484 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Dec. 22. 1855. 



Chap. XIV. p. 68. "Of Apparitions, and 

 Agencies of Spirits in the Parish of Aberys- 

 truth." 



" The sons of infidelity seem much averse unto, and 

 afifect to speak with levity and ridicule of, apparitions, as ! 

 if they were the posterity and scholars of the ancient 

 Sadducees, against whom'the Scripture speaks. But in i 

 the name of truth, why is it that these men can give no i 

 sober attention to great numbers of honest men, who have ; 

 their wits about them as well as they ; are as far from ; 

 lying and falsehood as themselves can be, who attest [ 

 these things ; and have no selfish ends to serve by such 

 relations? Why should these men think that because j 

 themselves have not seen and experienced such things, : 

 that none else have ? Would it not be sufficient for them ■ 

 to saj', we indeed have no experience of such things, but | 

 it may be others have ; and since many persons of probity 

 and sense do attest it, it is likely there is something in it, ^ 

 more likely than that there is not ; and therefore it will ; 

 not become us to scoff at such relations. Men of no ex- [ 

 perience in this case are in no proper condition to confute 

 them, and it becomes them not to attempt to confute i 

 matters of fact, of which there are abundant certainties j 

 to a sober wit. But nothing will satisfy unreasonable, I 

 proud Infidelity. 



"In former times, more than at present, there were 

 frequent appearances of the fairies in Wales ; I think as 

 much in the parish of Aberystruth as in any other, and j 

 more than in some. They are no doubt evil spirits be- | 

 longing to the kingdom of darkness. They were seen in ! 

 former times, and heard by some persons or other con- | 

 tinually, and sometimes by several persons together at all 

 hours of the night, and all hours of the daj'. In the night 

 more than in the day, in the morning and evening of the 

 day more than about noon. Abundance of people saw 

 them, and heaid their music, which every one said was 

 low and pleasant, but none could ever learn the tune; 

 heard their talking like that of many talking together, 

 but the words seldom heard. But to those who did hear, 

 they seemed to dispute much about future events, and 

 about what they were to do ; whence it came to a proverb 

 in the parish concerning disagreeing persons,^ ' iVi Chydu- 

 nant hwy mwy na Bendith eu Mammau,' i. e. ' They will no 

 more agree than the fairies.' 



" They appeared diverse ways, but their most frequent 

 way of appearing was like dancing-companies with musick, 

 and in the form of funerals. When they appeared like 

 dancing-companies, they were desirous to entice persons 

 into their compan}', and some were drawn among them 

 and remained among them some time, usually a whole 

 year ; as did Edmund William Rees, a man whom I well 

 knew, and was a neighbour, who came back at the year's 

 end, and looked very bad. But either they were not able 

 to give much account of themselves, or they durst not 

 give it. only said they had been dancing, and that the 

 time was short. But there were some others who went 

 with them at night, and returned sometimes at night, 

 and sometimes the next morning ; especially those persons 

 who took upon them to cure the hurts received from the 

 fairies, as Charles Hugh of Coed yr Fame, in Langybi 

 parish, and Rissiart Cap Dee, of Aberystruth; for the 

 former of these must certainly converse with them, for 

 how else could he declare the words which his visitors 

 had spoken a day or days before they came to him,- to 

 their great surprise and wonder ? 



" And as for Rissiart Cap Dee, so called because he wore 

 a black cap, it is said of him that when he lodged in some 

 houses to cure those who were hurt by the fairies, he 

 would suddenly rise up in the night, and make a very 

 hasty preparation to go down atairs; which when one 

 No. 321.] 



person observ'd, he said, ' Go softly, Uncle Richard, least 

 you fall : ' he made answer, ' O, here are some to receive 

 me.' But when he was called to one person, who had in- 

 advertently fallen among the fairies, and had been 

 greatly hurt by them, and kept his bed upon it, whose 

 relations had sent for the said Rissiart Cap Dee to cure 

 him ; who, when he came up to the sick man's chamber, 

 the sick man took up a pound-weight stone, which was 

 by the bed-side, and threw it at the infernal charmer with 

 all his might, with this saying, • Thou, old villain, wast 

 one of the worst of them to hurt me ! ' for he had seen him 

 among them acting his part against him ; upon which the 

 old charmer went away muttering some words of malevo- 

 lence against him. He lived at the foot of Rhyw Coel- 

 bren, and there was a large hole in the side of the thatch 

 of his house, thro' which the people believed he went 

 out at night to the fairies, and came in from them at 

 night; but he pretended it was that he might see the 

 stars at night. The house is down long ago. He lived 

 by himself, as did the before- mentioned Charles Hugh, 

 who was very famous in the country for his cures, and 

 knowledge of things at a distance ; which he could not 

 possibly know without conversing with evil spirits, who 

 walked the earth to and fro. He is yet said to be an 

 affable, friendly man, and cheerful ; 'tis then a pity he 

 should be in alliance with hell, and an agent in the 

 kingdom of darkness. 



" I will onl}' give one instance of his knowledge of 

 things at a distance, and of secret things. Henry John 

 Thomas, of the parish of Aberystruth, a relation of mine, 

 an honest man, went with the Avater of a young woman 

 whom he courted, and was sick, to the saidCliarles Hugh, 

 who, as soon as he saw Henry John, pleasantly told him, 

 ' Ho ! you come with your sweetheart's water to me.' 

 And he told him the very words which they had spoken 

 together in a secret place, and described the place where 

 they spoke. It was the general opinion in times past, 

 when these things were very frequent, that the fairies 

 knew whatever was spoken in the air without the houses, 

 not so much what was spoken in the houses. I suppose 

 they chiefly knew what was spoken in the air at night. 

 It was also said that they rather appeared to an uneven 

 number of persons, to one, three, five, &c. ; and oftener to 

 men than to women. Thomas William Edmund, of Havo- 

 davel, an honest, pious man, who often saw them, declared 

 that they appeared with one bigger than the rest, going 

 before them in the company. 



" But they very often appeared in the form of a funeral 

 before the death of many persons, with a bier and a black 

 cloth, in the midst of a company about it, on every side, 

 before and after it. The instances of this were so nu- 

 merous, that it is plain, and past all dispute, that they 

 infallibly foreknew the time of men's death : the difficulty 

 is, whence they had this knowledge. It cannot be sup- 

 posed that either God Himself, or His angels, discovered 

 this to these spirits of darlmess. For the secrets of the 

 Lord are with those that fear Him, not witli His enemies. 

 Psalm XXV. 14. They must therefore have this know- 

 ledge from the position of the stars at the time of birth, 

 and their influence, which they perfectly understand be- 

 yond what mortal men can do. We have a constant 

 proof of this in the corps candles, M-hose appearance is an 

 infallible sign that death will follow, and they never fail 

 going the way that the corps will go to be buried, be the 

 way ever so unlikely that it should go through. But to 

 give some instances in Aberystruth Farish." 



John Webb. 



( Jb he concluded in our next,') 



