at the infernal charmer with all his
might, saying, "Thou old villain, wast one of the worst of them to hurt
me!" for he had seen him among them acting his part against him; upon
which the old charmer went away muttering some words of malevolence
against him. He lived at the foot of Rhyw Coelbren, and there was a
large hole in the side of the thatch of his house, thro' which the
people believed he went out at night to the fairies, and came in from
them at night; but he pretended it was that he might see the stars at
night. The house is down long ago. He lived by himself, as did the
before-mentioned Charles Hugh, who was very famous in the county for his
cures, and knowledge of things at a distance; which he could not
possibly know without conversing with evil spirits, who walked the earth
to and fro. He is yet said to be an affable, friendly man, and cheerful;
'tis then a pity he should be in alliance with hell, and an agent in the
kingdom of darkness.

I will only give one instance of his knowledge of things at a distance,
and of secret things. Henry John Thomas, of the parish of Aberystruth, a
relation of mine, an honest man, went with the water of a young woman
whom he courted, and was sick, to the said Charles Hugh, who, as soon as
he saw Henry John, pleasantly told him, "Ho! you come with your
sweetheart's water to me." And he told him the very words which they
had spoken together in a secret place, and described the place where
they spoke. It was the general opinion in times past, when these things
were very frequent, that the fairies knew whatever was spoken in the air
without the houses, not so much what was spoken in the houses. I suppose
they chiefly knew what was spoken in the air at night. It was also said
they rather appeared to an uneven number of persons, to one, three,
five, &c.; and oftener to men than to women. Thomas William Edmund, of
Havodavel, an honest, pious man, who often saw them, declared that they
appeared with one bigger than the rest, going before them in the
company.

But they very often appeared in the form of a funeral before the death
of many persons, with a bier and a black cloth, in the midst of a
company about it, on every side, before and after it. The instances of
this were so numerous, that it is plain, and past all dispute, that they
infallibly foreknew the time of men's death: the difficulty is, whence
they had this knowledge. It cannot be supposed that either God Himself,
or