other replied, 'And I remember seeing a hen having an egg,' and
one of the two added, 'But I do not remember before seeing anybody brew
beer in the shell of a hen's egg.'

The mother then went to the witch and told her what the twins had said
one to the other, and she directed her to go to a small wooden bridge not
far off, with one of the strange children under each arm, and there to
drop them from the bridge into the river beneath. The mother went back
home again and did as she had been directed. When she reached home this
time, to her astonishment, she found that her own children had been
brought back."

There is one important difference between these two tales. In the
latter, the mother drops the children over the bridge into the waters
beneath, and then goes home, without noticing whether the poor children
had been rescued by the goblins or not, but on reaching her home she
found in the cradle her own two children, presumably conveyed there by
the Fairies. In the first tale, we are informed that she saw the goblins
save their offspring from a watery grave. Subjecting peevish children to
such a terrible ordeal as this must have ended often with a tragedy, but
even in such cases superstitious mothers could easily persuade themselves
that the destroyed infants were undoubtedly the offspring of elfins, and
therefore unworthy of their fostering care. The only safeguard to
wholesale infanticide was the test applied as to the super-human
precociousness, or ordinary intelligence, of the children.

Another version of this tale was related to me by my young friend, the
Rev. D. H. Griffiths, of Clocaenog Rectory, near Ruthin. The tale was
told him by Evan Roberts, Ffriddagored, Llanfwrog. Mr. Roberts is an
aged farmer.

3. _Llanfwrog Changeling Legend_.

A mother took her child to the gleaning field, and left it sleeping under
the sheaves of wheat whilst she was busily engaged gleaning. The Fairies
came to the field and carried off her pretty baby, leaving in its place
one of their own infants. At the time, the mother did not notice any
difference between her own child and the one that took its place, but
after awhile she observed with grief that the baby she was nursing did
not thrive, nor did it grow, nor would it try to walk. She mentioned
these facts to her neighbours, and she was told to do something strange
and then listen to its conversation. She took an egg-shell and pretended
to brew beer in it,