All The Days Were
Cloudy, And The Nights Extremely Dark, On Account Of The Absence Of
The Moon And Stars.
The boy was brought before the king, and
introduced to him in the presence of the court; who, having
Examined
him for a long time, delivered him to his son, who was then a boy.
These men were of the smallest stature, but very well proportioned
in their make; they were all of a fair complexion, with luxuriant
hair falling over their shoulders like that of women. They had
horses and greyhounds adapted to their size. They neither ate flesh
nor fish, but lived on milk diet, made up into messes with saffron.
They never took an oath, for they detested nothing so much as lies.
As often as they returned from our upper hemisphere, they reprobated
our ambition, infidelities, and inconstancies; they had no form of
public worship, being strict lovers and reverers, as it seemed, of
truth.
The boy frequently returned to our hemisphere, sometimes by the way
he had first gone, sometimes by another: at first in company with
other persons, and afterwards alone, and made himself known only to
his mother, declaring to her the manners, nature, and state of that
people. Being desired by her to bring a present of gold, with which
that region abounded, he stole, while at play with the king's son,
the golden ball with which he used to divert himself, and brought it
to his mother in great haste; and when he reached the door of his
father's house, but not unpursued, and was entering it in a great
hurry, his foot stumbled on the threshold, and falling down into the
room where his mother was sitting, the two pigmies seized the ball
which had dropped from his hand, and departed, shewing the boy every
mark of contempt and derision. On recovering from his fall,
confounded with shame, and execrating the evil counsel of his
mother, he returned by the usual track to the subterraneous road,
but found no appearance of any passage, though he searched for it on
the banks of the river for nearly the space of a year. But since
those calamities are often alleviated by time, which reason cannot
mitigate, and length of time alone blunts the edge of our
afflictions, and puts an end to many evils, the youth having been
brought back by his friends and mother, and restored to his right
way of thinking, and to his learning, in process of time attained
the rank of priesthood. Whenever David II., bishop of St. David's,
talked to him in his advanced state of life concerning this event,
he could never relate the particulars without shedding tears. He
had made himself acquainted with the language of that nation, the
words of which, in his younger days, he used to recite, which, as
the bishop often had informed me, were very conformable to the Greek
idiom. When they asked for water, they said Ydor ydorum, which
meant bring water, for Ydor in their language, as well as in the
Greek, signifies water, from whence vessels for water are called
{Greek text which cannot be reproduced}; and Dur also, in the
British language, signifies water. When they wanted salt they said,
Halgein ydorum, bring salt: salt is called {Greek text} in Greek,
and Halen in British, for that language, from the length of time
which the Britons (then called Trojans, and afterwards Britons, from
Brito, their leader) remained in Greece after the destruction of
Troy, became, in many instances, similar to the Greek.
It is remarkable that so many languages should correspond in one
word, {Greek} in Greek, Halen in British, and Halgein in the Irish
tongue, the g being inserted; Sal in Latin, because, as Priscian
says, "the s is placed in some words instead of an aspirate," as
{Greek} in Greek is called Sal in Latin, {Greek} - semi - {Greek} -
septem - Sel in French - the A being changed into E - Salt in
English, by the addition of T to the Latin; Sout, in the Teutonic
language: there are therefore seven or eight languages agreeing in
this one word. If a scrupulous inquirer should ask my opinion of
the relation here inserted, I answer with Augustine, "that the
divine miracles are to be admired, not discussed." Nor do I, by
denial, place bounds to the divine power, nor, by assent, insolently
extend what cannot be extended. But I always call to mind the
saying of St. Jerome; "You will find," says he, "many things
incredible and improbable, which nevertheless are true; for nature
cannot in any respect prevail against the lord of nature." These
things, therefore, and similar contingencies, I should place,
according to the opinion of Augustine, among those particulars which
are neither to be affirmed, nor too positively denied.
CHAPTER IX
Passage over the rivers Lochor and Wendraeth; and of Cydweli
Thence we proceeded towards the river Lochor, {93} through the
plains in which Howel, son of Meredyth of Brecheinoc, after the
decease of king Henry I., gained a signal victory over the English.
Having first crossed the river Lochor, and afterwards the water
called Wendraeth, {94} we arrived at the castle of Cydweli. {95} In
this district, after the death of king Henry, whilst Gruffydd son of
Rhys, the prince of South Wales, was engaged in soliciting
assistance from North Wales, his wife Gwenliana (like the queen of
the Amazons, and a second Penthesilea) led an army into these parts;
but she was defeated by Maurice de Londres, lord of that country,
and Geoffrey, the bishop's constable. {96} Morgan, one of her sons,
whom she had arrogantly brought with her in that expedition, was
slain, and the other, Malgo, taken prisoner; and she, with many of
her followers, was put to death. During the reign of king Henry I.,
when Wales enjoyed a state of tranquillity, the above-mentioned
Maurice had a forest in that neighbourhood, well stocked with wild
animals, and especially deer, and was extremely tenacious of his
venison.
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