Welsh Folk Lore

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The reason why the Fairies exchanged babies with human beings, judging
from the stories already given, was their desire to obtain healthy
well-formed children in the place of their own puny ill-shaped offspring,
but this is hardly a satisfactory explanation of such conduct. A
mother's love is ever depicted as being so intense that deformity on the
part of her child rather increases than diminishes her affection for her
unfortunate babe. In Scotland the difficulty is solved in a different
way. There it was once thought that the Fairies were obliged every
seventh year to pay to the great enemy of mankind an offering of one of
their own children, or a human child instead, and as a mother is ever a
mother, be she elves flesh or Eve's flesh, she always endeavoured to
substitute some one else's child for her own, and hence the reason for
exchanging children.

In Allan Cunningham's _Traditional Tales_, Morley's edition, p. 188,
mention is made of this belief. He writes:--

"'I have heard it said by douce Folk,' 'and sponsible,' interrupted
another, 'that every seven years the elves and Fairies pay kane, or make
an offering of one of their children, to the grand enemy of salvation,
and that they are permitted to purloin one of the children of men to
present to the fiend,' 'a more acceptable offering, I'll warrant, than
one of their own infernal blood that are Satan's sib allies, and drink a
drop of the deil's blood every May morning.'"

The Rev. Peter Roberts's theory was that the smaller race kidnapped the
children of the stronger race, who occupied the country concurrently with
themselves, for the purpose of adding to their own strength as a people.

Gay, in lines quoted in Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, vol. ii., p. 485,
laughs at the idea of changelings. A Fairy's tongue ridicules the
superstition:--

Whence sprung the vain conceited lye,
That we the world with fools supply?
What! Give our sprightly race away
For the dull helpless sons of clay!
Besides, by partial fondness shown,
Like you, we dote upon our own.
Where ever yet was found a mother
Who'd give her booby for another?
And should we change with human breed,
Well might we pass for fools, indeed.

With the above fine satire I bring my remarks on Fairy Changelings to a
close.

FAIRY MOTHERS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES.

Fairies are represented in Wales as possessing all the passions,
appetites, and wants of human beings. There are many tales current of
their soliciting help and favours in their need from men and women. Just
as uncivilized nations acknowledge the superiority of Europeans in
medicine, so did the Fairies resort in perplexing cases to man for aid.
There is a class of tales which has reached our days in which the Fairy
lady, who is about to become a mother, obtains from amongst men a
midwife, whom she rewards with rich presents for her services. Variants
of this story are found in many parts of Wales, and in many continental
countries. I will relate a few of these legends.

1. _Denbighshire Version of a Fairy Mother and Human Midwife_.

The following story I received from the lips of David Roberts, whom I
have previously mentioned, a native of Denbighshire, and he related the
tale as one commonly known. As might be expected, he locates the event
in Denbighshire, but I have no recollection that he gave names. His
narrative was as follows:--

A well-known midwife, whose services were much sought after in
consequence of her great skill, had one night retired to rest, when she
was disturbed by a loud knocking at her door. She immediately got up and
went to the door, and there saw a beautiful carriage, which she was
urgently requested to enter at once to be conveyed to a house where her
help was required. She did so, and after a long drive the carriage drew
up before the entrance to a large mansion, which she had never seen
before. She successfully performed her work, and stayed on in the place
until her services were no longer required. Then she was conveyed home
in the same manner as she had come, but with her went many valuable
presents in grateful recognition of the services she had rendered.

The midwife somehow or other found out that she had been attending a
Fairy mother. Some time after her return from Fairy land she went to a
fair, and there she saw the lady whom she had put to bed nimbly going
from stall to stall, and making many purchases. For awhile she watched
the movements of the lady, and then presuming on her limited
acquaintance, addressed her, and asked how she was. The lady seemed
surprised and annoyed at the woman's speech, and instead of answering
her, said, "And do you see me?" "Yes, I do," said the midwife. "With
which eye?" enquired the Fairy. "With this," said the woman, placing her
hand on the eye. No sooner had she spoken than the Fairy lady touched
that eye, and the midwife could no longer see the Fairy.

Mrs. Lowri Wynn, Clocaenog, near Ruthin, who has reached her eightieth
year, and is herself a midwife, gave me a version of the preceding which
differed therefrom in one or two particulars. The Fairy gentleman who
had driven the woman to and from the Hall was the one that was seen in
the fair, said Mrs. Wynn, and he it was that put out the eye or blinded
it, she was not sure which, of the inquisitive midwife, and Lowri thought
it was the left eye.

