the exceeding strange things beheld at times in connexion with this loch. This lake or loch is called Lyn Cwm y ILwch '.'

II.

Before dismissing the story of ILyn y Fan Fach I wish to append a similar one from the parish of Ystrad Dyfodwg in Glamorganshire. The following is a translation of a version given in Welsh in Cyfaill yr Aelwyd a'r Frythones, edited by Elfed and Cadrawd, and published by Messrs. Williams and Son, ILanetty. The version in question is by Cadrawd, and it is to the following effect-see the volume for 1892, p. 59:

'ILyn y Forwyn, "the Damsel's Pool," is in the parish of Ystrad Tyfodwg: the inhabitants call it also Lyn Nelferch. It lies about halfway between the farm house of Rhonda Fechan, "Little Rhonda," and the Vale of Safrwch. The ancient tradition concerning it is somewhat as follows:

'Once on a time a farmer lived at the Rhonda Fechan: he was unmarried, and as he was walking by the lake early one morning in spring he beheld a young woman of beautiful appearance walking on the other side of it. He approached her and spoke to her: she gave him to understand that her home was in the lake, and that she owned a number of milch cows, that lived with her at the bottom of the water. The farmer fancied her so much that he fell in love with her over head and ears: he asked her on the spot for her hand and heart; and he invited her to come and spend her life with him as his wife at the Rhonda Fechan. She declined at first, but as he was importunate she con

1ILwch is the Goidelic word loch borrowed, and Lyn Cwm y Lwch literally means the Lake of the Loch Dingle.

sented at last on the following conditions, namely, that she would bring her cattle with her out of the lake, and live with him until he and she had three disputes with one another: then, she said, she and the cattle would return into the lake. He agreed to the conditions, and the marriage took place. They lived very happily and comfortably for long years; but the end was that they fell out with one another, and, when they happened to have quarrelled for the third time, she was heard early in the morning driving the cattle towards the lake with these words:

Prw dre', pr dre', prw'r gwartheg i dre';
Prw Milfach a Malfach, pedair ILualfach,
Alfach ac Al, pedair Ladi,

Wynebwen drwynog, tro i'r waun lidiog,
Trech Hyn y waun odyn, tair Pencethin,
Tair caseg du draw yn yr eithin1.

And into the lake they went out of sight, and there they live to this day. And some believed that they had heard the voice and cry of Nelferch in the whisper of the breeze on the top of the mountain hard by -many a time after that—as an old story (weđal) will have it.'

From this it will be seen that the fairy wife's name was supposed to have been Nelferch, and that the piece of water is called after her. But I find that great uncertainty prevails as to the old name of the lake, as I learn from a communication in 1894 from

1 I make no attempt to translate these lines, but I find that Mr. ILewellyn Williams has found a still more obscure version of them, as follows:Pro med, pro med, prw'r gwartheg i dre',

Prw milfach a malfach, pedair tualfach,

ILualfach ac Aeli, pedair lafi,

Lafi a chromwen, pedair nepwen,

Nepwen drwynog, brech yn llyn a gwaun dodyn,

Tair bryncethin, tair cyffredin,

Tair caseg du, draw yn yr eithin ;

Dewch i gyd i lys y brenin.

Mr. Lewellyn Williams, living at Porth, only some five miles from the spot, that one of his informants assured him that the name in use among former generations was Lyn Alfach. Mr. Williams made inquiries at the Rhonda Fechan about the lake legend. He was told that the water had long since been known as Lyn y Forwyn, from a morwyn, or damsel, with a number of cattle having been drowned in it. The story of the man who mentioned the name as ILyn Alfach was similar: the maid belonged to the farm of Penrhys, he said, and the young man to the Rhonda Fechan, and it was in consequence of their third dispute, he added, that she left him and went back to her previous service, and afterwards, while taking the cattle to the water, she sank accidentally or purposely into the lake, so that she was never found any more. Here it will be seen how modern rationalism has been modifying the story into something quite uninteresting but without wholly getting rid of the original features, such as the three disputes between the husband and wife. Lastly, it is worth mentioning that this water appears to form part of a bit of very remarkable scenery, and that its waves strike on one side against a steep rock believed to contain caves, supposed to have been formerly inhabited by men and women. At present the place, I learn, is in the possession of Messrs. Davis and Sons, owners of the Ferndale collieries, who keep a pleasure boat on the lake. I have appealed to them on the question of the name Nelferch or Alfach, in the hope that their books would help to decide as to the old form of it. Replying on their behalf, Mr. J. Probert Evans informs me that the company only got possession of the lake and the adjacent land in 1862, and that 'ILyn y Vorwyn' is the name of the former in the oldest plan which they have. Inquiries have also been made

in the neighbourhood by my friend, Mr. Reynolds, who found the old tenants of the Rhonda Fechan Farm gone, and the neighbouring farm house of Dyffryn Safrwch supplanted by colliers' cottages. But he calls my attention to the fact, that perhaps the old name was neither Nelferch nor Alfach, as Elfarch, which would fit equally well, was once the name of a petty chieftain of the adjoining Hundred of Senghenyd, for which he refers me to Clark's Glamorgan Genealogies, p. 511. But I have to thank him more especially for a longer version of the fairy wife's call to her cattle, as given in Glanffrwd's Plwyf Lanwyno, 'the Parish of ILanwynno' (Pontyprid, 1888), p. 117, as follows:

The last lines-slightly mended-may be rendered:

Bull, bull!

Stand thou foremost.

Back! thou wife of the House up Hill:

Never shalt thou milk my cows.

This seems to suggest that the quarrel was about

another woman, and that by the time when the fairy came to call her live stock into the lake she had been replaced by another woman who came from the Ty-fry, or the House up Hill1. In that case this version comes closer than any other to the story of Undine supplanted by Bertalda as her knight's favourite.

Mr. Probert Evans having kindly given me the address of an aged farmer who formerly lived in the valley, my friend, Mr. Lywarch Reynolds, was good enough to visit him. Mr. Reynolds shall report the result in his own words, dated January 9, 1899, as follows:

'I was at Pentyrch this morning, and went to see Mr. David Evans, formerly of Cefn Colston.

'The old man is a very fine specimen of the better class of Welsh farmer; is in his eighty-third year; hale and hearty, intelligent, and in full possession of his faculties. He was born and bred in the Rhonda Fechan Valley, and lived there until some forty years ago. He had often heard the lake story from an old aunt of his who lived at the Maerdy Farm (a short distance north of the lake), and who died a good many years ago, at a very advanced age. He calls the lake "ILyn Elferch," and the story, as known to him, has several points in common with the ILyn y Fan legend, which, however, he did not appear to know. He could not give me many details, but the following is the substance of the story as he knows it:-The young farmer, who lived with his mother at the neighbouring farm, one day saw the lady on the bank of the lake, combing her hair, which reached down to her feet. He fell in love at

1 The Ty-fry is a house said to be some 200 years old, and situated about two miles from Rhonda Fechan: more exactly it is about one-fourth of a mile from the station of Ystrad Rhonda, and stands at the foot of Mynyd yr Eglwys on the Treorky side. It is now surrounded by the cottages of colliers, one of whom occupies it. For this information I have to thank Mr. Probert Evans.