Another form of incantation was to walk around the church seven or nine times on certain nights. This I will call the Twca Test or Knife Test. This was a very common form of incantation.
Divination with the Twca or Knife.
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 words:—
“Dyma’r Twca,
Lle mae’r wain?”Here’s the knife,
Where’s the sheath?
And it was thought that the spirit of his or her life partner would appear to the person who held the knife, with the sheath in his or her hand, and that it would be found that the one fitted the other exactly. I have been told by a person who resorted to this test that if the person was to become a wife, her lover would certainly appear to her; if she was to die an old maid then a coffin would meet her. The superstition is mentioned in Bardd Cwsg—
“Fe glywai rai yn son am fyned i droi o gwmpas yr Eglwys i weled eu cariadau, a pheth a wnaeth y catffwl ond ymddangos i’r ynfydion yn ei lun ei hun.” That is in English:—
“He heard some persons talking of going round the church to see their sweethearts, but what did the stupid one (the devil) do, but appear to the foolish things in his own person.”
The Washing Test.
Another well-known and often practised form of divination was for a young woman to take an article to wash, such as a stocking, to the water-spout or pistyll, and with her she carried two pieces of wood wherewith to strike the article which was being washed. She went on her knees and commenced striking the stocking, saying the while:—
“Am gyd-fydio i gyd-ffatio.”
We’ll live together to strike together.