year and a day, a youth who had wandered into a
fairy-ring. He had new shoes on at the time he was lost; and he could
not be made to understand that he had been there more than five minutes
until he was asked to look at his new shoes, which were by that time in
pieces. Near Aberystwyth, Professor Rhys was told of a servant-maid who
was lost while looking for some calves. Her fellow-servant, a man, was
taken into custody on a charge of murdering her. A "wise man," however,
found out that she was with the fairies; and by his directions the
servant-man was successful at the end of the usual period of twelve
months and a day in drawing her out of the fairy-ring at the place where
she was lost. As soon as she was released and saw her fellow-servant
(who was carefully dressed in the same clothes as he had on when she
left him), she asked about the calves. On their way home she told her
master, the servant-man, and the others, that she would stay with them
until her master should strike her with iron. One day, therefore, when
she was helping her master to harness a horse the bit touched her, and
she disappeared instantly and was never seen from that time forth. In
another case, said to have happened in Anglesea, a girl got into a
fairy-circle while looking, with her father, for a lost cow. By a "wise
man's" advice, however, he rescued her by pulling her out of the circle
the very hour of the night of the anniversary of his loss. The first
inquiry she then made was after the cow, for she had not the slightest
recollection of the time she had spent with the fairies.[124]

A ghastly sequel, more frequently found in a type of the story
considered later on, sometimes occurs. In Carmarthenshire it is said
that a farmer going out one morning very early was lost; nor were any
tidings heard of him for more than twelve months afterwards, until one
day a man passing by a lonely spot saw him dancing, and spoke to him.
This broke the spell; and the farmer, as if waking out of a dream,
exclaimed: "Oh dear! where are my horses?" Stepping out of the magical
circle, he fell down and mingled his dust with the earth. In North Wales
a story was generally current a couple of generations since of two men
travelling together who were benighted in a wood. One of them slept, but
the other fell into the hands of the fairies. With the help of a
wizard's advice, some of his relatives rescued him at the end of a year.
They went to the place where his compa