Hare.
Cæsar, bk. v., ch. xii., states that the Celts “do not regard it lawful to eat the hare, the cock, and the goose; they, however, breed them for amusement and pleasure.” This gives a respectable age to the superstitions respecting these animals.
Mention has already been made of witches turning themselves into hares. This superstition was common in all parts of North Wales. The Rev. Lewis Williams, rector of Prion, near Denbigh, told me the following tales of this belief:—A witch that troubled a farmer in the shape of a hare, was
shot by him. She then transformed herself into her natural form, but ever afterwards retained the marks of the shot in her nose.
Another tale which the same gentleman told me was the following:—A farmer was troubled by a hare that greatly annoyed him, and seemed to make sport of him. He suspected it was no hare, but a witch, so he determined to rid himself of her repeated visits. One day, spying his opportunity, he fired at her. She made a terrible noise, and jumped about in a frightful manner, and then lay as if dead. The man went up to her, but instead of a dead hare, he saw something on the ground as big as a donkey. He dug a hole, and buried the thing, and was never afterwards troubled by hare or witch.
In Llanerfyl parish there is a story of a cottager who had only one cow, but she took to Llanfair market more butter than the biggest farmer in the parish. She was suspected of being a witch, and was watched. At last the watcher saw a hare with a tin-milk-can hanging from its neck, and it was moving among the cows, milking them into her tin-can. The man shot it, and it made for the abode of the suspected witch. When he entered, he found her on the bed bleeding.
It was supposed that there was something uncanny about hares. Rowland Williams, Parish Clerk, Efenechtyd, an aged man, related to me the following tale, and he gave the name of the party concerned, but I took no note of the name, and I have forgotten it:—A man on his way one Sunday to Efenechtyd Church saw a hare on its form. He turned back for his gun, and fired at the hare. The following Sunday he saw again a hare on the very same spot, and it lifted its head and actually stared at him. The man was frightened and went to church; the third Sunday he again saw a hare
on the very same form, and this hare also boldly looked at him. This third appearance thoroughly convinced the man that there was something wrong somewhere, and he afterwards avoided that particular place.
The pretty legend of Melangell, called Monacella, the patroness of hares, is well known. One day the Prince of Powis chased a hare, which took refuge under the robe of the virgin Melangell, who was engaged in deep devotion. The hare boldly faced the hounds, and the dogs retired to a distance howling, and they could not be induced to seize their prey. The Prince gave to God and Melangell a piece of land to be henceforth a sanctuary. The legend of the hare and the saint is represented in carved wood on the gallery in the church of Pennant. Formerly it belonged to the screen. Hares were once called in the parish of Pennant Melangell Wyn Melangell, or St. Monacella’s lambs. Until the last century no one in the parish would kill a hare, and it was believed that if anyone cried out when a hare was being pursued, “God and St. Monacella be with thee,” it would escape.