends and neighbours to divert 
 the mind of the sufferer from his bereavement, gave 
 rise to many funeral customs of which we still find 
 traces in Wales. Pennant, while travelling in North 
 Wales, noted, with regard to one Thomas Myddleton, 
 a fact which he held ' to prove that the custom of the 
 Irish howl, or Scotch Coranich, was in use among 
 us (the Welsh) ; for we are told he was buried "cum 
 magno dolore et clamore cognatorum et propin- 
 quorum omnium.'" No such custom now exists ; but 
 there is a very impressive rite, of a corresponding 
 character, but religious, called the Gwylnos. It is a 
 meeting held in the room where the corpse is lying, 
 on the night before the funeral. The Irish cry, 
 ' Why did ye die ? ' is replaced by pious appeals to 
 
322 British Goblins, 
 
 Heaven, in which great and strong emotion is ex- 
 pressed, the deceased referred to in stirring sentences, 
 and his death made a theme for warnings on the 
 brevity of earth-Hfe and the importance of the future 
 life of the soul. 
 
 On the day of the funeral, however, the customs 
 are not always in keeping with modern notions of 
 the praiseworthy. Indulgence in beer-drinking at 
 funerals is still a Welsh practice, and its antiquity is 
 indicated by a proverb : ' Claddu y marw, ac at y 
 cwrw' — (To bury the dead, and to the beer.) ^ The 
 collection of Welsh writings called ' Cymru Fu ' 
 refers to the custom thus, (to translate :) ' Before the 
 funeral procession started for the church, the nearest 
 friends and relatives would congregate around the 
 corpse to wail and weep their loss ; while the rest of 
 the company would be in an adjoining room drinking 
 warm beer (cwrw brwd) and smoking their pipes ; 
 and the women in still another room drinking tea 
 together.' ^ The writer here speaks of the custom in 
 the past tense, but apparently rather as a literary 
 fashion than to indicate a fact ; at any rate, the cus- 
 tom is not extinct. Occasionally it leads to appear- 
 ances in the police-court on the part of injudicious 
 mourners.^ After taking the coffin out of the house 
 and placing it on a bier near the door, it was formerly 
 customary for one of the relatives of the deceased to 
 distribute bread and cheese to the poor, taking care 
 to hand it to each one over the coffin. These poor 
 
 * So the Spanish say, * The dead to the bier, the hving to good 
 cheer.* ^ ' Cymru Fu,' 91. 
 
 ^ 'Two Llancaiach men named Servis and Humphrey were arrested 
 for fighting. ' They had been to a funeral^ had done the customary 
 honours by the remains of the departed brother or sister who had 
 suffered, died, and was " chested," and then, after drowning their grief 
 in the " cwrw," finished up in the poHce-court with a filiate involving 
 the payment of 5^-. and costs, and 8j. %d. damage, or in default twenty- 
 one days' hard labour.' — 'Western Mail,' Jan. 31, 1877. 
 

 Quaint Old Customs. 
 
 3'^3 
 
 people were usually those who had, in expectation 
 of this gift, been busily engaged in gathering flowers 
 
 GIVING FOOD OVER THE COFFIN. (From an old drazving.) 
 
 and herbs with which to grace the coffin. Some- 
 times this dole was supplemented by the gift of a loaf 
 
 Y 
 
324 British Goblins. 
 
 of bread or a cheese with a piece of money placed 
 inside it. After that a cup of drink was presented, 
 and the receiver was required to drink a little of it 
 immediately.^ Alluding to this subject the Rev. 
 E. L. BarnwelP says : ' Although this custom is no 
 longer in fashion, yet it is to some extent represented 
 by the practice, especially in funerals of a higher 
 class, to hand to those who are invited to attend the 
 funeral, oblong sponge cakes sealed up in paper, 
 which each one puts into his or her pocket, but the 
 providing and distribution of these cakes are now 
 often part of the undertaker's duty.' 
 
 II. 
 
 What connection there may be between these 
 customs and the strange and striking rite of the Sin- 
 eater, is a question worthy of careful consideration. 
 It has been the habit of writers with family ties in 
 Wales, whether calling themselves Welshmen or 
 Englishmen, to associate these and like customs 
 with the well-known character for hospitality which 
 the Cymry have for ages maintained. Thus Malkin 
 writes : ' The hospitality of the country is not less 
 remarkable on melancholy than on joyful occasions. 
 The invitations to a funeral are very general and 
 extensive ; and the refreshments are not light, and 
 taken standing, but substantial and prolonged. 
 Any deficiency in the supply of ale would be as 
 severely censured on this occasion, as at a festival.'^ 
 Some have thought that the bread-eating and beer- 
 drinking are survivals of the sin-eating custom 
 described by Aubrey, and repeated from him by 
 others. But well-informed Welshmen have denied 
 
 ^ Pennant, quoted by Roberts, * Camb. Pop. Ant.,' 175. 
 2 ' Arch. Camb.' 4th Se., iii., 332. 
 •'' ' South Wales,' 68. 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 325 
 
 that any such custom as that of the Sin-eater ever 
 existed in Wales at any time, or in the border shires ; 
 and it must not be asserted that they are wrong 
 unless we have convincing proof to support the 
 assertion. The existing evidence in support of the 
 belief that there were once Sin-eaters in Wales I have 
 carefully collated and (excluding hearsay and second- 
 hand accounts), it is here produced. The first 
 reference to the Sin-eater anywhere to be found is in 
 the Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum, in the 
 handwriting of John Aubrey, the author. It runs 
 thus : 'In the county of Hereford was an old custom 
 at funerals to hire poor people, who were to take 
 upon them the sins of the party deceased. One of 
 them (he was a long, lean, ugly, lamentable poor 
 rascal), I remember, lived in a cottage on Rosse 
 highway. The manner was that when the corpse 
 was brought out of the house, and laid on the bier, a 
 loaf of bread was brought out, and delivered to the 
 Sin-eater, over the corpse, as also a mazard bowl of 
 maple, full of beer (which he was to drink up), and 
 sixpence in money, in consideration whereof he took 
 upon him, ipso facto, all the sins of the defunct, and 
 freed him or her from walking after they were dead.* 
 Aubrey adds, ' and this custom though rarely used in 
 our days, yet by some people was observed in the 
 strictest time of the Presbyterian Government; as 
 at Dynder (nole^is volens the parson of the parish), 
 the kindred of a woman, deceased there, had this 
 ceremony punctually performed, according to her 
 will : and also, the like was done at the city of 
 Hereford, in those times, where a woman kept many 
 years before her death a mazard bowl for the Sin- 
 eater ; and the like in other places in this country ; 
 as also in Brecon, e.g., at Llangors, where Mr. 
 Gwin, the minister, about 1640, could not hinder the 
 
326 British Goblins. 
 
 performance of this custom. I believe,' says Aubrey, 
 'this custom was heretofore used all over Wales.' He 
 states further, ' a.d. 1686: This custom is used to 
 this day in North Wales.' Upon this. Bishop White 
 Kennet made this comment : ' It seems a remainder 
 of this custom which lately obtained at Amersden, 
 in the county of Oxford ; where, at the burial of 
 every corpse, one cake and one flaggon of ale, just 
 after the interment, were brought to the minister in 
 the church porch.' ^ 
 
 No other writer of Aubrey's time, either English 
 or Welsh, appears to have made any reference to 
 the Sin-eater in Wales ; and equal silence prevails 
 throughout the writings of all previous centuries. 
 Since Aubrey, many references to it have been made, 
 but never, so far as I can discover, by any writer in 
 the Welsh language — a singular omission if there 
 ever was such a custom, for concerning every other 
 superstitious practice commonly ascribed to Wales 
 the Welsh have written freely. 
 
 In August, 1852, the Cambrian Archaeological 
 Association held its sixth annual meeting at Ludlow, 
 under the Presidency of Hon. R. H. Clive, M.P. At 
 this meeting Mr. Matthew Moggridge, of Swansea, 
 made some observations on the custom of the Sin- 
 eater, when he added details not contained in 
 Aubrey's account given above. He said : ' When a 
 person died, his friends sent for the Sin-eater of the 
 district, who on his arrival placed a plate of salt on 
 the breast of the defunct, and upon the salt a piece 
 of bread. He then muttered an incantation over 
 the bread, which he finally ate, thereby eating up all 
 the sins of the deceased. This done he received his 
 fee of IS. 6d. and vanished as quickly as possible 
 from the general gaze ; for, as it was believed that 
 
 ^ Vide Hone's 'Year Book,' 1832, p. 858. 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 327 
 
 he really appropriated to his own use and behoof the 
 sins of all those over whom he performed the above 
 ceremony, he was utterly detested in the neighbour- 
 hood — regarded as a mere Pariah — as one irredeem- 
 ably lost.' The speaker then mentioned the parish of 
 Llandebie where the above practice ' was said to have 
 prevailed to a recent period/ He spoke of the sur- 
 vival of the plate and salt custom near Swansea, and 
 indeed generally, within twenty years, (i.e. since 
 1830) and added: ' In a parish near Chepstow it 
 was usual to make the figure of a cross on the salt, 
 and cutting an apple or an orange into quarters, to 
 put one piece at each termination of the lines.' Mr. 
 Allen, of Pembrokeshire, testified that the plate and 
 salt were known in that county, where also a lighted 
 candle was stuck in the salt ; the popular notion was 
 that it kept away the evil spirit. Mr. E. A. Freeman, 
 (the historian) asked if Sin-eater was the term used 
 in the district where the custom prevailed, and Mr. 
 Moggridge said it was. 
 
 Such is the testimony. I venture no opinion 
 upon it further than may be conveyed in the 
 remark that I cannot find any direct corroboration 
 of it, as regards the Sin-eater, and I have searched 
 diligently for it. The subject has engaged my 
 attention from the first moment I set foot on 
 Cambrian soil, and I have not only seen no reference 
 to it in Welsh writings, but I have never met any 
 unlettered Welshman who had ever heard of it. 
 All this proves nothing, perhaps ; but it weighs 
 something.^ 
 
 ^ Mr. Eugene Schuyler's mention of a corresponding character in 
 Turkistan is interesting : ' One poor old man, however, I noticed, who 
 seemed constantly engaged in prayer. On calling attention to him 
 I was told that he was an iskatchi, a person who gets his living by 
 taking on himself the sins of the dead, and thenceforth devoting him- 
 self to prayer for their souls. He corresponds to the Sin-eater of the 
 Welsh border,' — ' Turkistan,' ii., 28. 
 
328 British Goblins. 
 
 III. 
 
 Of superstitions regarding salt, there are many 
 in Wales. I have even encountered the special 
 custom of placing a plate of salt on the breast of 
 the corpse. In the case of an old woman from 
 Cardiganshire, who was buried at Cardiff, and who 
 was thus decked by her relatives, I was told the 
 purpose of the plate of salt was to ' prevent swelling.' 
 There is an Irish custom of placing a plate of snuff 
 on the body of a corpse ; hence the saying, addressed 
 to an enemy, ' I'll get a pinch off your belly yet.' 
 The Irish also employ the plate of salt in the same 
 manner. In view of the universal prevalence of 
 superstitions regarding salt, too much weight should 
 not be placed on this detail, in connection with the 
 accounts of the Sin-eater. Such superstitions are of 
 extreme antiquity, and they still survive even among 
 the most cultivated classes. Salt falling toward a 
 person was of old considered a most unlucky omen, 
 the evil of which could only be averted by throwing 
 a little of the fallen salt over the shoulder. My 
 own wife observes this heathen rite to this day, 
 and so, I fancy, do most men's wives — jocularly, 
 no doubt, but with a sort of feeling that ' if there 
 is anything in it,' &c. Salt was the ancient symbol 
 of friendship, being deemed incorruptible. In the 
 Isle of Man no important business was ventured 
 on without salt in the pocket ; marrying, moving, 
 even the receiving of alms, must be sanctified by 
 an exchange of salt between the parties. An 
 influential legend is noted among the Manx inhabi- 
 tants, of the dissolution of an enchanted palace on 
 that island, through the spilling of salt on the 
 ground. In Da Vinci's picture of the Lord's Supper, 
 Judas Iscariot is represented as overturning the salt 
 
 i 
 
Quaini Old Customs. 329 
 
 — an omen of the coming betrayal of Christ by 
 that personage. In Russia, should a friend pass 
 you the salt without smiling, a quarrel will follow. 
 The Scotch put salt in a cow's first milk after 
 calving. Even the Chinese throw salt into water 
 from which a person has been rescued from drowning. 
 All these practices point either to lustration or 
 propitiation. 
 
 IV. 
 
 It has been suggested that the custom of the 
 Sin-eater is in imitation of the Biblical scapegoat. 
 ' And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head 
 of the live goat, and confess over him all the 
 iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their 
 transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon 
 the head of the goat, and shall send him away by 
 the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And 
 the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto 
 a land not inhabited : and he shall let go the goat 
 in the wilderness.'^ This brings up the subject of 
 charms and magic, and is illustrated in Wales, if not 
 by the Sin-eater, by the cock and hen of St. Tegla's 
 Well. This well is about half-way between Wrexham 
 and Ruthin, in the parish of Llandegla, and has 
 been considered efficacious in curing epilepsy. One 
 of the common names of that complaint in Welsh 
 is Clwyf y Tegla, (Tegla's disease). Relief is 
 obtained by bathing in the well, and performing a 
 superstitious ceremony in this manner : The patient 
 repairs to the well after sunset, and washes himself 
 in it ; then, having made an offering by throwing 
 into the water fourpence, he walks round it three 
 times, and thrice recites the Lord's Prayer. If of 
 the male sex, he offers a cock ; if a woman, a hen. 
 The bird is carried in a basket, first round the well, 
 
 ^ Levit. xvi., 21, 22. 
 
33 o British Goblins. 
 
 then round the church, and the rite of repeating the 
 Pater Noster again performed. After all this, he 
 enters the church, creeps under the altar, and making 
 the Bible his pillow and the communion cloth his 
 coverlet, remains there until the break of day. 
 In the morning, having made a further offering of 
 sixpence, he leaves the cock (or hen, as the case 
 may be) and departs. * Should the bird die, it is 
 supposed that the disease has been transferred to it, 
 and the man or woman consequently cured.' ^ The 
 custom is associated with the ancient Druids as well 
 as with the Jews, and its resemblance to the scape- 
 goat is suggestive. 
 
 v. 
 
 The funeral procession, in rural districts where 
 hearses are unknown, wends its way graveward on 
 foot, with the corpse borne by the nearest relatives 
 of the deceased, a custom probably introduced in 
 Wales during their residence here by the Romans. 
 The coffin of Metellus, the conqueror of Macedon, 
 was borne by his four sons. The coffins of Roman 
 citizens held in high esteem by the Republic, were 
 borne by justices and senators, while those of the 
 enemies of the people were borne by slaves and 
 hired servants. As the Welsh procession winds its 
 way along the green lanes, psalms and hymns are 
 sung continually, except on coming to cross-roads. 
 Here the bier is set down, and all kneel and repeat 
 the Lord's Prayer. The origin of this custom, as 
 given by the Welsh, is to be found in the former 
 practice of burying criminals at cross-roads. It 
 was believed that the spirits of these criminals did 
 not go far away from the place where their bodies 
 lay, and the repeating of the Lord's Prayer was 
 supposed to destroy and do away with any evil 
 
 ^ Ab Ithel, 'Arch. Camb.' ist Se., i., 184. 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 
 
 ZZ"^ 
 
 influence these spirits might have on the soul of the 
 dear departed/ 
 
 The Welsh retain much of the superstitious 
 feeling regarding the graves of criminals and suicides. 
 There is indeed a strong prejudice against hanging, 
 on account of the troublesome spirits thus let loose. 
 The well-known leniency of a ' Cardigan jury ' may 
 be connected with this prejudice, though it is usually 
 associated with a patriotic feeling. ' What ! would 
 you have hur hang hur own countryman ?' is the 
 famous response of a Cardigan juror, who was asked 
 why he and his brethren acquitted a murderer. 
 The tale may be only a legend ; the fact it illustrates 
 is patent. It is related that in a dispute between 
 two Cardigan farmers, some fifty years ago, one of 
 them killed the other. The jury, believing the 
 killing was unintentional, acquitted the homicide ; 
 but ' whether the man was guilty or not, his neigh- 
 bours and the people who Hved in the district, and 
 who knew the spot where the farmer was killed, 
 threw a stone upon it whenever they passed, probably 
 to show their abhorrence of the deed that had been 
 perpetrated in that place. By this means a large 
 heap of stones, which was allowed to remain for 
 many years, arose. '^ They were then removed to 
 repair the turnpike. This custom is apparently 
 Jewish. Hangings are almost unknown in Wales, 
 whether from the extra morality of the people, or 
 the prejudice above noted. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The legend of the Grassless Grave is a well-known 
 Montgomeryshire tale, concerning a certain spot of 
 earth in the graveyard of Montgomery Castle, upon 
 which the verdure is less luxuriant than in other 
 
 ^ ' Cymru Fu,' 92. ^ ' Bye-goncs,' March 22, 1876. 
 
332 British Goblins. 
 
 portions of the yard. One dark November night, 
 many years ago, a man named John Newton, who 
 had been at Welshpool fair, set out for home. Soon 
 after, he was brought back to Welshpool in the 
 custody of two men, who charged him with highway 
 robbery, a crime then punishable with death. He 
 was tried, and executed, in spite of his protestations ; 
 and in his last speech, admitting he had committed 
 a former crime, but protesting he was innocent of 
 this, he said : ' I have offered a prayer to Heaven, 
 and believe it has been heard and accepted. And 
 in meek dependence on a merciful God, whom I 
 have offended, but who, through the atonement of 
 His blessed Son, has, I trust, pardoned my offence, 
 I venture to assert that as I am innocent of the 
 crime for which I suffer, the grass, for one genera- 
 tion at least, will not cover my grave.' For 
 thirty years thereafter, the grave was grassless ; a 
 bare spot in the shape of a coffin marked, amidst 
 the surrounding luxuriance, the place where lay the 
 penitent criminal, unjustly executed. Then a 
 sacrilegious hand planted the spot with turf ; but it 
 withered as if blasted by lightning ; and the grave 
 is still grassless — certainly an unnecessary extension 
 of the time set by the defunct for Its testimony to 
 his innocence. 
 
 VII. 
 
