Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales

by Jonathan Ceredig Davies

SHEEP KILLED BY AN OLD WITCH.

Mrs. Edwards, an old woman who lives at Yspytty Ystwyth, in Cardiganshire, informed me that she knew an old witch who lived in the neighbourhood of Ystrad Meurig. One day, this hag saw two shepherds passing her cottage on their way to the mountain with some sheep. The old woman espied one particular lamb and begged one of the shepherds to give the animal to her as a present, but the young man refused her request. “Very well,” said the witch, “thou wilt soon loose both the lamb and its mother, and thou shalt repent for thus refusing me.” Before reaching the end of the journey to the mountain, the sheep and her lamb died, and it was all put down to the hag’s account, for it was believed that she had witched them to death in revenge.