high time to speak to it, and said—‘What seekest thou, thou foul thing? In the name of the Lord Jesus, go away!’ And by speaking this it vanished, and sank into the ground near the mare’s feet. It appeared to be of a reddish oak colour.”
In a footnote to this tale we are told that formerly near Clwyd yr Helygen, the Lord’s Day was greatly profaned, and “it may be that the Adversary was wroth at the good books and the bringer of them; for he well knew what burden the mare carried.”
The editor of the Cambro-Briton remarks that the superstitions recorded, if authentic, “are not very creditable to the intelligence of our lower classes in Wales; but it is some satisfaction to think that none of them are of recent date.” The latter remark was, I am sorry to say, rather premature.
One other quotation from the same book I will here make.
The Devil appearing to a Dissenting Minister at Denbigh.
“The Rev. Mr. Thomas Baddy, who lived in Denbigh Town, and was a Dissenting Minister in that place, went into his study one night, and while he was reading or writing, he heard some one behind him laughing and grinning at him, which made him stop a little—as well indeed it might. It came again, and then he wrote on a piece of paper, that devil-wounding scripture, 1st John, 3rd,—‘For this was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil,’—and held it backwards from him, when the laughing ceased for ever; for it was a melancholy word to a scoffing Devil, and enough to damp him. It would have damped him yet more, if he had shewn him James, ii. 19—‘The devils believe and tremble.’ But he had enough for one time.”
The following objectless tale, still extant, I believe, in the mountainous parts of Denbighshire, is another instance of the credulity in former days of the people.
Satan seen Lying right across a Road.
The story related to me was as follows:—Near Pentrevoelas lived a man called John Ty’nllidiart, who was in the habit of taking, yearly, cattle from the uplands in his neighbourhood, to be wintered in the Vale of Clwyd. Once, whilst thus engaged, he saw lying across the road right in front of him and the cattle, and completely blocking up the way, Satan with his head on one wall and his tail on the other, moaning horribly. John, as might be expected, hurried homewards, leaving his charge to take their chance with the Evil One, but long before he came to his house, the odour of brimstone had preceded him, and his wife was only too glad to find that it was her husband that came through the door, for she thought that it was someone else that was approaching.