IV.One day in August of the same summer I went to have another look at the old inscribed stone at Gesail Gyfarch11, near Tremadoc, and, instead of returning the same way, I walked across to Criccieth Station; but on my way I was directed to call at a farm house called Ỻwyn y Mafon Uchaf, where I was to see Mr. Edward Ỻewelyn, a bachelor then seventy-six years of age. He is a native of the neighbourhood, and has always lived in it; moreover, he has now been for some time blind. He had heard a good many fairy tales. Among others he mentioned John Roberts, a slater from theGarn, that is Carn Dolbenmaen, as having one day, when there was a little mist and a drizzling rain, heard a crowd of fairies talking together in great confusion, near a sheepfold on Ỻwytmor Mountain; but he was too much afraid to look at them. He also told me of a man at Ystum Cegid, a farm not far off, having married a fairy wife on condition that he was not to touch her with any kind of iron on pain of her leaving him for ever. Then came the usual accident in catching a horse in order to go to a fair at Carnarvon, and the immediate disappearance of the wife. At this point Mr. Ỻewelyn’s sister interposed to the effect that the wife did once return and address her husband in the rhyme,Os byđ anwyd ar fy mab, &c.: see pp. 44, 55 above. Then Mr. Ỻewelyn enumerated several people who are of this family, among others a girl, who is, according to him, exactly like the fairies. This made me ask what the fairies are like, and he answered that they are small unprepossessing creatures, with yellow skin and black hair. Some of the men, however, whom he traced to a fairy origin are by no means of this description. The term there for men of fairy descent isBelsiaid, and they live mostly in the neighbouring parish of Pennant, where it would never do for me to go and collect fairy tales, as I am told; and Mr. Ỻewelyn remembers the fighting that used to take place at the fairs at Penmorfa if the termBelsiaidonce began to be heard. Mr. Ỻewelyn was also acquainted with the tale of the midwife that went to a fairy family, and how the thieving husband had deprived her of the use of one eye. He also spoke of the fairies changing children, and how one of these changelings, supposed to be a baby, expressed himself to the effect that he had seen the acorn before the oak, and the egg before the chick, but never anybody who brewed ale in an egg-shell: see p. 62 above. As tomodes of getting rid of the changelings, a friend of Mr. Ỻewelyn’s mentioned the story that one was once dropped into the Glaslyn river, near Beđgelert. The sort of children the fairies liked were those that were unlike their own; that is, bairns whose hair was white, or inclined to yellow, and whose skin was fair. He had a great deal to say of a certain Elis Bach of Nant Gwrtheyrn, who used to be considered a changeling. With the exception of this changing of children the fairies seemed to have been on fairly good terms with the inhabitants, and to have been in the habit of borrowing from farm houses apadeỻandgradeỻfor baking. Thegradeỻis a sort of round flat iron, on which the dough is put, and thepadeỻis thepatellaor pan put over it: they are still commonly used for baking in North Wales. Well, the fairies used to borrow these two articles, and by way of payment to leave money on the hob at night. All over Ỻeyn theTylwythare represented as borrowingpadeỻ a gradeỻ. They seem to have never been very strong in household furniture, especially articles made of iron. Mr. Ỻewelyn had heard that the reason why people do not see fairies nowadays is that they have been exorcised (wedi eu hoffrymu) for hundreds of years to come.About the same time I was advised to try the memory of Miss Jane Williams, who lives at the Graig, Tremadoc: she was then, as I was told, seventy-five, very quick-witted, but by no means communicative to idlers. The most important information she had for me was to the effect that theTylwyth Teghad been exorcised away (wedi ’ffrymu) and would not be back inourday. When she was about twelve she served at the Geỻi between Tremadoc and Pont Aberglaslyn. Her master’s name was Siôn Ifan, and his wife was a native of the neighbourhood ofCarnarvon; she had many tales totell them about theTylwyth, how they changed children, how they allured men to the fairy rings, and how their dupes returned after a time in a wretched state, with hardly any flesh on their bones. She heard her relate the tale of a man who married a fairy, and how she left him; but before going away from her husband and children she asked the latter by name which they would like to have, a dirty cow-yard (buches fudur) or a clean cow-yard (buches lân). Some gave the right answer, a dirty cow-yard, but some said a clean cow-yard: the lot of the latter was poverty, for they were to have no stock of cattle. The same question is asked in a story recorded by the late Rev. Elias Owen, in hisWelsh Folk-lore, p. 8212: his instance belongs to the neighbourhood of Pentrevoelas, in Denbighshire.
