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Ducks
:
BIRDS AND BEASTS.
When ducks sportively chase each other through the water, and flap their
wings and dive about, in evident enjoyment of their pastime, it is a sign
that rain is not far off.
Divination With The Twca Or Knife
Eagle
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Cows And Horses Witched
The writer was told the name of the farm where the following events were said to have taken place, but he is not quite sure that his memory has not deceived him, so he will only relate the facts without giving them a locality. A farmer had a go...
Crane
The crane is often mistaken for the heron. When the crane flies against the stream, she asks for rain, when with the stream she asks for fair weather. This bird is said to be thin when the moon wanes, and fat at the waxing of the moon. ...
Crickets
It is lucky to have crickets in a house, and to kill one is sure to bring bad luck after it. If they are very numerous in a house, it is a sign that peace and plenty reign there. The bakehouse in which their merry chirp is heard is the place to ...
Crows' Feathers
In Montgomeryshire it was, at one time, supposed that if a person picked up a crow's feather he was sure to meet a mad dog before the day was over. But in other parts it was considered lucky to find a crow's feather, if, when found, it were stu...
Cwn Annwn Or Dogs Of The Abyss
The words Cwn Annwn are variously translated as Dogs of Hell, Dogs of Elfinland. In some parts of Wales they are called Cwn Wybir, Dogs of the Sky, and in other places Cwn Bendith Y Mamau. We have seen that Bendith y Mamau is a name given to the...
Cyhyraeth Death Sound
This was thought to be a sound made by a crying spirit. It was plaintive, yet loud and terrible. It made the hair stand on end and the blood become cold; and a whole neighbourhood became depressed whenever the awful sound was heard. It was unli...
Cynon's Ghost
One of the wicked Spirits which plagued the secluded Valley of Llanwddyn long before it was converted into a vast reservoir to supply Liverpool with water was that of Cynon. Of this Spirit Mr. Evans writes thus:--Yspryd Cynon was a mischievous go...
David Salisbury's Ghost
I will quote from Bye-Gones, vol. iii., p. 211, an account of this Spirit. There was an old Welsh tradition in vogue some fifty years ago, that one David Salisbury, son of Harri Goch of Llanrhaiadr, near Denbigh, and grandson to Tho...
Death Watch
This is a sound, like the ticking of a watch, made by a small insect. It is considered a sign of death, and hence its name, Death Watch. A working man's wife, whose uncle was ill in bed, told the writer, that she had no hopes of his recovery, b...
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 re...
Dick The Fiddler And The Fairy Crown-piece
For the following story I am indebted to my friend, Mr Hamer, who records it in his Parochial account of Llanidloes, published in the Montgomeryshire Collections, vol. x., pp. 252-3-4. Mr Hamer states that the tale was related to him by Mr. Nicho...
Divination With The Twca Or Knife
The proceeding was as follows:--The party who wished to know whom he, or she, was to marry, went to the church secretly and walked around it seven times, repeating the while these words:-- Dyma'r Twca, Lle mae'r wain? Here's the ...
Ducks
When ducks sportively chase each other through the water, and flap their wings and dive about, in evident enjoyment of their pastime, it is a sign that rain is not far off. ...
Eagle
Persons who had eaten eagle's flesh had power to cure erysipelas, and this virtue was said by some to be transmitted to their descendants for ever, whilst others affirmed it only lasted for nine generations. See page 263, where this subject is full...
Early Reference To Witches Turning Themselves Into Hares
The prevalence of the belief that witches could transform themselves into hares is seen from a remark made by Giraldus Cambrensis in his topography of Ireland. He writes:-- It has also been a frequent complaint, from old times, as well as i...
Elidorus And The Fairies
A short time before our days, a circumstance worthy of note occurred in these parts, which Elidorus, a priest, most strenuously affirmed had befallen to himself. When a youth of twelve years, and learning his letters, since, as Solomon says, 'T...
Fairies In Markets And Fairs
It was once firmly believed by the Welsh that the Fairy Tribe visited markets and fairs, and that their presence made business brisk. If there was a buzz in the market place, it was thought that the sound was made by the Fairies, and on such occa...
Fairies Working For Men
It was once thought that kind Fairies took compassion on good folk, who were unable to accomplish in due time their undertakings, and finished in the night these works for them; and it was always observed that the Fairy workman excelled as a trade...
Fairy Changelings
It was firmly believed, at one time, in Wales, that the Fairies exchanged their own weakly or deformed offspring for the strong children of mortals. The child supposed to have been left by the Fairies in the cradle, or elsewhere, was commonly cal...
Fairy Dances
The one occupation of the Fairy folk celebrated in song and prose was dancing. Their green rings, circular or ovoidal in form, abounded in all parts of the country, and it was in these circles they were said to dance through the livelong night. ...
Fairy Hammer And Fairy Or Elf Stones
Stone hammers of small size have been ascribed to the Fairies, and an intelligent Welsh miner once told the writer that he had himself seen, in a very ancient diminutive mine level, stone hammers which, he said, had once belonged to the Fairies. ...
Fairy Illusions
Ryw dro yr oedd brodor o Nefyn yn dyfod adref o ffair Pwllheli, ac wrth yr Efail Newydd gwelai Inn fawreddog, a chan ei fod yn gwybod nad oedd yr un gwesty i fod yno, gofynodd i un o'r gweision os oedd ganddynt ystabl iddo roddi ei farch. Atebwyd...
Fairy Knockers Or Coblynau
The Coblynau or Knockers were supposed to be a species of Fairies who had their abode in the rocks, and whose province it was to indicate by knocks, and other sounds, the presence of ore in mines. It would seem that many people had dim tradition...
Fairy Ladies Marrying Mortals
In the mythology of the Greeks, and other nations, gods and goddesses are spoken of as falling in love with human beings, and many an ancient genealogy began with a celestial ancestor. Much the same thing is said of the Fairies. Tradition speaks...