he has several
intelligent boys in his school, the Boys' Board School, Denbigh, from
Bodfari, and to them he read the preceding story, but not one of them had
ever heard of it. It is singular that the story should have died so soon
in the neighbourhood that gave it birth.

FAIRY TRICKS WITH MORTALS.

It was formerly believed in Wales that the Fairies, for a little fun,
sportively carried men in mid air from place to place, and, having
conveyed them to a strange neighbourhood, left them to return to their
homes as best they could. Benighted travellers were ever fearful of
encountering a throng of Fairies lest they should by them be seized, and
carried to a strange part of the country.

Allusion is made to this freak of the Fairies in the _Cambro-Briton_,
vol. i., p. 348:--

"And it seems that there was some reason to be apprehensive of
encountering these 'Fair people' in a mist; for, although allowed not to
be maliciously disposed, they had a very inconvenient practice of seizing
an unwary pilgrim, and hurrying him through the air, first giving him the
choice, however, of travelling above wind, mid-wind, or below wind. If
he chose the former, he was borne to an altitude somewhat equal to that
of a balloon; if the latter, he had the full benefit of all the brakes
and briars in his way, his contact with which seldom failed to terminate
in his discomfiture. Experienced travellers, therefore, always kept in
mind the advice of Apollo to Phaeton (In medio tutissimus ibis) and
selected the middle course, which ensured them a pleasant voyage at a
moderate elevation, equally removed from the branches and the clouds."

This description of an aerial voyage of a hapless traveller through Fairy
agency corresponds with the popular faith in every particular, and it
would not have been difficult some sixty, or so, years back, to have
collected many tales in various parts of Wales of persons who had been
subjected to this kind of conveyance.

The first mention that I have been able to find of this Fairy prank is in
a small book of prose poetry called _Gweledigaeth Cwrs y Byd_, or _Y
Bardd Cwsg_, which was written by the Revd. Ellis Wynne (born 1670-1,
died 1734), rector of Llanfair, near Harlech. The "Visions of the
Sleeping Bard" were published in 1703, and in the work appear many
superstitions of the people, some of which shall by and by be mentioned.

In the very commencement of this work, the poet gives a descriptio