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!