Welsh Folk Lore

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He walked down by the sash-window to the corner of the room and then
returned. When he came to the first window in his return (the bottom of
which was nearly breast-high), he rested his elbow on the bottom of the
window, and the side of his face upon the palm of his hand, and stood in
that leaning posture for some time, with his side partly towards her.
She looked at him earnestly to see if she knew him, but, though from her
frequent intercourse with them, she had a personal knowledge of all the
present family, he appeared a stranger to her. She supposed afterwards
that he stood in this manner to encourage her to speak; but as she did
not, after some little time he walked off, pulling the door after him as
the servants had done before.

She began now to be much alarmed, concluding it to be an apparition, and
that they had put her there on purpose. This was really the case. The
room, it seems, had been disturbed for a long time, so that nobody could
sleep peaceably in it, and as she passed for a very serious woman, the
servants took it into their heads to put the Methodist and Spirit
together, to see what they would make of it.

Startled at this thought, she rose from her chair, and kneeled down by
the bedside to say her prayers. While she was praying he came in again,
walked round the room, and came close behind her. She had it on her mind
to speak, but when she attempted it she was so very much agitated that
she could not utter a word. He walked out of the room again, pulling the
door after him as before.

She begged that God would strengthen her and not suffer her to be tried
beyond what she was able to bear. She recovered her spirits, and thought
she felt more confidence and resolution, and determined if he came in
again she would speak to him, if possible.

He presently came in again, walked round, and came behind her as before;
she turned her head and said, "Pray, sir, who are you, and what do you
want?" He put up his finger, and said, "Take up the candle and follow
me, and I will tell you." She got up, took up the candle, and followed
him out of the room. He led her through a long boarded passage till they
came to the door of another room, which he opened and went in. It was a
small room, or what might be called a large closet. "As the room was
small, and I believed him to be a Spirit," she said, "I stopped at the
door; he turned and said, 'Walk in, I will not hurt you.' So I walked
in. He said, 'Observe what I do.' I said, 'I will.' He stooped, and
tore up one of the boards of the floor, and there appeared under it a box
with an iron handle in the lid. He said, 'Do you see that box?' I said,
'Yes, I do.' He then stepped to one side of the room, and showed me a
crevice in the wall, where, he said, a key was hid that would open it.
He said, 'This box and key must be taken out, and sent to the Earl in
London' (naming the Earl, and his place of residence in the city). He
said, 'Will you see it done?' I said, 'I will do my best to get it
done.' He said, 'Do, and I will trouble the house no more.' He then
walked out of the room and left me." (He seems to have been a very civil
Spirit, and to have been very careful to affright her as little as
possible). "I stepped to the room door and set up a shout. The steward
and his wife, and the other servants came to me immediately, all clung
together, with a number of lights in their hands. It seems they had all
been waiting to see the issue of the interview betwixt me and the
apparition. They asked me what was the matter? I told them the
foregoing circumstances, and showed them the box. The steward durst not
meddle with it, but his wife had more courage, and, with the help of the
other servants, lugged it out, and found the key." She said by their
lifting it appeared to be pretty heavy, but that she did not see it
opened, and therefore did not know what it contained; perhaps money, or
writings of consequence to the family, or both.

They took it away with them, and she then went to bed and slept peaceably
till the morning.

It appeared afterwards that they sent the box to the Earl in London, with
an account of the manner of its discovery and by whom; and the Earl sent
down orders immediately to his steward to inform the poor woman who had
been the occasion of this discovery, that if she would come and reside in
his family, she should be comfortably provided for for the remainder of
her days; or, if she did not choose to reside constantly with them, if
she would let them know when she wanted assistance, she should be
liberally supplied at his Lordship's expense as long as she lived. And
Mr. Hampson said it was a known fact in the neighbourhood that she had
been so supplied from his Lordship's family from the time the affair was
said to have happened, and continued to be so at the time she gave Mr.
Hampson this account.

Such is the tale. I will make no comments on it. Many similar stories
are extant. After one more tale, I will leave these Spirit stories, and
I will then relate how troublesome Ghosts were laid.

