:2()4< JS'otes on Welsh Leyend. By Miss Russell. 



breaks ; on which she almost instantly disappears ; and in the Welsh 

 stories, the cattle she had brought as her fortune disappear also. Meln- 

 Bina was not to be looked upon on Friday, on which day she was a serpent ; 

 one of these Welsh ladies was not to be touched with iron (does this belong- 

 to a period of bone sewing-needles ?) ; another gave the comprehensible warn- 

 ing that she would disappear if her husband struck her three times without 

 cause, and he broke the spell by flicking her with his glove when in a hurry. 



In the cheese story the condition is the same as to the three blows. But 

 the fairy is neither captured, as in some of the stories, nor courted in 

 any way that would be considered generally appropriate. Nothing can be 

 more picturesque than the account of the young Welshman, a prosperous 

 farmer, who watches for the fairy of the lake, who is said to become visible 

 on certain nights of the year, in her golden boat. He succeeds in seeing 

 her at midnight on the last night of the year, by moonlight, and is smitten 

 at once by her wonderful beauty ; she is described as pale, with long 

 yellow hair ; he watches her rowing back and forward till daybreak ; then, 

 as she vanishes, he calls to her to stay. She answers by a faint cry ; but 

 he cannot succeed in seeing her again, and watches every night for 

 months in vain ; till at last he thinks of consulting a wise man, who advises 

 him to try the effect of bread and cheese. 



He begins on Midsummer Eve, by throwing a loaf and a cheese into the 

 lake ; and apparently repeats this every night till the next New Year's 

 Eve, when he dresses himself in his best clothes, and takes seven loaves 

 and his largest cheese. When these are thrown into the water, the fairy 

 not only appears, but comes ashore of her own accord. She agrees to 

 marry him, though, with the understanding that if he strikes her three 

 t imes she will disappear ; and her magic cattle follow her to the farm. 

 The sequel suggests the possible inconveniency of such an alliance ; 

 though it is not distinctly stated whetherit was from her superior point of 

 view, that she professed such noisy scorn of what she considered the 

 shams of human society, that on three different occasions when they went 

 to gatherings of the neighbours, her husband gave her a push to make her 

 hold her tongue. The third time she said, apparently with great regret, 

 that she must go ; and he never saw her, or the cattle again. 



In the case of the Cheese Well, one can hardly imagine the cheese was 

 actually put into the water, the whole thing is so small ; there is no well 

 whatever in the English sense ; though the mythology may be Cambrian, 

 the word is exactly the Teutonic " guelle ". spring. The Cheese Well in 

 fact is a strong but not large spring, which rises close to the Minchmoor 

 road, on the south side, close to the top of the long ascent from Traquair, 

 where there is no made road, or any distinct track ; the causeway begins 

 on the top of the hill ; it is said to be Roman, and one does not see what 

 else it is likely to be. About a quarter of a inile to the east of the Cheese 

 Well, a rather similar spring has appeared, in modern times ; but as it has 

 broken up through the road, the two cannot well be mistaken, even if the 

 Cheese Well was not marked by the litter round it, as of pic-nics and egg- 

 shells ; for the rite goes on, in an imperfect way, and it will always be a 

 halting-place at the top of the hill. 



