a volume, must, it may reasonably be supposed, have something of
reality for their origin and foundation, before they were dressed
out in the familiar garb given them by their authors."

So our author is a "realist" as regards the origin of fairies.



(15) THE LONG-LIVED ANCESTORS.

Source: Taken _verbatim_ from the book quoted. This fable
refers to the place, _Cwm Caw Lwyd_, regarding which the writer
says:

"With regard to the _Cwm Caw Lwyd_, there is a still extant
fable entitled _Creaduriaid Hir Hoedlog_ (i.e., the long-lived
ancestors), which seems to be a composition of no modern date. At
present the moral of it cannot be elucidated; but it seems that, in
one respect, it was intended to represent the solitariness of this
place, inhabited only by the weeping owl from remote antiquity; and
certainly it is the most solitary and romantic retreat that the mind
of man could imagine." The writer says his is a "literal translation
of the story, according to the Welsh phraseology".



(16) THE GIANTESS'S APRON-FULL.

Source: _Verbatim_ from the same book. Referring to the heaps
of stone found on the hill-tops, he gives the fable of the heap