nd possibly better luck would
attend her trial. It was believed that the spirit of the coming husband
would mount this ladder and present himself to his future wife.

The Rev. R. Jones, rector of Llanycil, told me the following tale. Two
young men from Festiniog went to court two young girls in the parish of
Maentwrog, servants at a farm called Gellidywyll. As they were going
towards the farm one of them said, "Let me rest awhile." He at once
seated himself on the ground, and apparently he fell asleep immediately.
This surprised his friend, but he was thoroughly frightened when he saw
_a blue light emanate_ from his mouth, and he attempted to awaken the
man, but he failed to arouse him, he seemed as if dead. However, after
awhile, the blue light was seen returning, and it entered the mouth of
the sleeper, and he instantly awoke, and they proceeded together towards
Gellidywyll. At the very time that the man felt an irresistible
inclination to sleep, his love had used the yarn incantation, and the
unconscious man during his short sleep dreamt that he had seen his
sweetheart in the window, and the girl said that he had appeared to her
at the window. In a few months after this proof of true love they were
married.

Another form of incantation was to walk around the church seven or nine
times on certain nights. This I will call the _Twca Test_ or _Knife
Test_. This was a very common form of incantation.

_Divination with the Twca or Knife_.

The proceeding was as follows:--The party who wished to know whom he, or
she, was to marry, went to the church secretly and walked around it seven
times, repeating the while these words:--

"Dyma'r Twca,
Lle mae'r wain?"

Here's the knife,
Where's the sheath?

And it was thought that the spirit of his or her life partner would
appear to the person who held the knife, with the sheath in his or her
hand, and that it would be found that the one fitted the other exactly.
I have been told by a person who resorted to this test that if the person
was to become a wife, her lover would certainly appear to her; if she was
to die an old maid then a coffin would meet her. The superstition is
mentioned in _Bardd Cwsg_--

"Fe glywai rai yn son am fyned i droi o gwmpas yr Eglwys i weled eu
cariadau, a pheth a wnaeth y catffwl ond ymddangos i'r ynfydion yn ei lun
ei hun." That is in English:--

"He heard some persons talking of going round the church to see t