CYNNOS.
“Cynnos” was a practice among the farmers of West Wales, and particularly Cardiganshire, of taking the corn to the kiln to be dried on the night before the grinding; it was customary to sit watching it all night and carefully attend to the drying operations, that is the turning of the corn on the kiln, and the sweeping of it off, when it had been sufficiently dried. The meaning of the word “Cynnos” is unknown, according to some writers it is a form of “cynwys” (contents)—that is the contents of a stack of corn; but according to others it meant “cyn-nos” (the night before) that is the night before the grinding.
It is true that the farmers sent small quantities of corn to the mill at any time of the year; but the big annual “cynnos” was prepared, as a rule, about January or February. This “Cynnos” was a night of great fun, especially for young people, as many of the friends and neighbours of those who were engaged in drying the corn came together in the evening. An old gentleman named Thomas Evans, Gwarallyryn in the parish of Llandyssul, Cardiganshire, who well remembered the old custom, gave me an interesting account of it. This meeting of young men and young women and others at the kiln during the Cynnos to enjoy themselves with games and story telling was known, said he, as “Shimli,” which often continued all night. Sometimes beer known as “Fetchin,” was sent for, and drank around the kiln fire. When the flour was taken home, it was put in chests. Previous to the beginning of the 19th century before kilns attached to the mills became general, many of the farm houses had a kiln for drying the corn at home, but of a very primitive sort. Mr. Price in his interesting little book on Llansawel, in Carmarthenshire, says that the last kiln of the sort for drying the corn at home in that parish was in use at a farm called Cilwenau isaf, worked as late as 1845. He also adds that the shape and the build of this primitive contrivance was something as follows:—
On a gentle-sloping ground a hollow, three yards long, two yards wide, and two deep, was cut, and two planks placed at right angles to each other, their ends resting on the surface outside the hollow. These served to support the sticks which were placed regularly over the kiln until covered. Over the whole clean straw was laid, upon which the corn was placed to be dried. Underneath all this and at the lower end of the kiln, the fire was placed, so that the heat and smoke went under the straw contrivance above. About the month of May, it was once customary in Pembrokeshire for farmers to bring their “Benwent,” that is, two or three loads of grain to the mill to be ground and milled, and young men and young women came together on such occasions, and indulged in a sport known as “Byng,” or dressing up a horse’s head and carrying it about, not unlike “Mari Lwyd.” The Rev. Jenkin Evans, Pontfaen, in the “Pembrokeshire Antiquities,” also adds that it was customary on May Day for women and children to go round the farmhouses with their basins to receive butter, which enabled poor people to enjoy butter on their bread for some weeks.