2. _Merionethshire Version of the Fairy Mother and Human Midwife_.

A more complete version of this legend is given in the _Gordofigion_, pp.
97, 98. The writer says:--

"Yr oedd bydwraig yn Llanuwchllyn wedi cael ei galw i Goed y Garth, sef
Siambra Duon--cartref y Tylwyth Teg--at un o honynt ar enedigaeth baban.
Dywedasant wrthi am gymeryd gofal rhag, cyffwrdd y dwfr oedd ganddi yn
trin y babi yn agos i'w llygaid; ond cyffyrddodd y wraig a'r llygad aswy
yn ddigon difeddwl. Yn y Bala, ymhen ychydig, gwelai y fydwraig y gwr,
sef tad y baban, a dechreuodd ei holi pa sut yr oeddynt yn Siambra Duon?
pa fodd yr oedd y wraig? a sut 'roedd y teulu bach i gyd? Edrychai yntau
arni yn graff, a gofynodd, 'A pha lygad yr ydych yn fy ngweled i?' 'A
hwn,' ebe hithau, gan gyfeirio at ei llygad aswy. Tynodd yntau y llygad
hwnw o'i phen, ac yna nis gallai'r wraig ei ganfod."

This in English is:--

There was a midwife who lived at Llanuwchllyn, who was called to Coed y
Garth, that is, to Siambra Duon, the home of the Tylwyth Teg, to attend
to one of them in child birth. They told her to be careful not to touch
her eyes with the water used in washing the baby, but quite
unintentionally the woman touched her left eye. Shortly afterwards the
midwife saw the Fairy's husband at Bala, and she began enquiring how they
all were at Siambra Duon, how the wife was, and how the little family
was? He looked at her intently, and then asked, "With which eye do you
see me?" "With this," she said, pointing to her left eye. He plucked
that eye out of her head, and so the woman could not see him.

With regard to this tale, the woman's eye is said to have been plucked
out; in the first tale she was only deprived of her supernatural power of
sight; in other versions the woman becomes blind with one eye.

Professor Rhys in _Y Cymmrodor_, vol. iv., pp. 209, 210, gives a variant
of the midwife story which differs in some particulars from that already
related. I will call this the Corwrion version.

3. _The Corwrion Version_.

One of the Fairies came to a midwife who lived at Corwrion and asked her
to come with him and attend on his wife. Off she went with him, and she
was astonished to be taken into a splendid palace. There she continued
to go night and morning to dress the baby for some time, until one day
the husband asked her to rub her eyes with a certain ointment he offered
her. She did so and found herself sitting on a tuft of rushes, and not
in a palace. There was no baby, and all had disappeared. Some time
afterwards she happened to go to the town, and whom should she see busily
buying various wares but the Fairy on whose wife she had been attending.
She addressed him with the question, "How are you, to-day?" Instead of
answering her he asked, "How do you see me?" "With my eyes," was the
prompt reply. "Which eye?" he asked. "This one," said she, pointing to
it; and instantly he disappeared, never more to be seen by her.

There is yet one other variant of this story which I will give, and for
the sake of reference I will call it the Nanhwynan version. It appears
in the _Brython_, vol. ix., p. 251, and Professor Rhys has rendered it
into English in _Y Cymmrodor_, vol. ix., p. 70. I will give the tale as
related by the Professor.

4. _The Nanhwynan Version_.

"Once on a time, when a midwife from Nanhwynan had newly got to the
Hafodydd Brithion to pursue her calling, a gentleman came to the door on
a fine grey steed and bade her come with him at once. Such was the
authority with which he spoke, that the poor midwife durst not refuse to
go, however much it was her duty to stay where she was. So she mounted
behind him, and off they went like the flight of a swallow, through
Cwmllan, over the Bwlch, down Nant yr Aran, and over the Gadair to Cwm
Hafod Ruffydd, before the poor woman had time to say 'Oh.' When they had
got there she saw before her a magnificent mansion, splendidly lit up
with such lamps as she had never before seen. They entered the court,
and a crowd of servants in expensive liveries came to meet them, and she
was at once led through the great hall into a bed-chamber, the like of
which she had never seen. There the mistress of the house, to whom she
had been fetched, was awaiting her. She got through her duties
successfully, and stayed there until the lady had completely recovered;
nor had she spent any part of her life so merrily. There was there
nought but festivity day and night: dancing, singing, and endless
rejoicing reigned there. But merry as it was, she found she must go, and
the nobleman gave her a large purse, with the order not to open it until
she had got into her own house; then he bade one of his servants escort
her the same way she had come. When she reached home she opened the
purse, and, to her great joy, it was full of money, and she lived happily
on those earnings to the end of her life."