 A curious surviving custom at Welsh funerals Is 
 the Offrwm, or parson's penny. After having read 
 the burial service In the church, the parson stands 
 behind a table while a psalm Is being sung, and to 
 him go the mourners, one and all, and deposit a 
 piece of money on the table. The parson counts it, 
 states the amount, and pockets it. If the mourner 
 depositing his offrwm be wealthy, he will give 
 perhaps a guinea ; if a farmer or tradesman, his 
 
Quaint Old Customs, 333 
 
 gift will be a crown ; and if poor, he will lay down 
 his sixpence. ' Each one that intended making an 
 offering of silver, would go up to the altar in his 
 turn, and after each one had contributed there would 
 be a respite, after which those who gave copper as 
 their offering went forward and did likewise ; but 
 no coppers were offered at any respectable funeral. 
 These offerings often reached the sum of ten and 
 even twenty pounds in the year.' Thus the Welsh 
 work, ' Cymru Fu,' speaking as usual in the past 
 tense ; but the custom is a present-day one. The 
 Welsh believe that this custom was originally 
 intended to compensate the clergyman for praying 
 for the soul of the departed. It has now ceased 
 to mean anything more than a tribute of respect 
 to the deceased, or a token of esteem towards the 
 officiating clergyman. 
 
 In the parish of Defynog, Breconshire, there was 
 a custom (up to 1843, when it seems to have ceased 
 through the angry action of a lawless widower,) of 
 giving to the parish clerk the best pair of shoes and 
 stockings left behind by the defunct.^ 
 
 A still more curious form of the offrwm, which 
 also survives in many rural neighbourhoods, is called 
 the Arian y Rhaw, or spade money. At the grave, 
 the gravedigger rubs the soil off his spade, extends 
 it for donations, and receives a piece of silver from 
 each one in turn, which he also pockets. In 
 Merionethshire the money is received at the grave 
 in a bowl, instead of on the spade, and the gift is 
 simply called the offrwm. ' I well recollect, when 
 a lad,' says an entertaining correspondent,^ 'at 
 Llanrhaiadr-yn-Mochnant, seeing the clerk or sexton 
 cleaning his spade with the palm of his hand, and 
 blowing the remaining dust, so that the instrument 
 
 'Arch. Camb.,' 2nd Se., iv., 326.2 i Bye-gones,' Oct. 17, 1877. 
 
 1 i. 
 
334 British Goblins. 
 
 of his calling should be clean and presentable, and 
 then, with due and clerk-like gravity, presenting 
 his polished spade, first to the " cyfneseifiaid " (next- 
 of-kin), and then to the mourners one by one, 
 giving all an opportunity of showing their respect 
 to the dead, by giving the clerk the accustomed 
 offrwm. At times the old clerk, ''yr hen glochydd," 
 when collecting the offrwm, rather than go around 
 the grave to the people, to the no small annoyance 
 of the friends, would reach his spade over the grave. 
 At the particular time referred to, the clerk, having 
 nearly had all the offrwm, saw that facetious wag 
 and practical joker, Mr. B., extending his offering 
 towards him from the opposite side of the grave. 
 The clerk, as was his wont, extended the spade 
 over the grave towards the offered gift. The 
 opportunity for fun was not to be lost, and whilst 
 placing his offrwm on the spade, Mr. B. pressed 
 on one corner, and the spade turned in the hands 
 of the unwitting clerk, emptying the whole offering 
 into the grave, to the no small surprise of the clerk, 
 who never forgot the lesson, and the great amuse- 
 ment of the standers-by.' It is noted in this con- 
 nection that the sexton's spade ' was a terror to 
 the superstitious, for if the gravedigger would but 
 shake his spade at anyone, it was a matter of but 
 short time ere the sexton would be called upon to 
 dig the grave of that person who had come under 
 the evil influence of the spade. '' Has the sexton 
 shook his spade at you ? " was a question often put 
 to a person in bad health.' 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Until a recent date, burials without a coffin were 
 common in some parts of Wales. Old people in 
 Montgomeryshire not many years ago, could re- 
 
 I 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 335 
 
 member such burials, in what was called the cadach 
 deupen, or cloth with two heads. Old Richard 
 Griffith, of Trefeglwys, who died many years ago, 
 recollected a burial in this fashion there, when the 
 cloth gave way and was rent ; whereupon the clergy- 
 man prohibited any further burials in that church- 
 yard without a coffin. That was the last burial of 
 the kind which took place in Montgomeryshire.^ 
 
 In the middle ages there was a Welsh custom of 
 burying the dead in the garment of a monk, as a 
 protection against evil spirits. This was popular 
 among the wealthy, and was a goodly source of 
 priestly revenue. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Sul Coffa is an old Welsh custom of honouring 
 the dead on the Sunday following the funeral, and 
 for several succeeding Sundays, until the violence 
 of grief has abated. In the Journal of Thomas 
 Dinelly, Esquire, an Englishman who travelled 
 through Wales and Ireland in the reign of 
 Charles 11.,^ this passage occurs, after description 
 of the wake, the keening, etc. : ' This done y^ Irish 
 bury their dead, and if it be in or neer y^ burying 
 place of that family, the servants and followers hugg 
 kiss howle and weep over the skulls that are there 
 digg'd up and once a week for a quarter of an year 
 after come two or three and pay more noyse at the 
 place.' The similarity in spirit between this and 
 the Welsh Sul Coffa is as striking as the difference 
 in practice. The Welsh walk quietly and gravely 
 to the solemn mound beneath which rest the re- 
 mains of the loved, and there kneeling in silence 
 for five or ten minutes, pray or appear to pray. 
 
 The Sul Coffa of Ivan the Harper is a well- 
 
 ^ ' Bye-gones,' Nov. 22, 1876. 
 
 2 Quoted in the Proceedings of the Kilkenny Arch. See, 1858. 
 
^^6 British Goblins, 
 
 known anecdote. Ivan the Harper was a noted 
 character in his day, who desired that his coffa 
 should be thus : ' I should like,' said he, on his 
 death-bed, ' to have my coffa ; but not in the old 
 style. Instead of the old custom ask Williams of 
 Merllyn and Richard the Harper to attend the 
 church at Llanfwrog, and give these, my disciples, 
 my two harps, and after the service is over, let them 
 walk to my grave ; let Williams sit at the head and 
 Richard at the feet, of my grave, and let them 
 play seven Welsh airs, beginning with Dafydd y 
 Garreg Wen,' (David of the White Stone) ' and 
 ending with, Toriad y Dydd,' (the Dawn.) ' The 
 former is in a flat key, like death, and the latter is 
 as sober as the day of judgment.' This request was 
 religiously obeyed by the mourners on the ensuing 
 Sul Coffa. 
 
 X. 
 
 Reference has been made, in the chapter on 
 courtship and marriage, to the Welsh practice of 
 planting graves with flowers. There are graves in 
 Glamorganshire which have been kept blooming 
 with flowers for nearly a century without interrup- 
 tion, through the loving care of descendants of the 
 departed. By a most graceful custom which also 
 prevailed until recently, each mourner at a funeral 
 carried in his hand a sprig of rosemary, which he 
 threw into the grave. The Pagan practice of 
 throwing a sprig of cypress into the grave has been 
 thought to symbolize the annihilation of the body, 
 as these sprigs would not grow if set in the earth : 
 whereas the rosemary was to signify the resurrection 
 or up-springing of the body from the grave. The 
 existing custom of throwing flowers and immortelles 
 into the grave is derivable from the ancient practice. 
 But the Welsh carry the association of graves and 
 
Quaint Old Customs. 
 
 331 
 
 floral life to the most lavish extreme, as has already 
 been pointed out. Shakspeare has alluded to this 
 in ' Cymbeline,' the scene of which tragedy is princi- 
 pally in Pembrokeshire, at and about Milford 
 Haven : 
 
 Arv. With fairest flowers, 
 Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, 
 I'll sweeten ithy sad grave : Thou shalt not lack 
 The flower, that's like thy face, pale primrose ; nor 
 The azur'd harebell, like thy veins ; no, nor 
 The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, 
 Outsweeten'd not thy breath.^ 
 
 ' Cymbehne,' Act iv., Sc. 2. 
 
 DAFYDD Y GARREG WEN. 
 
 ~^^^m 
 

 British Goblins. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 BELLS, WELLS, STONES, AND DRAGONS. 
 
 Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire. 
 
 Milton : Paradise Lost. 
 
 Then up there raise ane wee wee man 
 
 Franethe the moss-gray stane ; 
 His face was wan Hke the colli flom'e, 
 
 For he nouthir had blude nor bane. 
 
 Hogg : The Witch of Fife. 
 
 . . . where he stood, 
 Of auncient time there was a springing well. 
 From which fast trickled forth a silver flood. 
 Full of great vcrtues, and for med'cine good : . . . 
 For unto life the dead it could restore. 
 
 Spenser : Faery Queene. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 Base of the Primeval Mythology— Bells and their Ghosts— The Bell 
 that committed Murder and was damned for it — The Occult Powers 
 of Bells — Their Work as Detectives, Doctors, etc.— Legend of the 
 Bell of Rhayader— St. Illtyd's Wonderful Bell— The Golden Bell of 
 Llandaff. 
 
 L 
 
 The human mind in its infancy turns instinctively 
 to fetichism. The mind of primeval man resembled 
 that of a child. Children have to learn by experi- 
 ence that the fire which burns them is not instigated 
 by malice.^ In his primitive condition, man per- 
 
 ^ A Mississippi negro-boy who was brought by a friend of mine from 
 his southern home to a northern city, and who had never seen snow, 
 found the ground one morning covered with what he supposed to be 
 salt, and going out to get some, returned complaining that it ' bit his 
 fingers.' 
 
Bells, Wells, Slofies, and Dragons. 339 
 
 sonified everything in nature. Animate and in- 
 animate objects were alike endowed with feeHngs, 
 passions, emotions, moral qualities. On this basis 
 rests the primeval mythology. 
 
 The numerous superstitions associated with bells, 
 wells and stones in Wales, excite constant inquiries 
 as regards their origin in fetichism, in paganism, 
 in solar worship, or in church observances. That 
 bells, especially, should suggest the supernatural to 
 the vulgar mind is not strange. The occult powers 
 of bells have place in the popular belief of many 
 lands. The Flemish child who wonders how the 
 voices got into the bells is paralleled by the Welsh 
 lad who hears the bells of Aberdovey talking in 
 metrical words to a musical chime. The ghosts of 
 bells are believed to haunt the earth in many parts 
 lof Wales. Allusion has been made to those castle 
 Ibells which are heard ringing from the submerged 
 towers in Crumlyn lake. Like fancies are associ- 
 Lted with many Welsh lakes. In Langorse Pool, 
 'Breconshire, an ancient city is said to lie buried, 
 from whose cathedral bells on a calm day may be 
 'heard a faint and muffled chime, pealing solemnly 
 far down in the sepial depths. A legend of Tref- 
 ithin relates that in the church of St. Cadoc, at 
 that place, was a bell of wondrous powers, a gift 
 from Llewellyn ap lorwerth, Lord of Caerleon. A 
 little child who had climbed to the belfry was struck 
 by the bell and killed, not through the wickedness 
 of the bell itself, but through a spell which had 
 been put upon the unfortunate instrument by an 
 evil spirit. But though innocent of murderous 
 intent, the wretched bell became forfeit to the 
 demons on account of its fatal deed. They seized 
 it and bore it down through the earth to the shadow- 
 realm of annwn. And ever since that day, when a 
 
 z 
 
340 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 child is accidentally slain at Trefethin, the bell of 
 St. Cadoc is heard tolling mournfully underneath 
 the ground where it disappeared ages ago. 
 
 II. 
 
 There was anciently a belief that the sound of 
 brass would break enchantment, as well as cause 
 it ; and it is presumed that the original purpose of 
 the common custom of tolling the bell for the dead 
 was to drive away evil spirits. Originally, the bell 
 was tolled not for the dead, but for the dying ; it 
 was believed that evil spirits were hovering about 
 the sick chamber, waiting to pounce on the soul as 
 soon as it should get free from the body ; and the 
 bell was tolled for the purpose of driving them 
 away. Later, the bell was not tolled till death had 
 occurred, and this form of the custom survives here, 
 as in many lands. Before the Reformation there 
 was kept in all Welsh churches a handbell, which 
 was taken by the sexton to the house where a 
 funeral was to be held, and rung at the head of the 
 procession. When the voices of the singers were 
 silent at the end of a psalm, the bell would take up 
 the burden of complaint in measured and mournful 
 tones, and ring till another psalm was begun. It 
 was at this period deemed sacred. The custom 
 survived long after the Reformation in many places, 
 as at Caerleon, the little Monmouthshire village 
 which was a bustling Roman city when London 
 was a hamlet. The bell — called the bangu — was 
 still preserved in the parish of Llanfair Duffryn 
 Clwyd half-a-dozen years ago. I believe the cus- 
 tom of ringing a handbell before the corpse on its 
 way through the streets is still observed at Oxford, 
 when a university man is buried. The town mar- 
 shal is the bellman for this office. The custom is 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 341 
 
 associated with the same superstitious belief which 
 is seen in the * passing bell,' the notes of pure bronze 
 freeing the soul from the power of evil spirits. 
 
 III. 
 
 The Welsh were formerly strong In the belief that 
 bells could perform miracles, detect thieves, heal the 
 sick, and the like. In many instances they were 
 possessed of locomotive powers, and would transport 
 themselves from place to place when they had occa- 
 sion, according to their own sweet will, and without 
 human intervention. It is even recorded that cer- 
 tain handbells required to be tied with the double 
 cord of an exorcism and a piece of twine, or they 
 would get up and walk off in the night. 
 
 Bells which presaged storms, as well as other 
 disasters, have been believed to exist in many parts 
 of Wales. In Pembrokeshire the unexpected tolling 
 of a church bell in the night is held to be the sure 
 precursor of a calamity — a belief which may be 
 paralleled in London, where there are still people 
 who believe such tolling on the part of the great 
 bell of St. Paul's portends disaster to the royal 
 family. In the Cromwellian wars, the sacrilegious 
 followers of the stern old castle-hater carried off a 
 great bell from St. David's, Pembrokeshire. They 
 managed to get it on shipboard, but in passing 
 through Ramsey Sound the vessel was wrecked — 
 a direct result, the superstitious said, of profanely 
 treating the bell. Ever since that time, Pembroke 
 people have been able to hear this sunken bell ring 
 from its watery grave when a storm is rising. 
 
 IV. 
 The legend of the Bell of Rhayader perpetuates 
 a class of story which reappears in other parts of 
 
 z 2 
 
342 British Goblins. 
 
 
 Great Britain. It was in the twelfth century that a 
 certain contumacious knight wlas imprisoned in the 
 castle of Rhayader. His wife, being devoted to 
 him, and a good Catholic, besought the aid of the 
 monks to get him out. They were equal to the 
 occasion, at least in so far as to provide for her ser- 
 vice a magical bell, which possessed the power of 
 liberating from confinement any prisoner who should 
 set it up on the wall and ring it. The wife succeeded 
 in getting the bell secretly into her husband's pos- 
 session, and he set it up on the wall and rang it. 
 But although he had gathered his belongings to- 
 gether and was fully prepared to go, the doors of 
 his prison refused to open. The castellan mocked 
 at the magical bell, and kept the knight in durance 
 vile. So therefore (for of course the story could not 
 be allowed to end here) the castle was struck by 
 lightning, and both it and the town were burned in 
 one night — excepting only the wall upon which 
 the magic bell was hanging. Nothing remains of 
 the castle walls in this day. 
 
 The bell of St. Illtyd was greatly venerated in 
 the middle ages. A legend concerning this won- 
 derful bell relates that a certain king had stolen it 
 from the church, and borne it into England, tied 
 about the neck of one of his horses. For this deed 
 the king was destroyed, but repenting before his 
 death, ordered the bell to be restored to its place in 
 Wales. Without waiting to be driven, the horse 
 with the bell about his neck set out for Wales, fol- 
 lowed by a whole drove of horses, drawn by the 
 melodious sound of the bell. Wonderful to tell, the i 
 horse was able to cross the river Severn and come ti 
 into Wales, the great collection of horses following. 
 
Bells^ Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 343 
 
 ' Then hastening along the shore, and over the 
 mountains, and through the woods, he came to the 
 road which went towards Glamorgan, all the horses 
 hearing, and following the sweet sound.' When 
 they came to the banks of the river Taf, a clergy- 
 man heard the sound of the bell, and went out to 
 meet the horse, and they together carried the bell 
 to the gate of St. lUtyd's church. There the horse 
 bent down and loosed his precious burden from his 
 neck, ' and it fell on a stone, from which fall a part 
 of it was broken, which is to be seen until the pre- 
 sent day, in memory of the eminent miracle.* ^ 
 
 Some thirty years ago a bell was discovered at 
 Llantwit Major, in Glamorganshire, which was 
 thought to be the identical bell of this saint. The 
 village named was the scene of his exploits, many 
 of which were miraculous to the point of Arabian 
 Nights marvelousness. The discovered bell was 
 inscribed ' Sancte Iltute, ora pro nobis,' and stood 
 upon the gable of the quaint old town-hall. But 
 though the bell was unmistakably ancient, it bore 
 intrinsic evidence of having been cast long after the 
 saint's death, when his name had become venerated. 
 He was one of King Arthur's soldiers, who after- 
 wards renounced the world, and founded several 
 churches in Glamorganshire. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Among the many legends of Llandaff which still 
 linger familiarly on the lips of the people is that of 
 the bell of St. Oudoceus, second bishop of that see. 
 In the ancient ' Book of Llandaff,' where are pre- 
 served the records of that cathedral from the earliest 
 days of Christianity on this island, the legend is thus 
 related : ' St. Oudoceus, being thirsty after under- 
 
 ^ ' Cambro-British Saints,' 492. 
 
344 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 going labour, and more accustomed to drink water 
 than any other Hquor, came to a fountain in the vale 
 of Llandaff, not far from the church, that he might 
 drink, where he found women washing butter, after 
 the manner of the country ; and sending to them 
 his messengers and disciples, they requested that 
 they would accommodate them with a vessel, that 
 their pastor might drink therefrom ; who, ironically, 
 as mischievous girls, said, *' We have no cup besides 
 that which we hold in our hands, namely, the butter." 
 And the man of blessed memory taking it, formed 
 one in the shape of a small bell, and he raised his 
 hand so that he might drink therefrom, and he 
 drank. And it remained in that form, that is, a 
 golden one, so that it appeared to those who beheld 
 it to consist altogether of the purest gold, which, by 
 divine power, is from that day reverently preserved 
 in the church of Llandaff in memory of the holy 
 man, and it is said that by touching it health is given 
 to the diseased.' ^ 
 
 ^ ' Liber Landavensis,' 378. 
 
 CLYCHAU ABERDYFI. 
 
 (The Bells of Aberdovey.) 
 
( 345 ) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Mystic Wells— Their Good and Bad Dispositions — St. Winifred's Well 
 —The Legend of St. Winifred— Miracles— St. Tecla's Well— St. 
 Dwynwen's — Curing Love-sickness — St. Cynfran's — St. Cynhafal's 
 — Throwing Pins in Wells —Warts — Barry Island and its Legends — 
 Ffynon Gwynwy — Propitiatory Gifts to Wells — The Dreadful 
 Cursing Well of St. EHan's— Wells Flowing with Milk— St. lUtyd's— 
 Taft"'sWell — Sanford's Well — Origins of Superstitions of this Class. 
 
