how time passes.

5. _A Three Hours Fairy Dance seeming as a Few Minutes_.

The Rev. R. Jones's mother, when a young unmarried woman, started one
evening from a house called Tyddyn Heilyn, Penrhyndeudraeth, to her home,
Penrhyn isaf, accompanied by their servant man, David Williams, called on
account of his great strength and stature, Dafydd Fawr, Big David. David
was carrying home on his back a flitch of bacon. The night was dark, but
calm. Williams walked somewhat in the rear of his young mistress, and
she, thinking he was following, went straight home. But three hours
passed before David appeared with the pork on his back.

He was interrogated as to the cause of his delay, and in answer said he
had only been about three minutes after his young mistress. He was told
that she had arrived three hours before him, but this David would not
believe. At length, however, he was convinced that he was wrong in his
time, and then he proceeded to account for his lagging behind as
follows:--

He observed, he said, a brilliant meteor passing through the air, which
was followed by a ring or hoop of fire, and within this hoop stood a man
and woman of small size, handsomely dressed. With one arm they embraced
each other, and with the other they took hold of the hoop, and their feet
rested on the concave surface of the ring. When the hoop reached the
earth these two beings jumped out of it, and immediately proceeded to
make a circle on the ground. As soon as this was done, a large number of
men and women instantly appeared, and to the sweetest music that ear ever
heard commenced dancing round and round the circle. The sight was so
entrancing that the man stayed, as he thought, a few minutes to witness
the scene. The ground all around was lit up by a kind of subdued light,
and he observed every movement of these beings. By and by the meteor
which had at first attracted his attention appeared again, and then the
fiery hoop came to view, and when it reached the spot where the dancing
was, the lady and gentleman who had arrived in it jumped into the hoop,
and disappeared in the same manner in which they had reached the place.
Immediately after their departure the Fairies vanished from sight, and
the man found himself alone and in darkness, and then he proceeded
homewards. In this way he accounted for his delay on the way.

In Mr. Sikes's _British Goblins_, pp. 79-81, is a graphic account of a
mad dance which Tudur ap