Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/200

192 her that while playing on his flute at the Llorfa he was surrounded at a good distance off by little beings like men, who closed nearer and nearer to him until they became a very small circle. They sang and danced, and so affected him that he quite lost himself. They offered him something to eat,—small, beautiful cakes, of which he partook; and he had never enjoyed himself so well in his life."

Mr. Walters states that John Williams declared that in his youth he knew Dafydd well; and it was useless to try to persuade Williams that the adventure above related was not a fact, for he would always reply that Dafydd was a very religious man, and he did not believe he would say what was not true.

There is little calling for remark in this version of a well-known story. The incident of the cakes, however, may be noticed. In general, when the hero of a folk-tale gets into the power of supernatural beings in the under-world he must be careful not to partake of any food which is offered him if he desire to return. But Dafydd, though he had fallen into the hands of the Tylwyth Teg, and become for the time invisible to human eyes, had not reached the underworld, their dwelling-place. This may account for his escape; and careful search should be made among Welsh and other Celtic legends for parallels. There is a Chinese story, given by Dr. Dennys in his Folk-Lore of China, page 98, which is told of Wang Chih, one of the patriarchs of the Taoist sect:—"Wandering one day in the mountains of Kii Chow to gather firewood he entered a grotto in which some aged men were seated intent upon a game of chess. He laid down his axe and looked on at their game, in the course of which one of the old men handed him a thing in shape and size like a date-stone, telling him to put it into his mouth. No sooner had he tasted it than he became oblivious of hunger and thirst. After some time had elapsed, one of the players said: 'It is long since you came here you should go home now!' whereupon Wang Chih, proceeding to pick up his axe, found that its handle had mouldered into dust. On repairing to his home he found that centuries had passed since the time when he left it for the mountains, and that no vestige of his kinsfolk remained." It is obvious here that the effect of time on Wang Chih had been counteracted by the sweetmeat, since the axe