in the form of a letter in the
_Cambro-Briton_, vol. ii, pp. 313-315. The editor prefaces the legend
with the remark that the tale "acquires an additional interest from its
resemblance in one particular to a similar tradition current in Scotland,
wherein certain beasts, brought from a lake, as in this tale, play much
the same part as is here described." The volume of the _Cambro-Briton_
now referred to was published in 1821 and apparently the writer, who
calls himself _Siencyn ab Tydvil_, communicates an unwritten tradition
afloat in Carmarthenshire, for he does not tell us whence he obtained the
story. As the tale differs in some particulars from that already given,
I will transcribe it.

5. _The Cambro-Briton version of the Myddvai Legend_.

"A man, who lived in the farm-house called Esgair-llaethdy, in the parish
of Myddvai, in Carmarthenshire, having bought some lambs in a
neighbouring fair, led them to graze near _Llyn y Van Vach_, on the Black
Mountains. Whenever he visited the lambs, three most beautiful female
figures presented themselves to him from the lake, and often made
excursions on the boundaries of it. For some time he pursued and
endeavoured to catch them, but always failed; for the enchanting nymphs
ran before him, and, when they had reached the lake, they tauntingly
exclaimed,

Cras dy fara,
Anhawdd ein dala,

which, with a little circumlocution, means, 'For thee, who eatest baked
bread, it is difficult to catch us.'

One day some moist bread from the lake came to shore. The farmer
devoured it with great avidity, and on the following day he was
successful in his pursuit and caught the fair damsels. After a little
conversation with them, he commanded courage sufficient to make proposals
of marriage to one of them. She consented to accept them on the
condition that he would distinguish her from her two sisters on the
following day. This was a new, and a very great difficulty to the young
farmer, for the fair nymphs were so similar in form and features, that he
could scarcely perceive any difference between them. He observed,
however, a trifling singularity in the strapping of her sandal, by which
he recognized her the following day. Some, indeed, who relate this
legend, say that this Lady of the Lake hinted in a private conversation
with her swain that upon the day of trial she would place herself between
her two sisters, and that she would turn her right foot a little to t