ous
resemblance to the Australian _Bunyip_.

The _Uruisg_, often confused with the brownie, haunts lonely places and
waterfalls, and, according to his mood, helps or harms the wayfarer. His
appearance is that of a man with shaggy hair and beard.[631] In Wales
the _afanc_ is a water-monster, though the word first meant "dwarf,"
then "water-dwarf," of whom many kinds existed. They correspond to the
Irish water-dwarfs, the _Luchorpain_, descended with the Fomorians and
Goborchinn from Ham.[632]

In other cases the old water beings have a more pleasing form, like the
syrens and other fairy beings who haunt French rivers, or the mermaids
of Irish estuaries.[633] In Celtic France and Britain lake fairies are
connected with a water-world like that of Elysium tales, the region of
earlier divinities.[634] They unite with mortals, who, as in the
Swan-maiden tales, lose their fairy brides through breaking a tabu. In
many Welsh tales the bride is obtained by throwing bread and cheese on
the waters, when she appears with an old man who has all the strength of
youth. He presents his daughter and a number of fairy animals to the
mortal. When she disappears into the waters after the breaking of the
tabu, the lake is sometimes drained in order to recover her; the father
then appears and threatens to submerge the whole district. Father and
daughters are earlier lake divinities, and in the bread and cheese we
may see a relic of the offerings to these.[635]

Human sacrifice to water-divinities is suggested by the belief that
water-monsters devour human beings, and by the tradition that a river
claims its toll of victims every year. In popular rhymes the annual
character of the sacrifice is hinted at, and Welsh legend tells of a
voice heard once a year from rivers or lakes, crying, "The hour is come,
but the man is not."[636] Here there is the trace of an abandoned custom
of sacrifice and of the traditional idea of the anger of the divinity at
being neglected. Such spirits or gods, like the water-monsters, would be
ever on the watch to capture those who trespassed on their domain. In
some cases the victim is supposed to be claimed on Midsummer eve, the
time of the sacrifice in the pagan period.[637] The spirits of wells had
also a harmful aspect to those, at least, who showed irreverence in
approaching them. This is seen in legends about the danger of looking
rashly into a well or neglecting to cover it, or in the belief that one
must no