the contest between Elphin and the
bards is an echo of the contest between decaying Paganism and growing
Christianity.

OWEN EDWARDS.

LLANUWCHLLYN,
13_th_ _September_ 1902.

PWYLL PRINCE OF DYVED.

Pwyll, prince of Dyved, was lord of the seven Cantrevs of Dyved; and once
upon a time he was at Narberth his chief palace, and he was minded to go
and hunt, and the part of his dominions in which it pleased him to hunt
was Glyn Cuch. So he set forth from Narberth that night, and went as far
as Llwyn Diarwyd. {11a} And that night he tarried there, and early {11b}
on the morrow he rose and came to Glyn Cuch; when he let loose the dogs
in the wood, and sounded the horn, and began the chace. And as he
followed the dogs, he lost his companions; and whilst he listened to the
hounds, he heard the cry of other hounds, a cry different from his own,
and coming in the opposite direction.

And he beheld a glade in the wood forming a level plain, and as his dogs
came to the edge of the glade, he saw a stag before the other dogs. And
lo, as it reached the middle of the glade, the dogs that followed the
stag overtook it, and brought it down. Then looked he at the colour of
the dogs, staying not to look at the stag, and of all the hounds that he
had seen in the world, he had never seen any that were like unto those.
For their hair was of a brilliant shining white, and their ears were red;
and as the whiteness of their bodies shone, so did the redness of their
ears glisten. And he came towards the dogs, and drove away those that
had brought down the stag, and set his own dogs upon it.

{Picture: p13.jpg}

And as he was setting on his dogs, he saw a horseman coming towards him
upon a large light grey steed, with a hunting horn about his neck, and
clad in garments of grey woollen in the fashion of a hunting garb. And
the horseman drew near and spoke unto him thus. "Chieftain," said he, "I
know who thou art, and I greet thee not." "Peradventure," said Pwyll,
"thou art of such dignity that thou shouldest not do so." "Verily,"
answered he, "it is not my dignity that prevents me." "What is it then,
O chieftain?" asked he. "By Heaven, it is by reason of thine own
ignorance and want of courtesy." "What discourtesy, Chieftain, hast thou
seen in me?" "Greater discourtesy saw I never in man," said he, "than to
drive away the dogs that were killing the stag, and to set upon it thine
own. This was discourteous, and though