'That's the Snowdon spirits as guards more copper mines than ever
yet's been found. And they're dwarfs. I've seed 'em, and Winnie has.
They're little, fat, short folk, somethin' like the woman in Primrose
Court, only littler. Don't you mind the gal in the court said Winnie
used to call the woman Knocker? Sometimes they knock to show to some
Taffy as has pleased 'em where the veins of copper may be found, and
sometimes they knock to give warnin' of a dangerous precipuss, and
sometimes they knock to give the person as is talkin' warnin' that
he's sayin' or doin' somethin' as may lead to danger. They speaks to
each other too, but in a v'ice so low that you can't tell what words
they're a-speakin', even if you knew their language. My crwth and
song will rouse every spirit on the hills.'
I listened again. This was the mysterious sound that had so
captivated Winnie's imagination as a child.
The extraordinary lustre of Sinfi's eyes indicated to me, who knew
them so well, that every nerve, every fibre in her system, was
trembling under the stress of some intense emotion. I stood and
watched her, wondering as to her condition, and speculating as to
what her crazy project could be.
Then she proceeded to unpack the little basket.
'This is for the love-feast,' said Sinfi.
'You mean betrothal feast,' I said. 'But who are the lovers?'
'You and the livin' mullo that you made me draw for you by my crwth
down by Beddgelert--the livin' mullo o' Winnie Wynne.'
'At last then,' I said to myself, 'I know the form the mania has
taken. It is not her own betrothal, but mine with Winnie's wraith,
that is deluding her crazy brain. How well I remember telling her how
I had promised Winnie as a child to be betrothed by Knockers' Llyn.
Poor Sinfi! Mad or sane, her generosity remains undimmed.'
Before the breakfast cloth could be laid--indeed before the basket
was unpacked--she asked me to look at my watch, and on my doing so
and telling her the time, she jumped up and said, 'It's later than I
thought. We must lay the cloth arterwards.' She then placed me in
that same crevice overlooking the tarn whence Winnie had come to me
on that morning.
Knockers' Llyn, it will perhaps be remembered, is enclosed in a
little gorge opening by a broken, ragged fissure at the back to the
east. Leading to this opening there is on one side a narrow, jagged
shelf which runs half-way round the pool. Sinfi's movements now were
an exact repetition of everything she did on that first morning of
our search for Winnie.
While I stood partially concealed in my crevice, Sinfi took up her
crwth, which was lying on the rock.
'What are you going; to do, Sinfi?' I said.
'I'm just goin' to bring back old times for you. You remember that
mornin' when my crwth and song called Winnie to us at this very llyn?
I'm goin' to play on my crwth and sing the same song now. It's to
draw her livin' mullo, as I did at Bettws and Beddgelert, so that the
dukkeripen of the "Golden Hand" may come true.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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