Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales

by Jonathan Ceredig Davies

WITCHES.

The popular belief in witchcraft, is often alluded to by Shakespeare. In times gone by witches held dreaded sway over the affairs of men, perhaps more or less in almost every country; for they were suspected to have entered into a league with Satan, in order to obtain power to do evil, and it was thought that they possessed some uncanny knowledge which was used by them to injure people, especially those whom they hated. It was also believed that they could cause thunder and lightning, could travel on broomsticks through the air, and even transform themselves and others into animals, especially into hares. A good many other imaginary things were also placed to the credit of witches.

In the beginning of last century, and even up to the middle of it, witchcraft was very strongly believed in in many parts of Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Radnorshire, and Montgomeryshire. Even at the present time, there are some who believe that there is in it something more than a mere deception. I have met several who still believe in it. Many well-known characters were proud of being looked upon as witches and conjurors; because they were feared as such and could influence people to be charitable to them. Many an old woman supposed to be a witch, took advantage of the credulity of the people, went about the farm houses to request charity in the way of oat-meal, butter, milk, etc., and could get almost anything, especially from the women, from fear of being witched; for it was believed that these witches could bring misfortune on families, cause sickness, and bring a curse on both men and animals; so that many used to imagine that they were bewitched whenever anything went wrong, even a slight mischance. Unfaithful young men would soon fulfil their promise when they found out that the girl they had slighted was consulting a witch, so that there was some good even in such a foolish superstition as witchcraft.

WITCHES SELLING THEMSELVES TO THE DEVIL.

In order to become witches it was believed in Cardiganshire that some old women sold themselves to the Father of Lies by giving to His Satanic Majesty the bread of the Communion. The following story I heard about three years ago, and my informant was Mr. John Davies, Gogoyan Farm, a, farmer who had heard it from old people:—

Sometime in the beginning of the last century, two old dames attended the morning service at Llanddewi Brefi Church, and partook of the Holy Communion; but instead of eating the sacred bread like other communicants, they kept it in their mouths and went out. Then they walked round the Church outside nine times, and at the ninth time the Evil One came out from the Church wall in the form of a frog, to whom they gave the bread from their mouths, and by doing this wicked thing they were supposed to be selling themselves to Satan and become witches. It was also added that after this they were sometimes seen swimming in the river Teivi in form of hares!

According to Cadrawd, there was an old man in North Pembrokeshire, who used to say that he obtained the power of bewitching in the following manner:—The bread of his first Communion he pocketed. He made pretence at eating it first of all, and then put it in his pocket. When he went out from the service there was a dog meeting him by the gate, to which he gave the bread, thus selling his soul to the Devil. Ever after, he possessed the power to bewitch.

A SERVANT MAID WITCHED IN A CHAPEL.

An old woman of about eighty years of age, named Mrs. Mary Thomas, Bengal, near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, informed me about four years ago, that when she was a young girl, the Gwaun Valley in that county was full of witches, more especially of the descendants of one particularly malicious old woman who in her time had proved a terror to the neighbourhood. On one occasion, a well-known family who practised the black art and were guilty of witchcraft, wanted to become members of the Baptist Chapel at Caersalem, and at last they were admitted; but after being received as members of the chapel, they were ten times worse than before. One witch during Divine Service, even on the very day she became a communicant, witched a young woman who was a fellow servant of my informant at a farm called Gellifor, near Cilgwyn. The witch was sitting behind, and in the very next pew to the young woman she witched, which caused the unfortunate girl to rush out from the chapel, and was seen running about the road almost wild and mad. After she had been wild and ill for some time, and every remedy having failed to recover her, her father at last went to Cwrt-y-Cadno, over forty miles away in Carmarthenshire, to consult Dr. Harries, a well-known wizard and a medical man. The conjurer informed the man that his daughter had been witched in chapel by an old woman who was a witch, and he showed him the whole scene in a magic mirror! In order to unwitch the girl, and to prevent further witchcraft, the wizard gave the father some paper with mystic words written on it, which the young woman was to wear on her breast.