IV.One day in August of the same summer I went to have another look at the old inscribed stone at Gesail Gyfarch11, near Tremadoc, and, instead of returning the same way, I walked across to Criccieth Station; but on my way I was directed to call at a farm house called Ỻwyn y Mafon Uchaf, where I was to see Mr. Edward Ỻewelyn, a bachelor then seventy-six years of age. He is a native of the neighbourhood, and has always lived in it; moreover, he has now been for some time blind. He had heard a good many fairy tales. Among others he mentioned John Roberts, a slater from theGarn, that is Carn Dolbenmaen, as having one day, when there was a little mist and a drizzling rain, heard a crowd of fairies talking together in great confusion, near a sheepfold on Ỻwytmor Mountain; but he was too much afraid to look at them. He also told me of a man at Ystum Cegid, a farm not far off, having married a fairy wife on condition that he was not to touch her with any kind of iron on pain of her leaving him for ever. Then came the usual accident in catching a horse in order to go to a fair at Carnarvon, and the immediate disappearance of the wife. At this point Mr. Ỻewelyn’s sister interposed to the effect that the wife did once return and address her husband in the rhyme,Os byđ anwyd ar fy mab, &c.: see pp. 44, 55 above. Then Mr. Ỻewelyn enumerated several people who are of this family, among others a girl, who is, according to him, exactly like the fairies. This made me ask what the fairies are like, and he answered that they are small unprepossessing creatures, with yellow skin and black hair. Some of the men, however, whom he traced to a fairy origin are by no means of this description. The term there for men of fairy descent isBelsiaid, and they live mostly in the neighbouring parish of Pennant, where it would never do for me to go and collect fairy tales, as I am told; and Mr. Ỻewelyn remembers the fighting that used to take place at the fairs at Penmorfa if the termBelsiaidonce began to be heard. Mr. Ỻewelyn was also acquainted with the tale of the midwife that went to a fairy family, and how the thieving husband had deprived her of the use of one eye. He also spoke of the fairies changing children, and how one of these changelings, supposed to be a baby, expressed himself to the effect that he had seen the acorn before the oak, and the egg before the chick, but never anybody who brewed ale in an egg-shell: see p. 62 above. As tomodes of getting rid of the changelings, a friend of Mr. Ỻewelyn’s mentioned the story that one was once dropped into the Glaslyn river, near Beđgelert. The sort of children the fairies liked were those that were unlike their own; that is, bairns whose hair was white, or inclined to yellow, and whose skin was fair. He had a great deal to say of a certain Elis Bach of Nant Gwrtheyrn, who used to be considered a changeling. With the exception of this changing of children the fairies seemed to have been on fairly good terms with the inhabitants, and to have been in the habit of borrowing from farm houses apadeỻandgradeỻfor baking. Thegradeỻis a sort of round flat iron, on which the dough is put, and thepadeỻis thepatellaor pan put over it: they are still commonly used for baking in North Wales. Well, the fairies used to borrow these two articles, and by way of payment to leave money on the hob at night. All over Ỻeyn theTylwythare represented as borrowingpadeỻ a gradeỻ. They seem to have never been very strong in household furniture, especially articles made of iron. Mr. Ỻewelyn had heard that the reason why people do not see fairies nowadays is that they have been exorcised (wedi eu hoffrymu) for hundreds of years to come.About the same time I was advised to try the memory of Miss Jane Williams, who lives at the Graig, Tremadoc: she was then, as I was told, seventy-five, very quick-witted, but by no means communicative to idlers. The most important information she had for me was to the effect that theTylwyth Teghad been exorcised away (wedi ’ffrymu) and would not be