parish of Bryncroes, in the west of Lleyn. In the case of this well it is necessary, when going to it and coming from it, to be careful not to utter a word to anybody, or to turn to look back. What one has to do at the well is to bathe the warts with a rag or clout which has grease on it. When that is done, the clout with the grease has to be carefully concealed beneath the stone at the mouth of the well. This brings to my mind the fact that I have, more than once, years ago, noticed rags underneath stones in the water flowing from wells in Wales, and sometimes thrust into holes in the walls of wells, but I had no notion how they came there.

In the cliffs at the west end of Lleyn is a wishing-well called Ffynnon Fair, or St. Mary's Well; where, to obtain your wish, you have to descend the steps to the well and walk up again to the top with your mouth full of the water. Viewing the position of the well from the sea, I should be disposed to think that the realization of one's wish at that price could not be regarded as altogether cheap. Myrddin Fardd also told me that there used to be a well near Criccieth Church, in Eifionydd, West Carnarvonshire. It was known as Ffynnon y Saint, or the Saints' Well, and it was the custom to throw keys or pins into it on the morning of Easter Sunday, in order to propitiate St. Catherine, who was the patron of the well. I should be glad to know what this exactly means. Lastly, a few of the wells in that part of Gwynedd may be grouped together and described as oracular. One of these, the big well in the parish of Llanbedrog in Lleyn, as I learn from Myrddin Fardd, required the devotee to kneel by it and avow his faith in it. After this was duly done, he might proceed in this wise: to ascertain the name of the thief who had stolen from him, he had to throw a bit of bread into the well and name the person whom he suspected. At the name of the thief the bread

would sink; so the inquirer went on naming all the persons he could think of until the bit of bread sank: then the thief was identified. Another well of the same kind was Ffynnon Saethon, in Llanfihangel Bachellaeth parish, also in Lleyn. Here it was customary, as he had it in writing, for lovers to throw pins (pinnau) into the well; but these pins appear to have been the points of the blackthorn. At any rate, they cannot well have been of any kind of metal, as we are told that, if they sank in the water, one concluded that one's lover was not sincere in his or her love. Ffynnon Gybi, or St. Cybi's Well, in the parish of Llangybi, was the scene of a somewhat similar practice; for there the girls who wished to know their lovers' intentions would spread their pocket-handkerchiefs on the water of the well, and, if the water pushed the handkerchiefs to the south-in Welsh, i'r dé-they knew that everything was right-in Welsh, o dde -and that their lovers were honest and honourable in their intentions; but, if the water shifted the handkerchiefs northwards, they concluded the contrary. A reference to this is made in severe terms by a modern Welsh poet, as follows:

Ambell ddyn, gwaelddyn, a gyrch
I bant gorîs Moel Bentyrch,
Mewn gobaith mai hen Gybi
Glodfawr sydd yn llwyddaw'r lli.

Some folks, worthless folks, visit
A hollow below Moel Bentyrch,
In hopes that ancient Kybi

Of noble fame blesses the flood.

The spot is not far from where Myrddin Fardd lives; and he mentioned that adjoining the well is a building which was probably intended for the person in charge of the well. However that may be, it has been tenanted within his memory. A well, bearing the remarkable name of Ffynnon

Gwynedd, or the Well of Gwynedd, is situated near Mynydd Mawr, in the parish of Abererch, and it used to be consulted

in the same way for a different purpose. When it was desired to discover whether an ailing person would recover, a garment of his would be thrown into the well, and according to the side on which it sunk it was known whether he would live or die. All these items are based on Myrddin Fardd's answers to my questions, or on the notes which he gave me to peruse.