The Spirits of the preceding tales were sent from the unseen world to do
good, but the Spirit of the maiden who gives a name to a Welsh lake,
cried out for vengeance; but history does not inform us that she obtained
satisfaction. There is a lake in Carnarvonshire called
_Llyn-Nad-y-Forwyn_, or the Lake of the Maiden's Cry, to which is
attached the following tale. I will call the tale

_The Spirit of Llyn-Nad-y-Forwyn_.

It is said that a young man was about to marry a young girl, and on the
evening before the wedding they were rambling along the water's side
together, but the man was false, and loved another better than the woman
whom he was about to wed. They were alone in an unfrequented country,
and the deceiver pushed the girl into the lake to get rid of her to marry
his sweetheart. She lost her life. But ever afterwards her Spirit
troubled the neighbourhood, but chiefly the scene of her murder.
Sometimes she appeared as a ball of fire, rolling along the river Colwyn,
at other times she appeared as a lady dressed in silk, taking a solitary
walk along the banks of the river. At other times, groans and shrieks
were heard coming out of the river--just such screams as would be uttered
by a person who was being murdered. Sometimes a young maiden was seen
emerging out of the waters, half naked, with dishevelled hair, that
covered her shoulders, and the country resounded with her heart-rending
crying as she appeared in the lake. The frequent crying of the Spirit
gave to the lake its name, Llyn-Nad-y-Forwyn.

_Spirit Laying_.

It must have been a consolation to those who believed in the power of
wicked Spirits to trouble people, that it was possible to lay these evil
visitors in a pool of water, or to drive them away to the Red Sea, or to
some other distant part of the world. It was generally thought that
Spirits could be laid by a priest; and there were particular forms of
exorcising these troublesome beings. A conjuror, or _Dyn Hysbys_, was
also credited with this power, and it was thought that the prayer of a
righteous man could overcome these emissaries of evil.

But there was a place for hope in the case of these transported or laid
Spirits. It was granted to some to return from the Red Sea to the place
whence they departed by the length of a grain of wheat or barley corn
yearly. The untold ages that it would take to accomplish a journey of
four thousand miles thus slowly was but a very secondary consideration to
the annihilation of hope. Many were the conditions imposed upon the
vanquished Spirits by their conquerors before they could be permitted to
return to their old haunts, and well might it be said that the conditions
could not possibly be carried out; but still there was a place for hope
in the breast of the doomed by the imposition of any terminable
punishment.

The most ancient instance of driving out a Spirit that I am acquainted
with is to be found in the Book of Tobit. It seems to be the prototype
of many like tales. The angel Raphael and Tobias were by the river
Tigris, when a fish jumped out of the river, which by the direction of
the angel was seized by the young man, and its heart, and liver, and gall
extracted, and, at the angel's command carefully preserved by Tobias.
When asked what their use might be, the angel informed him that the smoke
of the heart and liver would drive away a devil or Evil Spirit that
troubled anyone. In the 14th verse of the sixth chapter of Tobit we are
told that a devil loved Sara, but that he did no harm to anyone,
excepting to those who came near her. Knowing this, the young man was
afraid to marry the woman; but remembering the words of Raphael, he went
in unto his wife, and took the ashes of the perfumes as ordered, and put
the heart and liver of the fish thereupon, and made a smoke therewith,
the which smell, when the Evil Spirit had smelled, he fled into the
utmost parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him. Such is the story, many
variants of which are found in many countries.

I am grieved to find that Sir John Wynne, who wrote the interesting and
valuable _History of the Gwydir Family_, which ought to have secured for
him kindly recognition from his countrymen, was by them deposited after
death, for troubling good people, in Rhaiadr y Wenol. The superstition
has found a place in Yorke's _Royal Tribes of Wales_.

The following quotation is from the _History of the Gwydir Family_,
Oswestry Edition, p. 7:--

"Being shrewd and successful in his dealings, people were led to believe
he oppressed them," and says Yorke in his _Royal Tribes of Wales_, "It is
the superstition of Llanrwst to this day that the Spirit of the old
gentleman lies under the great waterfall, Rhaiadr y Wennol, there to be
punished, purged, spouted upon and purified from the foul deeds done in
his days of nature."

This gentleman, though, is not alone in occupying, until his misdeeds are
expiated, a watery grave. There is hardly a pool in a river, or lake in
which Spirits have not, according to popular opinion, been laid. In our
days though, it is only the aged that speak of such matters.