 I. 
 
 The waters of mystery which flow at Lourdes, in 
 France, are paralleled in numberless Welsh parishes. 
 In every comer of Cambria may be found wells 
 which possess definite attributes, malicious or bene- 
 ficent, which they are popularly supposed to actively 
 exert toward mankind. In almost every instance, 
 the name of the tutelary saint to whom the well is 
 consecrated is known to the peasantry, and generally 
 they can tell you something about him, or her. 
 Unnumbered centuries have elapsed since the saint 
 lived ; nay, generation upon generation has perished 
 since any complete knowledge of his life or character 
 existed, save in mouldering manuscripts left by 
 monks, themselves long turned to dust; yet the 
 tradition of the saint as regards the well is there, a 
 living thing beside its waters. However lightly 
 some forms of superstition may at times be treated 
 by the vulgar, they are seldom capable of irreverent 
 remark concerning the well. In many cases this 
 respect amounts to awe. 
 
 These wells are of varying power and disposition. 
 Some are healing wells ; others are cursing wells ; 
 
34^ British Goblins. 
 
 
 still others combine the power alike to curse and to 
 cure. Some are sovereign in their influence over 
 all the diseases from which men suffer, mental and 
 moral as well as physical ; others can cure but one 
 disease, or one specific class of diseases ; and others 
 remedy all the misfortunes of the race, make the 
 poor rich, the unhappy happy, and the unlucky 
 lucky. That these various reputations arose in some 
 wells from medicinal qualities found by experience 
 to dwell in the waters, is clear at a glance ; but in 
 many cases the character of the patron saint gives 
 character to the well. In parishes dedicated to the 
 Virgin Mary there will almost inevitably be found a 
 Ffynon Mair, (Well of Mary,) the waters of which 
 are supposed to be purer than the waters of other 
 wells. Sometimes the people will take the trouble 
 to go a long distance for water from the Ffynon 
 Mair, though a good well may be nearer, in whose 
 water chemical analysis can find no difference. For- 
 merly, and indeed until within a few years past, no 
 water would do for baptizing but that fetched from 
 the Ffynon Mair, though it were a mile or more 
 from the church. That the water flowed southward 
 was in some cases held to be a secret of its virtue. 
 In other instances, wells which opened and flowed 
 eastward were thought to afford the purest water. 
 
 II. 
 
 Most renowned and most frequented of Welsh 
 wells is St. Winifred's, at Holywell. By the testi- 
 mony of tradition it has been flowing for eleven 
 hundred and eighty years, or since the year 700, and 
 during all this time has been constantly visited by 
 throngs of invalids ; and that it will continue to be 
 so frequented for a thousand years to come is not 
 doubted, apparently, by the members of the Holy- 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones y and Dragons. 347 
 
 well Local Board, who have just taken a lease of 
 the well from the Duke of Westminster for 999 
 years more, at an annual rental of ^i. The town 
 of Holywell probably owes not only name but exist- 
 ence to this well. Its miraculous powers are ex- 
 tensively believed in by the Welsh, and by people 
 from all parts of Great Britain and the United 
 States ; but Drayton's assertion that no dog could 
 be drowned in its waters, on account of their bene- 
 ficent disposition, is not an article of the existing 
 faith. The most prodigious fact in connection with 
 this wonderful fountain, when its legendary origin is 
 contemplated, is its size, its abounding life, the great 
 volume of its waters. A well which discharges 
 twenty-one tons of water per minute, which feeds 
 an artificial lake and runs a mill, and has cured un- 
 numbered thousands of human beings of their ills 
 for hundreds of years, is surely one of the wonders 
 of the world, to which even mystic legend can only 
 add one marvel more. 
 
 The legend of St. Winifred, or Gwenfrewi, as 
 she is called in Welsh, was related by the British 
 monk Elerius in the year 660, or by Robert of 
 Salop in 11 90, and is in the Cotton MSS. in the 
 British Museum. It is there written in characters con- 
 sidered to be of the middle of the eleventh century. 
 Winifred was the daughter of a valiant soldier in 
 North Wales ; from her youth she loved a heavenly 
 spouse, and refused transitory men. One day Cara- 
 doc, a descendant of royal stock, came to her house 
 fatigued from hunting wild beasts, and asked Wini- 
 fred for drink. But seeing the beauty of the nymph 
 he forgot his thirst in his admiration, and at once 
 besought her to treat him with the familiarity of a 
 sweetheart. Winifred refused, asserting that she 
 was engaged to be married to another. Caradoc 
 
34^ British Goblins, 
 
 became furious at this, and said, ' Leave off this 
 foolish, frivolous, and trifling mode of speaking, and 
 consent to my wish.' Then he asked her to be his 
 wife. Finding he would not be denied, Winifred 
 had recourse to a stratagem to escape from him : 
 she pretended to comply, but asked leave to first 
 make a becoming toilet. Caradoc agreed, on con- 
 dition that she should make it quickly. The girl 
 went through her chamber with swift feet into the 
 valley, and was escaping, when Caradoc perceived 
 the trick, and mounting his horse spurred after her. 
 He overtook her at the very door of the monastery 
 to which she was fleeing ; before she could place 
 her foot within the threshold he struck off her head 
 at one blow. St. Beino coming quickly to the door 
 saw bloody Caradoc standing with his stained sword 
 in his hand, and immediately cursed him as he stood, 
 so that the bloody man melted in his sight like wax 
 before a fire. Beino then took the virgin's head 
 (which had been thrown inside the door by the blow 
 which severed it) and fitted it on the neck of the 
 corpse. Winifred thereupon revived, with no further 
 harm than a small line on her neck. But the floor 
 upon which her bloody head had fallen, cracked 
 open, and a fountain sprang up like a torrent at the 
 spot. * And the stones appear bloody at present 
 as they did at first, and the moss smells as frankin- 
 cense, and it cures divers diseases.' ^ Thus far the 
 monastic legend. Some say that Caradoc's de- 
 scendants were doomed to bark like dogs. 
 
 Among the miracles related of Winifred's well 
 by her monkish biographer is one characterized as 
 ' stupendous,' concerning three bright stones which 
 were seen in the middle of the ebullition of the 
 fountain, ascending and descending, ' up and down 
 
 ^ ' Cambro- British Saints,' 519. 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 349 
 
 by turns, after the manner of stones projected by 
 a shooter/ They so continued to dance for many 
 years, but one day an unlucky woman was seized 
 with a desire to play with the stones. So she took 
 hold of one ; whereat they all vanished, and the 
 woman died. This miracle was supplemented by 
 that of a man who was rebuked for theft at the 
 fountain ; and on his denying his guilt, the goat 
 which he had stolen and eaten became his accuser 
 by uttering an audible bleating from his belly. But 
 the miracles of Winifred's well are for the most part 
 records of wonderful cures from disease and de- 
 formity. Withered and useless limbs were made 
 whole and useful ; the dumb bathed in the water, 
 came out, and asked for their clothes ; the blind 
 washed and received their sight ; lunatics ' troubled 
 by unclean spirits ' were brought to the well in 
 chains, ' tearing with their teeth and speaking vain 
 things,' but returned homeward in full possession of 
 their reason. Fevers, paralysis, epilepsy, stone, 
 gout, cancers, piles — these are but a few of the 
 diseases cured by the marvellous well, on the testi- 
 mony of the ancient chronicler of the Cotton MSS. 
 'Nor is it to be hidden in the silence of Lethean 
 oblivion that after the expulsion of the Franks from 
 all North Wales ' the fountain flowed with a milky 
 liquor for the space of three days. A priest bottled 
 some of it, and it 'was carried about and drunk in 
 all directions,' curing diseases in the same manner 
 as the well itself. 
 
 III. 
 
 Only second in fame to Winifred's, among the 
 Welsh themselves, is St. Tecla's well, or Ffynon 
 Tegla, in Denbighshire. It springs out of a bog 
 called Gwern Degla, about two hundred yards from 
 the parish church of Llandegla. Some account of 
 
33 o nritish Goohns. 
 
 the peculiar superstitious ceremony connected with 
 this well has already been given, in the chapter 
 treating of the sin-eater. It is there suggested that 
 the cock to which the fits are transferred by the 
 patient at the well is a substitute for the scapegoat 
 of the Jews. The parish clerk of Llandegla in 
 1855 said that an old man of his acquaintance 
 ' remembered quite well seeing the birds staggering 
 about from the effects of the fits ' which had been 
 transferred to them. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Of great celebrity in other days was St. Dwyn- 
 wen's well, in the parish of Llandwyn, Anglesea. 
 This saint being patron saint of lovers, her well 
 possessed the property of curing love-sickness. It 
 was visited by great numbers, of both sexes, in the 
 fourteenth century, when the popular faith in its 
 waters seems to have been at its strongest. It is 
 still frequented by young women of that part of the 
 country when suffering from the woes inflicted by 
 Dan Cupid. That the well itself has been for many 
 years covered over with sand does not prevent the 
 faithful from displaying their devotion ; they seek 
 their cure from ' the water next to the well.' Ffynon 
 Dwynwen, or Fountain of Venus, was also a name 
 given to the sea, according to the lolo MSS. ; and 
 in the legend of Seithenhin the Drunkard, in the 
 * Black Book of Carmarthen,' this stanza occurs : 
 
 Accursed be the damsel, 
 
 Who, after the wailing, 
 
 Let loose the Fountain of Venus, the raging deep.^ 
 
 ^ ' Black Book of Carmarthen,' xxxviii. (An ancient MS. in 
 Hengwrt collection, which belonged of old to the priory of Black Canons 
 at Carmarthen, and at the dissolution of the religious houses in 
 Wales, when their libraries were dispersed, was given by the treasurer 
 of St. David's Church to Sir John Price, one of Henry VII I. 's 
 commissioners.) 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 351 
 
 The story of Aphrodite, born from the foam of the 
 sea, need only be alluded to here. 
 
 V. 
 
 Several wells appear to have been devoted to the 
 cure of the lower animals' diseases. Such was the 
 well of Cynfran, where this ejaculation was made 
 use of: ' Rhad Duw a Chynfran Iwydd ar y da!' 
 — (the grace of God and the blessed Cynfran on the 
 cattle.) This Cynfran was one of the many sons 
 of the patriarch Brychan, and his well is near 
 Abergeleu. Pennant speaks also of a well near 
 Abergeleu, which he calls St. George's well, and 
 says that there the British Mars had his offering 
 of horses ; * for the rich were wont to offer one, to 
 secure his blessing on all the rest He was the 
 tutelar saint of those animals.' 
 
 vi. 
 
 St. Cynhafal's well, on a hillside in Llangynhafal 
 parish, Denbighshire, is one of those curing wells in 
 which pins are thrown. Its specialty is warts. To 
 exorcise your wart you stick a pin in it and then 
 throw the pin into this well ; the wart soon vanishes. 
 The wart is a form of human trouble which appears 
 to have been at all times and in all countries a 
 special subject of charms, both in connection with 
 wells and with pins. Where a well of the requisite 
 virtue is not conveniently near, the favourite form 
 of charm for wart-curing is in connection with the 
 wasting away of some selected object. Having 
 first been pricked into the wart, the pin is then 
 thrust into the selected object — in Gloucestershire 
 it is a snail — and then the object is buried or im- 
 paled on a blackthorn in a hedge, and as it perishes 
 the wart will disappear. The scapegoat principle 
 
352 British Goblins. 
 
 of the sin-eater also appears in connection with j 
 
 charming away warts, as where a ' vagrom man ' .; 
 
 counts your warts, marks their number in his hat, ;^ 
 
 and goes away, taking the warts with him into the \ 
 
 next county — for a trifling consideration.^ 
 
 VII 
 
 On Barry Island, near Cardiff, is the famous we 
 of St. Barruc, or Barri, which was still frequented 
 by the credulous up to May, 1879, at which time 
 the island was closed against visitors by its owner, 
 'Lord Windsor, and converted into a rabbit warren. 
 Tradition directs that on Holy Thursday he who 
 is troubled with any disease of the eyes shall go 
 to this well, and having thoroughly washed his eyes 
 in its water, shall drop a pin in it. The innkeeper 
 there formerly found great numbers of pins — a pint, 
 in one instance — when cleaning out the well. It 
 had long been utterly neglected by the sole resident 
 of the island, whose house was a long distance from 
 the well, at a point nearer the main land ; but pins 
 were still discovered there from time to time. There 
 was in old days a chapel on this island ; no vestige 
 of it remains. Tradition says that St. Barruc was 
 buried there, and the now barren and deserted islet 
 appears to have been anciently a popular place 
 among the saints. St. Cadoc had one of his resi- 
 dences there.'^ He was one day sitting on a hill-top 
 in that island when he saw the two saints Barruc 
 and Gwalches drawing near in a boat, and as he 
 looked the boat was overturned by the wind. Both 
 
 * A popular belief among boys in some parts of the United States is 
 that warts can be rubbed off upon a toad impaled with a sharp stick ; 
 as the toad dies the warts will go. Per contra^ this cruel faith is offset 
 by a theory that toads if ill-treated can spit upon their aggressors' 
 hands and thus cause warts. 
 
 2 ' Cambro-British Saints,' 336. 
 
 W\ 
 
Bells J Wells, Stones ^ and Dragons. ^iSTi 
 
 saints were drowned, and Cadoc's manual book, 
 which they had in the boat with them, was lost in 
 the sea. But when Cadoc proceeded to order his 
 dinner, a salmon was brought to him which being 
 cut open was found to have the missing manual 
 book in its belly in an unimpaired condition. Con- 
 cerning another saint whose name was Barri, a 
 wonderful story is told that one day being on a visit 
 to St. David he borrowed the latter's horse and 
 rode across the sea from Pembrokeshire to the Irish 
 coast. Many have supposed this Barri to be the 
 same person as Barruc, but they were two men. 
 
 This romantic island was anciently celebrated for 
 certain ghastly noises which were heard in it — 
 sounds resembling the clanking of chains, hammer- 
 ing of iron, and blowing of bellows — and which were 
 supposed to be made by the fiends whom Merlin 
 had set to work to frame the wall of brass to sur- 
 round Carmarthen. So the noises and eruptions 
 of Etna and Stromboli were in ancient times 
 ascribed to Typhon or Vulcan. But in the case 
 of Barry I have been unable, by any assistance from 
 imagination, to detect these mystic sounds in our 
 day, Camden, in his ' Britannica,' makes a like 
 remark, but says the tradition was universally pre- 
 valent. The judicious Malkin, however, thinks it 
 requires but a moderate stretch of fancy to create 
 this Cyclopean imagery, when the sea at high tides 
 is often in possession of cavities under the very feet 
 of the stranger, and its voice is at once modified and 
 magnified by confinement and repercussion,^ 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Another well whose specialty is warts is a small 
 spring called Ffynon Gwynwy, near Llangelynin 
 
 1 Malkin's ' South Wales,' 132. 
 
354 Dvitish Goblins. 
 
 church, Carnarvonshire. The pins used here must 
 be crooked in order to be efficacious. It is said 
 that fifty years ago the bottom of this Httle well was 
 covered with pins ; and that everybody was careful 
 not to touch them, fearing that the warts deposited 
 with the pins would grow upon their own hands 
 if they did so.^ At present the well is overgrown 
 with weeds, like that on Barry Island. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The use of pins for purposes of enchantment is 
 one of the most curious features of popular super- 
 stition. Trivial as it appears to superficial observa- 
 tion, it can be associated with a vast number of 
 mystic rites and ceremonials, and with times the 
 most ancient. There is no doubt that before the 
 invention of pins in this country small pieces of 
 money were thrown into the well instead ; indeed 
 it was asserted by a writer in the ' Archaeologia 
 Cambrensis' in 1856 that money was still thrown 
 into St. Tecla's well, by persons desirous of re- 
 covering from fits. That the same practice pre- 
 vailed among the Romans is shown by Pliny, who 
 speaks of the sacred spring of the Clitumnus, so 
 pure and clear that you may count the pieces of 
 money that have been thrown into it, and the 
 shining pebbles at the bottom. And in connection 
 with the Welsh well of St. Elian there was for- 
 merly a box into which the sick dropped money as 
 they nowadays drop a pin into that well. This box 
 was called cyff-elian, and was in the form of a trunk 
 studded with nails, with an aperture in the top 
 through which the money was dropped. It is said 
 to have got so full of coins that the parishioners 
 opened it, and with the contents purchased three 
 
 ^ * Arch. Camb.,* 3rd Se., xiii., 61. 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 355 
 
 farms. The presentation of pins to the well, though 
 now a meaningless rite on the part of those who 
 practice it, was originally intended as a propitiatory 
 offering to the evil spirit of the well. In some 
 instances the heathen faith is virtually restored, and 
 the well endowed with supernatural powers irre- 
 spective of the dedication of its waters to a Christian 
 saint. Indeed in the majority of cases where these 
 wells are now resorted to by the peasantry for any 
 other than curative purposes, the fetichistic impulse 
 is much more conspicuous than any influence as- 
 sociated with religious teaching. 
 
 X. 
 
