CHAPTER XXXVIII 



Badgers Superstitions concerning Otters Rats Assurance of A Water 

 Hen's nest Tracks in the snow A bottomless pit Devils Keeping 

 the Ducks off the spawning redds. 



THE Badger, known by the various names of Bryfwch, short 

 sow, Daiarfochyn, earth pig, Mochyn bychyn, little pig, 

 Ydefaadyddy Pryf llwyd^ grey beast, etc., but hereabouts 

 more commonly by the simple Anglo-Saxon "Broc than any 

 other, seems to be almost exterminated in this part of 

 Wales. I did not personally meet with any trace of it 

 alive, and only saw one stuffed specimen which had been 

 trapped near Llangowr a few years ago. Yet rare though 

 the animal itself has become, the absurd old belief that, 

 " owing to the legs on one side of the body being shorter 

 than those on the other, the animal is best adapted for 

 travelling along steep hillsides," still survives almost every- 

 where. One person assured me that the reason that the 

 Badger had become so scarce was that it so often committed 

 suicide by travelling along a ledge of dangerous rock, and 

 falling over the precipice owing to its awkwardness in turn- 

 ing ! Another curious complication arising out of its sup- 

 posed misshapen structure is, or was, that it was believed 

 always to hunt round the hill in the direction of the setting 

 sun, thus obtaining the advantage of any twilight that might 

 remain. Hunting slowly all night, it arrived on the 

 opposite side of the hill in the morning, in time to be 

 guided to its lair by the rising sun. It rarely, if ever, left 

 its own particular mountain ; and, as it could only travel 

 comfortably in one direction, all that was necessary to secure 

 a good hunt was to surprise the animal as soon as possible 

 after it had set out upon its nightly ramble, when a run all 

 round the hill, and back to near the starting point, might be 



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