nce that seems to
inspire him. He bounds and flies over and beyond them, gratified by
the distress, and utterly reckless and ruthless of the cries, and
danger, and suffering of the luckless wight who bestrides him."

Sometimes the Poocah assumed the form of a goat, an eagle, or of some
other animal, and leaped upon the shoulders of the unwary traveller, and
clung to him, however frantic were the exertions to get rid of the
monster.

Allied to the water-horse were the horses upon which magicians in various
lands were supposed to perform their aerial journeys.

It was believed in Wales that the clergy could, without danger, ride the
water-horse, and the writer has heard a tale of a clergyman, who, when
bestride one of these horses, had compassion on his parish clerk, who was
trudging by his side, and permitted him to mount behind him, on condition
that he should keep silence when upon the horse's back. For awhile the
loquacious parish clerk said no word, but ere long the wondrous pace of
the horse caused him to utter a pious ejaculation, and no sooner were the
words uttered than he was thrown to the ground; his master kept his seat,
and, on parting with the fallen parish official, shouted out, "Serve you
right, why did you not keep your noisy tongue quiet?"

The weird legends and gloomy creations of the Celt assume a mild and
frolicsome feature when interpreted by the Saxon mind. The malevolent
Poocah becomes in England the fun-loving Puck, who delights in playing
his pranks on village maidens, and who says:--

I am that merry wanderer of the night;
Jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;
And when she drinks against her lips I bob,
And on her withered dew-lap pour the ale.

_Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act I, Sc. I.

The _Ceffyl-y-Dwfr_ was very different to Chaucer's wonderful brass
horse, which could be ridden, without harm, by a sleeping rider:--

This steed of brasse, and easilie and well
Can in the space of a day naturel,
This is to say, in foure and twenty houres,
Where so ye lists, in drought or elles showers,
Baren yours bodie into everie place,
In which your hearte willeth for to pace,
Withouten wemme of you through foul or fair,
Or if you liste to flee as high in th' air