back inourday. When she was about twelve she served at the Geỻi between Tremadoc and Pont Aberglaslyn. Her master’s name was Siôn Ifan, and his wife was a native of the neighbourhood ofCarnarvon; she had many tales totell them about theTylwyth, how they changed children, how they allured men to the fairy rings, and how their dupes returned after a time in a wretched state, with hardly any flesh on their bones. She heard her relate the tale of a man who married a fairy, and how she left him; but before going away from her husband and children she asked the latter by name which they would like to have, a dirty cow-yard (buches fudur) or a clean cow-yard (buches lân). Some gave the right answer, a dirty cow-yard, but some said a clean cow-yard: the lot of the latter was poverty, for they were to have no stock of cattle. The same question is asked in a story recorded by the late Rev. Elias Owen, in hisWelsh Folk-lore, p. 8212: his instance belongs to the neighbourhood of Pentrevoelas, in Denbighshire.
IV.One day in August of the same summer I went to have another look at the old inscribed stone at Gesail Gyfarch11, near Tremadoc, and, instead of returning the same way, I walked across to Criccieth Station; but on my way I was directed to call at a farm house called Ỻwyn y Mafon Uchaf, where I was to see Mr. Edward Ỻewelyn, a bachelor then seventy-six years of age. He is a native of the neighbourhood, and has always lived in it; moreover, he has now been for some time blind. He had heard a good many fairy tales. Among others he mentioned John Roberts, a slater from theGarn, that is Carn Dolbenmaen, as having one day, when there was a little mist and a drizzling rain, heard a crowd of fairies talking together in great confusion, near a sheepfold on Ỻwytmor Mountain; but he was too much afraid to look at them. He also told me of a man at Ystum Cegid, a farm not far off, having married a fairy wife on condition that he was not to touch her with any kind of iron on pain of her leaving him for ever. Then came the usual accident in catching a horse in order to go to a fair at Carnarvon, and the immediate disappearance of the wife. At this point Mr. Ỻewelyn’s sister interposed to the effect that the wife did once return and address her husband in the rhyme,Os byđ anwyd ar fy mab, &c.: see pp. 44, 55 above. Then Mr. Ỻewelyn enumerated several people who are of this family, among others a girl, who is, according to him, exactly like the fairies. This made me ask what the fairies are like, and he answered that they are small unprepossessing creatures, with yellow skin and black hair. Some of the men, however, whom he traced to a fairy origin are by no means of this description. The term there for men of fairy descent isBelsiaid, and they live mostly in the neighbouring parish of Pennant, where it would never do for me to go and collect fairy tales, as I am told; and Mr. Ỻewelyn remembers the fighting that used to take place at the fairs at Penmorfa if the termBelsiaidonce began to be heard. Mr. Ỻewelyn was also acquainted with the tale of the midwife that went to a fairy family, and how the thieving husband had deprived her of the use of one eye. He also spoke of the fairies changing children, and how one of these changelings, supposed to be a baby, expressed himself to the effect that he had seen the acorn before the oak, and the egg before the chick, but never anybody who brewed ale in an egg-shell: see p. 62 above. As tomodes of getting rid of the changelings, a friend of Mr. Ỻewelyn’s mentioned the story that one was once dropped into the Glaslyn river, near Beđgelert. The sort of children the fairies liked were those that were unlike their own; that is, bairns whose hair was white, or inclined to yellow, and whose skin was fair. He had a great deal to say of a certain Elis Bach of Nant Gwrtheyrn, who used to be considered a changeling. With the exception of this changing of children the fairies seemed to have been on fairly good terms with the inhabitants, and to have been in the habit