 St. Elian's is accounted the most dreadful well 
 in Wales. It is in the parish of Llanelian, Den- 
 bighshire. It is at the head of the cursing wells, 
 of which there are but few in the Principality, and 
 holds still a strong influence over the ignorant mind. 
 The popular belief is that you can ' put ' your enemy 
 * into ' this well, i.e., render him subject to its evil 
 influence, so that he will pine away and perhaps die 
 unless the curse be removed. The degree and 
 nature of the curse can be modified as the ' offerer ' 
 desires, so that the obnoxious person will suffer 
 aches and pains in his body, or troubles in his 
 pocket — the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. 
 The minister of the well appears to be some heart- 
 less wretch residing in the neighbourhood, whose 
 services are enlisted for a small fee. The name of 
 the person to be ' put into ' the well is registered 
 in a book kept by the wretch aforesaid, and a pin 
 is cast into the well in his name, together with a 
 pebble inscribed with its initials. The person so 
 cursed soon hears of it, and the fact preys on his 
 mind ; he imagines for himself every conceivable ill, 
 
 2 A 
 
35^ ""****" British Goblins. 
 
 and if gifted with a lively faith soon finds himself re- 
 duced to a condition where he cannot rest till he has 
 secured the removal of the curse. This is effected 
 by a reversal of the above ceremonies — erasing the 
 name, taking out the pebble, and otherwise ap- 
 peasing the spirit of the well. It is asserted that 
 death has in many instances resulted from the curse 
 of this wickedly malicious well.^ 
 
 XL 
 
 Occasionally the cursing powers of a well were 
 synonymous with curing powers. Thus a well 
 much resorted to near Penrhos, was able to curse a 
 cancer, i.e., cure it. The sufferer washed in the water, 
 uttering curses upon the disease, and also dropping 
 pins around the well. This well has been drained 
 by the unsympathizing farmer on whose land it was, 
 on account of the serious damage done to his crops , 
 by trespassers. j 
 
 XII. I 
 
 Wells from which milk has flowed have been ' 
 known in several places. That Winifred's well 
 indulged in this eccentricity on one occasion has 
 been noted. The well of St. Illtyd is celebrated 
 for the like performance. This well is in Gla- 
 morganshire, in the land called Gower, near Swan- I 
 sea. It was about the nativity of John the Baptist, ' 
 on the fifth day of the week, in a year not speci- 
 fied, but certainly very remote, that for three hours | 
 there flowed from this well a copious stream f 
 of milk instead of water. That it was really milk j 
 we are not left in any possible doubt, for 'many . 
 who were present testified that while they were 
 looking at the milky stream carefully and with 
 astonishment, they also saw among the gravel 
 
 ^ * Camb. Pop. Ant.,' 247. See also ' Arch. Camb.,' ist Se., i. 46. 
 
 i 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 357 
 
 curds lying about in every direction, and all around 
 the edge of the well a certain fatty substance floating 
 about, such as is collected from milk, so that butter 
 can be made from it.' ^ 
 
 The origin of this well is a pleasing miracle, and 
 recalls the story of Canute ; but while Canute's 
 effort to command the sea was a failure in the 
 eleventh century, that of St. Illtyd five hundred 
 years earlier was a brilliant success. It appears 
 that the saint was very pleasantly established on 
 an estate consisting of a field surrounded on all 
 sides by plains, with an intermediate grove, but was 
 much afflicted by the frequent overflowings of the 
 sea upon his land. In vain he built and rebuilt a 
 very large embankment of mud mixed with stones, 
 the rushing waves burst through again and again. 
 At last the saint's patience was worn out, and he 
 said, ' I will not live here any longer ; I much wished 
 it, but troubled with this marine molestation, it is 
 not in my power. It destroys my buildings, it flows 
 to the oratory which we built with great labour.' 
 However, the place was so convenient he was loth 
 to leave it, and he prayed for assistance. On the 
 night before his intended departure an angel came 
 to him and bade him remain, and gave him instruc- 
 tions for driving back the sea. Early in the morning 
 Illtyd went to the fluctuating sea and drove it back ; 
 it receded before him ' as if it were a sensible animal,' 
 and left the shore dry. Then Illtyd struck the 
 shore with his staff", * and thereupon flowed a very 
 clear fountain, which is also beneficial for curing 
 diseases, and which continues to flow without a 
 falling off; and what is more wonderful, although it 
 is near the sea, the water emitted is pure.'^ 
 
 'Arch. Camb.,' ist Se., iii., 264. 
 '■ Cambro-British Saints,' 478. 
 
 2 A 2 
 
358 British Goblins. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Some of the Welsh mystic wells are so situated 
 that they are at times overflowed by the waters of 
 the sea, or of a river. Taffs well, in Glamorgan- 
 shire, a pleasant walk from Cardiff, is situated practi- 
 cally in the bed of the river Taff. One must wade 
 through running water to reach it, except in the 
 summer season, when the water in the river is very 
 low. A rude hut of sheet iron has been built over 
 it. This well is still noted for its merits in healing 
 rheumatism and kindred ailments. The usual stories 
 are told of miraculous cures. A primitive custom of 
 the place is that when men are bathing at this well 
 they shall hang a pair of trousers outside the hut ; 
 women, in their turn, must hang out a petticoat or 
 bonnet. 
 
 At Newton Nottage, Glamorganshire, a holy well 
 called Sanford's is so situated that the water is 
 regulated in the well by the ocean tides. From 
 time immemorial wondrous tales have been told of 
 this well, how it ebbs and flows daily in direct 
 contrariety to the tidal ebb and flow. The bottom 
 of the well is below high-water mark on the beach, 
 where It has an outlet into the sea. At very low 
 tides in the summer, when the supply of water in 
 the well Is scanty, It becomes dry for an hour or 
 two after low water. When the ocean tide rises, 
 the sea-water banks up and drives back the fresh 
 water, and the well fills again and its water rises. 
 The villagers are accustomed to let the well-water 
 rise through what they call the ' nostrils of the well,' 
 and become settled a little before they draw it. Of 
 course this phenomenon has been regarded as some- 
 thing supernatural by the Ignorant for ages, and 
 upon the actual visible phenomena have been built 
 
 I 
 
 ^ll 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons, 359 
 
 a number of magical details of a superstitious cha- 
 racter. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The wide prevalence of some form of water- 
 worship among Aryan peoples is a fact of great 
 significance. Superstitions in connection with British 
 wells are generally traceable to a Druidic origin. 
 The worship of natural objects in which the British 
 Druids indulged, particularly as regards rivers 
 and fountains, probably had a connection with 
 traditions of the flood. When the early Christian 
 preachers and teachers encountered such super- 
 stitions among the people, they carefully avoided 
 giving unnecessary offence by scoffing at them ; on 
 the contrary they preferred to adopt them, and to 
 hallow them by giving them Christian meanings. 
 They utilized the old Druidic circles as places of 
 worship, chose young priests from among the edu- 
 cated Druids, and consecrated to their own saints 
 the mystic wells and fountains. In this manner 
 were continued practices the most ancient. As 
 time passed on, other wells were similarly sanctified, 
 as the new religion spread and parish churches were 
 built. Disease and wickedness being intimately 
 associated in the popular mind — epileptics and like 
 sufferers being held to be possessed of devils, and 
 even such vulgar ills as warts and wens being 
 considered direct results of some evil deed, suffered 
 or performed — so the waters of Christian baptism 
 which cleansed from sin, cleansed also from disease. 
 Ultimately the virtue of the waters came to be 
 among the vulgar a thing apart from the rite of 
 baptism ; the good was looked upon as dwelling in 
 the waters themselves, and the Christian rite as not 
 necessarily an element in the work of regeneration. 
 The reader who will recall what has been said in 
 
360 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 the chapter on changelings, in the first part of this 
 volume, will perceive a survival of the ancient creed 
 herein, in the notion that baptism is a preventive of 
 fairy babe-thievery. Remembering that the change- 
 ling notion is in reality nothing but a fanciful way 
 of accounting for the emaciation, ugliness, idiocy, 
 bad temper— in a word, the illness — of the child, it 
 will be seen that the rite of baptism, by curing the 
 first manifestations of evil in the child's system, 
 was the orthodox means of preventing the fairies 
 from working their bad will on the poor innocent. 
 
 4 
 
( 36i ) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Personal Attributes of Legendary Welsh Stones — Stone Worship — 
 Canna's Stone Chair — Miraculous Removals of Stones — The Walk- 
 ing Stone of Eitheinn — The Thigh Stone — The Talking Stone in 
 Pembrokeshire — The Expanding Stone — Magic Stones in the 
 'Mabinogion' — The Stone of InvisibiHty — The Stone of Remem- 
 brance—Stone Thief-catchers — Stones of Healing — Stones at Cross 
 Roads — Memorials of King Arthur— Round Tables, Cams, Pots, 
 etc. — Arthur's Quoits— The Gigantic Rock-tossers of Old — Mol 
 Walbec and the Pebble in her Shoe — The Giant of Trichrug— 
 Giants and the Mythology of the Heavens — The Legend of Rhitta 
 Gawr. 
 
 L 
 
 In the traditions concerning Welsh stones, abundant 
 personal attributes are accorded them, such as in 
 nature belong only to animals. They were endowed 
 with volition and with voice ; they could travel from 
 place to place without mortal aid ; they would move 
 uneasily when disturbed by human contact ; they 
 expanded and contracted at will ; they clung to 
 people who touched them with profane or guilty 
 purpose ; they possessed divers qualities which made 
 them valuable to their possessors, such as the power 
 of rendering them invisible, or of filling their pockets 
 with gold. In pursuing the various accounts of these 
 stones in Welsh folk-lore we find ourselves now in 
 fairy-land, now in the domains of mother church, 
 now listening to legends of enchantment, now to 
 tales of saintly virtue, now giving ear to a magician, 
 now to a monk. Stone-worship, of which the exist- 
 ing superstitions are remains, was so prevalent under 
 the Saxon monarchy, that it was forbidden by law in 
 the reign of Edgar the Peaceable, (ninth century,) 
 
362 British Goblins. 
 
 I 
 
 and when Canute came, in the following century, he 
 also found it advisable to issue such a law. That 
 this pagan worship was practised from a time of 
 which there is now no record, is not questioned ; 
 and the perpetuation of certain features of this wor- \ 
 ship by the early Christians was in spite of the laws \ 
 promulgated for its suppression by a Christian king. 
 In this manner the monks were enabled to draw to 
 themselves the peasantry in whose breasts the an- 
 cient superstition was strong, and who willingly sub- 
 stituted the new story for the old, so long as the 
 underlying belief was not rudely uprooted. 
 
 II. 
 
 Among the existing stones in Wales with which 
 the ancient ideas of occult power are connected, one 
 in Carmarthenshire is probably unique of its kind. 
 It is called Canna's Stone, and lies in a field adjoin- 
 ing the old church of Llangan, now remote from the 
 population whose ancestors worshipped in it. TheB 
 church was founded by an Armorican lady of rank 
 named Canna, who was sainted. The stone in ques- 
 tion forms a sort of chair, and was used in connection 
 with a magic well called Ffynon Canna, which is 
 now, like the church, deserted and wretched. Patients 
 suffering from ague, in order to profit by its healing 
 power, must sit in the chair of Canna's stone, after 
 drinking of the water. If they could manage to 
 sleep while in the chair, the effect of the water was 
 supposed to be made sure. The process was con- 
 tinued for some days, sometimes for two or three 
 weeks. 
 
 In the middle of this parish there is a field called 
 Pare y Fonwent, or the churchyard-field, where, 
 according to local tradition, the church was to have 
 been originally built ; but the stones brought to the 
 
Bells, Wells ^ Stones^ and Dragons. 363 
 
 spot during the day were at night removed by invisible 
 hands to the site of the present church. Watchers 
 in the dark heard the goblins engaged in this work, 
 and pronouncing in clear and correct Welsh these 
 words, ' Llangan, dyma r fan,' which mean, ' Llangan, 
 here is the spot.' 
 
 Similar miraculous removals of stones are reported 
 and believed in other parts of Wales. Sometimes 
 visible goblins achieve the work ; sometimes the 
 stones themselves possess the power of locomotion. 
 The old British historian Nennius^ speaks of a stone, 
 one of the wonders of the Isle of Anglesea, which 
 walks during the night in the valley of Eitheinn. 
 Being once thrown into the whirlpool Cerevus, which 
 is in the middle of the sea called Menai, it was on 
 the morrow found on the side of the aforesaid valley. 
 Also in Builth is a heap of stones, upon which is 
 one stone bearing the impress of a dog's foot. This 
 was the famous dog of King Arthur, named Cabal, 
 which left its footprint on this stone when it hunted 
 the swine Troynt. Arthur himself gathered this 
 heap of stones, with the magic stone upon it, and 
 called it Carn Cabal ; and people who take away 
 this stone in their hands for the space of a day and 
 a night cannot retain it, for it returns itself to the 
 heap. The Anglesea stone is also mentioned by 
 Giraldus, through whom it achieved celebrity under 
 the name of Maen Morddwyd, or the Thigh Stone 
 — 'a stone resembling a human thigh, which pos- 
 sesses this innate virtue, that whatever distance it 
 may be carried it returns of its own accord the fol- 
 lowing night. Hugh, Earl of Chester, in the reign 
 of King Henry I., having by force occupied this 
 island and the adjacent country, heard of the mira- 
 culous power of this stone, and for the purpose of 
 
 I Harleian MSS., 3859. 
 
I 
 
 364 British Gobli^is. 
 
 trial ordered it to be fastened with strong iron chains 
 to one of a larger size and to be thrown into the sea ; 
 on the following morning, however, according to 
 custom, it was found in its original position, on which 
 account the Earl issued a public edict that no one 
 from that time should presume to move the stone 
 from its place. A countryman also, to try the powers 
 of this stone, fastened it to his thigh, which imme- 
 diately became putrid, and the stone returned to its 
 original situation/ ^ This stone ultimately lost its 
 virtues, however, for it was stolen in the last 
 century and never came back. 
 
 III. 
 
 The Talking Stone Llechlafar, or stone of lo- 
 quacity, served as a bridge over the river Alyn, 
 bounding the churchyard of St. Davids in Pem- 
 brokeshire, on the northern side. It was a marble 
 slab worn smooth by the tread of many feet, and 
 was ten feet long, six feet broad, and one foot thick. 
 Ancient tradition relates that one day ' when a corpse 
 was being carried over it for interment the stone 
 broke forth into speech, and by the effort cracked 
 in the middle, which fissure is still visible ; and on 
 account of this barbarous and ancient superstition 
 the corpses are no longer brought over it.' ^ 
 
 In this same parish of St. David's, there was a 
 flight of steps leading down to the sea, among which 
 were a certain few which uttered a miraculous sound, 
 like the ringing of a bell. The story goes that in 
 ancient times a band of pirates landed there and 
 robbed the chapel. The bell they took away to 
 sea with them, but as it was heavy they rested it 
 several times on their way, and ever since that day 
 
 ^ Sir R. C. Hoare's Giraldus, ' Itin. Camb.,' ii., 104. 
 ^ Ibid., ii., 8. 
 
 % 
 
Bells, We lis ^ Stones, and Dragons. 2>^^ 
 
 the stones it rested upon have uttered these mys- 
 terious sounds when struck. 
 
 Also in this parish is the renowned Expanding 
 Stone, an excavation in the rock of St. Gowan's 
 chapel, which has the magic property of adapting 
 itself to the size of the person who gets into it, 
 growing smaller for a small man and larger for a 
 large one. Among its many virtues was that if 
 a person got into it and made a wish, and did not 
 change his mind while turning about, the wish 
 would come true. The original fable relates that 
 this hollow stone was once solid ; that a saint 
 closely pursued by Pagan persecutors sought shelter 
 of the rock, which thereupon opened and received 
 him, concealing him till the danger was over and 
 then obligingly letting him out. 
 
 This stone may probably be considered as the 
 monkish parallel for the magic stones which confer 
 on their possessor invisibility, as we find them in the 
 romances of enchantment. In the ' Mabinogion ' 
 such stones are frequently mentioned, usually in the 
 favourite form of a gem set within a ring. ' Take 
 this ring,' says the damsel with yellow curling hair,^ 
 ' and put it on thy finger, with the stone inside thy 
 hand ; and close thy hand upon the stone. And as 
 long as thou concealest it, it will conceal thee.* But 
 when it is found, as we find in following these clues 
 further, that this Stone of Invisibility was one of 
 the Thirteen Rarities of Kingly Regalia of the 
 Island of Britain ; that it was formerly kept at 
 Caerleon, in Monmouthshire, the city whence St. 
 David journeyed into Pembrokeshire ; and that it 
 is mentioned in the Triads thus : ' The Stone of the 
 Ring of Luned, which liberated Owen the son of 
 Urien from between the portcullis and the wall ; 
 
 1 Lady Charlotte Guest's ' Mabinogion,' 13. 
 
366 British Goblins, 
 
 whoever concealed that stone the stone or bezel 
 would conceal him,' the strong probability appears 
 that we are dealing with one and the same myth 
 in the tale of magic and in the monkish legend. 
 Traced back to a period more remote than that 
 with which these Welsh stories ostensibly deal, we 
 should find their prototype in the ring of Gyges. 
 
 The Stone of Remembrance is another stone men- 
 tioned in the * Mabinogion,' also a jewel, endowed 
 with valuable properties which it imparts not merely 
 to its wearer, but to any one who looks upon it. 
 
 * Rhonabwy,' says Iddawc to the enchanted dreamer 
 on the yellow calf-skin, * dost thou see the ring with 
 a stone set in it, that is upon the Emperor's hand ?' 
 
 * I see it,' he answered. ' It is one of the properties 
 of that stone to enable thee to remember that thou 
 seest here to-night, and hadst thou not seen the 
 stone, thou wouldst never have been able to re- 
 member aught thereof.' ^ Still another stone of rare 
 good qualities is that which Peredur gave to Etlym, 
 in reward for his attendance,^ the stone which was 
 on the tail of a serpent, and whose virtues were such 
 that whosoever should hold it in one hand, in the 
 other he would have as much gold as he might 
 desire. Peredur having vanquished the serpent and 
 possessed himself of the stone, immediately gave it 
 away, in that spirit of lavish free-handedness which 
 so commonly characterizes the heroes of chivalric 
 British romance. 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the church of St. David's of Llanfaes, accord- 
 ing to Giraldus, was preserved among the relics 
 a stone which caught a thieving boy in the act of 
 robbing a pigeon's nest, and held him fast for three 
 days and nights. Only by assiduous and long-con- 
 ^ Lady Charlotte Guest's ' Mabinogion,' 303, ^ Ibid., iii. 
 
 1 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons. ^6^ 
 
 tinued prayer were the unhappy boy's parents able 
 to get him loose from the terrible stone, and the 
 marks of his five fingers remained ever after im- 
 pressed upon it, so that all might see them. There 
 was a stone of similar proclivities in the valley of 
 Mowddwy, which did good service for the church. 
 A certain St. Tydecho, a relation of King Arthur, 
 who slept on a blue rock in this valley, was perse- 
 cuted by Maelgwn Gwynedd. One day this wicked 
 knight came with a pack of white dogs to hunt in 
 that neighbourhood, and sat down upon the saint s 
 blue stone. When he endeavoured to get up he 
 found himself fastened to his seat so that he could 
 not stir, in a manner absurdly suggestive of French 
 farces ; and he was obliged to make up matters with 
 the saint. He ceased to persecute the good man, 
 and to make amends for the past gave him the 
 privilege of sanctuary for a hundred ages.^ 
 
 V. 
 
 As for Stones of Healing, with qualities resembling 
 those abiding in certain wells, they appear in many 
 shapes. Now it is a maenhir, against which the 
 afflicted peasant must rub himself ; now it is a pebble 
 which he must carry in his pocket. The inevitable 
 wart reappears in this connection ; the stone which 
 cures the wart is found by the roadside, wrapped in 
 a bit of paper, and dropped on a cross-road ; to him 
 who picks it up the wart is transferred. Children in 
 Pembrokeshire will not at the present day pick up a 
 small parcel on a cross-road, suspecting the presence 
 of the wart-bearing stone. In Carmarthen are still 
 to be found traces of a belief in the Alluring Stone, 
 whose virtue is that it will cure hydrophobia. It is 
 
 1 'Celtic Remains,' 420. (Printed for the Cambrian Arch. Soc, 
 London, 1878.) 
 
