Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales

by Jonathan Ceredig Davies

Giraldus Cambrensis, seven hundred years ago, speaking of the Flemings of South Pembrokeshire, in his “Itinerary through Wales,” says:—“It is worthy of remark, that these people, from the inspection of the right shoulder of rams which have been stripped of their flesh, and not roasted, but boiled, can discover future events, or those which have passed and remained long unknown. They know, also, what is transpiring at a distant place, by a wonderful art, and a prophetic kind of spirit. They declare also undoubted symptoms of approaching peace and war, murders and fires, domestic adulteries, the state of the King, his life and death. It happened in our time, that a man of those parts, whose name was William Mangunel, a person of high rank, and excelling all others in the aforesaid art, had a wife big with child by her own husband’s grandson. Well aware of the fact, he ordered a ram from his own flock to be sent to his wife as a present from her neighbour; which was carried to the cook and dressed. At dinner the husband purposely gave the shoulder bone of the ram, properly cleaned, to his wife, who was also well skilled in this art, for her examination; when, having for a short time examined the secret marks, she smiled, and threw the oracle down on the table. Her husband dissembling, earnestly demanded the cause of her smiling and the explanation of the matter; overcome by his entreaties, she answered, ‘The man to whose flock this ram belongs has an adulterous wife, at this time pregnant by the commission of incest with his own grandson.’ The husband, with a sorrowful and dejected countenance, replied, ‘You deliver indeed an oracle supported by too much truth, which I have so much more reason to lament, as the ignominy you have published redounds to my own injury.’ The woman thus detected, was unable to dissemble her confusion, betrayed the inward feelings of her mind by external signs; shame and sorrow urging her by turns, and manifesting themselves, now by blushes, now by paleness, and lastly (according to the custom of women), by tears.

The shoulder of a goat was also once brought to a certain person instead of a ram’s, both being alike when cleaned, who, observing for a short time the lines and marks, exclaimed ‘Unhappy cattle that never was multiplied! Unhappy likewise the owner of the cattle, who never had more than three or four in one flock!’

Many persons, a year and a half before the event, foresaw by the means of the shoulder bones the destruction of their country after the decease of King Henry the First, and selling all their possessions, left their homes, and escaped the impending ruin. In our time, a soothsayer, on the inspection of a bone, discovered not only a theft, and the manner of it, but the thief himself, and all the attendant circumstances; he heard also the striking of a bell, and the sound of a trumpet, as if those things which were past were still performing. It is wonderful, therefore, that these bones, like all unlawful conjurations, should represent by a counterfeit similitude to the eyes and ears, things which are past as well as those which are now going on.”

It is evident that the Celts, as well as the Flemings, knew something of Shoulder-bone Reading, for J. G. Campbell, in his “Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands,” an interesting book presented to me by Countess Amherst, states that this mode of divination was practised, like the augury of the ancients, as a profession or trade; and Pennant, in his “Tours in Scotland,” 150 years ago, says that when Lord Loudon was obliged to retreat before the Rebels to the Isle of Skye, a common soldier, on the very moment the battle of Culloden was decided, proclaimed the victory at a distance, pretending to have discovered the event by looking through the bone; and Sir S. R. Meyrick, in his “History of Cardiganshire,” writing one hundred years ago, says that the remains of this custom still existed in Cardiganshire in his time; “but the principal use made of the bone is in the case of pregnant women. The shoulder bone of a ram being scraped quite clean, a hole is burnt in it, and it is then placed over the door of the apartment in which the pregnant woman is, and she is told that the sex of her offspring will be precisely the same as that of the first person who shall enter the room.”

DREAMS.

A dream was a common way of making known the will of God to the prophets of old. We know from the Bible that important dreams took place in the early ages of the world, and Welsh people, like other nations, believe in the importance of these mysterious night visions, and of their power of forecasting the future, and there are both men and women all over the country who can give instances of dreams which came true. There are, undoubtedly, some persons whose dreams, as a rule, are reliable; whilst the dreams of others are not to be depended on. It is also said that morning twilight dreams are more reliable than other dreams; and it is believed that a dream which is repeated is more to be relied on than that which occurs only once. I have had most striking dreams myself; indeed almost everything that happens to me has been presaged by a dream. About nine years ago I dreamed that I was delivering a lecture to a large audience, and speaking most fluently. On awaking, I had a distinct recollection of every word I had uttered; and I am now very sorry that I did not write down next morning the lecture which I had delivered in my dream. The most remarkable fact is this: Previous to my dream I had no knowledge whatever of the subject on which I lectured, as I had never studied the subject in my life, and as a psychological curiosity I may mention that by means of my dream I had become possessed of knowledge on a particular subject which would have taken me at least a whole month’s hard study to acquire. (I am, of course, used to public speaking).

I have taken notes of few of my latest dreams, and perhaps it would not be out of place to record here a remarkable dream which I dreamt just before this book was going to press:

One night in January, 1910, I dreamed that I was walking near St. Bride’s, the country seat of Lord Kensington, in Pembrokeshire, and I met Lord Kensington himself, who spoke to me thus: “Go into the house, Lady Kensington is home, and I’ll be with you in a few minutes.” Then I went to the door and rang the bell, and the butler took me into the drawing-room. After waiting in the room alone for some time without seeing anyone, all the household servants came to me in a group, dressed in their holiday attire, and informed me that Lady Kensington was not home after all, but that her Ladyship had gone away and had got lost somewhere in going about, and that Lord Kensington was seeking in vain for her everywhere, but failing to find her anywhere. When I awoke from my dream I felt certain that something had happened to one of the Kensingtons. A day or two after my dream I was surprised to read in the papers that a cable-gram was received in London from Calcutta, announcing the death of Dowager Lady Kensington in India. I discovered that her death took place on the very date of my dream, and that a few days previously Lord Kensington had hurriedly left for India, having received news of the Dowager’s serious condition.

In order to add to the interest of the dream, I may state that the very day before I dreamt, I expected every moment to hear of the Dowager’s return to England, as her Ladyship knew one or two interesting “traditions of Bridget of Ireland, known as St. Bride,” which she intended to write down for me in order to record them in this book, to which she was looking forward, as she was greatly interested in Welsh traditions, especially those of Pembrokeshire.