John: ‘My dear Williams, it must be that they exist: I remember Cardigan market, in the time of Bonaparte, full of corn in the morning—enough for a month—but in less than half an hour it was all gone. It was impossible to see them: they have as much money as they like.’
Williams: ‘How is it, then, that men did not see them, John?’
John: ‘Oh, they have men like us to do the buying for them; and they can, like those old showmen, do every kind of trick.’
At this kind of display of simplicity on the part of his brother, Thomas used to smile and say: ‘My brother John believes such things as those;’ for he had no belief in them himself. Still it is from his mouth that Mr. Williams published the tales in the Brython, which have been reproduced here, that of ‘Pergrin and the Mermaid,’ and all about the ‘Heir of Ỻech y Derwyđ,’ not to mention the ethical element in the account of Rhys Đwfn’s country and its people, the product probably of his mind. Thomas Evans, or as he was really called, Tommos Ifan, was given rather to grappling with the question of the origin of such beliefs; so one day he called Mr. Williams out, and led him to a spot about four hundred yards from Bol y Fron, where the latter then lived: he pointed to the setting sun, and asked Mr. Williams what he thought of the glorious sunset before them. ‘It is all produced,’ he then observed, ‘by the reflection of the sun’s rays on the mist: one might think,’ he went on to say, ‘that there was there a paradise of a country full of fields, forests, and everything that is desirable.’ And before they had moved away the grand scene had disappeared, when Thomas suggested that the idea of the existence of the country of Rhys Đwfn’s Children arose from the contemplation of that phenomenon. One may say that Thomas Evans was probably far ahead of the Welsh historians who try to extract history from the story of Cantre’r Gwaelod, ‘the Bottom Hundred,’ beneath the waves of Cardigan Bay; but what was seen was probably an instance of the mirage to be mentioned presently. Lastly, besides Mr. Williams’ contributions to the Brython, and a small volume of poetry, entitled Briaỻen glan Ceri, some tales of his were published by Ỻaỻawg in Bygones some years ago, and he had the prize at the Cardigan Eisteđfod of 1866 for the best collection in Welsh of the folklore of Dyfed: his recollection was that it contained in all thirty-six tales of all kinds; but since the manuscript, as the property of the Committee of that Eisteđfod, was sold, he could not now consult it: in fact he is not certain as to who the owner of it may now be, though he has an idea that it is either the Rev. Rees Williams, vicar of Whitchurch, near Solva, Pembrokeshire, or R. D. Jenkins, Esq., of Cilbronnau, Cardiganshire. Whoever the owner may be, he would probably be only too glad to have it published, and I mention this merely to call attention to it. The Eisteđfod is to be commended for encouraging local research, and sometimes even for burying the results in obscurity, but not always.
X.
Before leaving Dyfed I wish to revert to the extract from Mr. Sikes, p. 161 above. He had been helped partly by the article on Gavran, in the Cambrian Biography, by William Owen, better known since as William Owen Pughe and Dr. Pughe, and partly by a note of Southey’s on the following words in his Madoc (London, 1815), i. III:—
Where are the sons of Gavran? where his tribe,
The faithful? following their beloved Chief,
They the Green Islands of the Ocean sought;