368 British Goblins. 
 
 represented as a soft white stone, about the size 
 of a man's head, originally found on a farm called 
 Dysgwylfa, about twelve miles from Carmarthen town. 
 Grains were scraped from the stone with a knife, 
 and administered to the person who had been bitten 
 by a rabid dog ; and a peculiarity of the stone was 
 that though generation after generation had scraped 
 it, nevertheless it did not diminish in size. A woman 
 who ate of this miraculous stone, after having been 
 bitten by a suspicious cur, testified that it caused ' a 
 boiling in her blood.' The stone was said to have 
 fallen from the sky in the first instance. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Stones standing at cross-roads are seldom without 
 some superstitious legend. A peasant pointed out 
 to me, on a mountain-top near Crumlyn, Monmouth- 
 shire, a cross-roads stone, beneath which, he as- 
 serted, a witch sleeps by day, coming forth at night. 
 * Least they was say so,' he explained, with a ner- 
 vous look about him, ' but there you ! / was never 
 see anything, an' I was pass by there many nights — 
 yes, indeed, often.' The man's eagerness to testify 
 against the truth of the tradition was one of the 
 most impressive illustrations possible of lingering 
 superstitious awe in this connection. 
 
 A famous Welsh witch, who used to sleep under 
 a stone at Llanberis, in North Wales, was called 
 Canrig Bwt, and her favourite dish at dinner was 
 children's brains. A certain criminal who had re- 
 ceived a death-sentence was given the alternative of 
 attacking this frightful creature, his life to be spared 
 should he succeed in destroying her. Arming him- 
 self with a sharp sword, the doomed man got upon 
 the stone and called on Canrig to come out. ' Wait 
 till I have finished eating the brains in this sweet 
 
Bells, Wells, Sto7ies, and Dragons. 369 
 
 little skull,' was her horrible answer. However, forth 
 she came presently, when the valiant man cut off 
 her head at a blow. To this day they scare children 
 thereabout with the name of Canrig Bwt. 
 
 VII. 
 
 In every part of Wales one encounters the ancient 
 memorials of King Arthur — sometimes to be dimly 
 connected with the historical character, but more 
 often with the mythical figure — each with its legend, 
 or its bundle of legends, poetic, patriotic, or super- 
 stitious. Arthur s Round Table at Caerleon, Mon- 
 mouthshire, is as well known to every boy in the 
 neighbourhood as any inn or shop of the village. 
 It is a grass-grown Roman amphitheatre, whence 
 alabaster statues of Adrian's day have been dis- 
 interred. There is also an Arthur's Round Table 
 in Denbighshire, a flat-topped hill thus called, and in 
 Anglesea another, near the village of Llanfihangel. 
 Arthur's Seat, Arthur's Bed, Arthur's Castle, Ar- 
 thur's Stone, Arthur's Hill, Arthur's Quoit, Arthur's 
 Board, Arthur's Carn, Arthur's Pot — these are but 
 a few of the well-known cromlechs, rocking-stones, 
 or natural objects to be found in various neighbour- 
 hoods. They are often in duplicates, under these 
 names, but they never bear such titles by other 
 authority than traditions reaching back into the 
 dark ages. Some of the stories and superstitions 
 which attach to them are striking, and of the most 
 fascinating interest to the student of folk-lore ; 
 others are merely grotesque, as in the case of 
 Arthur's Pot. This is under a cromlech at Dolwil- 
 lim, on the banks of the Tawe, and in the stream 
 itself when the water is high ; it is a circular hole of 
 considerable depth, accurately bored in the stone by 
 the action of the water. This hole is called Arthur's 
 
37© British Goblins, 
 
 Pot, and according to local belief was made by 
 Merlin for the hero king to cook his dinner in. 
 Arthur's Quoits are found in many parts of the 
 country. A large rock in the bed of the Sawdde 
 river, on the Llangadock side of Mynydd Du, (the 
 Black Mountain,) is one of these quoits. The story 
 is that the king one day flung it from the summit of 
 Pen Arthur, a mile away. There is another large 
 rock beside it, which was similarly flung down by a 
 lady of Arthur's acquaintance, whose gigantic pro- 
 portions may be guessed from the fact that this 
 boulder was a pebble in her shoe, which annoyed 
 her. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Upon this hint there opens out before the inquirer 
 a wealth of incident and illustration, in connection 
 with gigantic Britons of old time who hurled huge 
 rocks about as pebbles. There is the story of the 
 giant Idris, who dwelt upon Cader Idris, and who 
 found no less a number than three troublesome 
 pebbles in his shoe as he was out walking one day, 
 and who tossed them down where they lie on the 
 road from Dolgelley to Machynlleth, three bulky 
 crags. There are several legends about Mol 
 Walbec's pebbles in Breconshire. This lusty dame 
 has a full score of shadowy castles on sundry heights 
 in that part of Wales ; and she is said to have built 
 the castle of Hay in one night. In performing this 
 work she carried the stones in her apron ; one of 
 these — a pebble about a foot thick and nine feet 
 long — fell into her shoe. At first she did not notice 
 it, but by-and-by it began to annoy her, and she 
 plucked it out and threw it into Llowes churchyard, 
 three miles away, where it now lies. In many parts of 
 Wales where lie rude heaps of stones, the peasantry 
 say they were carried there by a witch in her apron. 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 2>7^ 
 
 The gigantic creatures whose dimensions are indi- 
 cated by these stones reappear continually in Welsh 
 folk-lore. Arthur is merely the greatest among 
 them ; all were of prodigious proportions. Hu 
 Gadarn, Cadwaladr, Rhitta Gawr, Brutus, Idris, are 
 all members of the shadowy race whose ' quoits ' 
 and ' pebbles ' are scattered about Wales. The 
 remains at Stonehenge have been from time imme- 
 morial called by the Cymry the Cor Gawr, Circle or 
 Dance of Giants. How the Carmarthen enchanter, 
 Merlin, transported these stones hither from Killara 
 mountain in Ireland by his magic art, everybody 
 knows. It is only necessary that a stone should be 
 of a size to make the idea of removing it an appa- 
 rently hopeless one — that Merlin or some other 
 magician brought it there by enchantment, or that 
 Arthur or some other giant tossed it there with his 
 mighty arm, is a matter of course.^ The giant of 
 Trichrug, (a fairy haunt in Cardiganshire,) appears 
 to have been the champion pebble-tosser of Wales, 
 if local legend may be trusted. Having invited the 
 neighbouring giants to try their strength with him in 
 throwing stones, he won the victory by tossing a 
 huge rock across the sea into Ireland. His grave 
 is traditionally reported to be on that mountain, and 
 to possess the same properties as the Expanding 
 Stone, for it fits any person who lies down in it, be 
 he tall or short. It has the further virtue of im- 
 parting extraordinary strength to any one lying in 
 it ; but if he gets into it with arms upon his person 
 they will be taken from him and he will never see 
 them more. 
 
 Mt is noteworthy that most of the great stones of these legends 
 appear to have really been transported to the place where they are now 
 found, being often of a different rock than that of the immediate 
 locaUty. To what extent the legends express the first vague inductions 
 of early geological observers, is a question not without interest. 
 
 2 B 
 
'372 
 
 British Goblins, 
 
 IX. 
 
 The gigantic stone-tossers of Wales associate 
 themselves without effort with the mythology of the 
 heavens. One of their chiefest, Idris, was indeed 
 noted as an astrologer, and is celebrated as such in 
 the Triads : 
 
 Idris Gawr, or the Giant Idris ; 
 Gwydion, or the Diviner by Trees ; 
 Gwyn, the Son of Nudd, the Generous ; 
 
 So great was their knowledge of the stars, that they could foretell 
 whatever might be desired to be known until the day of doom. 
 
 And amonor Welsh legends none is more familiar 
 than that of Rhitta Gawr, wherein the stars are 
 familiarly spoken of as cows and sheep, and the 
 firmament as their pasture. 
 
 i 
 
 « 
 
( ^n ) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Early Inscribed Stones — The Stone Pillar of Banwan Bryddin, near 
 Neath — Catastrophe accompanying its Removal — The Sagranus 
 Stone and the White Lady — The Dancing Stones of Stackpool — 
 Human Beings changed to Stones — St. Ceyna and the Serpents — 
 The Devil's Stone at Llanarth — Rocking Stones and their accom- 
 panying Superstitions — The Suspended Altar of Loin-Garth — Crom- 
 lechs and their Fairy Legends — The Fairies' Castle at St. Nicholas, 
 Glamorganshire — The Stone of the Wolf Bitch — The Welsh Melu- 
 sina — Pare y Bigwrn Cromlech— Connection of these Stones with 
 Ancient Druidism. 
 
 I. 
 
 Paleographic students are more or less familiar 
 with about seventy early inscribed stones in Wales. 
 The value of these monuments, as corroborative 
 evidence of historical facts, in connection with waning 
 popular traditions, is well understood. Superstitious 
 prejudice is particularly active in connection with 
 stones of this kind. The peasantry view them 
 askance, and will destroy them if not restrained, as 
 they usually are, by fear of evil results to themselves. 
 Antiquaries have often reason to thank superstition 
 for the existence in our day of these ancient monu- 
 ments. But there is a sort of progressive movement 
 towards enlightenment which carries the Welsh farmer 
 from the fearsome to the destructive stage, in this 
 connection. That dangerous thing, a little know- 
 ledge, sometimes leads its imbiber beyond the reach 
 of all fear of the guardian fairy or demon of the 
 stone, yet leaves him still so superstitious regard- 
 ing it that he believes its influence to be baleful, 
 and its destruction a sort of duty. It was the 
 common opinion of the peasantry of the parish in 
 
 2 B 2 
 
374 British Uoblins. 
 
 which it stood, that whoever happened to read the 
 inscription on the Maen Llythyrog, an early inscribed 
 stone on the top of a mountain near Margam Abbey, 
 in Glamorganshire, would die soon after. In many 
 instances the stones are believed to be transformed 
 human beings, doomed to this guise for some sin, 
 usually an act of sacrilege. Beliefs of this character 
 would naturally be potent in influencing popular 
 feeling against the stones. But on the other hand, 
 however desirable might be their extinction, there 
 would be perils involved, which one would rather his 
 neighbour than himself should encounter. Various 
 awful consequences, but especially the most terrific 
 storms and disturbances of the earth, followed any 
 meddling with them. 
 
 At Banwan Bryddin, a few miles from Neath, a 
 stone pillar inscribed ' Marci caritini filii bericii,' 
 long stood on a tumulus which by the peasants was 
 considered a fairy ring. The late Lady Mackworth 
 caused this stone to be removed to a grotto she was 
 constructing on her grounds, and which she was 
 ornamenting with all the curious stones she could 
 collect. An old man who was an under-gardener 
 on her estate, and who abounded with tales of 
 goblins, declaring he had often had intercourse with 
 these strange people, told the Rev. Mr. Williams of 
 Tir-y-Cwm, that he had always known this act of 
 sacrilege would not go unpunished by the guardians 
 of the stone. He had more than once seen these 
 sprites dancing of an evening in the rings of Banwan 
 Bryddin, where the ' wonder stone ' stood, but never 
 since the day the stone was removed had any mortal 
 seen them. Upon the stone, he said, were written 
 mysterious words in the fairy language, which no 
 one had ever been able to comprehend, not even 
 Lady Mackworth herself. When her ladyship re- 
 
 4\ 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones^ and Dragons. 375 
 
 moved the stone to Gnoll Gardens the fairies were 
 very much annoyed ; and the grotto, which cost 
 Lady Mackworth thousands of pounds to build, was 
 no sooner finished than one night, Duw'n catwo ni ! 
 there was such thunder and Hghtning as never was 
 heard or seen in Glamorganshire before ; and next 
 morning the grotto was gone ! The hill had fallen 
 over it and hidden it for ever. ' Iss indeed,' said 
 the old man, ' and woe will fall on the Cymro or the 
 Saeson that will dare to clear the earth away. I 
 myself, and others who was there, was hear the 
 fairies laughing loud that night, after the storm has 
 cleared away.' 
 
 II. 
 
 The Sagranus Stone at St. Dogmell's, Pembroke- 
 shire, was formerly used as a bridge over a brook 
 not far from where it at present stands — luckily 
 with its inscribed face downwards, so that the sculp- 
 ture remained unharmed while generations were 
 tramping over it. During its use as a bridge it 
 bore the reputation of being haunted by a white 
 lady, who was constantly seen gliding over it at the 
 witching hour of midnight. No man or woman 
 could be induced to touch the strange stone after 
 dark, and its supernatural reputation no doubt 
 helped materially in its preservation unharmed till 
 the present time. It is considered on paleographic 
 grounds to be of the fourth century. 
 
 In Pembrokeshire also are found the famous 
 Dancing Stones of Stackpool. These are three 
 upright stones standing about a mile from each 
 other, the first at Stackpool Warren, the second 
 further to the west, on a stone tumulus in a field 
 known as Horestone Park, and the third still further 
 westward. One of many traditions concerning them 
 is to the effect that on a certain day they meet 
 
376 British Goblins. 
 
 and come down to Sais's Ford to dance, and after 
 
 their revel is over return home and resume their 
 
 places. 
 
 III. 
 
 There is a curious legend regarding three stones 
 which once stood on the top of Moelfre Hill, in Car- 
 narvonshire, but which were long ago rolled to the 
 bottom of the hill by * some idle-headed youths * 
 who dug them up. They were each about four feet 
 high, standing as the corners of a triangle ; one was 
 red as blood, another white, and the third a pale 
 blue. The tradition says that three women, about 
 the time when Christianity first began to be known 
 in Britain, went up Moelfre Hill on a Sabbath morn- 
 ing to winnow their corn. They had spread their 
 winnowing sheet upon the ground and begun their 
 work, when some of their neighbours came to them 
 and reprehended them for working on the Lord's 
 day. But the women, having a greater eye to their 
 worldly profit than to the observance of the fourth 
 commandment, made light of their neighbours' 
 words, and went on working. Thereupon they were 
 instantly transformed into three pillars of stone, each 
 stone of the same colour as the dress of the woman 
 in whose place it stood, one red, one white, and the 
 third bluish. 
 
 Legends of the turning to stone of human beings 
 occur in connection with many of the meini hirion 
 (long stones). Near Llandyfrydog, Anglesea, there 
 is a maenhir of peculiar shape. From one point of 
 view it looks not unlike the figure of a humpbacked 
 man, and it is called ' Carreg y Lleidr,' or the 
 Robber s Stone. The tradition connected with it is 
 that a man who had stolen the church Bible, and 
 was carrying it away on his shoulder, was turned 
 into this stone, and must stand here till the last 
 trump sets him free. 
 
Bells^ Wells ^ Slones, and Dragons. 2)11 
 
 At Rolldritch (Rhwyldrech ?) there Is or was a 
 circle of stones, concerning which tradition held that 
 they were the human victims of a witch who, for 
 some offence, transformed them to this shape. In 
 connection with this circle is preserved another form 
 of superstitious belief very often encountered, 
 namely, that the number of stones in the circle can- 
 not be correctly counted by a mortal/ 
 
 It is noteworthy that the only creature which 
 shares with man the grim fate of being turned to 
 stone, in Welsh legends, is the serpent. The monk- 
 ish account of St. Ceyna, one of the daughters of 
 Prince Brychan, of Breconshire, relates that having 
 consecrated her virginity to the Lord by a perpetual 
 vow, she resolved to seek some desert place where 
 she could give herself wholly up to meditation. So 
 she journeyed beyond the river Severn, ' and there 
 meeting a woody place, she made her request to the 
 prince of that country that she might be permitted 
 to serve God in that solitude. His answer was that 
 he was very willing to grant her request, but that the 
 place did so swarm with serpents that neither man 
 nor beast could inhabit it. But she replied that her 
 firm trust was in the name and assistance of Almighty 
 God to drive all that poisonous brood out of that 
 region. Hereupon the place was granted to the 
 holy virgin, who, prostrating herself before God, 
 obtained of him to change the serpents and vipers 
 into stones. And to this day the stones in that 
 region do resemble the windings of serpents, through 
 all the fields and villages, as if they had been framed 
 by the hand of the sculptor.' The scene of this 
 legend is mentioned by Camden as being at a place 
 near Bristol, called Keynsham, ' where abundance 
 of that fossil called by the naturalists Cornu Am- 
 mo n is is dug up.' 
 
 * Roberts, ' Camb. Pop. Ant.,' 220. 
 
^yS British Goblins. 
 
 ■ IV. 
 
 Our old friepd the devil is once more to the fore 
 when we encounter the inscribed stone of the twelfth 
 century, which stands in the churchyard of Llanarth, 
 near Aberaeron, in Cardiganshire. A cross covers 
 this stone, with four circular holes at the junction of 
 the arms. The current tradition of the place regard- 
 ing it is that one stormy night, there was such a 
 tremendous noise heard in the belfry that the whole 
 village was thrown into consternation. It was 
 finally concluded that nobody but the diawl could 
 be the cause of this, and therefore the people fetched 
 his reverence from the vicarage to go and request 
 the intruder to depart. The vicar went up into the 
 belfry, with bell, book, and candle, along the narrow 
 winding stone staircase, and, as was anticipated, 
 there among the bells he saw the devil in person. 
 The good man began the usual ' Conj urate in no- 
 mine,' etc., when the fiend sprang up and mounted 
 upon the leads of the tower. The vicar was not to 
 be balked, however, and boldly followed up the 
 remainder of the staircase and got also out upon the 
 leads. The devil finding himself hard pressed, had 
 nothing for it but to jump over the battlements of 
 the tower. He came down plump among the grave- 
 stones below, and falling upon one, made with his 
 hands and knees the four holes now visible on the 
 stone in question, which among the country people 
 still bears the name of the Devil's Stone. 
 
