Fair Tribe, an expressive and descriptive term. They are
spoken of as a people, and not as myths or goblins, and they are said to
be a fair or handsome race.

Another common name for the Fairies, is, "_Bendith y Mamau_," or, "The
Mothers' Blessing." In Doctor Owen Pughe's Dictionary they are called
"Bendith _eu_ Mamau," or, "_Their_ Mothers' Blessing." The first is the
most common expression, at least in North Wales. It is a singularly
strange expression, and difficult to explain. Perhaps it hints at a
Fairy origin on the mother's side of certain fortunate people.

The third name given to Fairies is "_Ellyll_," an elf, a demon, a goblin.
This name conveys these beings to the land of spirits, and makes them
resemble the oriental Genii, and Shakespeare's sportive elves. It
agrees, likewise, with the modern popular creed respecting goblins and
their doings.

Davydd ab Gwilym, in a description of a mountain mist in which he was
once enveloped, says:--

Yr ydoedd ym mhob gobant
_Ellyllon_ mingeimion gant.

There were in every hollow
A hundred wrymouthed elves.

_The Cambro-Briton_, v. I., p. 348.

In Pembrokeshire the Fairies are called _Dynon Buch Teg_, or the _Fair
Small People_.

Another name applied to the Fairies is _Plant Annwfn_, or _Plant Annwn_.
This, however, is not an appellation in common use. The term is applied
to the Fairies in the third paragraph of a Welsh prose poem called _Bardd
Cwsg_, thus:--

Y bwriodd y _Tylwyth Teg_ fi . . . oni bai fy nyfod i mewn
pryd i'th achub o gigweiniau _Plant Annwfn_.

Where the _Tylwyth Teg_ threw me . . . if I had not come
in time to rescue thee from the clutches of _Plant Annwfn_.

_Annwn_, or _Annwfn_ is defined in Canon Silvan Evans's Dictionary as an
abyss, Hades, etc. _Plant Annwn_, therefore, means children of the lower
regions. It is a name derived from the supposed place of abode--the
bowels of the earth--of the Fairies. _Gwragedd Annwn_, dames of Elfin
land, is a term applied to Fairy ladies.

Ellis Wynne, the author of _Bardd Cwsg_, was born in 1671, and the
probability is that the words _Plant Annwfn_ formed in his days part of
the vocabulary of the people. He was born in Merionethshire.

_Gwyll_, according to Richards, and Dr. Owen Pughe, is a Fairy, a goblin,
etc. The plural of _Gwyll_ would be _Gwylliaid_, or _Gwyllion_, but this
latter word Dr. Pughe defines as ghosts, hobgoblins, etc. Formerly,