September 3, 1908] 



N.-l TURE 



437 



the spear, and one day Llew was induced by his wife to 

 stand in the position by the cauldron he had indicated. 

 " Thereupon Gronw rose up from the hill which is called 

 Bryn Cyfergyr, and he rested on one knee, and flung the 

 poisoned dan and struck him (Llcw) on the side, so that 

 tlie shaft started out, but the head of the dart remained 

 in." Llew was, as we would say, mortally wounded, 

 but nobody dies in the Mabinogion tales. They sniiply 

 become transformed. Llew reappeared to return exactly 

 the same compliment to Gronw. The latter begged of 

 Llew to allow a stone to be placed between him and the 

 marksman. "Then Llew flung- the dart at him, and it 

 pierced the slab and went through Gronw likewise, so 

 that it pierced through his back." 



At first sight the whole story might be regarded as a 

 clumsy attempt at explaining the holed stone and its 

 name. But what of the very curious details of this fabu- 

 lous Order of the Bath? 



The following considerations offer themselves. The 

 tvpical wizard in Welsh tradition orders his body to be 

 buried neither within nor without the church. " Stand- [ 

 ing with one foot in the grave " is a familiar expression. 

 The picture ^of a man standing with one foot on the 

 cauldron and' the other on a buck's back brings to my 

 mind another legendary picture of a man visiting a cave, 

 where hidden treasures lie, on a cow's buck. It was 

 necessary for him to enter into the cave and return with- 

 out disniounting, and he was allowed to pick up as 

 much of the treasure as he could grab at on that bovine 

 ride. The two Welsh words " bwch," " buck," and 

 " buwch," " cow," are similar enough to become con- 

 fused in such tales. 



I would assume that the holed stone Llech Gronw was 

 a solstitial sight-line from a circle or cromlech to ihe 

 point on the horizon where the marksman stood to throw 

 the dart. Such a sight-line was of no use except once 

 a year, as the sun would only call once a year at thai 

 point. The spear was a year in the making. Sundays 

 may be regarded as the moon's quarters, and though a 

 solstitial cromlech or alignment was of use only once 

 a year, there is evidence of a weekly ceremony of some 

 sort at such monuments. The " curate " in charge of 

 an astronomical monument had, like other curates, his 

 work to do all the year round. 



.\ holed stone between a specified hill-point and a 

 covered structure — we have here the complete apparatus 

 for observation from an allce couverte. To the archa;- 

 ologist, however, the holed stone is now a telescope 

 reversed — that is, it is of use not to observe sunrise so 

 much as to find hidden parts of the original alignment. 

 Sir Norman Lockyer, in " Stonehenge," has shown that 

 " holed stones were arrangements for determining align- 

 ments," and he tells us how an ancient stone alignment 

 was traced from a circle to holed stones at Tregaseal 

 (p. 282). 



The utility of the holed stone as a path-finder, so to 

 speak, has been proved by Dr. Baudouin, in France. At 

 the third " Prehistoric " congress of France last year 

 ^reported in Nature, October 24, 1907, p. 649), he 

 showed that " menhirs were indicators of mcgalithic 

 sepultures." "By using two certain holed stones as in- 

 dicators, he was enabled to discover an alh'e couverte 

 which was buried under the soil, and had until then re- 

 mained undiscovered. This ' find,' made with remark- 

 able scientific precision, was received by numerous foreign 

 congressists as a striking example of the value of a theory 

 which many of them still ignore." 



The best oral tradition of a cave with sleeping warriors 

 guarding treasure I have been able to collect at first hand 

 is widely known at Devil's Bridge, Cardiganshire. .All 

 the story, which I have dove-tailed out of five versions, 

 would occupy more space than I can reasonably expect to 

 have here. Though it is known that the cave is situate 

 on a woody slope on the farm of Tynycastell on the south 

 side of the river Rheidol, no one living has seen it. But 

 tradition has it that the mouth of the cave is some- 

 times seen from some point on Penrhiw farm on the 

 north or opposite side of the valley. If my recollection 

 is correct, that farm is north-east, and on the sky-line, 

 from the traditional site of the cave, and if a careful 

 search were made for some alignment or indicator at 



NO. 2027, VOL. 78] 



Penrhiw, possibly the hidden cave might be re-discovered. 

