British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and TraditionsSikes, Wirt
History
British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions
Sikes, Wirt
Folklore -- Wales; Goblins -- Wales; Mythology, Celtic -- Wales; Mythology, Welsh; Wales -- Social life and customs
A spirit which haunted the house of William Thomas, in Tridoll Valley,
Glamorganshire, used to hit the maid-servant on the side of her head,
as it were with a cushion, when she was coming down the stairs. 'One
time she brought a marment of water into the house,' and the water was
thrown over her person. Another time there came so great an abundance
of pilchards in the sea, that the people could scarcely devour them,
and the maid asked leave of her master to go and fetch some of them.
'No,' said he, being a very just man, 'the pilchards are sent for the
use of poor people; we do not want them.' But the maid was very fond
of pilchards, and so she went without leave, and brought some to the
house. After giving a turn about the house, she went to look for her
fish, and found them thrown out upon the dunghill. 'Well,' said her
master, 'did not I tell thee not to go?' Once a pot of meat was on
the fire, and when they took it off they found both meat and broth
gone, none knew where, and the pot as empty as their own bellies.
Sometimes the clasped Bible would be thrown whisking by their heads;
and 'so it would do with the gads of the steller, and once it struck
one of them against the screen where a person then sat, and the mark
of it still to be seen in the hard board.' Once the china dishes were
thrown off the shelf, and not one broke. 'It was a great business with
this light-hating spirit to throw an old lanthorn about the house
without breaking it.' When the maid went a-milking to the barn, the
barn-door would be suddenly shut upon her as she was milking the cow;
then when she rose up the spirit began to turn the door backwards and
forwards with an idle ringing noise. Once it tried to make trouble
between the mistress and the maid by strewing charcoal ashes on the
milk. When William Evans, a neighbour, went there to pray, as he knelt
by the bedside, it struck the bed such a bang with a trencher that it
made a report like a gun, so that both the bed and the room shook
perceptibly. On another occasion, it made a sudden loud noise, which
made the master think his house was falling down, and he was
prodigiously terrified; it never after that made so loud a noise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account