216 MY LIFE 



innovations. He is frequently unable to read or write, but can some- 

 times con over his Welsh Bible, and make out an unintelligible bill ; and 

 if in addition he can read a little English and knows the four first rules 

 of arithmetic, he may be considered a well-educated man. The women 

 almost invariably neither read nor write, and can scarcely ever under- 

 stand two words of English. They fully make up for this, however, by 

 a double share of volubility and animation in the use of their own lan- 

 guage, and their shrill clear voices are indications of good health, and 

 are not unpleasant. The choleric disposition usually ascribed to the 

 Welsh is, I think, not quite correct. Words do not often lead to blows, 

 as they take a joke or a satirical expression very good humouredly, and 

 return it very readily. Fighting is much more rarely resorted to than in 

 England, and it is, perhaps, the energy and excitement with which they 

 discuss even common topics of conversation that has given rise to the 

 misconception. They have a ready and peculiar wit, something akin to 

 the Irish, but more frequently expressed so distantly and allegorically 

 as to be unintelligible to one who does not understand their modes of 

 thought and peculiarities of idioms, which latter no less than the former 

 they retain even when they converse in English. They are very proud 

 of their language, on the beauty and expression of which they will 

 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 pre- 

 cede them ; m and b, for instance, are often changed into f (pronounced 

 v), as melin or felin, a mill; mel or fel, honey. The gender is often 

 changed in the same manner, as bach (masculine), fach (feminine), 

 small; mawr (m.), fawr (f.), great. The mode of making the plural 

 is to an Englishman rather singular, a syllable being taken off instead 

 of being added, as is usually the case with us, as plentyn, a child ; plant, 

 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 spe- 

 cialty, 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 



