stom,
Immoral ditties are their delight;
Vain and tasteless praise they recite;
Falsehood at all times do they utter;
The innocent persons they ridicule;
Married women they destroy,
Innocent virgins of Mary they corrupt;
As they pass their lives away in vanity;
Poor innocent persons they ridicule;
At night they get drunk, they sleep the day;
In idleness without work they feed themselves;
The Church they hate, and the tavern they frequent;
With thieves and perjured fellows they associate;
At courts they inquire after feasts;
Every senseless word they bring forward;
Every deadly sin they praise;
Every vile course of life they lead;
Through every village, town, and country they stroll;
Concerning the gripe of death they think not;
Neither lodging nor charity do they give;
Indulging in victuals to excess.
Psalms or prayers they do not use,
Tithes or offerings to God they do not pay,
On holidays or Sundays they do not worship;
Vigils or festivals they do not heed.
The birds do fly, the fish do swim,
The bees collect honey, worms do crawl,
Every thing travails to obtain its food,
Except minstrels and lazy useless thieves.

I deride neither song nor minstrelsy,
For they are given by God to lighten thought;
But him who abuses them,
For blaspheming Jesus and his service."

Taliesin having set his master free from prison, and having protected the
innocence of his wife, and silenced the Bards so that not one of them
dared to say a word, now brought Elphin's wife before them, and shewed
that she had not one finger wanting. Right glad was Elphin, right glad
was Taliesin.

Then he bade Elphin wager the king, that he had a horse both better and
swifter than the king's horses. And this Elphin did, and the day, and
the time, and the place were fixed, and the place was that which at this
day is called Morva Rhiannedd; and thither the king went with all his
people, and four and twenty of the swiftest horses he possessed. And
after a long process the course was marked, and the horses were placed
for running. Then came Taliesin with four and twenty twigs of holly,
which he had burnt black, and he caused the youth who was to ride his
master's horse to place them in his belt, and he gave him orders to let
all the king's horses get before him, and as he should overtake one horse
after the other, to take one of the twigs and strike