In the following tales Satan’s aid is invoked to bring about a reformation in the observance of the Sabbath day.
Satan frightening a Man for gathering Nuts on Sunday.
The following tale was related to me by the Rev. W. E. Jones, rector of Bylchau, near Denbigh:—
Richard Roberts, Coederaill, Bylchau, when a young man, worked in Flintshire, and instead of going to a place of worship on Sunday he got into the habit of wandering about the fields on that day. One fine autumn Sunday he determined to go a-nutting. He came to a wood where nuts were plentiful, and in a short time he filled his pockets with nuts, but perceiving a bush loaded with nuts, he put out his hand to draw the branch to him, when he observed a hairy hand stretching towards the same branch. As soon as he saw this hand he was terribly frightened, and without turning round to see anything further of it, he took to his heels, and never afterwards did he venture to go a-nutting on Sunday.
Richard Roberts told the tale to Mr. Jones, his Rector,
who tried to convince Roberts that a monkey was in the bush, but he affirmed that Satan had come to him.
Satan taking possession of a man who fished on Sunday.
The following tale is in its main features still current in Cynwyd, a village about two miles from Corwen. The first reference to the story that I am acquainted with appeared in an essay sent in to a local Eisteddfod in 1863. The story is thus related in this essay:—
“About half a mile from Cynwyd is the ‘Mill Waterfall,’ beneath which there is a deep linn or whirlpool, where a man, who was fishing there on Sunday, once found an enormous fish. ‘I will catch him, though the D---l take me,’ said the presumptuous man. The fish went under the fall, the man followed him, and was never afterwards seen.” Such is the tale, but it is, or was believed, that Satan had changed himself into a fish, and by allurement got the man into his power and carried him bodily to the nethermost regions.