A Spirit could in part be laid. It is said that Abel Owen's Spirit, of
Henblas, was laid by Gruffydd Jones, Cilhaul, in a bottle, and buried in
a _gors_ near Llanrwst.

This Gruffydd Jones had great trouble at Hafod Ucha between Llanrwst and
Conway, to lay a Spirit. He began in the afternoon, and worked hard the
whole night and the next day to lay the Spirit, but he succeeded in
overcoming a part only of the Spirit. He was nearly dead from exhaustion
and want of food before he could even master a portion of the Spirit.

The preceding is a singular tale, for it teaches that Spirits are
divisible. A portion of this Spirit, repute says, is still at large,
whilst a part is undergoing purification.

The following tale was told me by my friend, the Rev. T. H. Evans, Vicar
of Llanwddyn.

_Cynon's Ghost_.

One of the wicked Spirits which plagued the secluded Valley of Llanwddyn
long before it was converted into a vast reservoir to supply Liverpool
with water was that of _Cynon_. Of this Spirit Mr. Evans writes
thus:--"_Yspryd Cynon_ was a mischievous goblin, which was put down by
_Dic Spot_ and put in a quill, and placed under a large stone in the
river below Cynon Isaf. The stone is called '_Careg yr Yspryd_,' the
Ghost Stone. This one received the following instructions, that he was
to remain under the stone until the water should work its way between the
stone and the dry land."

The poor Spirit, to all appearance, was doomed to a very long
imprisonment, but _Dic Spot_ did not foresee the wants and enterprise of
the people of Liverpool, who would one day convert the Llanwddyn Valley
into a lake fifteen miles in circumference, and release the Spirit from
prison by the process of making their Waterworks.

I might here say that there is another version current in the parish
besides that given me by Mr. Evans, which is that the Spirit was to
remain under the stone until the river was dried up. Perhaps both
conditions were, to make things safe, imposed upon the Spirit.

_Careg yr Yspryd_ and Cynon Isaf were at the entrance to the Valley of
Llanwddyn, and down this opening, or mouth of the valley, rushed the
river--the river that was to be dammed up for the use of Liverpool. The
inhabitants of the valley knew the tradition respecting the Spirit, and
they much feared its being disturbed. The stone was a large boulder,
from fifteen to twenty tons in weight, and it was evident that it was
doomed to destruction, for it stood in the river Vyrnwy just where
operations were to commence. There was no small stir among the Welsh
inhabitants when preparations were made to blast the huge Spirit-stone.
English and Irish workmen could not enter into the feeling of the Welsh
towards this stone, but they had heard what was said about it. They,
however, had no dread of the imprisoned Spirit. In course of time the
stone was bored and a load of dynamite inserted, but it was not shattered
at the first blast. About four feet square remained intact, and
underneath this the Spirit was, if it was anywhere. The men were soon
set to work to demolish the stone. The Welshmen expected some
catastrophe to follow its destruction, and they were even prepared to see
the Spirit bodily emerge from its prison, for, said they, the conditions
of its release have been fulfilled--the river had been diverted from its
old bed into an artificial channel, to facilitate the removal of this and
other stones--and there was no doubt that both conditions had been
literally carried out, and consequently the Spirit, if justice ruled,
could claim its release. The stone was blasted, and strange to relate,
when the smoke had cleared away, the water in a cavity where the stone
had been was seen to move; there was no apparent reason why the water
should thus be disturbed, unless, indeed, the Spirit was about to appear.
The Welsh workmen became alarmed, and moved away from the place, keeping,
however, their eyes fixed on the pool. The mystery was soon solved, for
a large frog made its appearance, and, sedately sitting on a fragment of
the shattered stone, rubbed its eyes with its feet, as if awaking from a
long sleep. The question was discussed, "Is it a frog, or the Spirit in
the form of a frog; if it is a frog, why was it not killed when the stone
was blasted?" And again, "Who ever saw a frog sit up in that fashion and
rub the dust out of its eyes? It must be the Spirit." There the workmen
stood, at a respectful distance from the frog, who, heedless of the
marked attention paid to it, continued sitting up and rubbing its eyes.
They would not approach it, for it must be the Spirit, and no one knew
what its next movement or form might be. At last, however, the frog was
driven away, and the men re-commenced their labours. But for nights
afterwards people passing the spot heard a noise as of heavy chains being
dragged along the ground where the stone once stood.

