Welsh Journals

virtue is in the thorn bush. When we remember that the peasant, in Norman times, generally carried a sprig of white thorn in his cap for luck, because of its association with the crown of thorns, we have traced this strange per- formance to its likely origin. Another possible explana- tion is that a witch, which causes the trouble, lives in the thorn bush, from which she can be exorcised only by the presence of an infected sod. The two local place-names 11 Llwyn sprite and Llwyn y wrach perhaps, support the second suggestion. An old stone, much coveted by charmers, now in the possession of Mr. Thomas, of Welfield, has a strange his- tory. It was God's gift to man, when mad dogs were numerous, to prevent the evil results of a bite. Tradition says that it dropped from heaven on a clear summer's day. Sixty, fifty, and even forty years ago, people who had been bitten by vicious and suspicious dogs came from all parts of mid-Wales and Herefordshire to Welfield to take the scrapings of this wonderful stone in a glass of milk. It was deemed an infallible preventative. Those pilgrimages have now ceased, not because the people's faith in the healing qualities of that stone has abated one jot; but because the restrictions of the Board of Agriculture have practically exterminated mad dogs. The dragon or the worm (Norse, ormr) finds a prominent place in the folk-lore of the county. Ages ago, one of these vicious and powerful brutes slept every night on the tower of Llandilo Graban Church, after making dreadful devastations during the day. Many brave men tried to destroy the monster but their attempts were always futile, and sometimes even fatal to themselves At last, the parishioners offered a rich reward to anyone who would capture and slay this destructive brute which measured three yards and one inch long. After many vain attempts