of borrowing from farm houses apadeỻandgradeỻfor baking. Thegradeỻis a sort of round flat iron, on which the dough is put, and thepadeỻis thepatellaor pan put over it: they are still commonly used for baking in North Wales. Well, the fairies used to borrow these two articles, and by way of payment to leave money on the hob at night. All over Ỻeyn theTylwythare represented as borrowingpadeỻ a gradeỻ. They seem to have never been very strong in household furniture, especially articles made of iron. Mr. Ỻewelyn had heard that the reason why people do not see fairies nowadays is that they have been exorcised (wedi eu hoffrymu) for hundreds of years to come.About the same time I was advised to try the memory of Miss Jane Williams, who lives at the Graig, Tremadoc: she was then, as I was told, seventy-five, very quick-witted, but by no means communicative to idlers. The most important information she had for me was to the effect that theTylwyth Teghad been exorcised away (wedi ’ffrymu) and would not be back inourday. When she was about twelve she served at the Geỻi between Tremadoc and Pont Aberglaslyn. Her master’s name was Siôn Ifan, and his wife was a native of the neighbourhood ofCarnarvon; she had many tales totell them about theTylwyth, how they changed children, how they allured men to the fairy rings, and how their dupes returned after a time in a wretched state, with hardly any flesh on their bones. She heard her relate the tale of a man who married a fairy, and how she left him; but before going away from her husband and children she asked the latter by name which they would like to have, a dirty cow-yard (buches fudur) or a clean cow-yard (buches lân). Some gave the right answer, a dirty cow-yard, but some said a clean cow-yard: the lot of the latter was poverty, for they were to have no stock of cattle. The same question is asked in a story recorded by the late Rev. Elias Owen, in hisWelsh Folk-lore, p. 8212: his instance belongs to the neighbourhood of Pentrevoelas, in Denbighshire.
IV.One day in August of the same summer I went to have another look at the old inscribed stone at Gesail Gyfarch11, near Tremadoc, and, instead of returning the same way, I walked across to Criccieth Station; but on my way I was directed to call at a farm house called Ỻwyn y Mafon Uchaf, where I was to see Mr. Edward Ỻewelyn, a bachelor then seventy-six years of age. He is a native of the neighbourhood, and has always lived in it; moreover, he has now been for some time blind. He had heard a good many fairy tales. Among others he mentioned John Roberts, a slater from theGarn, that is Carn Dolbenmaen, as having one day, when there was a little mist and a drizzling rain, heard a crowd of fairies talking together in great confusion, near a sheepfold on Ỻwytmor Mountain; but he was too much afraid to look at them. He also told me of a man at Ystum Cegid, a farm not far off, having married a fairy wife on condition that he was not to touch her with any kind of iron on pain of her leaving him for ever. Then came the usual accident in catching a horse in order to go to a fair at Carnarvon, and the immediate disappearance of the wife. At this point Mr. Ỻewelyn’s sister interposed to the effect that the wife did once return and address her husband in the rhyme,Os byđ anwyd ar fy mab, &c.: see pp. 44, 55 above. Then Mr. Ỻewelyn enumerated several people who are of this family, among others a girl, who is, according to him, exactly like the fairies. This made me ask what the fairies are like, and he answered that they are small unprepossessing creatures, with yellow skin and black hair. Some of the men, however, whom he traced to a fairy origin are by no means of this description. The term there for men of fairy descent isBelsiaid, and they live mostly in the neighbouring parish of Pennant, where it would never do for me to go and collect fairy tales, as I am told; and Mr. Ỻewelyn remembers the fighting that used to take place at the fairs at Penmorfa if the termBelsiaidonce began to be heard. Mr. Ỻewelyn