_Caellwyngrydd Spirit_.

This was a dangerous Spirit. People passing along the road were stoned
by it; its work was always mischievous and hurtful. At last it was
exorcised and sent far away to the Red Sea, but it was permitted to
return the length of a barley corn every year towards its lost home.

From the tales already given, it is seen that the people believed in the
possibility of getting rid of troublesome Spirits, and the person whose
aid was sought on these occasions was often a minister of religion. We
have seen how Griffiths of Llanarmon had reached notoriety in this
direction, and he lived in quite modern times. The clergy were often
consulted in matters of this kind, and they were commonly believed to
have power over Spirits. The Rev. Walter Davies had great credit as a
Spirit layer, and he lived far into the present century. Going further
back, I find that Archdeacon Edmund Prys, and his contemporary and
friend, Huw Llwyd, were famous opponents of Evil Spirits, and their
services are said to have been highly appreciated, because always
successful. The manner of laying Spirits differed. In this century,
prayer and Bible reading were usually resorted to, but in other days,
incantation was employed. We have seen how Griffiths surrounded himself
with an enchanted circle, which the Spirit could not break through. This
ring was thought to be impervious to the Ghost tribe, and therefore it
was the protection of the person whom it surrounded. The Spirit was
invoked and commanded to depart by the person within the magic ring and
it obeyed the mandate. Sometimes it was found necessary to conduct a
service in Church, in Latin by night, the Church being lit up with
consecrated candles, ere the Ghost could be overcome.

When Spirits were being laid, we are told that they presented themselves
in various forms to the person engaged in laying them, and that
ultimately they foolishly came transformed into some innocuous insect or
animal, which he was able to overcome. The simplicity of the Ghosts is
ridiculous, and can only be understood by supposing that the various
steps in the contest for the mastery are not forthcoming, that they have
been lost.

These various metamorphoses would imply that transmigration was believed
in by our forefathers.

_Ghost Raising_.

If the possibility of Ghost Laying was believed in, so also was the
possibility of raising Evil Spirits. This faith dates from olden times.
Shakespeare, to this, as to most other popular notions, has given a place
in his immortal plays. Speaking rightly in the name of "Glendower," a
Welshman, conversant with Ghosts and Goblins, the poet makes him say:--

"I can call Spirits from the vasty deep."

_Henry the Fourth_, Act III., S. 1.

And again in the same person's mouth are placed these words:--

"Why, I can teach you, cousin, _to command the devil_."

The witches in Macbeth have this power ascribed to them:

I'll catch it ere it come to ground:
And that, distilled by magic sleights,
_Shall raise such artificial Sprites_,
_As by the strength of their illusion_
Shall draw him on to his confusion.

_Macbeth_, Act III., S. 5.

This idea has continued right to our own days, and adepts in the black
art have affirmed that they possess this power.

Doctor Bennion, a gentleman well known in his lifetime in and about
Oswestry, was thought to be able to raise Devils. I find in the history
of _Ffynnon Elian_, p. 12, that the doctor visited John Evans, the last
custodian of the well, and taught him how to accomplish this feat. For
the benefit of those anxious to obtain this power, I will give the
doctor's recipe:--"Publish it abroad that you can raise the Devil, and
the country will believe you, and will credit you with many miracles.
All that you have to do afterwards is to be silent, and you will then be
as good a raiser of Devils as I am, and I as good as you."

Evans confesses that he acted according to the astute doctor's advice,
and he adds--"The people in a very short time spoke much about me, and
they soon came to intrust everything to me, their conduct frightened me,
for they looked upon me as if I were a god." This man died August 14th,
1858.

_Witches and Conjurors_.

From and before the days of King Saul, to the present moment, witches
have held dreaded sway over the affairs of man. Cruel laws have been
promulgated against them, they have been murdered by credulous and
infuriated mobs, they have lost their lives after legal trial, but still,
witches have lived on through the dark days of ignorance, and even in
these days of light and learning they have their votaries. There must be
something in the human constitution peculiarly adapted to the exercise of
witchcraft, or it could not have lived so long, nor could it have been so
universal, as it undoubtedly is, unless men lent themselves willingly to
its impositions.