 The logan stones in various parts of Wales, 
 which vibrate mysteriously under the touch of a 
 child's finger, and rock violently at a push from a 
 man's stronger hand, are also considered by the 
 
Bells^ Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 379 
 
 superstitious a favourite resort of the fairies and the 
 diawl. The holy aeroHte to which unnumbered 
 multitudes bow down at Mecca is indeed no stranger 
 thing than the rocking-stone on Pontypridd's sky- 
 perched common. Among the marvellous stones 
 in Nennius is one concerning a certain altar in Loin- 
 garth, in Gower, 'suspended by the power of God,' 
 which he says a legend tells us was brought thither 
 in a ship along with the dead body of some holy 
 man who desired to be buried near St. Illtyd's 
 grave, and to remain unknown by name, lest he 
 should become an object of too reverent regard ; for 
 Illtyd dwelt in a cave there, the mouth of which 
 faced the sea in those days ; and having received 
 this charge, he buried the corpse, and built a church 
 over it, enclosing the wonderful altar, which testified 
 by more than one astounding miracle the Divine 
 power which sustained it. This is thought to be a 
 myth relating to some Welsh rocking-stone no longer 
 known. The temptation to throw down stones of 
 this character has often been too much for the 
 destruction-loving vulgarian, both in Wales and in 
 other parts of the British islands ; but the offenders 
 have seldom been the local peasantry, who believe 
 that the guardians of the stone — the fairies or the 
 diawl, as the case may be — will heavily avenge 
 its overthrow on the overthrowers. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Venerable in their hoary antiquity stand those 
 monuments of a long-vanished humanity, the crom- 
 lechs which are so numerous in Wales, sharing with 
 the logan and the inscribed stone the peasant's super- 
 stitious interest. Even more than the others, these 
 solemn rocks are surrounded with legends of enchant- 
 ment. They figure in many fairy-tales like that of 
 
38o 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 the shepherd of Frennlfawr, who stood watching 
 their mad revelry about the old cromlech, where 
 they were dancing, making music on the harp, and 
 chasing their companions in hilarious sort. That 
 the fairies protect the cromlechs with special care, 
 as they also do the logans and others, is a belief the 
 Welsh peasant shares with the superstitious in many 
 lands. There is a remarkable cromlech near the 
 hamlet of St. Nicholas, Glamorganshire, on the 
 
 THE FAIRY FROLIC AT THE CROMLECH. 
 
 estate of the family whose house has the honour of 
 being haunted by the ghost of an admiral. This 
 cromlech is called, by children in that neighbour- 
 hood, * Castle Correg.' A Cardiff gentleman who 
 asked some children who were playing round the 
 cromlech, what they termed it, was struck by the 
 name, which recalled to him the Breton fairies thus 
 designated.^ The korreds and korregs of Brittany 
 
 * Mr. J. W. Lukis, in an address before the Cardiff Nat. See. in 
 July, 1874. 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 381 
 
 closely resemble the Welsh fairies in numberless 
 details. The korreds are supposed to live in the 
 cromlechs, of which they are believed to have been 
 the builders. They dance around them at night, 
 and woe betide the unhappy peasant who joins them 
 in their roundels/ Like beliefs attach to cromlechs 
 in the Haute Auvergne, and other parts of France. 
 A cromlech at Pirols, said to have been built by a 
 fee, is composed of seven massive stones, the 
 largest being twelve feet long by eight and a half 
 feet wide. The f6e carried these stones hither from 
 a great distance, and set them up ; and the largest 
 and heaviest one she carried on the top of her 
 spindle, and so little was she incommoded by it that 
 she continued to spin all the way.^ 
 
 VII. 
 
 Among the Welsh peasantry the cromlechs are 
 called by a variety of names, one interesting group 
 giving in Cardiganshire ' the Stone of the Bitch,' in 
 Glamorganshire ' the Stone of the Greyhound Bitch,' 
 in Carmarthenshire and in Monmouthshire 'the 
 Kennel of the Greyhound Bitch,' and in some other 
 parts of Wales * the Stone of the Wolf Bitch.' 
 These names refer to no fact of modern experience ; 
 they are legendary. The Cambrian form of the 
 story of Melusina is before us here, with differing 
 details. The wolf-bitch of the Welsh legend was a 
 princess who for her sins was transformed to that 
 shape, and thus long remained. Her name was 
 Gast Rhymhi, and she had two cubs while a wolf- 
 bitch, with which she dwelt in a cave. After long 
 suffering in this wretched guise, she and her cubs 
 were restored to their human form ' for Arthur,' who 
 
 ^ Keightley, ' Fairy Mythology,' 432. 
 "^ Cambry, * Monuments Celtiques,' 232. 
 
o 
 
 82 British Gobli^is, 
 
 sought her out. The unfortunate Meluslna, it will 
 be remembered, was never entirely robbed of her 
 human form. 
 
 * Ange par la figure, et serpent par le reste,' 
 
 she was condemned by the lovely fay Pressina to 
 become a serpent from the waist downwards, on 
 every Saturday, till she should meet a man who 
 would marry her under certain specified conditions. 
 The monkish touch is on the Welsh legend, in the 
 medieval form in which we have it in the Mabinogi 
 of * Kilhwch and Olwen.' The princess is trans- 
 formed into a wolf-bitch 'for her sins,' and when 
 restored, although it is for Arthur, ' God did change' 
 her to a woman again. ^ 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In a field called Parc-y-Bigwrn, near Llanboidy, 
 Carmarthenshire, are the remains of a cromlech 
 destroyed many years ago, concerning which an old 
 man named John Jones related a superstitious tale.- 
 It was to the effect that there were ten men engaged 
 in the work of throwing it down, and that when 
 they were touching the stone they became filled 
 with awe ; and moreover, as the stone was being 
 drawn away by six horses the road was suddenly 
 rent asunder in a supernatural manner. This is a 
 frequent phenomenon supposed by the Welsh pea- 
 santry to accompany the attempt to move a crom- 
 lech. Another common catastrophe is the breaking 
 down of the waggon — not from the weight of the 
 stone, but through the displeasure of its goblin 
 guardians. Sometimes this awful labour is accom- 
 panied by fierce storms of hail and wind, or violent 
 thunder and lightning; sometimes by mysterious 
 
 ^ ' Mabinogion,' 259. 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones^ and Dragons. 383 
 
 noises, or swarms of bees which are supposed to be 
 fairies in disguise. 
 
 IX. 
 
 A very great number of fanciful legends might be 
 related in connection with stones of striking shape, 
 or upon which there are peculiar marks and figures ; 
 but enough of this store of folk-lore has been given 
 to serve present ends. If more were detailed, there 
 would in all cases be found a family resemblance to 
 the legends which have been presented, and which 
 lead us now into the enchanted country where 
 Arthur reigns, now wandering among the monkish 
 records of church and abbey, now to the company 
 of the dwarfs and giants of fairyland. That the 
 British Druids regarded many of these stones with 
 idolatrous reverence, is most probable. Some of 
 them, as the cromlechs and logans, they no doubt 
 employed in their mystic rites, as being symbols of 
 the dimly descried Power they worshipped. Of their 
 extreme antiquity there is no question. The rocking- 
 stones may be considered natural objects, though 
 they were perhaps assisted to their remarkable poise 
 by human hands. The cromlechs were originally 
 sepulchral chambers, unquestionably, but they are 
 so old that neither history nor tradition gives any 
 aid in assigning the date of their erection. Opinions 
 that they were once pulpits of sun-worship, or 
 Druidic altars of sacrifice, are not unwarranted, 
 perhaps, though necessarily conjectural. The evi- 
 dence that the inscribed stones are simply funeral 
 monuments, is extensive and conclusive. Originally 
 erected in honour of some great chief or warrior, 
 they were venerated by the people, and became 
 shrines about which the latter gathered in a spirit of 
 devotion. With the lapse of ages, the warrior was 
 forgotten ; even the language in which he was com- 
 
3^4 
 
 British GooHns. 
 
 memorated decayed, and the marks on the stones 
 became to the peasantry meaningless hieroglyphics, 
 to which was given a mysterious and awful signi- 
 ficance ; and so for unnumbered centuries the tomb- 
 stone remained an object of superstitious fear and 
 veneration. 
 
o«D 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Baleful Spirits of Storm — The Shower at the Magic Fountain — Ob- 
 stacles in the way of Treasure-Seekers — the Red Lady of Paviland 
 — The Fall of Coychurch Tower — Thunder and Lightning evoked 
 by Digging — The Treasure- Chest under Moel Arthur in the Vale of 
 Clwyd — Modern Credulity — The Cavern of the Ravens — The Eagle- 
 guarded Coffer of Castell Coch — Sleeping Warriors as Treasure- 
 Guarders — The Dragon which St. Samson drove out of Wales — 
 Dragons in the Mabinogion — Whence came the Red Dragon of 
 Wales ? — The Original Dragon of Mythology — Prototypes of the 
 Welsh Caverns and Treasure-Hills — The Goblins of Electricity. 
 
 I. 
 
 In the prominent part played by storm — torrents of 
 rain, blinding lightning, deafening thunder — in 
 legends of disturbed cromlechs, and other awful 
 stones, is involved the ancient belief that these 
 elements were themselves baleful spirits, which 
 could be evoked by certain acts. They were in 
 the service of fiends and fairies, and came at their 
 bidding to avenge the intrusion of venturesome 
 mortals, daring to meddle with sacred things. This 
 fascinating superstition is preserved in numberless 
 Welsh legends relating to hidden treasures, buried 
 under cromlechs or rocky mounds, or in caverns. 
 In the ' Mabinogion ' it appears in the enchanted 
 barrier to the Castle of the Lady of the Fountain. 
 Under a certain tall tree in the midst of a wide 
 valley there was a fountain, ' and by the side of the 
 fountain a marble slab, and on the marble slab a 
 silver bowl, attached by a chain of silver, so that it 
 may not be carried away. Take the bowl and 
 throw a bowlful of water on the slab,' says the black 
 
:S6 British Goblins. 
 
 i 
 
 giant of the wood to Sir Kai, ' and thou wilt hear a 
 mighty peal of thunder, so that thou wilt think that 
 heaven and earth are trembling with its fury. With 
 the thunder there will come a shower so severe 
 that it will be scarce possible for thee to endure it 
 and live. And the shower will be of hailstones ; 
 and after the shower the weather will become fair, 
 but every leaf that was upon the tree will have been 
 carried away by the shower.' ^ Of course the knight 
 dares this awful obstacle, throws the bowlful of 
 water upon the slab, receives the terrible storm 
 upon his shield, and fights the knight who owned 
 the fountain, on his coming forth. Sir Kai is 
 worsted, and returns home to Arthur's court ; 
 whereupon Sir Owain takes up the contest. He 
 sallies forth, evokes the storm, encounters the black 
 knight, slays him, and becomes master of all that 
 was his — his castle, his lands, his wife, and all his 
 treasures. 
 
 The peasant of to-day who sets out in quest of 
 hidden treasures evokes the avenging storm in like 
 manner. Sometimes the treasure is in the ground, 
 under a cromlech or a earn ; he digs, and the thunder 
 shakes the air, the lightnings flash, torrents descend, 
 and he is frustrated in his search. Again, the 
 treasure is in a cavern, guarded by a dragon, which 
 belches forth fire upon him and scorches his eye- 
 balls. Welsh folk-lore is full of legends of this 
 character ; and the curious way in which science 
 and religion sometimes get mixed up with these 
 superstitions is most suggestive — as in the cases of 
 the falling of Coychurch tower, and the Red Lady 
 of Paviland. The latter is the name given a skele- 
 ton found by Dr. Buckland in his exploration of the 
 Paviland caves, the bones of which were stained 
 
 1 ' Mabinogion,' 8. 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons, 387 
 
 by red oxide of iron. The vulgar belief is that the 
 Red Lady was entombed in the cave by a storm 
 while seeking treasure there — a legend the truth of 
 which no one can dispute with authority, since the 
 bones are certainly of a period contemporary with 
 the Roman rule in this island. Coins of Constantine 
 were found in the same earth, cemented with frag- 
 ments of charcoal and bone ornaments. In the 
 case of Coychurch tower, it undoubtedly fell because 
 it was undermined by a contractor who had the job 
 of removing certain defunct forefathers from their 
 graves near its base. Some eighteen hundred skulls 
 were taken from the ground and carted off to a hole 
 on the east side of the church. But the country 
 folk pooh-pooh the idea that the tower fell for any 
 reason other than sheer indignation and horror at 
 the disturbance of this hallowed ground by utilitarian 
 pickaxe and spade. They call your attention to the 
 fact that not only did the venerable tower come 
 crashing down, after having stood for centuries erect, 
 but that In falling It struck to the earth St. Crallo's 
 cross — an upright stone In the churchyard as vener- 
 able as itself — breaking It all to pieces. 
 
 II. 
 
 A hollow in the road near Caerau, in Cardigan- 
 shire, ' rings when any wheeled vehicle goes over 
 It.' Early In this century, two men having been 
 led to believe that there were treasures hidden 
 there (for a fairy in the semblance of a gipsy had 
 appeared and thrown out hints on the fascinating 
 subject from time to time), made up their minds to 
 dig for it. They dug accordingly until they came, 
 by their solemn statement, to the oaken frame of a 
 subterranean doorway ; and feeling sure now, that 
 they had serious work before them, prepared for 
 
 2 c 
 
388 British Goblins. 
 
 I 
 
 the same by going to dinner. They had no sooner 
 gone than a terrible storm arose ; the rain fell in 
 torrents, the thunder pealed and the lightning 
 flashed. When they went back to their work, the 
 hole they had digged was closed up ; and nothing 
 would convince them that this was done by any 
 other than a supernatural agency. Moreover, but 
 a little above the place where they were, there 
 had been no rain at all.* 
 
 III. 
 
 There is a current belief among the peasants 
 about Moel Arthur — a mountain overlooking the 
 Vale of Clwyd — that treasure, concealed in an iron 
 chest with a ring-handle to it, lies buried there. 
 The place of concealment is often illuminated at 
 night by a supernatural light. Several people there- 
 abouts are known to have seen the light, and there 
 are even men who will tell you that bold adventurers 
 have so far succeeded as to grasp the handle of the 
 iron chest, when an outburst of wild tempest wrested 
 it from their hold and struck them senseless. Local 
 tradition points out the place as the residence of an 
 ancient prince, and as a spot charmed against the 
 spade of the antiquary. * Whoever digs there,' said 
 an old woman in Welsh to some men going home 
 from their work on this spot, after a drenching wet 
 day, * is always driven away by thunder and light- 
 ning and storm ; you have been served like every- 
 body else who has made the attempt.' 
 
 IV. 
 
 So prevalent are superstitions of this class even 
 in the present day that cases get into the news- 
 papers now and then. The 'Herald Cymraeg' of 
 
 * * Arch. Camb.' 3rd Se., ix,, 306. 
 
Bells, Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 389 
 
 September 25, 1874, gave an account of some ex- 
 cavations made at Pant-y-Saer cromlech, Anglesea, 
 by the instigation of John Jones of Llandudno, ' a 
 brother of Isaac Jones, the present tenant of Pant-y- 
 Saer/ at the time on a visit to the latter. The 
 immediately exciting cause of the digging was a 
 dream in which the dreamer was told that there 
 was a pot of treasure buried within the cromlech's 
 precincts. The result was the revelation of a large 
 number of human bones, among them five lower 
 jaws with the teeth sound ; but no crochan aur 
 (pitcher of gold) turned up, and the digging was 
 abandoned in disgust. Is it credible that between 
 this account and the following yawns the gulf of 
 seven hundred years ? Thus Giraldus : In the pro- 
 vince of Kemeys, one of the seven cantrefs of 
 Pembrokeshire, ' during the reign of King Henry I., 
 a rich man who had a residence on the northern 
 side of the Preseleu mountains was warned for three 
 successive nights by dreams that if he put his hand 
 under a stone which hung over the spring of a 
 neighbouring well called the Fountain of St. Ber- 
 nacus, he should find there a golden chain ; obeying 
 the admonition, on the third day he received from a 
 viper a deadly wound in his finger; but as it appears 
 that many treasures have been discovered through 
 dreams, it seems to me probable that some ought 
 and some ought not to be believed.' ^ 
 
 V. 
 
 In a certain cavern in Glamorganshire, called the 
 Ogof Cigfrain, or Cavern of the Ravens, is said to 
 be a chest of gold, watched over by two birds of 
 gloomy plumage, in a darkness so profound that 
 nothing can be seen but the fire of their sleepless 
 
 ^ Sir R. C. Hoare's Giraldus, * Itin. Carab.' ii., yj, 
 
 2 C 2 
 
390 British Goblins. 
 
 eyes. To go there with the purpose of disturbing 
 them is to bring on a heaving and rolling of the 
 ground, accompanied by thunder and lightning. A 
 swaggering drover from Brecknockshire, though 
 warned by a * dark woman ' that he had better not 
 try it, sneered that ' a couple of ravens were a fine 
 matter to be afraid of indeed ! ' and ventured into 
 the cavern, with a long rope about his waist, and a 
 lantern in his hand. Some men who accompanied 
 him (seeing that he was bent on this rash and dan- 
 gerous emprise,) held the coil of rope, and paid it 
 out as he went further and further in. The result 
 was prompt and simple : the sky cracked with loud 
 bursts of thunder and flashes of lightning, and the 
 drover roared with affright and rushed out of the 
 dark cavern with his hair on end. No coaxingf 
 ever prevailed on him to reveal the terrible sights 
 he had seen ; when questioned he would only 
 repeat in Welsh the advice of * Punch ' to those 
 about to marry, viz., * Peidiwch !' 
 
 VI. 
 
 In the legend of Castell Coch, instead of a raven 
 it is a pair of huge eagles which watch the treasure. 
 Castell Coch is an easy and pleasant two hours' walk 
 from Cardiff Castle, with which it is vulgarly believed 
 to be connected by a subterranean passage. A short 
 time ago — well, to be precise, a hundred years ago, 
 but that is no time at all in the history of Castell 
 Coch, which was a crumbling ruin then as it is now ^ 
 — in or about the year 1780, a reduced lady was 
 allowed to fit up three or four rooms in the ruin as 
 a residence, and to live there with two old servants 
 of her house. One night this lady was awakened 
 
 ^ It is at present being entirely restored and mad€ habitable by its 
 owner, Lord Bute. 
 
