Gigay, now more commonly written Gigha, the name of an island near the west coast of Kintyre :-'There is a well in the north end of this isle called Toubir-more, i. e. a great well, because of its effects, for which it is famous among the islanders; who together with the inhabitants use it as a Catholicon for diseases. It's covered with stone and clay, because the natives fancy that the stream that flows from it might overflow the isle; and it is always opened by a Diroch, i. e. an inmate, else they think it would not exert its vertues. They ascribe one very extraordinary effect to it, and 'tis this; that when any foreign boats are wind-bound here (which often happens) the master of the boat ordinarily gives the native that lets the water run a piece of money, and they say that immediately afterwards the wind changes in favour of those that are thus detain'd by contrary winds. Every stranger that goes to drink of the water of this well, is accustomed to leave on its stone cover a piece of money, a needle, pin, or one of the prettiest varieated stones they can find.' Last September I visited Gigha and saw a well there which is supposed to be the one to which Martin refers. It is very insignificant and known now by a name pronounced Tobar a veac, possibly for an older Mo-Bheac: in Scotch Gaelic Beac, written Beathag, is equated with the name Sophia. The only tradition now current about the well is that emptying it used to prove the means of raising a wind or even of producing great storms, and this appears to have been told Pennant : see his Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides, MDCCLXXII (Chester, 1774), p. 226:-'Visit the few wonders of the isle: the first is a little well of a most miraculous quality, for in old times, if ever the chieftain lay here windbound, he had nothing more to do than cause the well to be cleared, and instantly a favorable gale arose. But miracles are now ceased.' P. 378. A similar rhyme is current in the neighbourhood of Dolgelley, as Miss Lucy Griffith informs me, as follows: Dolgette dol a gottir, Daear a'i tunc, dw'r 'n 'i tle. Dolgelley, a dale to be lost; Earth will swallow it, and water take its place. P. 394. With regard to wells killing women visiting them, I may mention a story, told me the other day by Professor Mahaffy after a friend whose name he gave, concerning the inhabitants of one of the small islands on the coast of Mayo-I understood him to say off the Mullet. It was this: all the men and boys, having gone fishing, were prevented by rough weather from returning as soon as they intended, and the women left alone suffered greatly from want of water, as not one of them would venture to go to the well. By-and-by, however, one of them gave birth to a boy, whereupon another of them carried the baby to the well, and ventured to draw water. P. 418. As to Clychau Aberdyfi I am now convinced that the chwech and saith are entirely due to the published versions, the editors of which seem to have agreed that they will have as much as possible for their money, so to say. I find that Mrs. Rhys learnt in her childhood to end the words with pump, and that she cannot now be brought to sing the melody in any other way I have similar testimony from a musical lady from the neighbourhood of Wrexham ; and, doubtless, more evidence of the same sort could be got. P. 443. For Lywelyn ab Gruffyd read Lywelyn ab Iorwerth. Pp. 450-1. Some additional light on the doggerel dialogue will be found thrown by the following story, which I find cited in Welsh by one of the Liverpool Eistedfod competitors :-There is in the parish of Yspytty Ifan, in Carnarvonshire, a farm called Trwyn Swch, where eighty years ago lived a man and his wife, who were both young, and had twins born to them. Now the mother went one day to milk, leaving the twins alone in the cradle - the husband was not at home-and who should enter the house but one of the Tylwyth Teg! He took the twins away and left two of his own breed in the cradle in their stead. Thereupon the mother returned home and saw what had come to pass; she then in her excitement snatched the Tylwyth Teg twins and took them to the bridge that crosses the huge gorge of the river Conwy not very far from the house, and she cast them into the whirlpool below. By this time the Tylwyth Teg had come on the spot, some trying to save the children, and some making for the woman. 'Seize the old hag!' (Crap ar yr hen wrach !) said one of the chiefs of the Tylwyth Teg. 'Too late!' cried the woman on the edge of the bank; and many of them ran after her to the house. As they ran three or four of them lost their pipes in the field. They are pipes ingeniously made of the blue stone (carreg las) of the gully. They measure three or four inches long, and from time to time several of them have been found near the cave of Trwyn Swch.-This is the first indication which I have discovered, that the fairies are addicted to smoking. P. 506. A Rhiw Gyferthwch (printed Rywgyverthwch) occurs in the Record of Carnarvon, p. 200; but it seems to have been in Merionethshire, and far enough from Arfon. P. 521. In the article already cited from the Romania, M. Paris finds Twrch Trwyth in the boar Tortain of a French romance: see xxviii. 