The next class of wells to claim our attention consists of what I may call magic wells, of which few are mentioned in connection with Wales; but the legends about them are very curious. One of them is in Myrddin Fardd's neighbourhood, and I questioned him a good deal on the subject: it is called Ffynnon Grassi, or Grace's Well, and it occupies, according to him, a few square feet-he has measured it himself of the south-east corner of the Lake of Glasfryn Uchaf, in the parish of Llangybi. It appears that it was walled in, and that the stone forming its eastern side has several holes in it, which were intended to let water enter the well, and not issue from it. It had a door or cover on its surface; and it was necessary to keep the door always shut, except when water was being drawn. Through somebody's negligence, however, it was once on a time left open: the consequence was that the water of the well flowed out and formed the Glasfryn pool, which is so considerable as to be navigable for small boats. Grassi is supposed in the locality to have been the name of the owner of the well, or at any rate of a woman who had something to do with it. Grassi, or Grace, however, can only be a name which a modern version of the legend has introduced. It probably stands for an older name given to the person in charge of the well, the one, in fact, who neglected to shut the door; but though this name must be comparatively modern, the

story, as a whole, does not appear to be at all modern, but very decidedly the contrary.

For the next legend of this kind I have to thank the Rev. J. Fisher, Curate of Llanllwchaiarn, Newtown, Mont., who, in spite of his name, is a genuine Welshman, and— what is more a Welsh scholar. The following are his words:-"Llyn Llech Owen (the last word is locally sounded w-en, like oo-en in English, as is also the personal name Owen) is on Mynydd Mawr, in the ecclesiastical parish of Gors Lâs, and the civil parish of Llanarthney, Carmarthenshire. It is a small lake, forming the source of the Gwendraeth Fawr. I have heard the tradition about its origin told by several persons, and by all, until quite recently, pretty much in the same form. In 1884 I took it down from my grandfather, Mr. Rees Thomas (b. 1809, d. 1892), of Cil Coll, Llandebïe-a very intelligent man, with a good fund of old-world Welsh lore-who had lived all his life in the neighbouring parishes of Llandeilo Fawr and Llandebïe.

6

"The following is the version of the story (translated) as I had it from him:-There was once a man of the name of Owen living on Mynydd Mawr, and he had a well (ffynnon'). Over this well he kept a large flag ('fflagen neu lech fawr': fflagen' is the word in common use now in these parts for a large flat stone), which he was always careful to replace over its mouth after he had satisfied himself or his beast with water. It happened, however, that one day he went on horseback to the well to water his horse, and forgot to put the flag back in its place. He rode off leisurely in the direction of his home; but, after he had gone some distance, he casually looked back, and, to his great astonishment, saw that the well had burst out and was overflowing the whole place. He suddenly bethought him that he should ride back and encompass the overflow of the water as fast as he could; and it was the horse's track in galloping round the

water that put a stop to its further overflowing. It is fully believed that, had he not galloped round the flood in the way he did, the well would have been sure to inundate the whole district and drown all. Hence the lake was called the Lake of Owen's Flag (Llyn Llech Owen').

"I have always felt interested in this story, as it resembled that about the formation of Lough Neagh, etc.; and, happening to meet the Rev. D. Harwood Hughes, B.A., the Vicar of Gors Lâs (St. Lleian's), last August (1892), I asked him to tell me the legend as he had heard it in his parish. He said that he had been told it, but in a form different from mine, where the 'Owen' was said to have been Owen Glyndwr. This is the substance of the legend as he had heard it :-Owen Glyndwr, when once passing through these parts, arrived here of an evening. He came across a well, and having watered his horse, placed a stone over it in order to find it again next morning. He then went to lodge for the night at Dyllgoed Farm, close by. In the morning, before proceeding on his journey, he took his horse to the well to give him water, but found to his surprise that the well had become a lake."

Mr. Fisher goes on to mention the later history of the lake: how, some eighty years ago, its banks were the resort on Sunday afternoons of the young people of the neighbourhood, and how a Baptist preacher put an end to their amusements and various kinds of games by preaching at them. However, the lake-side appears to be still a favourite spot for picnics and Sunday-school gatherings.

Mr. Fisher was quite right in appending to his own version that of his friend; but, from the point of view of folklore, I must confess that I can make nothing of the latter: it differs from the genuine one as much as chalk does from