The Giant of Craig- Llyn-Dyfi 345 



spend Midsummer Eve amongst such solitudes may still 

 hear the Tylwyth Teg, or " Little People," playing a dirge, 

 at dawn, amongst the rocks surrounding the lake. The 

 Raven, that nests on the cliff above Llan-y-Mawddwy, is 

 the Brudiwr, or evil spirit, that guards the entrance to the 

 vale, and a natural recess in the rock below is pointed to as 

 " the Giant's chair." 



There are, of course, unsympathetic people about, who 

 affect to disbelieve the tale, and who hold that the Llyn is 

 not fishless. They are prone to ascribe all such phenomena 

 to natural causes ; and they maintain that the milk stains 

 on the rocks are but bands of quartz, and the elfin music 

 but the breath of morning whispering round the jutting 

 corners of the cliff ; but with none such would we now seek 

 to claim acquaintance. The world is already humdrum 

 enough ; and if any sentiment is to remain in our lives, 

 where should it come more fittingly out than in the solitude 

 of the mountain ? 



One fine summer morning, when I was sitting concealed 

 in a partly wooded ravine, waiting for a Buzzard to return 

 to her nest, another Marten gave me a beautiful view of it, 

 for ten minutes or so. There was a high cliff opposite, 

 with plenty of wide heathery ledges, from some of which 

 sprang gnarled and stunted oaks, and mountain ashes ; in fact, 

 just such a place as a Buzzard loves. Both birds had been 

 sailing around for some time, when the female pitched on 

 a point of rock, two or three hundred yards away. I was 

 in the act of focussing the glasses upon her, when a Marten 

 raised itself from the heather, on an adjoining ledge, and 

 sat looking at the bird, for some minutes, at a distance of 

 not more than five or six yards. Maybe it had young ones 

 there ; but, at any rate, it seemed to resent the intrusion, for 

 presently it leaped to a higher ledge, and approached the 

 bird from above, creeping to within a few feet of it. Here 

 it stood for quite a time, silhouetted against the sky, beast 

 and bird regarding one another with proper caution, till at 

 length the Buzzard, not seeming to like such close scrutiny, 

 launched herself into the air, and soared aloft again, while 

 the Marten leisurely returned to its ledge. 



