Inspiration and Science for her son, that
his reception might be honourable because of his knowledge of the
mysteries of the future state of the world.

Then she began to boil the cauldron, which from the beginning of its
boiling might not cease to boil for a year and a day, until three blessed
drops were obtained of the grace of inspiration.

And she put Gwion Bach the son of Gwreang of Llanfair in Caereinion, in
Powys, to stir the cauldron, and a blind man named Morda to kindle the
fire beneath it, and she charged them that they should not suffer it to
cease boiling for the space of a year and a day. And she herself,
according to the books of the astronomers, and in planetary hours,
gathered every day of all charm-bearing herbs. And one day, towards the
end of the year, as Caridwen was culling plants and making incantations,
it chanced that three drops of the charmed liquor flew out of the
cauldron and fell upon the finger of Gwion Bach. And by reason of their
great heat he put his finger to his mouth, {118b} and the instant he put
those marvel-working drops into his mouth, he foresaw everything that was
to come, and perceived that his chief care must be to guard against the
wiles of Caridwen, for vast was her skill. And in very great fear he
fled towards his own land. And the cauldron burst in two, because all
the liquor within it except the three charm-bearing drops was poisonous,
so that the horses of Gwyddno Garanhir were poisoned by the water of the
stream into which the liquor of the cauldron ran, and the confluence of
that stream was called the Poison of the Horses of Gwyddno from that time
forth.

{Picture: p119.jpg}

Thereupon came in Caridwen and saw all the toil of the whole year lost.
And she seized a billet of wood and struck the blind Morda on the head
until one of his eyes fell out upon his cheek. And he said, "Wrongfully
hast thou disfigured me, for I am innocent. Thy loss was not because of
me." "Thou speakest truth," said Caridwen, "it was Gwion Bach who robbed
me."

And she went forth after him, running. And he saw her, and changed
himself into a hare and fled. But she changed herself into a greyhound
and turned him. And he ran towards a river, and became a fish. And she
in the form of an otter-bitch chased him under the water, until he was
fain to turn himself into a bird of the air. Then she, as a hawk,
followed him and gave him no rest in the sky. And just as she was about
to