Such are these tales. Perhaps they are one and all fragments of the same
story. Each contains a few shreds that are wanting in the others. All,
however, agree in one leading idea, that Fairy mothers have, ere now,
obtained the aid of human midwives, and this one fact is a connecting
link between the people called Fairies and our own remote forefathers.

FAIRY VISITS TO HUMAN ABODES.

Old people often told their children and servant girls, that one
condition of the Fairy visits to their houses was cleanliness. They were
always instructed to keep the fire place tidy and the floor well swept,
the pails filled with water, and to make everything bright and nice
before going to bed, and that then, perhaps, the Fairies would come into
the house to dance and sing until the morning, and leave on the hearth
stone a piece of money as a reward behind them. But should the house be
dirty, never would the Fairies enter it to hold their nightly revels,
unless, forsooth, they came to punish the slatternly servant. Such was
the popular opinion, and it must have acted as an incentive to order and
cleanliness. These ideas have found expression in song.

A writer in _Yr Hynafion Cymreig_, p. 153, sings thus of the place loved
by the Fairies:--

Ysgafn ddrws pren, llawr glan dan nen,
A'r aelwyd wen yn wir,
Tan golau draw, y dwr gerllaw,
Yn siriaw'r cylchgrwn clir.

A light door, and clean white floor,
And hearth-stone bright indeed,
A burning fire, and water near,
Supplies our every need.

In a ballad, entitled "The Fairy Queen," in Percy's _Reliques of Ancient
English Poetry_, Nichols's edition, vol. iii., p. 172, are stanzas
similar to the Welsh verse given above, which also partially embody the
Welsh opinions of Fairy visits to their houses. Thus chants the "Fairy
Queen":--

When mortals are at rest,
And snoring in their nest,
Unheard, and un-espy'd,
Through key-holes we do glide;
Over tables, stools, and shelves,
We trip it with our Fairy elves.
And, if the house be foul
With platter, dish, or bowl,
Upstairs we nimbly creep,
And find the sluts asleep:
There we pinch their arms and thighs;
None escapes, nor none espies.
But if the house be swept
And from uncleanness kept,
We praise the household maid,
And duely she is paid:
For we use before we goe
To drop a tester in her shoe.

It was not for the sake of mirth only that the Fairies entered human
abodes, but for the performance of more mundane duties, such as making
oatmeal cakes. The Rev. R. Jones, Rector of Llanycil, told me a story,
current in his native parish, Llanfrothen, Merionethshire, to the effect
that a Fairy woman who had spent the night in baking cakes in a farm
house forgot on leaving to take with her the wooden utensil used in
turning the cakes on the bake stone; so she returned, and failing to
discover the lost article bewailed her loss in these words, "Mi gollais
fy mhig," "I have lost my shovel." The people got up and searched for
the lost implement, and found it, and gave it to the Fairy, who departed
with it in her possession.

Another reason why the Fairies frequented human abodes was to wash and
tidy their children. In the Gors Goch legend, already given, is recorded
this cause of their visits. Many like stories are extant. It is said
that the nightly visitors expected water to be provided for them, and if
this were not the case they resented the slight thus shown them and
punished those who neglected paying attention to their wants. But
tradition says the house-wives were ever careful of the Fairy wants; and,
as it was believed that Fairy mothers preferred using the same water in
which human children had been washed, the human mother left this water in
the bowl for their special use.

In Scotland, also, Fairies were propitiated by attention being paid to
their wants. Thus in Allan Cunningham's _Traditional Tales_, p. 11, it
is said of Ezra Peden:--"He rebuked a venerable dame, during three
successive Sundays for placing a cream bowl and new-baked cake in the
paths of the nocturnal elves, who, she imagined, had plotted to steal her
grandson from the mother's bosom."