Bells^ Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 391 
 
 from her sleep to receive the visit of a venerable 
 ghost in a full dress-suit of an earlier century, who 
 distressed her by his troubled countenance and 
 vexed her by his eccentric behaviour, for when she 
 spoke to him from the depths of her nightcap he at 
 once got through the wall. He came on subsequent 
 nights so often, and frightened the servants so much 
 by the noise he made — in getting through the wall, 
 of course — that the lady gave up her strange abode, 
 and was glad to pay house rent ever after in other 
 parts. This old ghost was in the flesh proprietor 
 of the castle, it appears, and during the civil wars 
 buried an iron chest full of gold in the subterranean 
 passage — which is still there, guarded by two large 
 eagles. A party of gentlemen who somewhere about 
 1800 attempted to explore the passage saw the 
 eagles, and were attacked by the birds of freedom 
 so fiercely that they retreated in disorder. Sub- 
 sequently they returned with pistols and shot the 
 eagles, which resented this trifling impertinence by 
 tearing the treasure-seekers in a shocking manner. 
 After having recovered from their wounds, the 
 determined Welshmen renewed the attack — this 
 time with silver bullets, which they had got blessed 
 by a good-natured priest. The bullets rattled 
 harmlessly on the feathers of the terrible birds ; 
 the ground shook under foot ; rain descended in 
 torrents ; with their great wings the eagles beat out 
 the gold-hunters' torches, and they barely escaped 
 with their lives. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The shadowy Horror which keeps vigil over these 
 hidden treasures is now a dragon, again a raven or 
 an eagle, again a worm. In the account of the 
 treasure-seeker of Nantyglyn, it is a winged creature 
 of unknown nature, a 'mysterious Incubus,* which 
 
392' 
 
 British Goblins. 
 
 broods over the chest in the cave. The terrible 
 Crocodile of the Lake, which was drawn from its 
 watery hiding-place by the Ychain Banog, or Pro- 
 minent Oxen of Hu Gadarn, is also sometimes called 
 a dragon (draig) in those local accounts which sur- 
 vive in the folk-lore of several different districts. 
 It infested the region round about the lake where 
 it lay concealed, and the mighty oxen so strained 
 themselves in the labour of drawing it forth that 
 one of them died and the other rent the mountain 
 in twain with his bellowing. Various legends of 
 Sleeping Warriors appear in Welsh folk-lore, in 
 which the dragon is displaced by a shadowy army 
 of slumbering heroes, lying about in a circle, with 
 their swords and shields by their sides, guarding 
 great heaps of gold and silver. Now they are Owen 
 Lawgoch and his men, who lie in their enchanted 
 sleep in a cavern on the northern side of Mynydd 
 Mawr, in Carmarthenshire ; again they are Arthur 
 and his warriors, asleep in a secret ogof under 
 Craig-y-Ddinas, waiting for a day when the Briton 
 and the Saxon shall go to war, when the noise of 
 the struggle will awaken them, and they will re- 
 conquer the island, reduce London to dust, and 
 re-establish their king at Caerleon, in Monmouth- 
 shire. 
 
 Dragon or demon, raven or serpent, eagle or 
 sleeping warriors, the guardian of the underground 
 vaults in Wales where treasures lie is a personifica- 
 tion of the baleful influences which reside in caverns, 
 graves, and subterraneous regions generally. It is 
 something more than this, when traced back to its 
 source in the primeval mythology ; the dragon 
 which watched the golden apples of Hesperides, and 
 the Payshtha-more, or great worm, which in Ireland 
 guards the riches of O'Rourke, is the same mala- 
 
Bells, Wells, S tones ^ and Dragons. 393 
 
 rious creature which St. Samson drove out of Wales. 
 According to the monkish legend, this pestiferous 
 beast was of vast size, and by its deadly breath had 
 destroyed two districts. It lay hid in a cave, near 
 the river. Thither went St. Samson, accompanied 
 only by a boy, and tied a linen girdle about the crea- 
 ture s neck, and drew it out and threw it headlong 
 from a certain high eminence into the sea.-^ This 
 dreadful dragon became mild and gentle when ad- 
 dressed by the saint ; did not lift up its terrible 
 wings, nor gnash its teeth, nor put out its tongue to 
 emit its fiery breath, but suffered itself to be led to 
 the sea and hurled therein.^ In the ' Mabinogion,' 
 the dragon which fights in Lludd's dominion is men- 
 tioned as a plague, whose shriek sounded on every 
 May eve over every hearth in Britain ; and it * went 
 through people's hearts, and so scared them, that the 
 men lost their hue and their strength, and the women 
 their children, and the young men and maidens lost 
 their senses.'^ 'Whence came the red dragon of 
 Cadwaladr?' asks the learned Thomas Stephens.^ 
 ' Why was the Welsh dragon in the fables of Merddin, 
 Nennius, and Geoffrey, described as red, while the 
 Saxon dragon was white f The question may re- 
 main long unanswered, for the reason that there is 
 no answer outside the domain of fancy, and there- 
 fore no reason which could in our day be accepted 
 as reasonable.^ The Welsh word * dragon ' means 
 equally a dragon and a leader in war. Red was the 
 most honourable colour of military garments among 
 
 ^ ' Liber Landavensis,' 301. ' Ibid., 347. 
 
 3 ' Mabinogion,' 461. * * Literature of the Kymry,' 25. 
 
 ^ Mr. Conway, in his erudite chapter on the Basilisk, appears to 
 think that the red colour of the Welsh dragon, in the legend of Merlin 
 and Vortigern, determines its moral character ; that it illustrates the 
 evil principle in the struggle between right and wrong, or light and 
 darkness, as black does in the Persian legends of fighting serpents.— 
 * Demonology and Devil- Lore,' p. 369. (London, Chatto and Windus, 
 1879.) 
 
394 British Goblins. 
 
 
 the British in Arthur's day ; and Arthur wore a 
 dragon on his helmet, according to tradition. 
 
 His haughty helmet, horrid all with gold, 
 Both glorious brightness and great terror bred, 
 
 For all the crest a dragon did enfold 
 With greedy paws. ^ 
 
 But the original dragon was an embodiment o 
 mythological ideas as old as mankind, and older 
 than any written record. The mysterious beast of 
 the boy Taliesin's song, in the marvellous legend of 
 Gwion Bach, is a dragon worthy to be classed with 
 the gigantic conceptions of the primeval imagination, 
 which sought by these prodigious figures to explain 
 all the phenomena of nature. ' A noxious creature 
 from the rampart of Satanas,' sings Taliesin ; with 
 jaws as wide as mountains ; in the hair of its two 
 paws there is the load of nine hundred waggons, and 
 in the nape of its neck three springs arise, through 
 which sea-roughs swim.^ 
 
 VIII. 
 
 For the prototype of the dragon-haunted caves 
 and treasure-hills of Wales, we must look to the 
 lightning caverns of old Aryan fable, into which no 
 man might gaze and live, and which were in fact 
 the attempted explanation of thunderstorms, when 
 the clouds appeared torn asunder by the lightning. 
 
 Scholars have noted the impressive fact that the 
 ancient Aryan people had the same name for cloud 
 and mountain ; in the Old Norse, ' klakkr ' means 
 both cloud and rock, and indeed the English word 
 cloud has been identified with the Anglo-Saxon 
 
 * cltid,' rock.^ Equally significant here is the fact that 
 in the Welsh language * draig ' means both lightning 
 and dragon. 
 
 ^ Spenser, ' Faerie Queene.' ^ < Mabinogion,' 484. 
 
 3 Max Miiller, ' Rig- Veda,' i. 44. And see Mr. Baring- Gould's 
 
 * Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,' etc. 
 
 1 
 
Bells^ Wells, Stones, and Dragons. 395 
 
 Primeval man, ignorant that the cloud was in 
 any way different in structure from the solid 
 mountains whose peaks it emulated in appearance, 
 started back aghast and trembling when with 
 crashing thunders the celestial rocks opened, dis- 
 playing for an instant the glowing cavern whose 
 splendour haunted his dreams. From this pheno- 
 menon, whose goblins modern science has tamed 
 and taught to run errands along a wire, came a 
 host of glittering legends, the shining hammer of 
 Thor, the lightning spear of Odin, the enchanted 
 arrow of Prince Ahmed, and the forked trident of 
 Poseidon, as well as the fire-darting dragons of 
 our modern folk-lore. 
 
^1 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Aberdovey, the Bells of, 339, 344 j 
 Aderyn y Corph, the, 212 
 
 All Fools' Day, 274 j 
 
 All Hallows, 280 J 
 
 Alluring Stone, the, 367 ; 
 American Ghost Stories, 139, 185 
 
 Angels, Apparitions of, 208 1 
 
 Animals' Terrors at Goblins, 171 j 
 
 Annwn, the World of Shadows, 7, 34 i 
 
 Antic Spirits, 180 , 
 
 Aphrodite, the Welsh, 350 i 
 
 Apple Gift, the, 253 | 
 
 Arian y Rhaw, 333 1 
 
 Arthur, the Mythic and the Historic, vii. ! 
 
 Arthur's Dog, 363 ' 
 „ Pot, 369 
 
 „ Quoits, 370 I 
 
 „ Round Table, 369 " i 
 
 „ Seat, Bed, Castle, Stone, etc., 369 i 
 
 Ascension Day, Curious Superstition concerning, 25 I 
 
 Aura, the Human, its Perception by Dogs, 172 j 
 
 Avagddu, 219 
 
 Avalon, 8 1 
 
 B. -j 
 
 Ball-playing in Churchyards, 272 i 
 Bangu, the, 340 
 
 Banshee, the, 212 ] 
 
 „ ,, in America, 247 ^ 
 
 Banwan Bryddin, the Stone of, 374 ■ 
 
 Barnwell, Rev. E. L., cited, 324 ^ 
 
 Baron's Gate, Legend of the, 127 ■ 
 
398 
 
 Index, 
 
 Barry Island, Mysterious Noises on, 353 
 Basilisks in Mines, 27 
 Beer-drinking at Funerals, 32 2 
 Bells, Superstitions concerning, 339 
 
 „ of Aberdovey, 339, 344 
 
 „ „ St. Cadoc, 339 
 U „ „ Rhayader, Legend of the, 41 
 
 „ „ St. llltyd, 342 
 
 „ „ St. Oudoceus, 343 
 Beltane Fires, 278 
 Bendith y Mamau, 12 
 Betty Griffith and the Fairies, 115 
 Birds of Rhiannon, the, 91 
 Blabbing, Penalty of, 119 
 Black Book of Carmarthen, the, 350 
 
 „ Maiden of Caerleon, the, 219 
 
 „ Man of Ffynon yr Yspryd, 178 
 
 ,, Men in the Mabinogion, 178 
 Blue Petticoat, Old Elves of the, 132 
 Bogie, the, 32 
 Boxing Day, 295 
 Bran wen. Daughter of Llyr, 91 
 Bread and Cheese in Fairy Mythology, 44 
 Brownie, the, 186 
 Bundling, or Courting Abed, 300 
 Buns, 267 
 
 Burial Customs, 321 
 Bush of Heaven, Legend of the, 73 
 Bute, the Marquis ofj cited, 136 
 Bwbach, the, 30 
 
 „ and the Preacher, the, 30 
 
 Cadogan's Ghost, 149 
 
 Cadwaladr's Goat, the Legend of, 54 
 
 Cae Caled, the Dwarfs of, 28 
 
 Cae Mawr, the Mowing of, 61 
 
 Caerau, the Woman of, 239 
 
 Caerphilly, the Green Lady of, 132 
 
 Calan Ebrill, 274 
 
 Can y Tylwyth Teg, the, 99 
 
 Canna's Stone, 362 
 
 Canrig Bwt, the Legend of, 368 
 
 Canwyll Corph, the, 238 
 
Index. 399 
 
 ► 
 
 Caradoc the Bloody, 348 
 Caridwen's Caldron, 88 
 Carols, 288 
 Carrying the Kings, 276 
 
 „ Cynog, 279 
 
 „ Mortals through the Air, 157, 163 
 Castell Coch, the Eagles of, 390 
 
 Correg, 380 
 Catrin Gwin, the Legend of, 144 
 Catti Shon, the Witch of Pencader, 77 
 Cavern of Ravens, the, 389 
 Ceifyl Pren, the, 3 1 9 
 Chained Spirit, the, 168 
 Chaining at Weddings, 313 
 Changelings, 56 
 
 Cheese in Welsh Fairy Tales, 44 
 Christmas Observances, 286 
 Classification of Fairies, 1 1 
 „ „ Ghosts, 141 
 
 „ „ Customs, 252 
 
 Coblynau, 24 
 Cock-crow, Fairy Dislike of, 112 
 
 „ a Death Omen when Untimely, 213 
 
 ColUers' Star, the, 294 
 Colour in Fairy Costume, 131 
 Compacts with the Diawl, 202 
 Conway, Mr., cited, 393 
 Coolstrin, the, 317 
 Corpse, an Insulted, 146 
 
 „ Bird, the, 212 . 
 
 „ Candle, the, 238 
 Courting Abed, 300 
 Courtship and Marriage, 298 
 Craig y Ddinas, a Fairy Haunt, 6 
 Criminals' Graves, Superstitions concerning, -^t, i 
 Crocodile of the Lake, the, 392 
 Cromlechs, Superstitions concerning, 379 
 
 „ Legendary Names of, 381 
 
 Cross-roads, Stones at, 368 
 Crown of Porcelain, the, 269 
 Crumlyn Lake, Legend of, 35 
 Curiosity Tales, 86 
 Cursing Wells, 355 
 
 Customs, Superstitious and Traditional, 250 
 Cutty Wren, the, 257 
 
400 
 
 Index. 
 
 
 Cwm Llan, the Shepherds of, 121 
 
 Cwm Pwca, Breconshire, 20 
 
 Cwn Annwn, 233 
 
 Cwn y Wybyr, 233 
 
 Cyhyraeth, the, 219 
 
 „ of St. Mellons, the, 221 
 
 „ „ the Sea-coast, the, 221 
 
 D. 
 
 Dancing-Stones of Stackpool^ the, 375 
 Dancing in Churchyards, 273 
 
 „ with Fairies, 70 
 Death Portents, 212 
 Devil, when Invented, 210 
 
 „ as a Famihar Spirit, 197 
 
 „ exorcising the, 199 
 
 „ in his Customary Form, 202 
 
 „ measured for a Suit of Clothes, 202 
 
 „ his Stupidity, 202 
 
 „ as a Bridge-builder, 206 
 
 „ at Tintern Abbey, 207 
 
 „ and the Foul Pipe, a Legend, 204 
 Devil's Bridge, Legends of the, 205 
 
 „ Nags, the, 170 
 
 „ Pulpit, the, 207 
 
 „ Stone at Llanarth, the, 378 
 Dewi Dal and the Fairies, 61 
 Didactic Purpose in Welsh Fairy Tales, 44 
 
 „ „ „ Spirits, 145 
 
 Dissenters, Fairy Antipathy to, 6 
 Divination, 302 
 Dog of Darkness, the, 168 
 Dogs of the Fairies, 234 
 
 „ „ Hell, 233 
 
 „ „ the Sky, 233 
 
 „ Fetichistic Notions of, 172 
 
 „ Ghosts of, 167 
 Dracae, 47 
 Dragons, 391 
 Dreams of Flying, 164 
 Dniidic Fires, 278 
 Druids, Fairies Hiding, 129 
 Duffryn House, the Ghost of, 143 
 Duty-compelled Ghosts, 146 
 
Index. 401 
 
 Dwarfs, 27 \ 
 
 Dwynwen, the Welsh Venus, 299, 350 i 
 
 Dyfed, the Ancient, 5 
 
 j 
 
 E. I 
 
 Early Inscribed Stones, Superstitions concerning, 373 i 
 
 Easter Customs, 269 \ 
 
 Egg-shell Pottage, Story of the, 60 , 
 Eisteddfodau, 293 
 
 Eithin Hedges, a Protection against Fairies, 115 
 
 Elf Queen, the, 14 ] 
 
 Elfin Dames, 34 ] 
 
 „ Cow, the, -^d \ 
 
 Elidurus, the Tale of, 65 ' 
 
 Ellylldan, the, 18 "j 
 
 EUyllon, 12 ; 
 
 Elves, 13 I 
 
 Enchanted Harp, the, 94 j 
 
 Epimenides, 89 '■ 
 
 Equestrian Fairies, 107 i 
 
 „ Ghosts, 174 I 
 
 Eumenides, 12 i 
 
 Euphemisms, 12, 114, 209 * 
 
 Excalibur, 53 J 
 
 Exorcism of Changelings, 57 \ 
 
 „ Devils, 199 ] 
 
 „ „ Fairies, 112, 116 i 
 
 „ „ Ghosts, 165 i 
 
 „ „ Child-stealing Elves, 62 j 
 
 Expanding Stone, the, 365 ; 
 
 F. \ 
 Fair Folk, 12 | 
 Fairies, existing belief in, 2 i 
 
 „ King of the, 6 i 
 
 „ Welsh names of, 12 ; 
 
 „ at Market, 9 
 
 „ of the Mines, 24 \ 
 
 ,, of the Lakes, 34 
 
 „ of the Mountains, 49 \ 
 
 „ Dancing with, 70 ■ 
 
 ,, of Frennifawr, Legend of the, 82 "\ 
 
 „ on Horseback, 107 
 
 „ the Red, 127 
 
 „ hiding Druids, 129 \ 
 
Index. 
 
 Fairies, why in Wales, 132 
 
 „ their Origin, 127 
 
 „ Bad Spirits, 133 
 
 „ on famiUar terms with Ghosts, 157 
 „ of the Cromlechs, 380 
 Fairy Land, 5 
 
 „ Queen, 14 
 
 „ Islands, 8, 45 
 
 „ Food, 13 
 
 „ Gloves, 13 
 
 „ Coal-mining, 27 
 
 „ Father, the, 45 
 
 „ a, captured by a Welshwoman, 78 
 
 „ Song, 99 
 
 „ Rings, 103 
 
 „ Conversations, 106 
 
 „ Battle, a, 107 
 
 „ Animals, 108 
 
 „ Sheepfold, the, 109 
 
 „ Gifts, 119 
 
 „ Tales, debris of Ancient Mythology, 135 
 Falling of Coy church Tower, 386 
 Familiar Spirits, 187 
 
 „ „ in Female Form, 191 
 
 Family Ghosts, 142 
 Fatal Draught, the, 83 
 Fetches, 215 
 Fetichism, 338 
 
 Fetichistic Notions of Lower Animals, 171 
 Ffarwel Ned Pugh, 99 
 Ffynon yr Yspryd, 178 
 Ffynon Canna, 362 
 Fiend Master, Legend of the, 86 
 Fire-damp Goblins, 27 
 Fires, Mysterious, 213 
 First Foot on New Year's Day, 254 
 First Night of Winter, 280 
 Flowering Sunday, 266 
 Food at Funerals, 322 
 Forest of the Yew, Legend of the, 73 
 Foul Pipe, Story of the, 204 
 Fountain of Venus, the, 350 
 Fountains Flowing with Milk, 356 
 Fourth of July, 278 
 Frennifawr, the Fairies of, 82 
 
Index. 403 j 
 
 _ _ __ _ ^ 
 
 Friday, its Bad Reputation, 268 ! 
 
 Frugal Meal, Legend of the, 58 
 Funeral Customs, 321 
 
 „ the Goblin, 231 
 Future Life, the Question of a, 247 
 Fuwch Gyfeiliorn, the, 36 
 
 • 1 
 G. 
 
 Gallery under the Sea, 10 \ 
 
 Gast Rhymhi, the Legend of, 381 . i 
 
 Ghosts, Existing Belief in, 137 
 „ in America, 139 
 
 „ Classification of, 141 ! 
 
 „ with a Duty to Perform, 146 
 „ of Ebbw Vale, 142 
 
 „ on Horseback, 154, 174 ; 
 
 „ Exorcising, 165 
 
 „ of Animals, 167 ■ 
 
 „ Grotesque, 174 
 
 „ Gigantic, 176 \ 
 
 „ their Origin, 247 \ 
 
 of Bells, 339 ' 
 
 „ Stories of — ! 
 
