The Llandrillo Version
:
FAIRY MEN CAPTURED.
:
Welsh Folk-lore
I am indebted for the following tale to Mr. E. S. Roberts, schoolmaster,
Llantysilio, near Llangollen:--
Two men whilst otter-hunting in Gwyn Pennant, Llandrillo, saw something
reddish scampering away across the ground just before them. They thought
it was an otter, and watching it saw that it entered a hole by the side
of the river. When they reached the place they found, underneath the
roots of a tree
two burrows. They immediately set to work to catch
their prey. Whilst one of the men pushed a long pole into one of the
burrows, the other held the mouth of a sack to the other, and very
shortly into the sack rushed their prey and it was secured. The men now
went homewards, but they had not gone far, ere they heard a voice in the
bag say, My mother is calling me. The frightened men instantly threw
the sack to the ground, and they saw a small man, clothed in red, emerge
therefrom, and the wee creature ran away with all his might to the
brushwood that grew along the banks of the river.