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joking, their acquaintance ripened into courtship, when the father and mother of the lake maiden appeared to give the union their sanction, and to arrange the marriage settlement. This was to the effect that the husband was never to strike his wife with iron, and that she was to bring her great wealth with her, consisting of stock of all kinds for his mountain farm. All duly took place, and they lived happily together until one day, when trying to catch a pony, the husband threw a bridle to his wife, and the iron in that struck her. It was then all over with him, as the wife hurried away with her property into the lake, so that nothing more was seen or heard of her. Here I may as well explain that the ILanberis side of the steep, near the top of Snowdon, is called Clogwyn du'r Arđu, or the Black Cliff of the Arđu, at the bottom of which lies the tarn alluded to as the Black Lake of the Arđu, and near it stands a huge boulder, called Maen du'r Arđu, all of which names are curious, as involving the word du, black. Arđu itself has much the same meaning, and refers to the whole precipitous side of the summit with its dark shadows, and there is a similar Ardu near Nanmor on the Merionethshire side of Bedgelert.

One of the brothers, I ought to have said, doubts that the lake here mentioned was the one in old Sian's tale; but he has forgotten which it was of the many in the neighbourhood. Both, however, remembered another short story about fairies, which they had heard another old woman relate, namely, Mari Domos Siôn, who died some thirty years ago: it was merely to the effect that a shepherd had once lost his way in the mist on the mountain on the land of Caeau Gwynion, towards Cwellyn1 Lake, and got into a ring

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1 The name is probably a shortening of Caweftyn, and that perhaps of Cawell-lyn, Creel or Basket Lake.' Its old name is said to have been ILyn Tardenni.

where the Tylwyth Teg were dancing: it was only after a very hard struggle that he was able, at length, to get away from them.

To this I may add the testimony of a lady, for whose veracity I can vouch, to the effect that, when she was a child in Cwm Brwynog, from thirty to forty years ago, she and her brothers and sisters used to be frequently warned by their mother not to go far away from the house when there happened to be thick mist on the ground, lest they should come across the Tylwyth Teg dancing, and be carried away to their abode beneath the lake. They were always, she says, supposed to live in the lakes; and the one here alluded to was Lyn Dwythwch, which is one of those famous. for its torgochiaid or chars. The mother is still living; but she seems to have long since, like others, lost her belief in the fairies.

After writing the above, I heard that a brother to the foregoing brothers, namely, Mr. Thomas Davies, of Mur Mawr, ILanberis, remembered a similar tale. Mr. Davies is now sixty-four, and the persons from whom he heard the tale were the same Siân Dafyd of Helfa Fawr, and Mari Domos Siôn of Tyn1 Gadlas, ILanberis: the two women were about 'seventy years of age when he as a child heard it from them. At my request, a friend of mine, Mr. Hugh D. Jones, of Tyn Gadlas, also a member of this family, which is one of the oldest perhaps in the place, has taken down from Mr. Davies' mouth all he could remember, word for word, as follows:

Yn perthyn i ffarm Bron y Fedw yr oed dyn ifanc

Tyn is a shortening of tydyn, which is not quite forgotten in the case of Tyn Gadlas or Tyn Siarlas (for Tydyn Siarlys), ‘Charles' Tenement,' in the immediate neighbourhood. Similarly the Anglesey Farm of Tyn yr Onnen used at one time to be Tydyn yr Onnen in the books of Jesus College, Oxford, to which it belongs.

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wedi cael ei fagu, nis gwydent faint cyn eu hamser hwy. Arferai pan yn hogyn fynd i'r mynyd yn Cwm Drywenyd a Mynyd y Fedw ar ochr orllewinol y Wydfa i fugeilio, a bydai yn taro ar hogan yn y mynyd; ac wrth fynychu gweld eu gilyd aethant yn ffrindiau mawr. Arferent gyfarfod eu gilyd mewn the neillduol yn Cum Drywenyd, tte'r oed yr hogan a'r teulu yn byw, the y bydai pob danteithion, chwareuydiaethau a chanu dihafal; ond ni fydai'r hogyn yn gwneyd i fyny a neb ohonynt ond yr hogan.

Diwed y ffrindiaeth fu carwriaeth, a phan soniod yr hogyn am idi briodi, ni wnai ond ar un amod, sef y bywiai hi hefo fo hyd nes y tarawai ef hi a haiarn.

Priodwyd hwy, a buont byw gyda'u gilyd am nifer o flynydoed, a bu idynt blant; ac ar dyd marchnad yn Gaernarfon yr oed y gwr a'r wraig yn medwl mynd i'r farchnad ar gefn merlod, fel pob ffarmwr yr amser hwnnw. Awd i'r mynyd i dal merlyn bob un.

