Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/387

Rh said to have carried seven and a half persons on his back from Penllech in the North to Penllech in Mona: they were, to wit, Elidyr and his wife Eurgein; Gwyn da Gyueᵭ, or White the good Drink-mate, and Gwyn da Reimat, a designation of doubtful interpretation; Mynach Nawmon, Elidyr's counsellor; Petrylew Vynestyr, his cup-bearer; Aranuagyl, his servant; and Albeinwyn, his cook, who swam with his hands on the horse's crupper: it was he that was reckoned the half-man in the load. It would take too much of our time to discuss all the questions which this curious passage suggests, and I shall only make a remark on one or two of the names. Petrylew Vynestyr means a minister or servant whose name was Petrylew, and this last might be interpreted to mean him of the four lights. Petrylew was therefore the fifth night in the reckoning, that is to say, the last night of the first noinden or half-week, as that would be the one preceded by four intervals of daylight. The cook reckoned as the half-person was the night with which the week began, though the triad in its present form contemplates this as occupying the last place; originally,