 The Weaver's Ghost, 147 * j 
 
 Cadogan's Ghost, 149 \ 
 
 The Ghost of Ystradgynlais, 157 
 
 The Admiral's Ghost, 143 i 
 
 The Miser's Ghost, 152 
 The Ghost of St. Donats, 143 
 
 The Pont Cwnca Bach Ghost, 144 ' 
 
 The Ghost of Noe, 147 \ 
 
 Anne Dewy's Ghost, 153 * | 
 
 The Chfford Castle Ghost, 155 
 
 The Ghost of Ty'n-y-Twr, 155 j 
 
 The Ghost of the Silver Spurs^ 156 { 
 
 The Tridoll Valley Sprite, 181 \ 
 
 The Mynyddyslwyn Sprite, 187 , 
 
 Giants, 370 : 
 
 Giants' Dance, the, 371 \ 
 
 Gigantic Ghosts, 176 \ 
 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, 65 \ 
 
 Gitto Bach, the Legend of, 119 \ 
 
 Gnomes, 24 | 
 
 Goats, Strange Beliefs concerning, 53 j 
 
 2D ■) 
 
404 
 
 hidex. 
 
 Gobelin, the French, 32 
 Goblin Animals, 167 
 
 „ Funerals, 231 
 God's Name as an Exorcism, 112 
 
 „ „ in the Bardic Traditions, 209 
 
 Good Friday Customs, 266 
 Good Old Times, the, 252 
 Grassless Grave, Legend of the, 331 
 Green Lady of Caerphilly, the, 132 
 
 „ Meadows of the Sea, 8 
 Groaning Spirits, 222 
 Grotesque Ghosts, 174 
 Guest, Lady Charlotte, 5 
 Guy Fawkes Day Customs, 284 
 Gwahoddwr, the, 307 
 Gwenfrewi, Legend of, 347 
 Gwerddonau Llion, 8 
 Gwion Bach (Taliesin), 88, 394 
 Gwrach y Rhibyn, the, 216 
 Gwragedd Annwn, the, 34 
 Gwraig of the Golden Boat, the, 41 
 Gwydion, the Wizard Monarch, 5 
 Gwyllgi, the, 168 
 Gwyllion, 49 
 Gwyn ap Nudd, 6, 372 
 
 H. 
 
 Hafod Lwyddog, Legend of, 124 
 Hallow E'en Customs, 280 
 Hares, Mythological Details, 162 
 Harp Music among Welsh Fairies, 94 
 Haunted Bridge, the, 144 
 
 „ Castles and Houses, 143 
 
 „ Margaret, 165 
 Headless Horse, the, 216 
 Hecate, 49 
 Hermes, 236 
 Hidden Treasures and Perturbed Ghosts, 151 
 
 ,, „ Dragon-Guarded, 386 
 
 Hobgoblin, 32 
 
 Holy Thursday, Superstition concerning, 25, 268 
 Horse-Weddings, 310 
 Hot-cross Buns, 267 
 Household Fairy, the, 31 
 Howel Dda, 298 
 
Index. 405 
 
 I. \ 
 
 I 
 
 Iago ap Dewi's Seven Years' Absence, 88 J 
 
 lanto Llewellyn and the Fairies, 123 i 
 
 Idris the Giant, 370 •• 
 
 Incubus, 193 : 
 Inscribed Stones, Superstitious Dread of, 373 
 lolo ap Hugh, the Legend of, 99 
 Islands, the Enchanted, 8 
 
 J- ! 
 
 Jack-muh-Lantern, 18 , 
 
 Jennet Francis and the Fairy Child-Stealers, 62 j 
 
 John the Red Nose, 258 1 
 
 Jones, the Prophet, 104 ' 
 
 Juan White, the Spirit of, 50 ■ \ 
 
 K. 
 
 I 
 
 Knife, Exorcism by the, 52 
 Knockers in Mines, 24 
 Kobolds, 29 
 
 Lady of the Fountain, 178, 385 
 
 „ ,, Wood, Legend of the, 1 93 
 Lake Fairies, 34 
 Lang, A., cited, 197 
 Language of the Fairies, 106 
 Lapse of Time under Enchantment, 89 
 Laws of the Welsh Spirit-World, 148 
 Leek, Wearing of the, 260 
 Lenten Customs, 266 
 Levitation of Mortals, 157, 163 
 Levy Dew, 255 
 Lies^ the Tump of, 273 
 Lifting at Easter, 269 
 Lightning Caverns, 394 
 Linen, its Ancient Value, 133 
 Listening at the Church Door, 214 
 Lisworney Crossways, the Legend of, 169 
 Living with Fairies, 65 
 Llandaff Gwrach y Rhibyn, the, 217 
 Llechlafar Stone, 364 
 Lledrith, the, 215 
 Llwyd the Magician, 159, 191 
 
 2 D 2 
 
fl 
 
 406 Index, 
 
 Llwyn y Nef, the Bush of Heaven, 72 
 
 Llyn Barfog, the Fairy Maiden of, 36 
 „ y Dywarchen, the Lady of, 44 
 „ y Fan Fach, the Sirens of, 38 
 „ Glas, the Shepherd of, 124 
 „ y Morwynion, the Maidens' Lake, 47 
 
 Logan Stones, Superstitions concerning, 378 
 
 Lord and Beggar, Legend of the, 230 
 
 Love Charms, 302 
 
 Lucky Days, 268 
 
 Lukis, J. W., cited, 3, 380 
 
 Luther and the ChangeUng, 5 7 
 
 M. 
 
 Mab, 14 
 
 Mabinogion, the, 5, 14, 91 
 
 Magic Carpet, 164 
 
 „ Harp, 95 
 Maidens' Lake, the, 47 
 Maid's Trick, the, 302 
 Making Christ's Bed, 267 
 Mallt y Nos, the, 215 
 Marget yr Yspryd, 165 
 Mari Lwyd, the, 256 
 Marketing on Tombstones, 280 
 Marriage Customs, 306 
 Mayday Customs, 274 
 Meddygon Myddfai, Legend of the, 38 
 Melerius, the Legend of, 192 
 Melusina, the Welsh, 381 
 Memorials of Arthur, 369 
 Men of Ardudwy, the Legend of the, 47 \ 
 
 Merlin the Enchanter, as a Stone Remover, 371 
 
 „ „ „ and the Red Dragon, 393 
 
 „ an Early Myth, viii. i 
 
 Mermaids, 35, 47 \ 
 
 Merthyr, the Rector of, cited, 3 
 Methodists Banishers of Fairies, 6 
 Mid-Lent Sunday, 266 
 Midsummer Eve, 277 
 Milford Haven, the Fairies at, 9 
 Milk from Fountains, 356 
 Milk-white Milch Cow, Legend of the, 37 
 Mine Goblins, 24 
 
Index. 407 \ 
 
 \ 
 . I 
 
 I 
 
 Miners Wraith, the, 215 .| 
 
 Mirage, 173 - 
 
 Moel Arthur, the Treasure-Chest of, 388 ; 
 
 Moelfre Hill, the Women of, 376 '\ 
 
 Mol Walbec the Giantess, 370 . 
 
 Monacella's Lambs, 162 ; 
 
 Money thrown in Wells, 354 i 
 Morgan, Born of the Sea, 47 
 
 Morgana, 7 '] 
 
 Mothering Sunday, 266 - \ 
 
 Mountain Ash, the Three Rods of, 210 \ 
 
 „ the Old Woman of the, 49 \ 
 
 Mourning in Lent, 266 j 
 
 Music in Welsh Fairy Tales, 91, 98 1 
 
 Myfyr Morganwg, 277 i 
 
 Mystic Wells, 345 • 
 
 . N. ; 
 
 Nadolig, 286 
 
 Names of Welsh Fairies, 1 2 ' 
 
 Nant yr Ellyllon, 79 i 
 
 Narberth in Mythic Story, 198, 234 1 
 
 New Year's Day Customs, 252 
 
 Night Fiend, the, 215 i 
 
 Nights for Spirits, the Three, 280 
 
 Nis, the, 186 
 
 Noises, Mysterious, on Barry Island, 353 . j 
 
 North Wales, Fairy Land in, 5 ] 
 
 Nos Calan Gauaf, 280 ^ 
 
 O. ! 
 
 Oaks, Superstitions concerning, 105 ; 
 
 Odin's Spear, 395 j 
 
 Offrwm, the, 332 .; 
 
 Old Woman of the Mountain, 49 ! 
 
 ,, ,, „ Torrent, 216 ! 
 
 Origins of Fairies, 127 ; 
 
 „ „ the Devil, 210 j 
 „ _,, Death Omens, 245 
 
 „ „ Customs, 251 \ 
 
 „ „ Spirits, 247 ] 
 
 „ „ Mystic Well Superstitions, 359 \ 
 
 „ „ Superstitions regarding Stones, -t^^t^ j 
 
 „ „ Dragons, 395 \ 
 
 Owen Lawgoch and his Enchanted Men, 392 
 
 Owl's Screech a Death Omen, 213 " 
 
4o8 
 
 Index, 
 
 P. 
 
 Palm Sunday Customs, 266 
 
 Pant Shon Shenkin, the Legend of, 75 
 
 Pant-y-Madoc, theGwyllgi of, 170 
 
 Pant-y-Saer, the Treasure-Hunter of, 389 
 
 Parc-y-Big\vrn, the Cromlech of, 382 
 
 Parson's Penny, 332 
 
 Pebble-Tossers, Gigantic, 370 
 
 Pembrokeshire a Land of Mystery, 10 
 
 Peredur, the Legend of, 202, 366 
 
 Phantom Horseman, the, 174 
 
 ,, Ships and Islands, 173 ^, 
 
 Pigmies, 24 
 
 Pins in Enchantment, 354 
 
 Place of Strife, the Legend of the, 59 
 
 Plant Annwn, 34 
 
 Planting Weeds on Graves, 298 
 
 „ Flowers on Graves, 299, 336 
 
 Plentyn-newid, the, 56 
 
 Plygain, the, 294 
 
 Poetico-Religious Theory of Fairies' Origin, 1 34 
 
 Polly Williams and the Fairies, 81 
 
 Polyphemus, the Welsh, 179, 202 
 
 Pontypridd, Druidic Ceremonies at, 277 
 
 Preacher and Bwbach, the, 30 
 
 Prolific Woman, Legend of the, 133 
 
 Pronunciation of Welsh Words, Preface 
 
 Propitiation of Goblins, 12, 114 
 
 Psyche, 86 
 
 Puck, the Welsh, 20 
 
 Puzzling Jug, the, 283 
 
 Pwca 'r Trwyn, Account of, 187 
 
 iy J, chastises a Servant Girl, 22 
 
 „ „ travels in a Jug, 118 
 
 J, }, a Proscribed Noble, 128 
 
 f, „ was it a Fairy, 190 
 
 Pwyll, Prince of Dyved, 234 
 
 Quintain, the, 284, 313 
 Quoits, Arthur's, 370 
 
 Q. 
 
 R. 
 
 Ravens, Cave of the, 389 
 
 Realistic Theory of Fairies' Origin, 129 
 
Index. 409 
 
 \ 
 
 Red Book of Hergest (Llyfr Coch), 5 j 
 
 „ Fairies, the, 127 j 
 
 „ Lady of Paviland, the, 386 j 
 
 Rhamanta, 302 = 
 
 Rhitta Gawr, the Giant, 372 i 
 
 Rhys and Llewellyn, the Story of, 71 : 
 
 Rice at Weddings, 314 \ 
 
 Richard the Tailor, 160 ! 
 
 Rip Van Winkle, the Original of, 89 ^ 
 Robber's Stone, the, 376 
 Rocking Stone, Superstitions concerning, 378 
 
 RowH Pugh and the Ellyll, 15 I 
 
 Sabbath-breakers Turned to Stone, 376 
 
 Sacred Wells, 345 
 
 Sagranus Stone, the, 375 
 
 Sailors' Superstitions, 9 
 
 St. Barruc's Well, 352 
 
 St. Ceyna, the Legend of, 377 
 
 St. Clement's Day, 284 
 
 St. Collen, the Legend of, 7 
 
 St. Cynfran's Well, 351 
 
 St. Cynhafal's Well, 351 
 
 St. David the Introducer of Death Portents into Wales, 245 
 
 „ his Day, 259 
 
 „ his Legendary Character, 262 
 St. Dogmell's Parish, 69, 273 
 St. Dwyn wen's Well, 350 
 St. Elian's Well, 355 
 St. George's Well, 351 
 St. Gwenfrewi, the Legend of, 347 
 St. Gwynwy's Well, 353 
 St. Illtyd's Well, 357 
 St. John's Eve, 277 
 St. Mary's Well, 346 
 St. Melangell's Lambs, 162 
 St. Patrick and the Elfin Dames, 35 I 
 
 „ a Welshman, 264 \ 
 
 his Day, 264 ■ 
 
 St. Samson and the Dragon, 392 
 
 St. Tegla's Well, 329, 349 \ 
 
 St. Tydecho's Blue Stone, 367 | 
 
 St. Ulric's Day, 279 I 
 
 J 
 
Index. 
 
 St. Valentine's Day, 259 
 
 St. Winifred's Well, 346 
 
 Salt at Funerals, 328 
 
 Sanford's Well, 358 
 
 Scapegoat, the, 329 
 
 Science, the Marvels of, 248 
 
 Seeing the Sun Dance, 273 
 
 Serpents Turned to Stones, 377 
 
 Seven Whistlers, the, 213 
 
 Sgilti Yscawndroed, the Lightfooted, 164 
 
 Shakspeare, his use of Welsh Folk-Lore, 14, 44 
 
 ,, his Visit to Wales, 20 
 
 Shepherds of Cwm Llan, the Legends of the, 121 
 Shoe-throwing, 314 
 Shon ap Shenkin, the Story of, 92 
 Showmen's Superstitions, 255 
 Shrove Tuesday, 265 
 Shui Rees and the Fairies, 67 
 Sin-eater, the, 324 
 Sion Cent the Magician, 203 
 Skulls, 145 
 Sleeping Saints, the, 73 
 
 „ Heroes, Legends of, 162, 392 
 Snake Stone, the, 278 
 Soul, its Future Destiny, 249 
 Souls of Dogs, 167 
 Sowhng, 258 
 Spade Money, 333 
 Spectral Animals, 167 
 Spirit Fountain, the, 178 
 
 „ Life, the Question of a, 249 
 
 „ Nights, the Three, 280 
 
 „ World, Laws Governing the Welsh, 148 
 Spirits' Antics, 180 
 Spiritual Hunting Dogs, 235 
 Spiritualism, 139 
 
 Spitting at the Name of the Devil, 209 
 Stanley, Hon. W. O., cited, 19, 115 
 Stone-throwing Spirits, 180, 185 
 Stone-tossing Giants, 370 
 Stone- worship, 361 
 Stone of Invisibility, the, 365 
 
 „ „ Remembrance, the, 366 
 
 „ „ Golden Gifts, the, 366 
 Stones, Curious Superstitions concerning, 361 J 
 
 ^ 
 
Index, 411 
 
 Stones at Cross-roads, 368 
 
 „ of Healing, 367 \ 
 
 Storms, Baleful Spirits of, 385 i 
 Stripping the Carpenter, 284 
 
 Suicides, Superstitions concerning, 146, 331 ' \ 
 
 Sul Coffa, 335 j 
 
 Summoning Spirits, 199 ' 
 Supernatural, What is the, 248 
 
 Superstition, its Degree of Prevalence, 138, 251 -i 
 
 „ in the United States, 139, 252 | 
 
 Sweethearts' Charms, 302 '^ 
 
 T. ; 
 
 Taff's Well, 358 
 
 Taffy ap Sion, the Shoemaker's Son, Legend of, 75 
 
 Tailor Magician of Glanbran, the, 200 ' 
 
 Taliesin, the Tale of, 88 
 
 „ his Dragon, 394 
 Talking Stone, the, 364 
 
 Tan-wedd, the, 213 j 
 
 Teetotallers, Fairy Antipathy to_, 6 I 
 
 Teir-nos Ysprydnos, 280 1 
 
 Terrors of the Brute Creation at Apparitions, 171 i 
 
 Teulu, the, 231 ] 
 
 Thief-catching Stone, the, 366 . ; 
 Thigh Stone, the, 363 
 
 Thomas, Rev. Dr., cited, 300 \ 
 
 Thor's Hammer, 395 \ 
 
 Three Blows, the Story of the, 40 • 
 
 „ Losses by Disappearance, the, 9 ■ 
 
 „ Nights for Spirits, the, 280 
 Throwing at Cocks, 265 
 
 Thunder and Lightning as a Death Omen, 213 \ 
 
 Toads and Warts, 352 , 
 
 Tolaeth, the, 225 i 
 
 ToUing the Bell, 340 '\ 
 
 Tooling, 258 ! 
 
 Toriad y Dydd, 125 \ 
 
 Transformation of Human Beings to Animals, 167, 381 ^ 
 
 » . » » Stone, 374, 376 \ 
 
 Transportation through the Air, 157, 163 \ 
 
 Trichrug, the Giant of, 371 i 
 
 Tricking the Diawl, 203 i 
 
 Tridoll Valley Ghost, the, 181 j 
 
 Tudur of Llangollen, the Story of, 79 A 
 
 2 E 
 
Index. 
 
 Tump of Lies, the, 273 
 Twelfth Night Customs, 256 
 Tylwyth Teg, the, 12 
 
 Unknowable, the, 138 
 Unlucky Days, 268 
 
 Vale of Neath, the, its Goblin Fame, 6 
 Vavasor Powell and the Devil, 198 
 Veil, the Goblin, 232 
 Venus, the Welsh, 299 
 
 her Well, 350 
 Villemarque cited, 58 
 
 W. 
 
 Walking Barefoot to Church, 266 
 Walking-stones, 363 
 Warts, 351, 367 
 Water Maidens, 47 
 
 „ Worship, 359 
 Wedding Customs, 306 
 Wells, Mystic, 345 
 Wesley's Belief in Apparitions, 141 
 Whistlers, the, 213 
 Whistling Gobhn, the, 178 
 White as a Fairy Colour, 132 
 
 „ Catti of the Grove Cave, 144 
 Whitening Doorsteps to Keep off the Devil, 207 
 Wife of Supernatural Race, 38 
 Wild Huntsman, 235 
 WiU-o'-Wisp, 20 
 
 Witches Sleeping under Stones, 368 
 Wonder Stone of Banwan Bryddin, the, 374 
 Wraiths, 215 
 
 Y. 
 
 YcHAiN Banog, the, 108, 392 
 Yellow Spot before Death, the, 216 
 
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28 
 
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30 
 
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List of Publications. 31 
 
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