xiv] FIRST LITERARY EFFORTS 217 



sometimes dilate with much animation, concluding with a triumphant 

 assertion that theirs is a language, while the English is none, but merely 

 a way of speaking. 



The language, though at times guttural, is, when well spoken, both 

 melodious and impressive. There are many changes in the first letters 

 of words, for the sake of euphony, depending on what happens to precede 

 them ; m and b, for instance, are often changed into / (pronounced v\ 

 as melin or felin, a mill ; met orfel, honey. The gender is often changed 

 in the same manner, as bach (masculine), fach (feminine), small ; mawr 

 {m.),fawr (f.), great. The modes of making the plural is to an English- 

 man rather singular, a syllable being taken off instead of being added, 

 as is usually the case with us, as plentyn, *a child ; plent, children : 

 mochyn, a pig ; moch, pigs. But in other cases a syllable or letter is 

 added. 



Their preachers or public speakers have much influence over them. 

 During a discourse there is the most breathless attention, and at the 

 pauses a universal thrill of approbation. Allegory is their chief speciality, 

 and seems to give the hearers the greatest pleasure, and the language 

 appears well fitted for giving it its full effect. 



As might be expected from their ignorance, they are exceedingly 

 superstitious, which is rather increased than diminished in those who are 

 able to read by their confining their studies almost wholly to the Bible. The 

 forms their superstitions take are in general much the same as in Scotland, 

 Ireland, and other remote parts of the kingdom. Witches and wizards 

 and white witches, as they are called, are firmly believed in, and their 

 powers much dreaded. There is a witch within a mile of where I am 

 now writing who, according to report, has performed many wonders. One 

 man who had offended her she witched so that he could not rise from his 

 bed for several years, but he was at last cured by inviting the witch to 

 tea and making friends with her. Another case was of a man driving his 

 pig to market when the witch passed by. The pig instantly refused to 

 move, sat up on its hind legs against the hedge in such a manner as no 

 pig was ever seen to do before, and, as it could not be persuaded to walk, 

 was carried home, where it soon died. These and dozens of other similar 

 stories are vouched for by eye-witnesses, one of whom told me this. A 

 still more extraordinary instance of the woman's supernatural powers 

 must be mentioned. She is supposed to have the power of changing 

 herself into different shapes at pleasure, that of a hare seeming to be 

 with her, as with many other witches, the favourite one, as if they delighted 

 in the persecution that harmless animal generally meets with. It is 

 related that one day, being pursued by men and dogs in this shape, the 

 pursuers came to a coal mine the steam-engine of which was in full work, 

 bringing up coal. The witch-hare jumped on to the woodwork which 

 supports the chains, when immediately they refused to move, the 

 engine stopped, pumps, everything remained motionless, and amid the 

 general surprise the witch escaped. But the pit could never be worked 

 again, the pumps and the engine were taken away, and the ruins of the 



