The Fairies Giving Money To A Man For Joining Them In Their Dance
: FAIRY MOTHERS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES.The following story came to me through the Rev. Owen Jones, Vicar of
Pentrevoelas. The occurrence is said to have taken place near
Pentrevoelas. The following are the particulars:--
Tomas Moris, Ty'n-y-Pant, returning home one delightful summer night from
Llanrwst fair, came suddenly upon a company of Fairies dancing in a ring.
In the centre of the circle were a number of speckled dogs, small in
size, a
came to an end, the Fairies persuaded Tomas to accompany them to Hafod
Bryn Mullt, and there the dance was resumed, and did not terminate until
the break of day. Ere the Fairies departed they requested their visitor
to join them the following night at the same place, and they promised, if
he would do so, to enrich him with gifts of money, but they made him
promise that he would not reveal to any one the place where they held
their revels. This Tomas did, and night after night was spent pleasantly
by him in the company of his merry newly-made friends. True to their
word, he nightly parted company with them, laden with money, and thus he
had no need to spend his days as heretofore, in manual labour. This went
on as long as Tomas Moris kept his word, but alas, one day, he divulged
to a neighbour the secret of his riches. That night, as usual, he went
to Hafod Bryn Mullt, but his generous friends were not there, and he
noticed that in the place where they were wont to dance there was nothing
but cockle shells.
In certain parts of Wales it was believed that Fairy money, on close
inspection, would be found to be cockle shells. Mrs. Hugh Jones,
Corlanau, who has already been mentioned, told the writer that a man
found a crock filled, as he thought when he first saw it, with gold, but
on taking it home he discovered that he had carried home from the
mountain nothing but cockle shells. This Mrs. Jones told me was Fairy
money.
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