was also acquainted with the tale of the midwife that went to a fairy family, and how the thieving husband had deprived her of the use of one eye. He also spoke of the fairies changing children, and how one of these changelings, supposed to be a baby, expressed himself to the effect that he had seen the acorn before the oak, and the egg before the chick, but never anybody who brewed ale in an egg-shell: see p. 62 above. As tomodes of getting rid of the changelings, a friend of Mr. Ỻewelyn’s mentioned the story that one was once dropped into the Glaslyn river, near Beđgelert. The sort of children the fairies liked were those that were unlike their own; that is, bairns whose hair was white, or inclined to yellow, and whose skin was fair. He had a great deal to say of a certain Elis Bach of Nant Gwrtheyrn, who used to be considered a changeling. With the exception of this changing of children the fairies seemed to have been on fairly good terms with the inhabitants, and to have been in the habit of borrowing from farm houses apadeỻandgradeỻfor baking. Thegradeỻis a sort of round flat iron, on which the dough is put, and thepadeỻis thepatellaor pan put over it: they are still commonly used for baking in North Wales. Well, the fairies used to borrow these two articles, and by way of payment to leave money on the hob at night. All over Ỻeyn theTylwythare represented as borrowingpadeỻ a gradeỻ. They seem to have never been very strong in household furniture, especially articles made of iron. Mr. Ỻewelyn had heard that the reason why people do not see fairies nowadays is that they have been exorcised (wedi eu hoffrymu) for hundreds of years to come.About the same time I was advised to try the memory of Miss Jane Williams, who lives at the Graig, Tremadoc: she was then, as I was told, seventy-five, very quick-witted, but by no means communicative to idlers. The most important information she had for me was to the effect that theTylwyth Teghad been exorcised away (wedi ’ffrymu) and would not be back inourday. When she was about twelve she served at the Geỻi between Tremadoc and Pont Aberglaslyn. Her master’s name was Siôn Ifan, and his wife was a native of the neighbourhood ofCarnarvon; she had many tales totell them about theTylwyth, how they changed children, how they allured men to the fairy rings, and how their dupes returned after a time in a wretched state, with hardly any flesh on their bones. She heard her relate the tale of a man who married a fairy, and how she left him; but before going away from her husband and children she asked the latter by name which they would like to have, a dirty cow-yard (buches fudur) or a clean cow-yard (buches lân). Some gave the right answer, a dirty cow-yard, but some said a clean cow-yard: the lot of the latter was poverty, for they were to have no stock of cattle. The same question is asked in a story recorded by the late Rev. Elias Owen, in hisWelsh Folk-lore, p. 8212: his instance belongs to the neighbourhood of Pentrevoelas, in Denbighshire.
IV.
One day in August of the same summer I went to have another look at the old inscribed stone at Gesail Gyfarch11, near Tremadoc, and, instead of returning the same way, I walked across to Criccieth Station; but on my way I was directed to call at a farm house called Ỻwyn y Mafon Uchaf, where I was to see Mr. Edward Ỻewelyn, a bachelor then seventy-six years of age. He is a native of the neighbourhood, and has always lived in it; moreover, he has now been for some time blind. He had heard a good many fairy tales. Among others he mentioned John Roberts, a slater from theGarn, that is Carn Dolbenmaen, as having one day, when there was a little mist and a drizzling rain, heard a crowd of fairies talking together in great confusion, near a sheepfold on Ỻwytmor Mountain; but he was too much afraid to look at them. He also told me of a man at Ystum Cegid, a farm not far off, having married a fairy wife on condition that he was not to touch her with any kind of iron on pain of her leaving him for ever. Then