But in the traditions of the Isle of Man we obtain the exact counterpart
of Welsh legends respecting the Fairies visiting houses to wash
themselves. I will give the following quotation from _Brand_, vol. ii.,
p. 494, on this point:--

"The Manks confidently assert that the first inhabitants of their island
were Fairies, and that these little people have still their residence
among them. They call them _the good people_, and say they live in wilds
and forests, and on mountains, and shun great cities because of the
wickedness acted therein. All the houses are blessed where they visit
for they fly vice. A person would be thought impudently profane who
should suffer his family to go to bed without having first set a tub, or
pail full of clean water for the guests to bathe themselves in, which the
natives aver they constantly do, as soon as the eyes of the family are
closed, wherever they vouchsafe to come."

Several instances have already been given of the intercourse of Fairies
with mortals. In some parts of Wales it is or was thought that they were
even so familiar as to borrow from men. I will give one such tale, taken
from the _North Wales Chronicle_ of March 19th, 1887.

_A Fairy Borrowing a Gridiron_.

"The following Fairy legend was told to Mr. W. W. Cobb, of Hilton House,
Atherstone, by Mrs. Williams, wife of Thomas Williams, pilot, in whose
house he lodged when staying in Anglesey:--Mary Roberts, of Newborough,
used to receive visits once a week from a little woman who used to bring
her a loaf of bread in return for the loan of her gridiron (gradell) for
baking bread. The Fairy always told her not to look after her when she
left the house, but one day she transgressed, and took a peep as the
Fairy went away. The latter went straight to the lake--Lake
Rhosddu--near the house at Newborough, and plunged into its waters, and
disappeared. This took place about a century ago. The house where Mary
Roberts lived is still standing about 100 yards north of the lake."

Compare the preceding with the following lines:--

If ye will with Mab finde grace,
Set each platter in its place;
Rake the fire up and set
Water in ere sun be set,
Wash your pales and cleanse your dairies,
Sluts are loathsome to the Fairies;
Sweep your house; who doth not so,
Mab will pinch her by the toe.

_Herrick's Hesperides_, 1648. (See _Brand_, vol. ii., p. 484.)

_Fairy Riches and Gifts_.

The riches of the Fairies are often mentioned by the old people, and the
source of their wealth is variously given. An old man, who has already
been mentioned, John Williams, born about 1770, was of opinion that the
Fairies stole the money from bad rich people to give it to good poor
folk. This they were enabled to do, he stated, as they could make
themselves invisible. In a conversation which we once had on this
subject, my old friend posed me with this question, "Who do you think
robbed . . . of his money without his knowledge?" "Who do you think took
. . . money only twenty years ago?" "Why, the Fairies," added he, "for
no one ever found out the thief."

Shakespeare, in _Midsummer Night's Dream_, A. iii., S. 1, gives a very
different source to the Fairy riches:--

I will give thee Fairies to attend on thee,
And they _shall fetch thee jewels from the deep_.

Without inquiring too curiously into the source of these riches, it shall
now be shown how, and for what services, they were bestowed on mortals.
Gratitude is a noble trait in the Fairy character, and favours received
they ever repaid. But the following stories illustrate alike their
commiseration, their caprice, and their grateful bounty.

_The Fairies Placing Money on the Ground for a Poor Man_.

The following tale was told me by Thomas Jones, a small mountain farmer,
who occupies land near Pont Petrual, a place between Ruthin and
Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr. Jones informed me that he was acquainted with
all the parties mentioned in the tale. His story was as follows:--

A shoemaker, whose health would not permit him to pursue his own trade,
obtained work in a tanyard at Penybont, near Corwen. The shoemaker lived
in a house called Ty'n-y-graig, belonging to Clegir isa farm. He walked
daily to his employment, a distance of several miles, because he could
not afford to pay for lodgings. One day, he noticed a round bit of green
ground, close to one of the gates on Tan-y-Coed farm, and going up to it
discovered a piece of silver lying on the sward. Day after day, from the
same spot, he picked up a silver coin. By this means, as well as by the
wage he received, he became a well-to-do man. His wife noticed the many
new coins he brought home, and questioned him about them, but he kept the
secret of their origin to himself. At last, however, in consequence of
repeated inquiries, he told her all about the silver pieces, which daily
he had picked up from the green plot. The next day he passed the place,
but there was no silver, as in days gone by, and he never discovered
another shilling, although he looked for it every day. The poor man did
not live long after he had informed his wife whence he had obtained the
bright silver coins.

_The Fairies and their Chest of Gold_.

The following tale I obtained from the Rev. Owen Jones, Vicar of
Pentrevoelas. The scene lies amongst the wildest mountains of
Merionethshire.

