Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
Many years ago in the neighbourhood of Llandilo, Carmarthenshire,
a young farmer was engaged to be married to a daughter of another
farmer; but a few days before the wedding-day the bride and bridegroom
and their families quarrelled, so that the wedding did not take
place. After this, ill-luck attended the young farmer day after day;
many of his cattle died till he became quite a poor man very depressed
in spirit. The young woman who had been engaged to him was a supposed
witch so she was suspected of having caused all his misfortunes. His
friends advised him to consult a wizard, and he did so, as there
was a "dyn hysbys" close by at Llandilo, in those days, so it was
said. The wizard informed the farmer that he and his friends were
right in their suspicions about the young woman, and that his losses
had been brought about by her who had once been engaged to be married
to him. Then the wizard wrote something on a sheet of paper and handed
it to the young farmer directing him to bury this paper down in the
ground underneath the gate-post at the entrance to his farmyard. The
young man went home and buried the paper as directed by the wizard,
and from that time forth nothing went wrong.
PROTECTIVES AGAINST WITCHCRAFT.
Mrs. Mary Thomas, Bengal, near Fishguard, informed me that it was
customary when she was young to counteract the machinations of witches
by killing a mare and take out the heart and open and burn it, having
first filled it up with pins and nails. This compelled the witch to
undo her work. Mrs. Thomas also added that when the heart was burning
on such occasions the smoke would go right in the direction of the
witch's house.
Another old woman near Fishguard, informed the Rev. J. W. Evans,
a son of the Rector of Jordanston, that she remembered an old woman
who was thought to be guilty of witching poor farmers' cattle. At
last she was forced to leave the district by the people who believed
her to be a witch. But soon after she left a cow died, and even her
calves were ill. People took out the cow's heart and burnt it, which
forced the hag to return to heal the calves.
A FISHGUARD WITCH DISCOMFITED.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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