Page:My people stories of the peasantry of West Wales.djvu/121

 of Eden. This is the beginning of the world. Goodness me, here was put breath into clay; here God gave Adam the tongue that I am speaking in now.”

The song finished, the tempter said:

“Woe my poor flesh! I am tired.” “Of course, of course,” said Ianto; and he raised his long, thin legs from the ground. “Do you come with me, dear stranger, and tarry a while in my house. But first put on your old shoes, for it is not seemly to go about in bare feet on the eve of the Sabbath.”

Ianto took the tramp home, and he bade his daughter Dinah warm up a bowl of broth and lay it before his guest; and while the tempter ate of the broth and bread, Ianto, preparing for the Sabbath when none shall work, went to the stream and cleansed his hands and face with small gravel; and when he was returned to the house he sheared the ends of his beard.