Ar waelod Mynyd y Fedw mae ttyn o ryw dri-ugain neu gan tath o hyd ac ugain neu deg tath ar hugain o led, ac y mae ar un ochr ido le tég, fford y bydai'r ceffylau yn rhedeg.

Daliod y gwr ferlyn a rhoes ef i'r wraig i'w dal heb ffrwyn, tra bydai ef yn dal merlyn aratt. Ar ol rhoi ffrwyn yn mhen ei ferlyn ei hun, taflod un aratt i'r wraig i roi yn mhen ei merlyn hithau, ac wrth ei thaflu tarawod bit y ffrwyn hi yn ei ttaw. Gottyngod y wraig y merlyn, ac aeth ar ei phen i'r tyn, a dyna diwed y briodas.

'To the farm of Bron y Fedw there belonged a son, who grew up to be a young man, the women knew not how long before their time. He was in the habit of going up the mountain to Cwm Drywenyd1 and Mynyd

1 That is the pronunciation which I have learnt at ILanberis, but there is another, which I have also heard, namely Derwenyd.

y Fedw, on the west side of Snowdon, to do the shepherding, and there he was wont to come across a lass on the mountain, so that as the result of frequently meeting one another, he and she became great friends. They usually met at a particular spot in Cwm Drywenyd, where the girl and her family lived, and where there were all kinds of nice things to eat, of amusements, and of incomparable music; but he did not make up to anybody there except the girl. The friendship ended in courtship; but when the boy mentioned that she should be married to him, she would only do so on one condition, namely, that she would live with him until he should strike her with iron. They were wedded, and they lived together for a number of years, and had children. Once on a time it happened to be market day at Carnarvon, whither the husband and wife thought of riding on ponies, like all the farmers of that time. So they went to the mountain to catch a pony each. At the bottom of Mynyd y Fedw there is a pool some sixty or one hundred yards long by twenty or thirty broad, and on one side of it there is a level space along which the horses used to run. The husband caught a pony, and gave it to the wife to hold fast without a bridle, while he should catch another. When he had bridled his own pony, he threw another bridle to his wife for her to secure hers; but as he threw it, the bit of the bridle struck her on one of her hands. The wife let go the pony, and went headlong into the pool, and that was the end of their wedded life.'

The following is a later tale, which Mr. Thomas Davies heard from his mother, who died in 1832: she would be ninety years of age had she been still living:-

Pan oed hi'n hogan yn yr Hafod, ILanberis, yr oet hogan at ei hoed hi'n cael ei magu yn Cwmglas,

Lanberis, ac arferai dweyd, pan yn hogan a thra y bu byw, y bydai yn cael arian gan y Tylwyth Teg yn Cwm Cwmglas.

Yr oed yn dweyd y bydai ar foreuau niwliog, tywyll, yn mynd i le penodol yn Cwm Cwmglas gyda dsygiad o lefrith o'r fuches a thywel glan, ac yn ei rođi ar garreg; ac yn mynd yno drachefn, ac yn cael y testr yn wag, gyda darn deuswllt neu hanner coron ac weithiau fwy wrth ei ochr.

'When she was a girl, living at Yr Hafod, ILanberis, there was a girl of her age being brought up at Cwmglas in the same parish. The latter was in the habit of saying, when she was a girl and so long as she lived, that she used to have money from the Tylwyth Teg, in the Cwmglas Hollow. Her account was, that on dark, misty mornings she used to go to a particular spot in that Hollow with a jugful of sweet milk from the milking place, and a clean towel, and then place them on a stone. She would return, and find the jug empty, with a piece of money placed by its side: that is, two shillings or half a crown, or at times even more.'

A daughter of that woman lives now at a farm, Mr. Davies observes, called Plas Pennant, in the parish of ILanfihangel yn Mhennant, in Carnarvonshire; and he adds, that it was a tale of a kind that was common enough when he was a boy; but many laughed at it, though the old people believed it to be a fact. To this I may as well append another tale, which was brought to the memory of an old man who happened to be present when Mr. Jones and Mr. Davies were busy with the foregoing. His name is John Roberts, and his age is seventy-five: his present home is at Capel Sion, in the neighbouring parish of ILandeiniolen :

Yr oed ef pan yn hogyn yn gweini yn Towyn Trewern, yn agos i Gaergybi, gyda hen wr o'r enw Owen Owens, oed yr adeg honno at ei oed ef yn bresennol.

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