 At any rate, the fact that the mouth of the cave used to 

 be seen from Penrhiw indicates that the cave was a 

 summer solstice alh'e couverte. This is further con- 

 firmed by the tradition that the mouth of the cave was to 

 be seen from Penrhiw only once a year. These inferences 

 as to the solstitial use of the cave are amply confirmed by 

 the most definite local tradition. 



This was the cave where the visitor had to enter and 

 leave on a cow's back. .Another version has it that there 

 were three steps into the cave. When the visitor stood 

 on the first step, a sleeping warrior inside awoke ; when 

 he stood on the second step, the warrior laid his hand on 

 his sword ; and when he stood on the third, the warrior 

 cut off with his sword the lighted head of the candle 

 which the visitor held in his hand. Another version 

 simply gives it that when the visitor entered a warrior 

 awolie and asked, "A ddaeth y tri bore'n un?" (Have 

 the three mornings become one?) For about five years 

 1 kept troubling our folklore authorities for an explana- 

 tion of that strange question, and quite in vain. Sir 

 Xorinan Lockyer solved the conundrum by return of post. 

 The three mornings in one are the three days of the sol- 

 stice, when the sun stands still, and because of that ap- 

 parent stationariness the three days were reckoned as one. 



I believe that the well-known tradition at Devil's Bridge 

 of a demon or hero imprisoned in a rock is a part, if not 

 the leading part, of the cave legend of Tynycastell close 

 by. He is popularly believed to be working his way out 

 of a rock a " fathom " deep with " an ounce hammer and 

 a clogrfiail," or, as a more degenerate tradition has it, 

 "an ounce hammer and a carpet-t;ick." 



So mucli about a living tradition of a solstitial cromlech 

 in actual use, and a tradition which has apparently sur- 

 vived the cromlech itself. By the bye, the " cave " is 

 never a tomb. Its occupants are always alive, alive not 

 as mere ghosts. Mr. T. H. Thomas has observed that 

 " wraiths of human guardians, or inhabitants, are rare 

 about cromlechs, while they are remarkably numerous 

 about tumuli." While the cromlech in most instances 

 seems to have been converted into a tomb, it is interest- 

 ing to note that its folklore associations must have become 

 fixed before such a conversion, and agree with and eluci- 

 date the astronomical interpretation of the use of the 

 cromlech. John Griffith. 



THE PRAGUE EXHIBITION. 

 ■pOR commercial purposes, the kingdom of Bohemia is 

 ■'■ divided into five districts, each under an officially 

 recognised chamber of commerce. The district of the 

 Prague Chamber of Commerce is the largest and m<jst 

 important of these. It has a population of two millions, 

 a third of the population of the kingdom, and includes 

 inany of the chief centres of industry. The organisation 

 of the Jubilee Exhibition at Prague is due to the enter- 

 prise of the committee of the Prague Chamber of Com- 

 merce. From every point of view the exhibition is a 

 success. It is attracting a daily attendance of from 10,000 

 to 60,000 persons, who come from all parts of the world. 

 The exhibition occupies an enclosure in a beautiful, well- 

 wooded park on the outskirts of the city. In the effective 

 design and picturesque arrangement of its buildings it is 

 a model of what such an exhibition should be. 



.As would be expected, the character of the exhibition 

 is definitely commercial ; but pure art is not entirely 

 neglected, and the orchestral concerts of the Bohemian 

 Philharmonic .Association arc of a high order. No fewer 

 than eighteen imposing pavilions have been specially built, 

 and in addition use is made of a permanent building, 

 erected originallv for the exhibition of 1891. These build- 

 ings are devoted to the Citv of Prague, the chamber of 

 commerce, machinery, the cities of the district, ceramic 

 and glass industries, schools, goldsmiths' work, food, 

 metal work, leather industries, chemical industries, graphic 

 arts, photographv, commerce, and temporary exhibits. 

 Speaking general'lv, the exhibits in all departments show 

 a high standard of design, finish, and workmanship. In 

 view of the fact that many of the industries mentioned 

 have onlv been established in Bohemia in recent years, the 

 high qualitv of the manufactures is certainly remarkable. 



