Welsh Journals

92 OYMRU FU. Febrüary 25th, 1888. The man who had naught was the sun in the western or lunar hemisphere of Enoch's astronomy before the hours of day began on their dial. The robbers in this case were the hours of night when pressing hard upon the beginning of day. The common rhyme.— T)ing dong bell, pussy's in the well, Who put her in? Little Johny Lin, &c. is claìmed as a reference to the philosophical idea symbolised by the well of the great Pyramidof the Ancient Egyptians. (See Heuson's Hebrew and GreeTc Scriptures.) The rhymes I have quoted and assigned to tlie Old Prophet may contain references to customs and symbolical truths of which we have at pre- sent no knowledge. Here is something which is less difficult to explain. It is a matter of hUtory :— Âm ddygyd dafad wlanog Y crogwyd dj-n Coedidog ; Ei gorph a rowd i frain a chwn Ar Graig-ar-Leision enwog. A cher ei grog ddieiriach Llatratwyd tease Llanbradach ; I dd'wedyd pwy a'i dygodd hi Yw gwaith piophwydi gwaelach. So, a man was hanged on Craig-Harri-Leision on the banks of the Taff, for sheep-stealing, and if l understand the allusion rightly, he was gibbeted in the same place. That was a cnmmon thing enough in those days. But someone went to witness the awful scene, and while he was gazing on this thief and his gallows someone stole írom bis pocket the lease of Llanbradach. The Old Propliet scorns the idea of uttering a word of prediction respecting the robber. This is rich. It reminds us of the inimitable scene in Jonathan Wild:—" Whilst the ordinary was busy in his ejaculations Wild, in the midst of a shower of stones which played upon him, applied his hands to the parson's pocket, and emptied it of his cork- screw, which he carried out ot' the world in his hand." But we are not led to suppose that the sheep-stealer stole the lease. I rather fancy the Old Prophet meant to say that the Llanbradath lease had no business to be near anybody's gallows. But I must now bid the Old Prophet farewell. I have sat a long time in his company. I hope the readers, like myself, will rise from his side with the consciousness that the time they sat among these predictions has been pleasantly, if r.ot instructively spent. FEBRUARY 25, 1888. NOTES. CARDIFF NOT A BOROUGH.—Amongst the House of Lords Papers is a certificate dated 15th April, 1640, that William Herbert, 0f Cardiff, Esq , returned to be burgess for that town,is impioperly desciibed as mayor. The said town is " no mayor town," and the indenture has accordingly been amended by the sheriff. (Hist. MSS. Com., 4th Report, p. 24). Edward Owen. London. SOME OLD WELSH FUNERAL CUSTOMS.— Reading Paxton Hood's Chi'istmas Evans—& good book, but inclined to exaggeratton—I found the following :— "The superstition of the Sin-Eater is said to linger even now [about 1881] in the secluded Vaie ot' Cwm-Aman, in Carmarthenshire. The meaning ot' tliis most singular instituUon was that, when a petson died, the friends sent for tlie Sin-Eater of the district, who, on his arrival, placed a plale of salt and bread ön the breast of the deceased per- son; he then utteied an incantation over tlie bread, after which he proceeded to eat it—thereby e.iting the sins of the dead person ; this done he received a fee of two-and-sixpence. . . Having received this, he vanislied ns swiftly as possible, all tlie friends and relatives of the departcd aidin» liis exit with blows and sticks, and other inJica- tions oî their faith in the service he had rendered. A hundred years since, and through the ages beyond that time, we suppose tliis superstition was everywheie prevaient." N0NC0N-QUILL. KING ARTHUR.—1 am now reading Jarvis' translation of Bon Quixote, and have come across tlie following paragraph, which I transcribe for the benefit^of Cymru Fu readers :— " ' Have you not read, sir,'" answered Don Quixote, • the annals and histoiies of Great Britain, wherein are recorded tlie famous exploits nf King Arthur, whom we Castilians always call King Artus ; liow that this King did not die, but tliai by magic art he was turned into a raven, and thatin process of time he sliall reign again and ivcoverhis kingdom and sceptre, for which reason it cannot be proved that from that tiine to tliis any Briton has killed a raven ?'", I have olten heardCornish menrelate this legend, but I always thought that King Arthur, instead of being slain when fighting with Mordred, his nephew, fied to Snowdon or some of the eryri mountains, and dwelt in caves shown them by Merlin, living on game, venison, and so on, and I know well that at Llanddeiniolen there is a chaly- beate spring called " King Atthui's Well," where the waters boil, and scum rises to the surface. This scum was, and is perhaps yet by the people who live there.supposed to be the fat of the venison cooked in King Arthui's kitchen, and the gaseous escape, the smoke írom the chimney. I am really sorry that all theso dear old traditions are getting so ruthlessly knocked on the head. We shall have no romance left in another hundred years. M. E. C. F.