came the usual accident in catching a horse in order to go to a fair at Carnarvon, and the immediate disappearance of the wife. At this point Mr. Ỻewelyn’s sister interposed to the effect that the wife did once return and address her husband in the rhyme,Os byđ anwyd ar fy mab, &c.: see pp. 44, 55 above. Then Mr. Ỻewelyn enumerated several people who are of this family, among others a girl, who is, according to him, exactly like the fairies. This made me ask what the fairies are like, and he answered that they are small unprepossessing creatures, with yellow skin and black hair. Some of the men, however, whom he traced to a fairy origin are by no means of this description. The term there for men of fairy descent isBelsiaid, and they live mostly in the neighbouring parish of Pennant, where it would never do for me to go and collect fairy tales, as I am told; and Mr. Ỻewelyn remembers the fighting that used to take place at the fairs at Penmorfa if the termBelsiaidonce began to be heard. Mr. Ỻewelyn was also acquainted with the tale of the midwife that went to a fairy family, and how the thieving husband had deprived her of the use of one eye. He also spoke of the fairies changing children, and how one of these changelings, supposed to be a baby, expressed himself to the effect that he had seen the acorn before the oak, and the egg before the chick, but never anybody who brewed ale in an egg-shell: see p. 62 above. As tomodes of getting rid of the changelings, a friend of Mr. Ỻewelyn’s mentioned the story that one was once dropped into the Glaslyn river, near Beđgelert. The sort of children the fairies liked were those that were unlike their own; that is, bairns whose hair was white, or inclined to yellow, and whose skin was fair. He had a great deal to say of a certain Elis Bach of Nant Gwrtheyrn, who used to be considered a changeling. With the exception of this changing of children the fairies seemed to have been on fairly good terms with the inhabitants, and to have been in the habit of borrowing from farm houses apadeỻandgradeỻfor baking. Thegradeỻis a sort of round flat iron, on which the dough is put, and thepadeỻis thepatellaor pan put over it: they are still commonly used for baking in North Wales. Well, the fairies used to borrow these two articles, and by way of payment to leave money on the hob at night. All over Ỻeyn theTylwythare represented as borrowingpadeỻ a gradeỻ. They seem to have never been very strong in household furniture, especially articles made of iron. Mr. Ỻewelyn had heard that the reason why people do not see fairies nowadays is that they have been exorcised (wedi eu hoffrymu) for hundreds of years to come.About the same time I was advised to try the memory of Miss Jane Williams, who lives at the Graig, Tremadoc: she was then, as I was told, seventy-five, very quick-witted, but by no means communicative to idlers. The most important information she had for me was to the effect that theTylwyth Teghad been exorcised away (wedi ’ffrymu) and would not be back inourday. When she was about twelve she served at the Geỻi between Tremadoc and Pont Aberglaslyn. Her master’s name was Siôn Ifan, and his wife was a native of the neighbourhood ofCarnarvon; she had many tales totell them about theTylwyth, how they changed children, how they allured men to the fairy rings, and how their dupes returned after a time in a wretched state, with hardly any flesh on their bones. She heard her relate the tale of a man who married a fairy, and how she left him; but before going away from her husband and children she asked the latter by name which they would like to have, a dirty cow-yard (buches fudur) or a clean cow-yard (buches lân). Some gave the right answer, a dirty cow-yard, but some said a clean cow-yard: the lot of the latter was poverty, for they were to have no stock of cattle. The same question is asked in a story recorded by the late Rev. Elias Owen, in hisWelsh Folk-lore, p. 8212: his instance belongs to the neighbourhood of Pentrevoelas, in Denbighshire.
