And the king accepted this from him.
[THE ORIGIN OF THE OWL.]
[ENTITLED IN THE ORIGINAL, "MATH THE SON OF MATHONWY.">[
Once upon a time Gwydion found a yellow-haired child in his chamber, which had been placed there by magic art. And Gwydion straightway flung a velvet scarf over the child and hid it. Now the place where he hid it was the bottom of a chest at the foot of his bed.
"Verily," said Math the son of Mathonwy, concerning the fine yellow-haired boy, "I will cause this one to be baptized; and Dylan is the name I will give him."
So they had the boy baptized, and as they baptized him he plunged into the sea. And immediately when he was in the sea, he took its nature, and swam as well as the best fish that was therein. And for that reason was he called Dylan, the son of the Wave. Beneath him no wave ever broke. And the blow whereby he came to his death was struck by his uncle Govannion. The third fatal blow was it called.
As Gwydion lay one morning on his bed awake, he heard a cry in the chest at his feet; and though it was not loud, it was such that he could hear it. Then he arose in haste, and opened the chest; and when he opened it, he beheld an infant-boy stretching out his arms from the folds of the scarf, and casting it aside. And he took up the boy in his arms, and carried him to a place where he knew there was a woman that could nurse him. And he agreed with the woman that she should take charge of the boy. And that year he was nursed.
And at the end of the year he seemed by his size as though he were two years old. And the second year he was a big child, and able to go to the court by himself. And when he came to the court, Gwydion noticed him, and the boy became familiar with him, and loved him better than any one else. Then was the boy reared at the court until he was four years old, when he was as big as though he had been eight.
And one day Gwydion walked forth, and the boy followed him; and he went to the Castle of Arianrod, having the boy with him. And when he came into the court, Arianrod arose to meet him, and greeted him, and bade him welcome.