relation of Eros the Armenian, in Plato, or taken from M. Polo's account of the garden of the Old ·Man of the Mountain *.

Again Giraldus writes,-"In these parts of Penbroch it has happed, in our times, that unclean spirits have conversed with mankind, not indeed visibly, but sensibly. For they manifested their presence at first in the house of one Stephen Wiriet, and some time after of William Not, by throwing dirt and such things as rather indicate an intention of mockery than injury. In the house of William, the spirit used to make rents and holes in both linen and woollen garments, to the frequent loss of both host and guest, from which injury no care and no bolts could protect them. In the house of Stephen, which was still more extraordinary, the spirit used to converse with people; and when they taunted him, which they frequently did out of sport, he used to openly charge them with those actions of theirs, from their birth, which they least wished to be heard or known by others. If you ask the cause and reason of this matter, I do not take on me to assign it; only this, that it, as is said, used to be a sign of a sudden change, either from poverty to riches, or rather from riches

• Very likely indeed that Elidurus, or Giraldus either, should know any thing of Plato or of Marco Polo, especially as the latter was not yet born!

to desolation and poverty, as it was found to be a little after with both of these. But this I think worthy of remark, that places cannot be freed from illusions of this kind by the sprinkling of holy water, not merely of the ordinary, but even of the great kind; nor by the aid of any ecclesiastical sacrament. Nay, the priests themselves, when coming in with devotion, and fortified as well with the cross as with holy water, were forthwith among the first defiled by the dirt thrown at them. From which it would appear that both sacramentals and sacraments defend from hurtful, not harmless things, and from injury, not from illusion *."

In the learned work of Davies on the Philosophy and Rites of the British Druids, we meet the following Mabinogi †:

THE TYLWYTH TEG.

In the mountains near Brecknock there is a small lake, to which tradition assigns some of the properties of the fabled Avernus. I recollect a

L. I. c. 12.

† The Mabinogion, or Tales for Youth, are probably of great antiquity. The mythology of such as we have seen is not unlike that of the Breton Lais. (See the Tales of King Pwyl in Jones's Bardic Museum.)

Mabinogi, or mythological tale, respecting this piece of water, which runs thus :

In ancient times a door in a rock near this lake was found open upon a certain day every year. I think it was May-day. Those who had the curiosity and resolution to enter were conducted by a secret passage, which terminated in a small island in the centre of the lake. Here the visitors were surprised with the prospect of a most enchanting garden stored with the chosen fruits and flowers, and inhabited by the Tylwyth Têg, or Fair Family, a kind of Fairies, 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 should find their situation agreeable. But the island was secret, and nothing of its produce must be carried away.

The whole of this scene was invisible to those who stood without the margin of the lake. Only an indistinct mass was seen in the middle; and it was observed that no bird would fly over the water, and that a soft strain of music at times breathed with rapturous sweetness in the breeze of the morning.

It happened, upon one of these annual visits, that a sacrilegious wretch, when he was about to leave the garden, put a flower, with which he had been presented, in his pocket; but the theft boded him no good. As soon as he had touched unhallowed ground the flower vanished, and he lost his

senses.

Of this injury the Fair Family took no notice at the time. They dismissed their guests with their accustomed courtesy, and the door was closed as usual. But their resentment ran high. For though, as the tale goes, the Tylwyth Têg and their garden undoubtedly occupy the spot to this day, though the birds still keep at a respectful distance from the lake, and some broken strains of music are still heard at times, yet the door which led to the island has never re-opened, and from the date of this sacrilegious act, the Cymry have been unfortunate.

Some time after this, an adventurous person attempted to draw off the water, in order to discover its contents, when a terrific form arose from the midst of the lake, commanding him to desist, or otherwise he would drown the country*.

66

"The floating island of this lake," says Mr. Davis, was evidently an Arkite sanctuary." As we put no great faith in the Arkite theory, we shall not dwell on it.

These Tylwyth Têg are by many regarded as Fairies, but we should think improperly; for Mr. Owen says expressly," they are not considered of a diminutive size, as the Fairies *."

As far as we have been able to learn, the belief in Fairies in Wales is confined to the southern counties, as Glamorgan and Pembroke, the very scene of Elidurus' adventure, and the parts into which the Saxons had penetrated farthest, and consequently exerted most influence. From the account we have gotten of these Fairies, they differ in nothing from those of the rest of Great Brita.n and Ireland †.

* Welsh Dictionary, article Tylwyth Têg.

+ It was the writer's good fortune, in the autumn of 1826, to travel, in most agreeable society, the road between Bangor and Shrewsbury. The day was one of those which an ancient would say were "albo notandæ lapillo.” A young lady of family from South Wales was one of the party. She had been on a visit in the South of Ireland, and had the Irish Fairy legends nearly by heart. We therefore naturally conversed much of them, and she informed us of the Welsh ones. We particularly recollect her account of a woman who saw them dancing in a field. She described them as being much less than herself; "and indeed," said Miss "she was herself a very very little body." Miss -, on being subsequently applied to, most kindly collected Fairy legends from the peasantry of her native valley, that the Cambrian Fairies might take their station with Peris, Elves, Trolls, and Yumbos; for the fair collector is thoroughly national: but circumstances afterwards occurred to prevent their appearance in this work.

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