Notes and Queries, Number 54, November 9, 1850 | Page 5

other; but the lover
noticed some trifling peculiarity in the dress of his choice, by means of
which he identified her. She then assured him that she would be to him
as good a wife as any earthly maiden could be, until he should strike
her three times without a cause. This was deemed by the shepherd an
impossible contingency, and he led his bride in triumph from the
mountain; followed by seven cows, two oxen, and one bull, which she
had summoned from the waters of the lake to enrich her future home.
Many years passed happily on, and three smiling children--afterwards
the "surgeons of Myddvai"--blessed the shepherd and his Undine-like
bride; but at length, on requesting her to go to the field and catch his
horse, she replied that she would do so presently; when striking her arm
three times he exclaimed, Dôs, dôs, dôs; Go, go, go. This was more
than a free dweller in the waters could brook; so calling her ten head of
cattle to follow her, she fled to the lake, and once more plunged
beneath its waters.
Such is the legend; of which reason vainly expresses its disbelief, as
long as the eye of faith can discern physical proofs of its truth in the
deep furrow which, crossing the mountain in detached portions,
terminates abruptly in the lake; for it seems that when the two oxen
were summoned by their mistress, they were ploughing in the field; and
at their departure, they carried the plough with them, and dragged it
into the lake.
The nymph once more appeared upon the earth; for as her sons grew to
manhood, she met them {389} one day in a place which, from this
circumstance, received the name of Cwm Meddygon, and delivered to
each of them a bag, containing such mysterious revelations in the
science of medicine, that they became greater in the art than were ever
any before them.
Though so curiously connected with this fable, the "surgeons of
Myddvai" are supposed to be historical personages, who, according to a
writer in the Cambro-Briton, flourished in the thirteenth century, and

left behind them a MS. treatise on their practice, of which several
fragments and imperfect copies are still preserved.
No. 4. Trwyn Pwcca.--Many years ago, there existed in a certain part of
Monmouthshire a Pwcca, or fairy, which, like a faithful English
Brownie, performed innumerable services for the farmers and
householders in its neighbourhood, more especially that of feeding the
cattle, and cleaning their sheds in wet weather; until at length some
officious person, considering such practices as unchristian proceedings,
laid the kindly spirit for three generations, banishing him to that
common receptacle for such beings--the Red Sea. The spot in which he
disappeared obtained the name of Trwyn Pwcca (Fairy's nose); and as
the three generations have nearly passed away, the approaching return
of the Pwcca is anxiously looked forward to in its vicinity, as an earnest
of the "good time coming."
The form which tradition assigns to this Pwcca, is that of a handful of
loose dried grass rolling before the wind (such as is constantly seen on
moors); a circumstance which recalls to mind the Pyrenean legend of
the spirit of the Lord of Orthez, mentioned by Miss Costello, which
appeared as two straws moving on the floor. Query, Has the name of
"Will o' the Wisp" any connexion with the supposed habit of appearing
in this form?
SELEUCUS.
* * * * *
CONNEXION OF WORDS--THE WORD "FREIGHT."
The word employed to denote freight, or rather the price of freight, at
this day in the principal ports of the Mediterranean, is nolis, nolo, &c.
In the Arabian and Indian ports, the word universally employed to
denote the same meaning is nol. Are these words identical, and can
their connexion be traced? When we consider the extensive commerce
of the Phoenicians, both in the Mediterranean and Indian seas, that they
were the great merchants and carriers of antiquity, and that, in the
words of Hieron, "their numerous fleets were scattered over the Indian

and Atlantic oceans; and the Tyrian pennant waved at the same time on
the coasts of Britain and on the shores of Ceylon"--it is natural to look
to that country as the birthplace of the word, whence it may have been
imported, westward to Europe, and eastward to India, by the same
people. And we find that it is a pure Arabic word, [Arabic: nwl] nawil
and [Arabic: nwln] nawlun, or nol and nolan, both signifying freight
(price of carriage), from the root [Arabic: nwh] noh, pretium dedit,
donum. I am not aware that the word freight (not used in the sense of
cargo or merchandise, but as the price of carriage of the merchandise,
merces pro vectura) is to be