ad some knowledge, though an exaggerated one, of
a people and system which they supplanted.

FAIRY, OR MYTHIC ANIMALS.

From the Myddvai Legend it would appear that the Fairies possessed sheep,
cattle, goats, and horses, and from other tales we see that they had
dogs, etc. Their stock, therefore, was much like that of ordinary
farmers in our days. But Fairy animals, like their owners, have, in the
course of ages, been endowed with supernatural powers. In this chapter
shall be given a short history of these mythical animals.

_Cwn Annwn_, _or Dogs of the Abyss_.

The words _Cwn Annwn_ are variously translated as Dogs of Hell, Dogs of
Elfinland. In some parts of Wales they are called _Cwn Wybir_, Dogs of
the Sky, and in other places _Cwn Bendith Y Mamau_. We have seen that
"_Bendith y Mamau_" is a name given to the Fairies, and in this way these
dogs become Fairy Dogs.

A description of these Fairy dogs is given in _Y Brython_, vol. iii p.
22. Briefly stated it is as follows:--_Cwn Bendith y Mamau_ were a pack
of small hounds, headed by a large dog. Their howl was something
terrible to listen to, and it foretold death. At their approach all
other dogs ceased barking, and fled before them in terror, taking refuge
in their kennels. The birds of the air stopped singing in the groves
when they heard their cry, and even the owl was silent when they were
near. The laugh of the young, and the talk at the fireside were hushed
when the dreadful howl of these Hell hounds was heard, and pale and
trembling with fear the inmates crowded together for mutual protection.
And what was worse than all, these dogs often foretold a death in some
particular family in the neighbourhood where they appeared, and should a
member of this family be in a public-house, or other place of amusement,
his fright would be so great that he could not move, believing that
already had death seized upon some one in his house.

The Fairy dogs howled more at Cross-roads, and such like public places,
than elsewhere. And woe betide any one who stood in their way, for they
bit them, and were likely even to drag a man away with them, and their
bite was often fatal. They collected together in huge numbers in the
churchyard where the person whose death they announced was to be buried,
and, howling around the place that was to be his grave, disappeared on
that very spot, sinking there into the earth, and afterwards they were
not to be seen.