edifice at the foot of a mountain, half way up the side of which is a
blasted forest and on the top an enormous crag. A truly wonderful
edifice it is, such as Bos would have imagined had he wanted to paint the
palace of Satan. There it stands: a house of reddish brick with a slate
roof--four horrid black towers behind, two of them belching forth smoke
and flame from their tops--holes like pigeon holes here and there--two
immense white chimneys standing by themselves. What edifice can that be
of such strange mad details? I ought to have put that question to some
one in Tydvil, but did not, though I stood staring at the diabolical
structure with my mouth open. It is of no use putting the question to
myself here.

After strolling about for some two hours with my hands in my pockets, I
returned to my inn, called for a glass of ale, paid my reckoning, flung
my satchel over my shoulder, and departed.

CHAPTER CV

Start for Caerfili--Johanna Colgan--Alms-Giving--The Monstrous
Female--The Evil Prayer--The Next Day--The Aifrionn--Unclean
Spirits--Expectation--Wreaking Vengeance--A decent Alms.

I left Merthyr about twelve o'clock for Caerfili. My course lay along
the valley to the south-east. I passed a large village called Troed y
Rhiw, or the foot of the slope, from its being at the foot of a lofty
elevation, which stands on the left-hand side of the road, and was
speeding onward fast, with the Taf at some distance on my right, when I
saw a strange-looking woman advancing towards me. She seemed between
forty and fifty, was bare-footed and bare-headed, with grizzled hair
hanging in elf locks, and was dressed in rags and tatters. When about
ten yards from me, she pitched forward, gave three or four grotesque
tumbles, heels over head, then standing bolt upright, about a yard before
me, raised her right arm, and shouted in a most discordant voice--"Give
me an alms, for the glory of God!"

I stood still, quite confounded. Presently, however, recovering myself,
I said:--"Really, I don't think it would be for the glory of God to give
you alms."

"Ye don't! Then, Biadh an taifrionn--however, I'll give ye a chance yet.
Am I to get my alms or not?"

"Before I give you alms I must know something about you. Who are you?"

"Who am I? Who should I be but Johanna Colgan, a bedivilled woman from
the county of Limerick?"

"And how did you become bedevilled?"

"Because a woman something like myself said an evil