"The usual food of the labouring Welsh is bread, cheese, and milk; and sometimes what they call flummery, a composition of oatmeal and milk. Animal food and ale are by no means among their usual fare. "The women of the mountainous parts of the country are generally a middle size, though more frequently below that than above it. Their features are often very pretty, but, in point of figure, they are in general uninteresting; and their long, and thickly matted hair, crowned with hats similar to those worn by the men, affords the unpleasant idea 4 of a due want of cleanliness. They wear long blue cloaks, that descend almost to their feet. These they are seldom to be seen without, even in the hottest weather; owing to the frequency of showers in a country surrounded with mountains. On their legs they have blue stockings, without any feet to them: they keep them down by means of a loop fastened round one of their tocs. In the more unfrequented parts, the women seldom wear any shoes, except on a Sunday, or the market-day, and even on those days they often carry them in their hands as they go along the roads. I have sometimes seen six or eight of them, after their journeys from the adjacent villages, seated on the bank of a rivulet, in the act of washing their feet previously to their entering the towns. During these journeys, they often employ their time in knitting, and a heavy shower of rain will not sometimes compel them to give up their work. Their employment within doors, besides their family duties, is chiefly in spinning wool. What has been repeatedly asserted of the Welsh people, that they are naturally inquisitive and curious respecting strangers, is certainly true; but it is a circumstance by no means peculiar to this country. In all wild and unfrequented parts of the world, it is the same; and it is in such parts of Wales that this disposition is chiefly observable. It is easily accounted for when we consider their manners of life, and general ignorance. Surprise on the appearance of strangers, where, in their limited ideas, there could seem no inducement to repay the trouble or expence of a journey, would naturally excite their wonder, and this as naturally leads to the questions, questions, "Where do you come from?" Why do you come "here?" and, "Where do you go "to from hence?" Unsatisfied with my answers, that I was an Englishman, come to visit the mountains and waterfalls, I have often and often been asked, with the utmost simplicity, "Are there, then, "no rocks nor rivers in England?" In all accounts of travels through unfrequented countries, we find this disposition to curiosity very common, and a slight acquaintance with the nature of the human mind is sufficient to allay any surprise that may be excited in discovering that it is prevalent in Wales. runs across a distant part of this cavern, is celebrated as the place where the fairy washer-women and、 labourers have been heard frequently at work. Considerably allied to the fairies is another species of supposed ærial beings, called by the Welsh knockers. These, the Welsh miners say, are heard underground, in or near mines, and by their noises, generally point out to the workmen a rich vein of ore. The following are extracts from two letters on this extraordirary subject, written by Mr. Lewis Morris, a man eminent for his learning and good sense. "These are odd assertions, but "they are certainly facts, though "we cannot, and do not pretend to "very good ore at Llwyn Llwyd, where the knockers were heard "to work, but have now yielded up the place, and are no more heard. Let who will laugh, we "have the greatest reason to rejoice, and thank the knockers, "or rather God, who sends us these notices." "They are much inclined to superstition, but in all countries we find that there are multitudes of weak and foolish people. In Eng-account for them. We have now land, most of the peasantry swallow, with credulous avidity, any ridiculous stories of ghosts, hobgoblins, and fairies. There is, however, in the Welsh, certainly a greater inclination to credulity than what, at least, an Englishman can discover among our own people. There are few, indeed, of the mountaineers of Wales, who have not by heart a string of legendary stories of those disembodied beings. The cavern Lanymynech-hill, not far from Oswestry, has been long noted as the residence of a clan of fairies, of whom the neighbouring villagers relate many surprising and mischievous pranks. Whilst they have stopped to listen at the mouth of the cave, they have sometimes even heard the little elves in conversation, but this was always in such low whispers, that (with reverberation along the sides and roof of the cavern) the words were rendered indistinguishable. The stream that "The second letter is as follows: "I have no time to answer your "objection against knockers; I have a large treatise collected on "that head, and what Mr. Durham says, is nothing to the purpose. "If sounds of voices, whispers, blasts, working or pumping, can "be carried on a mile under ground, "they should always be heard in "the same place, and under the "same advantages, and not once in 66 a month, a year, or two years. "Just before the discovery of ore "last week, three men together, in our work, were ear-witnesses of 3 R 4 "knockers 66 "nion of all old miners, who pre"tend to understand the language " of the knockers. Our agent "and manager, upon the strength "of this notice, goes on and ex"pects great things. You, and "knockers pumping, driving a "We have a dumb and deaf every body that is not convinced "of the being of knockers, will laugh at these things, for they "sound like dreams; so does every dark science. Can you make any illiterate man believe that it is "possible to know the distance of "two places by looking at them? "Human knowledge is but of small 66 extent, its bounds are within our "view, we see nothing beyond "these; the great universal crea"tion contains powers, &c. that we "cannot so much as guess at. May "there not exist beings, and vast powers, infinitely smaller than the particles of air, to whom air is as "hard a body as a diamond is to us? Why not? There is nei"ther great nor small, but by com"parison. Our knockers are some "of these powers, the guardians of "mines. "You remember the story in Sel"den's Table-Talk, of Sir Robert "and others disputing about Mo"ses's shoe. Lady Cotton came "in, and asked, Gentlemen, are you sure it is a shoe? So the first thing is, to convince mankind "that there is a set of creatures, a "degree or so finer than we are, to "whom we have given the name of "knockers, from the sounds we hear in our mines. This is to be done by a collection of their assertions well attested; and that is "what I have begun to do, and "then let every one judge for him"self." what I should infer from thence "would be, that I ought to take " out the water, and sink, or drive "in the place, and wheel the stuff << out. By parity of reasoning," "the language of the knockers by imitating the sound of pump“ing, wheeling, &c. signifies that we should take out the water, "and drive there. This is the opi "These letters are curious, though the reasoning is far from conclusive. conclusive. When I was in the gel Ysgeiviog in Anglesea, where they continued, at intervals, for some weeks. country, I was very desirous of seeing a copy of the remarks on these Supposed ærial spirits, that Mr. Morris refers to in the second letter, but was not able to meet with such. In endeavouring to account for the noises, for we must believe that such noises have taken place, it has been remarked that they might perhaps have proceeded from the echo of the miners at work, or from the dropping of water in some hollow places in or near the mine. These conjectures are, however, very insufficient, if we are to credit Mr. Morris's assertion (and he was a man not likely to make an assertion without being convinced of its truth), that whilst the miners are engaged in one kind of work, the knockers, as they are called, are carrying on another; while, for instance, as he says, the miners are boring, the knockers are blasting, the former conjecture must therefore fall to the ground, as the droppings of water could in no case produce an effect that might be mistaken for blasting. I am acquainted with the subject only from report, but I can assure my readers that I found few people in Wales that did not give full credence to it. The elucidation of these extraordinary facts must be left to those persons who have better opportunities of inquiring into them than I have. I may be permitted to express a hope that the subject will not be neglected, and that those who reside in any neigh. bourhood where the noises are heard, will carefully investigate their cause, and, if possible, give to the world a more accurate account of them than the present. In the year 1799, they were heard in some mines in the parish of Llanvihan 2 "The lower class of the Welsh yet continue to believe in the existence of witches. Many old women, therefore, only because they happen to be old, and perhaps deformed, have to bear the odium of preventing the cows from yielding milk, and butter from forming in the churn. They are also believed to possess the power of inflicting disorders both on men and cattle, and that they seldom neglect to do it when they have been offended. This will well account for the notion of witches having been strenuously maintained some centuries ago even by the most enlightened persons of the age. Old women, on whom the generally odious epithet of witch has been once fixed by the popular voice, have found it their interest, and in Wales to this day find it their interest, to deny no thing that is alledged to them. They become thus held in superstitious fear by the people, and in many instances obtain an easy livelihood from their supposed extent of power. Wherever they ask alms, it would be (say the common people) the death of a cow or horse, or perhaps even of one of the family, to refuse them; and the neighbouring peasantry, much as they hold them in detestation, believe it their own interest to keep them always in good humour. The thus live, in some measure, in affluence, with little other trouble than feeding and training up three or four cats, and attending minutely to the concerns of their neighbours. old women "On the eve of All Saints, the Welsh people, as soon as it is dark, kindle kindle great fires near their houses, which they call coelcerth, or bonfires. This custom has been supposed, though probably without any foundation, to have originated with the Druids, and to have been intended by them as an offering of thanksgiving for the fruits of the harvest. Sometimes fifty or a hundred of these fires may be seen at once, and round each the people dance, hand in hand, at the same time singing and shouting in the most riotous and frantic manner imaginable. In many places a custom is retained of each person throwing a few nuts into the flame, by which they pretend to foretell the good or ill fortune that will at tend them the ensuing year. If, by the expansion of air within them, the nuts burst, they immediately conclude that they are doomed to die within twelve months. On the day after All Saints, the poor children go about the towns and vilLiges to beg bread and cheese. "On the eve of St. John the Baptist, they place little bundles of the plant called St. John's wort, over their doors, or windows. These they believe will purify their houses, and drive away all fiends and evil spirits. The Druids had a custom similar to this, in which they used sprigs of vervain. "The young people have many pretended modes of declaring their future lovers. Most of these are, however, common to the peasantry of our own country, which renders it needless to repeat them here. "I have been informed that a disorder, somewhat resembling St. Anthony's fire, which the Welsh people call Yr Eryr, the cagle, is supposed to be at any time cured by the following kind of charm. A person, whose grandfather, or great grandfather, has eaten the flesh of an eagle, is to spit on the part affected, and rub it for a little while with his fingers. This is esteemed an infallible remedy. A maid-servant of a gentleman of my acquaintance, who resides in Caernarvonshire, declared, in my hearing, that she had been cured of this complaint by an old man, whose grandfather had eaten of an eagle. She said that he at the same time used some words, to aid the charm, which she could not comprehend. "It is an opinion very prevalent within the diocese of St. David's, in Pembrokeshire, that a short time previous to the death of a person, a light is sometimes seen to proceed from the house, and even from the bed, and to pursue its way to the church where the body is to be interred, precisely in the same track that the funeral will afterwards follow. This light is called canwyll corph, or the corpse candle." "A strange custom prevails in some obscure parts of North Wales, which, however, the clergy have now almost abolished. This is termed the offering of an enemy." When a person supposes himself highly injured by any one, he repairs to some church dedicated to a celebrated saint, or one who is believed to have great power over the affairs of men; here, kneeling on his bare knees before the altar, and offering a piece of money to the saint, he utters the most virulent and dreadful imprecations, calling down curses and misfortunes on the of fender and his family, even for ge nerations to come. Sometimes the offended persons repair for the same purpose to some sacred well, dedicated to a saint. Mr. Pennant was threatened |