David, the weaver, lived in a house called Llurig, near Cerniogau Mawr,
between Pentrevoelas and Cerrig-y-Drudion. One day David was going over
the hill to Bala. On the top of the Garn two Fairies met him, and
desired him to follow them, promising, if he would do so, that they would
show him a chest filled with gold, and furthermore, they told him that
the gold should be his. David was in want of money, and he was therefore
quite willing to follow these good natured Fairies. He walked many miles
with them across the bleak, bare mountain, and at last, descending from
the summit, they reached a deep secluded glen, lying at the foot of the
mountain, and there the Fairies exposed to his view a chest, which had
never before been seen by mortal eye, and they informed him that it was
his. David was delighted when he heard the good news, and mentally bade
farewell to weaving. He knew, though, from tradition, that he must in
some way or other, there and then, take possession of his treasure, or it
would disappear. He could not carry the chest away, as it was too heavy,
but to show his ownership thereto he thrust his walking stick into the
middle of the gold, and there it stood erect. Then he started homewards,
and often and again, as he left the glen, he turned round to see whether
the Fairies had taken his stick away, and with it the chest; but no,
there it remained. At last the ridge hid all from view, and, instead of
going on to Bala, he hastened home to tell his good wife of his riches.
Quickly did he travel to his cottage, and when there it was not long
before his wife knew all about the chest of gold, and where it was, and
how that David had taken possession of his riches by thrusting his
walking stick into the middle of the gold. It was too late for them to
set out to carry the chest home, but they arranged to start before the
sun was up the next day. David, well acquainted with Fairy doings,
cautioned his wife not to tell anyone of their good fortune, "For, if you
do," said he, "we shall vex the Fairies, and the chest, after all, will
not be ours." She promised to obey, but alas, what woman possesses a
silent tongue! No sooner had the husband revealed the secret to his wife
than she was impatient to step to her next door neighbour's house, just
to let them know what a great woman she had all at once become. Now,
this neighbour was a shrewd miller, called Samuel. David went out, to
attend to some little business, leaving his wife alone, and she, spying
her opportunity, rushed to the miller's house, and told him and his wife
every whit, and how that she and David had arranged to go for the chest
next morning before the sun was up. Then she hurried home, but never
told David where she had been, nor what she had done. The good couple
sat up late that night, talking over their good fortune and planning
their future. It was consequently far after sunrise when they got up
next day, and when they reached the secluded valley, where the chest had
been, it had disappeared, and with it David's stick. They returned home
sad and weary, but this time there was no visit made to the miller's
house. Ere long it was quite clearly seen that Samuel the miller had
come into a fortune, and David's wife knew that she had done all the
mischief by foolishly boasting of the Fairy gift, designed for her
husband, to her early rising and crafty neighbour, who had forestalled
David and his wife, and had himself taken possession of the precious
chest.

_The Fairy Shilling_.

The Rev. Owen Jones, Pentrevoelas, whom I have already mentioned as
having supplied me with the Folk-lore of his parish, kindly gave me the
following tale:--

There was a clean, tidy, hardworking woman, who was most particular about
keeping her house in order. She had a place for everything, and kept
everything in its place.

Every night, before retiring to rest, she was in the habit of brushing up
the ashes around the fire place, and putting a few fresh peat on the fire
to keep it in all night, and she was careful to sweep the floor before
going to bed. It was a sight worth seeing to see her clean cottage. One
night the Fairies, in their rambles, came that way and entered her house.
It was just such a place as they liked. They were delighted with the
warm fire, the clean floor and hearth, and they stayed there all night
and enjoyed themselves greatly. In the morning, on leaving, they left a
bright new shilling on the hearthstone for the woman. Night after night,
they spent in this woman's cottage, and every morning she picked up a new
shilling. This went on for so long a time that the woman's worldly
condition was much improved. This her neighbours with envy and surprise
perceived, and great was their talk about her. At last it was noticed
that she always paid for the things she bought with new shilling pieces,
and the neighbours could not make out where she got all these bright
shillings from. They were determined, if possible, to ascertain, and one
of their number was deputed to take upon her the work of obtaining from
the woman the history of these new shillings. She found no difficulty
whatever in doing so, for the woman, in her simplicity, informed her
gossip that every morning the coin was found on the hearthstone. Next
morning the woman, as usual, expected to find a shilling, but never
afterwards did she discover one, and the Fairies came no more to her
house, for they were offended with her for divulging the secret.

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