Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/543

 Collectanea. 505

Breconshire Village Folklore.

Most of the tales and old sayings related below by Miss E, B. Thomas of Llanthomas, Llanigon, were told to her, exactly as given, by Anne Thomas, wife of the gardener of Llanthomas, a native of Llanigon, who died in 1905, aged 81 years.

Llanigon is a parish in the county of Brecon, and extends from the summit of the Black Mountains almost to the banks of the Wye. The range of the Mountains separates it from Monmouth- shire, and Herefordshire forms another boundary. The two nearest towns, Hereford and Brecon, are each about 18 miles away. The land is entirely agricultural, cut up into small farms, which become sheep-runs on the higher slopes of the mountain. The village is a cluster of houses around the church and school. The population has decreased from 596 in 182 1 to 323 in 191 1. As might be expected, education is very backward, owing to the isolated position of the houses and the distance which many of the children have to come to school. The Welsh language has not been spoken for nearly a hundred years, although the inhabitants have all the physical and mental characteristics of the Welsh people, and the names of the places are universally Welsh or of Welsh origin, — such as "Wenallt" (white height), "Tymawr" (great house), "The Celyn " (holly), " Penlan " (the high place), " Maesygarn " (meadow of the cairn), etc. It has been claimed that Llanigon is derived from " Llan " (a church) and " Eigen," daughter of Caractacus, who is said to have lived at the close of the first century at Trefynys, (now Llanthomas). There is a well at the end of Mr. Connop's workshop, not far from the church, called still St. Eigen's well.

Superstition dies very slowly in the place. The laws now prevent tampering with graves, so that the several forms known of " laying a ghost" are no longer practised. Miss George told me that this could be done by turning the corpse in its coffin with the face downwards. There seemed a general belief that the ghost of Joseph Arndell troubled the parish. His tombstone is in the churchyard, and inscribed ''Joseph Arndell, died Aug. 27, 1768, aged 60 years." During his life he had the reputation of being an unbeliever, and spent his Sundays in irrigating his property of

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