The following passages are intended to illustrate within short compass the spirit of the Welsh classical prose writers. For the selection the author is indebted to Mr. John Lloyd's admirable anthology _Llyfr Darllen ac Ysgrifennu_; but the translation into English is his own. The attempt to translate Welsh poetry is too difficult to be essayed except by a man of peculiar gifts; and Wales is still waiting for its Edward FitzGerald. The first passage is from the _Mabinogion_, a twelfth-century compilation containing a large number of ancient tales of love, romance, and war. "How long soever they may have been on the way, they came at last to Dyfed, and went in quest of Arberth. They kindled a fire, and began to eat and to hunt, and in that manner spent a month. They assembled their dogs about them, and so remained a year. Now one morning Manawyddan and Pryderi arose to go out hunting, and got their dogs ready to depart from the court. {247} And some of the dogs behaved in this fashion: they walked ahead, and reached a small bush close by; and as soon as they had reached the bush they instantly fled quickly back, their hair on end, and returned to their masters. 'Let us approach the bush,' said Pryderi, 'that we may see what it contains.' They approached the bush, and when they had approached, beheld a white tree boar rising out of it. Then the dogs, encouraged by the men, rushed upon it. And the boar, for its part, left the bush, and went some distance away from the men. When the men were at some distance it would bark at the dogs; but when the men drew near it again fled, and ceased to bark. And they followed the boar until they beheld a great and noble fortress newly built, where before they had never seen either stone or building. And the boar ran swiftly to the fortress, the dogs following it. And when the boar and the dogs had entered the fort they wondered at seeing a fortress where previously they had seen no building. And from the top of the throne they gazed, and listened for the dogs. But long as they waited they heard not a sound of the dogs. 'My lord,' said Pryderi, 'I will go to the fortress to enquire for the dogs.' 'Truly thou art {248} ill-advised,' answered he, 'to go to this fort which thou hast never before seen; and if thou wilt follow my advice go thou wilt not. He who hath laid a charm upon the land must have built this fortress here.' 'Yet truly loth am I to lose my dogs,' answered Pryderi. But in spite of the counsel which he had received from Manawyddan, Pryderi would go to the fortress. When he came to it he saw nothing within, neither man nor animal, neither boar nor dogs, house nor courtyard. But in the centre of the fortress he beheld a well of marble, and by its side a golden vessel standing upon a marble slab, and chains stretching upwards towards the sky, the ends of which he could not see. Great was his delight at the beauty of the gold, and at the fine workmanship of the vessel.