airy men having been captured.
These tales are, however, evidently variants of the same story. The
dwarfs are generally spoken of as having been caught by a trapper in his
net, or bag, and the hunter, quite unconscious of the fact that a Fairy
is in his bag, proceeds homewards, supposing that he has captured a
badger, or some other kind of vermin, but, all at once, he hears the
being in the bag speak, and throwing the bag down he runs away in a
terrible fright. Such in short is the tale. I will proceed to give
several versions of this story.

1. _Gwyddelwern Version_.

The following tale was told by Mr. Evan Roberts, Ffridd Agored, a farmer
in the parish of Llanfwrog. Roberts heard the story when he was a youth
in the parish of Gwyddelwern. It is as follows:--

A man went from his house for peat to the stack on the hill. As he
intended to carry away only a small quantity for immediate use, he took
with him a bag to carry it home. When he got to the hill he saw
something running before him, and he gave chase and caught it and bundled
it into the bag. He had not proceeded far on his way before he heard a
small voice shout somewhere near him, "Neddy, Neddy." And then he heard
another small voice in the bag saying, "There is daddy calling me." No
sooner did the man hear these words than in a terrible fright he threw
the bag down, and ran home as fast as he could.

2. _The Llandrillo Version_.

I am indebted for the following tale to Mr. E. S. Roberts, schoolmaster,
Llantysilio, near Llangollen:--

Two men whilst otter-hunting in Gwyn Pennant, Llandrillo, saw something
reddish scampering away across the ground just before them. They thought
it was an otter, and watching it saw that it entered a hole by the side
of the river. When they reached the place they found, underneath the
roots of a tree, two burrows. They immediately set to work to catch
their prey. Whilst one of the men pushed a long pole into one of the
burrows, the other held the mouth of a sack to the other, and very
shortly into the sack rushed their prey and it was secured. The men now
went homewards, but they had not gone far, ere they heard a voice in the
bag say, "My mother is calling me." The frightened men instantly threw
the sack to the ground, and they saw a small man, clothed in red, emerge
therefrom, and the wee creature ran away with all his might to the
brushwood that grew along the banks of the river.

3. _The Sn