Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/176

144 And again:

The object of the raid in the Spoiling of Annwn seems to have been the carrying off of its most splendid treasure, the cauldron set with an edge of pearls, belonging to its chief, and "warmed by the breath of nine maidens." This cauldron, like that in Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise, was a discriminating pot, for it would not boil the food of a coward. The cauldron which Cormac found, called the Cauldron of Truth, would only boil the food put into it during the recital of four absolutely accurate tales; any romancer venturing to draw upon his imagination for his facts arrested the progress of the cooking operations, and the pig inside could by no manner of means be boiled. Cauldrons of Truth, or of Renovation, of Life, or of inexhaustible supplies of food, are an essential element in all tales of the unseen world.

In the Battle of Goðeu, in which the trees and shrubs and flowers form themselves into battle array and take part in the fight, the conflict is said to be against the Gwledig of Britain ; but its real object, as we read else-