t and Glamorgan excelled all
others in the use of the bow, and gives curious evidence of the
strength of their shooting. Thus the arrows pierced an oak door four
inches thick; they had been left there as a curiosity, and Gerald saw
them with their iron points coming through on the inner side. He
describes these bows as "made of elm--ugly, unfinished-looking
weapons, but astonishingly stiff, large, and strong, and equally
useful for long and short shooting." Add to this that the longbow was
not a characteristic English weapon till the latter part of the
thirteenth century, that the first battle in which an English king
made effective use of archery (at Falkirk, 1298), his infantry
consisted mainly of Welshmen; and there can be little doubt that the
famous longbow of England, which won the victories of Crecy and
Poitiers and Agincourt, and indirectly did much to destroy feudalism
and villenage, had its home in South Wales.

Gerald was also a keen observer of nature, and his knowledge of the
ways of animals is extensive and peculiar. Perhaps even more marked
is his love of the supernatural; he could believe anything, if it was
only wonderful enough--except Geoffrey of Monmouth's History. But I
must confine myself to one story--the story of the boy in Gower who
(as the root of learning is bitter) played truant and found two little
men of pigmy stature, and went with them to their country under the
earth, and played games with golden balls with the fairy prince. These
little folk were very small--of fair complexion, and long luxuriant
hair; and they had horses and dogs to suit their size. They hated
nothing so much as lies; "they had no form of public worship, being
lovers and reverers, it seemed, of truth." The boy often went, till he
tried to steal a golden ball, and then he could never find fairyland
again. But he learnt some of the fairy language, which was like Greek.
And then Gerald compares words in different languages, and notes how,
for instance, the same word for _salt_ runs through Greek and British
and Irish and Latin and French and English and German, and the fairy
language, which suggests a close relation between all these peoples
in past ages. It is very modern; and it is not without reason that
Gerald has been called "the father of comparative philology."

In his "Description of Wales" Gerald describes the manner of life and
characteristics of the people. All are trained to arms, and when the
trumpet sounds