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Madoc's discovery of America. Since, in navigating so widely extensive a traject as that between Britain and Ben-Gal, (still a Welsh composite word,) a vessel may very easily be supposed to have deviated from her course, and thus have accidentally discovered the new continent.

In further corroboration of this tradition, we know that, in the very earliest periods of history, the ancient Britons were celebrated for their wonderful perfection in the art of navigation; for Avienus, as cited in Camden's Cassiteridos, informs us, that,

"Turbidum latè fretum

Et belluosi gurgitem oceani secant—
Rei ad miraculum."

"Far and wide they plough the rough sea,
And the gulf of the raging ocean--

In a most wonderful manner."

I shall now proceed to consider some of those legends and traditions which have a reference to the arts and sciences.

Whoever has perambulated the mountains of the Principality must have noticed, with astonishment, very evident traces of the plough on their highest summits, where, at present, it would be absolute madness to make any attempt to introduce tillage. The frequent occurrence of these ancient furrows cannot, I think, be accounted for, but by the conclusion that our ancestors must have been acquainted with some peculiar method of mountain aratory husbandry which is now lost to us, but which enabled them to raise crops of corn from such soils and in such localities, as would now baffle all the boasted superiority of our modern agricultural science to procure even a return of the seed.

It is clear we cannot solve this difficulty by resorting to the alleged hypothesis of a change of climate. For the subsequent clearing away of the immense woods and forests with which the Principality was formerly covered, must necessarily have tended rather to soften the climate than to increase its rigour, as we find to have been invariably the case in America, and in all other newly-cleared countries.

The ravages of the Lowlands, by successive savage hordes of invaders, in driving the ancient Britons to their fastnesses in the mountains, necessarily put their ingenuity to the task to discover means of procuring subsistence within their reach by cultivating these elevated spots.

On this subject the Legends of the Triads inform us, that, though Hu Gadarn first instructed the Cymry in the art of cultivating the earth, yet the knowledge communicated by him went no further than the use of the spade and the mattock; but

that it was Elldud, the knight, a holy man of Côr Dewdws, who improved the manner of tilling the ground, and taught them to raise wheat-corn by the plough in places where it grew not before. In all probability, therefore, it is to this ancient chivalric agriculturist that Wales was indebted for the now lost art of growing corn on the mountain tops.

A noble attempt is now making in Brecknockshire to bring these mountainous spots again into a state of artificial culture, by planting them with a hardier species of the tea plant. If these efforts shall succeed in liberating Great Britain from the tribute she pays to the celestial empire, from the punic faith of the Hong merchants, and the insolence of the mandarins, our future bards will address this spirited planter* with the well known line,

"Te veniente die te decedente canemus."

This novel species of arboriculture has already been recorded in the pages of the Cambrian Quarterly+ peculiarly appropriated to the history and interests of the Principality, and which is interspersed with notices of our Welsh legends and traditions.

It has been acknowledged by ancient authors that the druids professed astronomy. There are some reasons for supposing them to have been acquainted with the science of optics, and that the use of the telescope was not unknown to them. An ancient historian thus speaks of Britain: "It is also said, that in this island the moon appears very near the earth, and that certain eminences of a terrestrial nature are descried in that planet," &c. And the triads I have already cited, mention the the Drych ab cibddar, or cilidawr, the speculum or "lookingglass of the son of the pervading glance," or of " the searcher of mystery," as one of the secrets of the island of Britain.

The same exhaustless stores of legendary information further acquaint us that Stone-henge, on Salisbury Plain, that stupendous monument of druidical architecture, was called the Gwaith Emrys, or the work of Emrys, or of the revolution, and was considered one of the three mighty labours-one of the three wonderful works of Britain. This is also mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and celebrated in the Latin poem of Alexander Mecham, "De Divinæ Sapientiæ laudibus." In our earliest legends, the massacre on Salisbury Plain is called “Brad y Cyllyll hirion," the treachery of the long knives.

* Mr. Samuel Rootsey, a celebrated chemist of Bristol. + Vol. 3, p. 522.

See Welsh Archæology, vol. 2; and Davies's Celtic Researches, p. 192. This legendary tale, therefore, enables us to vindicate for Wales the honour of the first discovery of the telescope, long before the period usually ascribed to this invention.

NO. XVI.

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In the mechanical arts an ancient legend informs us, that Coll, the son of Cyllin, the son of Caradawc, the son of Bran, was the first who taught the Cymry the use of a mill with a wheel. It should seem that, afterwards, the Welsh arrived at a degree of perfection in works of machinery, which has never been surpassed, even in modern times; for we find it asserted in Dr. Davies's Latin-Welsh Dictionary, printed in the reign of Charles the First, that a mill was found, in the year 1574, buried in the ground at a place called Bryn y Castell, in Eidernyon, which appeared to have been worked by some species of extraordinary machinery, and turned swiftly round when once set going, without the impulsion of wind or water, or the labour of any animal. A full description of this piece of machinery is given in this dictionary, under the word Breuan, or molendinum.

