This was a kind of fungus or mushroom. The word is given in Dr. Owen Pughe's dictionary under the head Ellyll.
Yr oedd gwraig Garth Uchaf, yn Llanuwchllyn, un tro wedi myned allan i gweirio gwair, a gadael ei baban yn y cryd; ond fel bu'r anffawd, ni roddodd yr efail yn groes ar wyneb y cry...
Dr. Edward Williams, under the year 1757, writes as follows:-- I am now going to relate a circumstance in this young period of my life which probably will excite an alternate smile...
When the people of the Gors Goch one evening had gone to bed, lo! they heard a great row and disturbance around the house. One could not at all comprehend what it might be that mad...
The proceeding was as follows:--The party who wished to know whom he, or she, was to marry, went to the church secretly and walked around it seven times, repeating the while these...
In ages long gone by, my informant knew not how long ago, a wonderful cow had her pasture land on the hill close to the farm, called Cefn Bannog, after the mountain ridge so named....
Mr. Hugh Lloyd, Llanfihangel-Glyn-Myfyr, who received the story from Dr. Davies, the gentleman who figures in the tale, informed me of the following curious incidents:-- Doctor Dav...
The process is as follows:--A couple of young women meet, and stick pins in a candle, and if the divination acts properly the last pin drops out of the candle at 12 o'clock at nigh...
The tale rendered into English is as follows:--There was once a happy family living in a place called Gors Goch. One night, as usual, they went to bed, but they could not sleep a s...
Stone hammers of small size have been ascribed to the Fairies, and an intelligent Welsh miner once told the writer that he had himself seen, in a very ancient diminutive mine level...
The following tale was told me by Thomas Jones, a small mountain farmer, who occupies land near Pont Petrual, a place between Ruthin and Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr. Jones informed me...
It was formerly believed in Wales that the Fairies, for a little fun, sportively carried men in mid air from place to place, and, having conveyed them to a strange neighbourhood, l...
This event also was thought to be a very bad omen, if not a sign of death.
Should any person bring heather into a house, he brought death to one or other of the family by so doing.
It was once thought that kind Fairies took compassion on good folk, who were unable to accomplish in due time their undertakings, and finished in the night these works for them; an...
The fair lady takes as many pips as she has lovers, and these she places on the point of a knife, which she inserts between the bars of the fire grate. Each pip represents a lover,...
A man was in love with two young girls, and they were both in love with him, and they knew that he flirted with them both. It is but natural to suppose that these young ladies did...
The riches of the Fairies are often mentioned by the old people, and the source of their wealth is variously given. An old man, who has already been mentioned, John Williams, born...
Should a hen lay two eggs in the same day, it was considered a sign of death. I have been told that a hen belonging to a person who lived in Henllan, near Denbigh, laid an egg earl...
A dog howling on the doorsteps or at the entrance of a house also foretold death. The noise was that peculiar howling noise which dogs sometimes make. It was in Welsh called yn udo...
For the following story I am indebted to my friend, Mr Hamer, who records it in his Parochial account of Llanidloes, published in the Montgomeryshire Collections, vol. x., pp. 252-...
The small spindle whorls which belong to the stone age, and which have been discovered in the circular huts, called Cyttiau'r Gwyddelod, which are the earliest remains of human abo...
I cannot do better than quote Pennant on this matter. His words are:-- Petroleum, rock oil, or what the Welsh call it, Ymenin tylwyth teg, or Fairies' butter, has been found in the...
The Rev. R. Jones's mother, when a young unmarried woman, started one evening from a house called Tyddyn Heilyn, Penrhyndeudraeth, to her home, Penrhyn isaf, accompanied by their s...
One Edward Jones, or 'Ned the Jockey,' as he was familiarly called, resided, within the memory of the writer, in one of the roadside cottages a short distance from Llanidloes, on t...
Many small stone utensils found in the ground, the use, or the origin, of which was unknown to the finders, were formerly attributed to the Fairies. Thus, flint arrow-heads were ca...
The following story I received from the lips of David Roberts, whom I have previously mentioned, a native of Denbighshire, and he related the tale as one commonly known. As might b...
Mr. J. Roberts, Plas Einion, Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, told me the following:--When he was a young man, he, his sister, and the servant man, formed a company to find out by divinatio...
In an article relating to spiritualism in the February number of the Fortnightly Review, a story was told which is here shortened. The anecdote is given on the authority of a Welsh...
Two young women took a ball of yarn and doubled the threads, and then tied tiny pieces of wood along these threads so as to form a miniature ladder. Then they went upstairs togethe...