The Snowdon Version

: FAIRY MEN CAPTURED.

The following tale is taken from Y Gordofigion, p. 98:--



Aeth trigolion ardaloedd cylchynol y Wyddfa un tro i hela pryf llwyd.

Methasant a chael golwg ar yr un y diwrnod cyntaf; ond cynllwynasant am

un erbyn trannoeth, trwy osod sach a'i cheg yn agored ar dwll yr arferai

y pryf fyned iddo, ond ni byddai byth yn dyfod allan drwyddo am ei fod yn

rhy serth a llithrig. A'r modd a gosodasant y sach oedd rhoddi cortyn

trwy dyllau yn ei cheg, yn y fath fodd ag y crychai, ac y ceuai ei cheg

pan elai rhywbeth iddi. Felly fu; aeth pawb i'w fan, ac i'w wely y noson

hono. Gyda'r wawr bore dranoeth, awd i edrych y sach, ac erbyn dyfod ati

yr oedd ei cheg wedi crychu, yn arwydd fod rhywbeth oddifewn. Codwyd hi,

a thaflodd un hi ar ei ysgwydd i'w dwyn adref. Ond pan yn agos i Bryn y

Fedw wele dorpyn o ddynan bychan yn sefyll ar delpyn o graig gerllaw ac

yn gwaeddi, 'Meirig, wyt ti yna, dwad?' 'Ydwyf,' attebai llais dieithr

(ond dychrynedig) o'r sach. Ar hyn, wele'r helwyr yn dechreu rhedeg

ymaith, a da oedd ganddynt wneyd hyny, er gadael y sach i'r pryf, gan

dybied eu bod wedi dal yn y sach un o ysbrydion y pwll diwaelod, ond

deallasant ar ol hyny mai un o'r Tylwyth Teg oedd yn y sach.



The tale in English reads thus:--Once the people who lived in the

neighbourhood of Snowdon went badger-hunting. They failed the first day

to get sight of one. But they laid a trap for one by the next day. This

they did by placing a sack's open mouth with a noose through it at the

entrance to the badger's den. The vermin was in the habit of entering

his abode by one passage and leaving it by another. The one by which he

entered was too precipitous and slippery to be used as an exit, and the

trappers placed the sack in this hole, well knowing that the running

noose in the mouth of the sack would close if anything entered. The next

morning the hunters returned to the snare, and at once observed that the

mouth of the sack was tightly drawn up, a sign that there was something

in it. The bag was taken up and thrown on the shoulders of one of the

men to be carried home. But when they were near Bryn y Fedw they saw a

lump of a little fellow, standing on the top of a rock close by and

shouting, 'Meirig, are you there, say?' 'I am,' was the answer in a

strange but nervous voice. Upon this, the hunters, throwing down the

bag, began to run away, and they were glad to do so, although they had to

leave their sack behind them, believing, as they did, that they had

captured one of the spirits of the bottomless pit. But afterwards they

understood that it was one of the Fairy Tribe that was in the sack.



There was at one time a tale much like this current in the parish of

Gyffylliog, near Ruthin, but in this latter case the voice in the bag

said, My father is calling me, though no one was heard to do so. The

bag, however, was cast away, and the trapper reported that he had

captured a Fairy!



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