217, where he mentions a legend concerning the strange pedigree of that beast. The subject requires to be further studied. P. 535. A less probable explanation of Latio would be to suppose orti understood. This has been suggested to me by Mr. Nicholson's treatment of the Lanaelhaiarn inscription as Ali ortus Elmetiaco hic iacet, where I should regard Ali as standing for an earlier nominative Alec-s, and intended as the Celtic equivalent for Cephas or Peter: Ali would be the word which is in Med. Irish ail, genitive ailech, 'a rock or stone.' P. 545. We have the Maethwy of Gilvaethwy possibly still further reduced to Aethwy in Porth Aethwy,' the Village of Menai Bridge,' in spite of its occurring in the Record of Carnarvon, p. 77, as Porthaytho. P. 548. To the reference to the Cymmrodor, ix. 170, as to Beli being called son of Anna, add the Welsh Elucidarium, p. 127, with its belim vab anna, and The Cambro-British Saints, p. 82, where we have Anna... genuit Beli. P. 560. Two answers to the query as to the Lech Las are now to be found in the Scottish Antiquary, xv. 41-3. P. 566. Caer Gai is called also Caer Gynyr, after Cai's father Cynyr, to wit in a poem by William Leyn, who died in 1587. This I owe to Professor J. Morris Jones, who has copied it from a collection of that poet's works in the possession of Myrðin Farð, fo. 119. P. 569. Here it would, perhaps, not be irrelevant to mention Caer Durgynt, given s. v. Dwr in Morris' Celtic Remains, as a name of Caergybi, or Holyhead. His authority is given in parenthesis thus: (Th. Williams, Catal.). I should be disposed to think the name based on some such an earlier form as Kair D6bgint, 'the Fortress of the Danes,' who were called in old Welsh Dub-gint (Annales Cambria, A. D. 866, in the Cymmrodor, ix. 165), that is to say ' Gentes Nigra or Black Pagans,' and more simply Gint or Gynt, Gentes or Heathens.' Pp. 579-80. The word banna6c, whence the later bannog, seems to be the origin of the name bonoec given to the famous horn in the Lai du Corn, from which M. Paris in his Romania article, xxviii. 229, cites Cest cor qui bonoec a non, this horn which is called bonoec.' The Welsh name would have to be Corn (yr) ych_banna6c,‘the horn of (the) bannog ox,' with or without the article. P. 580, note 1. One of the Liverpool Eistedfod competitors cites W. O. Pughe to the following effect in Welsh :-ILyn dau Ychain, 'the Lake of Two Oxen,' is on Hiraethog Mountain; and near it is the footmark of one of them in a stone or rock (carreg), where he rested when seeking his partner, as the local legend has it. Another cites a still wilder story, to the effect that there was once a wonderful cow called Y Fuwch Fraith, 'the Particoloured Cow.' 'To that cow there came a witch to get milk, just after the cow had supplied the whole neighbourhood. So the witch could not get any milk, and to avenge her disappointment she made the cow mad. The result was that the cow ran wild over the mountains, inflicting immense harm on the country; but at last she was killed by Hu near Hiraethog, in the county of Denbigh.' P. 592. With trwtan, Trwtyn-Tratyn, and Trit-a-trot should doubtless be compared the English use of trot as applied contemptuously to a woman, as when Grumio, in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Act i, sc. 2, speaks of an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head': the word was similarly used by Thomas Heywood and others. P. 649. With regard to note 1, I find that Professor Zimmer is of opinion —in fact he is quite positive—that tyngu and tynghed are in no way related : see the Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen for 1900 (No. 5), pp. 371-2. P. 673. I am tempted to rank with the man-eating fairies the Atecotti, who are known to have been cannibals, and whose name seems to mean the ancient race. Should this prove tenable, one would have to admit that the little people, or at any rate peoples with an admixture of the blood of that race, could be trained to fight. Further, one would probably have to class with them also such non-cannibal tribes as those of the Fir Bolg and the Galiúin of Irish story. Information about both will be found in my Hibbert Lectures, in reading which, however, the mythological speculations should be brushed aside. Lastly, I anticipate that most of the peoples figuring in the oldest class of Irish story will prove to have belonged either (1) to the dwarf race, or (2) to the Picts; and that careful reading will multiply the means of distinguishing between them. Looking comprehensively at the question of the early races of the British Isles, the reader should weigh again the concluding words of Professor Haddon's theory, quoted on p. 684 above. Arianrhod, 207-9, 645, | Ballymoyer, 612. 646. Arles, 550. Arttechwed, 52, 69, 504-| atras, 177. August, first Sunday in, Avallo, -onis, 496. see Eurnach, Wrnach. Awstin, 503, 506, 519. Aymon, 488, 491. Ayre, the, 285. b for v, 538. bailey, 377. Bala, y, 147, 150, 377, - 378, 415. 487, 491. ban, bannau, 580. banc, 476. Bann Arthur, 22. Beare, old woman of, 393, 454. stones, 131. Bellis, 106: see Belsiaid. 668. Bendith y (eu) Mamau, 174, 176, 254, 256, Bethgelart, 567: see Bed- | Bettws (Amman Valley), y Coed, 130, 134. the Manx, 297, 348, bins, 63, 64. warning, the, 409. Biulthan, 333, 334. --- - quarter, 691. Blind, Karl, 341, 346. ben side, 452, 677: see blue eyes, 148. banshee. Bendigeituran, 548. boaldyn, 308. Boand, 389,390, 392, 395. |