fairy tradition resembles that in the near-by countries.
There is an old story of a man who lay down to sleep inside a
fairy ring, a circle of greener grass where the fairies danced by
night. The fairies carried him away and kept him seven years, and
after he had been rescued from them he would neither eat nor speak.

In the sea was the Otherworld, a

"Green fairy island reposing
In sunlight and beauty on ocean's calm breast."

PARRY: _Welsh Melodies._

This was the abode of the Druids, and hence of all supernatural
beings, who were

"Something betwixt heaven and hell,
Something that neither stood nor fell."

SCOTT: _The Monastery._

As in other countries the fairies or pixies are to be met at
crossroads, where happenings, such as funerals, may be witnessed
weeks before they really occur.

At the Hallow Eve supper parsnips and cakes are eaten, and nuts and
apples roasted. A "puzzling jug" holds the ale. In the rim are
three holes that seem merely ornamental. They are connected with
the bottom of the jug by pipes through the handle, and the
unwitting toper is well drenched unless he is clever enough to see
that he must stop up two of the holes, and drink through the third.

Spells are tried in Wales too with apples and nuts. There is
ducking and snapping for apples. Nuts are thrown into the fire,
denoting prosperity if they blaze brightly, misfortune if they pop,
or smoulder and turn black.

"Old Pally threw on a nut. It flickered and then blazed up.
Maggee tossed one into the fire. It smouldered and gave no
light."

MARKS: _All-Hallows Honeymoon._

Fate is revealed by the three luggies and the ball of yarn thrown
out of the window: Scotch and Irish charms. The leek takes the
place of the cabbage in Scotland. Since King Cadwallo decorated his
soldiers with leeks for their valor in a battle by a leek-garden,
they have been held in high esteem in Wales. A girl sticks a knife
among leeks at Hallowe'en, and walks backward out of the garden.
She returns later to find that her future husband has picked up the
knife and thrown it into the center of the leek-bed.

Taking two long-stemmed roses, a girl goes to her room in silence.
She twines the stems together, naming one for her sweetheart and
the other for herself, and thinking this rhyme:

"Twine, twine, and intertwine.
Let his love be wholly mine