fire and rush
candles, our forefathers recounted the weird stories of olden times, of
devils, fairies, ghosts, witches, apparitions, giants, hidden treasures,
and other cognate subjects, and they delighted in implanting terrors in
the minds of the listeners that no philosophy, nor religion of after
years, could entirely eradicate. These tales made a strong impression
upon the imagination, and possibly upon the conduct of the people, and
hence the necessity laid upon me to make a further selection of the many
tales that I have collected on this subject.

I will begin with a couple of stories extracted from the work of the Rev.
Edmund Jones, by a writer in the _Cambro-Briton_, vol. ii., p. 276.

_Satan appearing to a Man who was fetching a Load of Bibles_, _etc._

"A Mr. Henry Llewelyn, having been sent to Samuel Davies, of Ystrad
Defodoc Parish, in Glamorganshire, to fetch a load of books, viz.,
Bibles, Testaments, Watts's Psalms, Hymns, and Songs for Children,
said--Coming home by night towards Mynyddustwyn, having just passed by
Clwyd yr Helygen ale-house, and being in a dry part of the lane--the
mare, which he rode, stood still, and, like the ass of the ungodly
Balaam, would go no farther, but kept drawing back. Presently he could
see a living thing, round like a bowl, rolling from the right hand to the
left, and crossing the lane, moving sometimes slow and sometimes very
swift--yea, swifter than a bird could fly, though it had neither wings
nor feet,--altering also its size. It appeared three times, less one
time than another, seemed least when near him, and appeared to roll
towards the mare's belly. The mare would then want to go forward, but he
stopped her, to see more carefully what manner of thing it was. He
staid, as he thought, about three minutes, to look at it; but, fearing to
see a worse sight, he thought it high time to speak to it, and
said--'What seekest thou, thou foul thing? In the name of the Lord
Jesus, go away!' And by speaking this it vanished, and sank into the
ground near the mare's feet. It appeared to be of a _reddish oak
colour_."

In a footnote to this tale we are told that formerly near Clwyd yr
Helygen, the Lord's Day was greatly profaned, and "it may be that the
Adversary was wroth at the good books and the bringer of them; for he
well knew what burden the mare carried."

The editor of the _Cambro-Briton_ remarks that the superstitions
recorded, if authentic, "are not ver