no harm would follow. The former lines in English would be:—
One crow I see,
Bad luck to me.
But this foretold evil, brought about by the old black crow, could be counteracted by repeating the following words, (a translation of the second couplet), with a pause between each line, and thus the last line would assume the form of a prayer:—
Old Black Crow!
God, grace bestow;
or the evil could be hurled back upon the Old Black Crow by the repetition of these words:—
Hen frân ddu,
Gras Duw i mi,
Lwc ddrwg i ti.
Freely translated, these lines would be:—
Old Black Crow!
God’s grace to me,
Bad luck to thee.
In the English-speaking parts of Wales, such as along the borders of Montgomeryshire, adjoining Shropshire, I have heard the following doggerel lines substituted for the Welsh:—
Crow, crow, get out of my sight,
Before I kill thee to-morrow night.