One day in August of the same summer I went to have another look at the old inscribed stone at Gesail Gyfarch11, near Tremadoc, and, instead of returning the same way, I walked across to Criccieth Station; but on my way I was directed to call at a farm house called Ỻwyn y Mafon Uchaf, where I was to see Mr. Edward Ỻewelyn, a bachelor then seventy-six years of age. He is a native of the neighbourhood, and has always lived in it; moreover, he has now been for some time blind. He had heard a good many fairy tales. Among others he mentioned John Roberts, a slater from theGarn, that is Carn Dolbenmaen, as having one day, when there was a little mist and a drizzling rain, heard a crowd of fairies talking together in great confusion, near a sheepfold on Ỻwytmor Mountain; but he was too much afraid to look at them. He also told me of a man at Ystum Cegid, a farm not far off, having married a fairy wife on condition that he was not to touch her with any kind of iron on pain of her leaving him for ever. Then came the usual accident in catching a horse in order to go to a fair at Carnarvon, and the immediate disappearance of the wife. At this point Mr. Ỻewelyn’s sister interposed to the effect that the wife did once return and address her husband in the rhyme,Os byđ anwyd ar fy mab, &c.: see pp. 44, 55 above. Then Mr. Ỻewelyn enumerated several people who are of this family, among others a girl, who is, according to him, exactly like the fairies. This made me ask what the fairies are like, and he answered that they are small unprepossessing creatures, with yellow skin and black hair. Some of the men, however, whom he traced to a fairy origin are by no means of this description. The term there for men of fairy descent isBelsiaid, and they live mostly in the neighbouring parish of Pennant, where it would never do for me to go and collect fairy tales, as I am told; and Mr. Ỻewelyn remembers the fighting that used to take place at the fairs at Penmorfa if the termBelsiaidonce began to be heard. Mr. Ỻewelyn was also acquainted with the tale of the midwife that went to a fairy family, and how the thieving husband had deprived her of the use of one eye. He also spoke of the fairies changing children, and how one of these changelings, supposed to be a baby, expressed himself to the effect that he had seen the acorn before the oak, and the egg before the chick, but never anybody who brewed ale in an egg-shell: see p. 62 above. As tomodes of getting rid of the changelings, a friend of Mr. Ỻewelyn’s mentioned the story that one was once dropped into the Glaslyn river, near Beđgelert. The sort of children the fairies liked were those that were unlike their own; that is, bairns whose hair was white, or inclined to yellow, and whose skin was fair. He had a great deal to say of a certain Elis Bach of Nant Gwrtheyrn, who used to be considered a changeling. With the exception of this changing of children the fairies seemed to have been on fairly good terms with the inhabitants, and to have been in the habit of borrowing from farm houses apadeỻandgradeỻfor baking. Thegradeỻis a sort of round flat iron, on which the dough is put, and thepadeỻis thepatellaor pan put over it: they are still commonly used for baking in North Wales. Well, the fairies used to borrow these two articles, and by way of payment to leave money on the hob at night. All over Ỻeyn theTylwythare represented as borrowingpadeỻ a gradeỻ. They seem to have never been very strong in household furniture, especially articles made of iron. Mr. Ỻewelyn had heard that the reason why people do not see fairies nowadays is that they have been exorcised (wedi eu hoffrymu) for hundreds of years to come.
About the same time I was advised to try the memory of Miss Jane Williams, who lives at the Graig, Tremadoc: she was then, as I was told, seventy-five, very quick-witted, but by no means communicative to idlers. The most important information she had for me was to the effect that theTylwyth Teghad been exorcised away (wedi ’ffrymu) and would not be back inourday. When she was about twelve she served at the Geỻi between Tremadoc and Pont Aberglaslyn. Her master’s name was Siôn Ifan, and his wife was a native of the neighbourhood ofCarnarvon; she had many tales totell them about theTylwyth, how they changed children, how they allured men to the fairy rings, and how their dupes returned after a time in a wretched state, with hardly any flesh on their bones. She heard her relate the tale of a man who married a fairy, and how she left him; but before going away from her husband and children she asked the latter by name which they would like to have, a dirty cow-yard (buches fudur) or a clean cow-yard (buches lân). Some gave the right answer, a dirty cow-yard, but some said a clean cow-yard: the lot of the latter was poverty, for they were to have no stock of cattle. The same question is asked in a story recorded by the late Rev. Elias Owen, in hisWelsh Folk-lore, p. 8212: his instance belongs to the neighbourhood of Pentrevoelas, in Denbighshire.