o ladies before him was
the object of his affections. This was no small test of love, inasmuch
as the maidens were exactly alike in form and features. One of them,
however, thrust her foot a little forward; and the hero recognized a
peculiarity of her shoe-tie, which he had somehow had leisure to notice
at his previous interviews. The father admits the correctness of his
choice, and bestows a dowry of sheep, cattle, goats, and horses, but
stipulates in the most business-like way that these animals shall return
with the bride, if at any time her husband prove unkind and strike her
thrice without a cause.

So far Mr. Rees' version. A version published in the "Cambro-Briton" is
somewhat different. Three beautiful damsels appear from the pool, and
are repeatedly pursued by the young farmer, but in vain. They always
reached the water before him and taunted him with the couplet:

"Cras dy fara,
Anhawdd ein dala!"

One day some moist bread from the lake came floating ashore. The youth
seized and devoured it; and the following day he was successful in
catching the ladies. The one to whom he offers marriage consents on the
understanding that he will recognize her the next day from among the
three sisters. He does so by the strapping of her sandal; and she is
accompanied to her new home by seven cows, two oxen, and a bull from the
lake. A third version presents the maiden as rowing on New Year's Eve up
and down the lake in a golden boat with a golden oar. She disappears
from the hero's gaze, without replying to his adjurations. Counselled by
a soothsayer, who dwells on the mountain, he casts loaves and cheese
night after night from Midsummer Eve to New Year's Eve into the water,
until at length the magic skiff again appears, and the fairy, stepping
ashore, weds her persistent wooer.

In all three versions the bridegroom is forbidden to strike "three
causeless blows." Of course he disobeys. According to the
"Cambro-Briton" version it happened that one day, preparing for a fair,
he desired his wife to go to the field for his horse. Finding her
dilatory in doing so, he tapped her arm thrice with his glove, saying,
half in jest: "Go, go, go!" The blows were slight, but they were blows;
and, the terms of the marriage contract being broken, the dame
departed--she and her cattle with her--back into the lake. The other two
accounts agree in spreading the blows over a much greater length of
time. Mr. Rees' version relates tha