It is here, also, that I should introduce some notice of those Cambro-Britannic traditions and legends which make allusion to the invention of letters, of arithmetic, and the art of divination by trees. But as this part of my subject has been so very ably discussed by the late Mr. Edward Davies in his "Celtic Researches," and by Mr. Owen, in his essay on the " Celtic Roots," I feel myself dispensed from entering so fully into these investigations as I should otherwise have done.

The letters of all the earliest alphabets, more particularly the Welsh, present a strong resemblance to the springs of certain trees, which appear to have been the first symbols for communicating ideas, somewhat in the style of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The druidical alphabet was called "Coelbren y Beirdd," the billet of signs of the bards, or the bardic alphabet; and these signs or letters were not written on paper or on parchment, as in modern usage, but cut out on a square piece of wood; each letter resembled the sprig of some particular tree. The yew, for instance, as well from its longevity as from being an evergreen, served as the type of existence, and was represented by the letter I. Thus yw, the Welsh for the yew tree, signifies is or are in that language; and by converting the w, as usual, into v, is radix of the Latin vivo, &c.

In arithmetic, the Welsh word Rhygn, a notch or incision, is a legendary memento, which reminds us of the simple manner in which our ancestors kept their accounts, by notches on a stick, which was called the Rhygnbren, the scoring-stick or tally. And it is from Rhygn we have derived the modern English word

* We hope, in a future number, to present our readers with some remarks respecting the extraordinary improvements recently made by a gentleman, residing near London, in water-mills; improvements incalculably valuable to a country so interspersed with streams as Wales: we are confident that, in many situations, they will entirely supersede the expensive application of steam. EDRS.

reckon, still pronounced rickon by the common people, since formerly all reckonings were kept by notching on a stick.

The Coelbren, again, which I have already mentioned, is composed of Coel, an omen, and pren, a stick; and was the divining stick on which future events were predicted, and therefore called the Bardic Alphabet.

Taliesin makes the following mystic allusions in one of his legends to this art of divination by trees, which he declares himself to have possessed:

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In Owen's Welsh Dictionary we learn that the Bedw, the birch, was an emblem of compliance and complacency. If a young woman accepted the addresses of a lover, she gave him a sprig of birch; but if she rejected him, she presented him with a branch of Collen, or hazel, probably because of the double meaning in Welsh of the word Collen, which signifies a loss, as well as the hazel tree.

In England, the willow, for some reason or other, and very possibly from some allusion to the pensile species of this tree, called the weeping willow, has been substituted for the hazel; and discarded or deserted lovers are to this day said to wear the willow; but the phrase can only be explained by a reference to the Welsh traditions.

Of the games and amusements of our ancestors, which are still in use among us, both tradition and etymology assure us that backgammon is a Welsh invention; it is a compound word formed of"bach," little, and "cammawn," or 66 cammon, a battle, quasi, the little battle." Præliolum," says Wotton, "hujusce enim lusus nomen est purum Wallicum; à Wallis igitur ad nos hunc ludum provenisse esse verisimillimum." This derivation is even allowed by Johnson, who is generally over scrupulous in his admission of Welsh etymologies.

It appears that a gaming-table, somewhat like a chess-board, or pair of closing tables, called in Welsh a tawlfwrdd, was a fashionable piece of furniture amongst the domestic utensils of persons of quality in Wales. It is frequently mentioned in the laws of Howel Dda, but for what particular game this table was designed, does not appear from any legend, account, or tradition that has reached us, although the expression chware tawlvwrdd, to play at "tawlbwrdd," very frequently occurs.

The Welsh Dante, or "Y Bardd Cwsg," the visionary bard, has worked up most of our legendary tales with admirable effect into his extraordinary poem, which certainly very much resembles the Divina Comadia, and of which the late Mr. Walters, in his Dissertation on the Welsh Language, has very justly observed, that if, as it has frequently been said, it be worth while to acquire the Spanish language, merely for the pleasure of reading Don Quixote in the original, it would certainly repay any one's pains to learn Welsh, were it only for the delight of reading Y Bardd Cwsg in that language.

In Dr. Percy's" Relics of Old English Poetry," there is preserved the ancient ballad of the Enchanted Mantle, taken from a Welsh legend, which acquaints us that the wife of Cradoc Fraich Fras, "Tegau Eurfron," possessed three valuable ornaments, of which she alone was worthy,-her knife, her golden goblet, and her mantle. The last, Mr. Jones in his History of Brecknockshire has observed, was certainly with great propriety esteemed one of the thirteen curiosities of Britain. It would not fit, nor could it be worn by, any but a lady of spotless virtue! This Cradoc was one of those three beloved chiefs of Arthur's court, who never could bear a superior in their families, and of whom Arthur sung the following stanza:

"Yw fy nrhi Cadfarchawg

Mael a Lludd Llygyrawg
A cholofn Cymru Cradawc."

Translation.

"These are my three knights of battle,
Mael and Lludd clad in armour,

And the pillar of Wales, Cradawc."

In many of the retired parts of the mountains of Wales, the traditionary tales of the Cwn Annwn, the Canwyll Corph, and the Bendith y Mamau, are not only accredited to their full extent, but they are still seen and heard, at least so the country people will seriously assert.

The Bendith y Mamau, the blessed mothers, are the same as the Tylwyth Teg, or fairies, which have furnished such ample materials for poetry.

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