It is curious to notice how good and enlightened men have clung to a
belief in witchcraft. It is, consequently, not to be wondered at that
the common people placed faith in witches and conjurors when their
superiors in learning professed a like faith.

I have often spoken to intelligent men, who did not scruple to confess
that they believed in witches and conjurors, and they adduced instances
to prove that their faith had a foundation in fact.

Almost up to our days, the farmer who lost anything valuable consulted a
conjuror, and vowed vengeance on the culprit if it were not restored by
such and such a time, and invariably the stolen property was returned to
its owner before the specified period had expired. As detectives, the
conjurors, therefore, occupied a well-defined and useful place in rural
morality, and witches, too, were indirectly teachers of charity, for no
farm wife would refuse refreshments to the destitute lest vengeance
should overtake her. In this way the deserving beggar obtained needed
assistance from motives of self-preservation from benefactors whose fears
made them charitable.

But, if these benefits were derived from a false faith, the evils
attending that faith were nevertheless most disastrous to the community
at large, and many inhuman Acts were passed in various reigns to
eradicate witchcraft. From the wording of these Acts it will be seen
what witches were credited with doing.

An Act passed 33 Henry VIII. adjudged all witchcraft and sorcery to be
felony. A like Act was passed 1 James, c.12, and also in the reign of
Philip and Mary. The following is an extract:--

"All persons who shall practise invocation, or conjuration, of wicked
spirits, any witchcraft, enchantment, charm, or sorcery, whereby any
person shall happen to be killed, or destroyed, shall, with their aiders,
and abettors, be accounted felons, without benefit of clergy; and all
persons practising any witchcraft, etc., whereby any person shall happen
to be wasted, consumed, or lamed in his or her body, or members, or
whereby any goods, or chattels, shall be destroyed, wasted, or impaired,
shall, with their counsellors, and aiders, suffer for the first offence
one year's imprisonment and the pillory, and for the second the
punishment of felony without the clergy." . . . "If any person shall
consult, covenant with, entertain, employ, feed, or reward any evil or
wicked spirit, or _take up any dead man_, _woman_, _or child out of his_,
_her_, _or their grave_; or, the skin, bone, or any other part of any
dead person to be employed in any manner of witchcraft, sorcery, charm,
or enchantment, etc., _he shall suffer death as a felon_, without benefit
of clergy."

The law of James I. was repealed in George II.'s. reign, but even then
persons pretending to use witchcraft, tell fortunes, or discover stolen
goods, by skill in the occult sciences, were to be punished by a year's
imprisonment; and by an Act, 5 George IV., c.83, any person or persons
using any subtle art, means, or device, by palmistry, or otherwise, to
deceive his Majesty's subjects, were to be deemed rogues and vagabonds,
and to be punished with imprisonment and hard labour.

Acts of Parliament did not succeed in eradicating witchcraft. Its power
has waned, but it still exercises an influence, shadowy though it be, on
certain minds, though in its grosser forms it has disappeared.

Formerly, ailments of all kinds, and misfortunes of every description,
were ascribed to the malignant influence of some old decrepit female, and
it was believed that nature's laws could be changed by these witches,
that they could at will produce tempests to destroy the produce of the
earth, and strike with sickness those who had incurred their displeasure.
Thus Lady Macbeth, speaking of these hags, says:--

"I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than
mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further
they made themselves air, into which they vanished."

_Macbeth_, Act. i, S. 5.

The uncanny knowledge possessed by witches was used, it was thought, to
injure people, and their malice towards good, hard-working, honest folk
was unmistakable. They afflicted children from sheer love of cruelty,
and bewitched animals gratuitously, or for slights which they supposed
their owners had shown towards them; consequently their knowledge was
considered to be greatly inimical to others, and particularly baneful to
the industrious, whom witches hated.

There was hardly a district that had not its witches. Children ran away
when they saw approaching them an aged woman, with a red shawl on, for
they believed she was a witch, who could, with her evil eye, injure them.
It was, however, believed that the machinations of witches could be
counteracted in various ways, and by and by some of these charms shall be
given. Life would have been intolerable but for these antidotes to
witchcraft.

Shakespeare's knowledge of Welsh Folk-lore was extensive and peculiarly
faithful, and what he says of witches in general agrees with the popular
opinion respecting them in Wales. I cannot do better than quote from
this great Folk-lorist a few things that he tells us about witches.

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