"
"When was that, Gwr Boneddig?" said one of the company.
"About fifty years ago," said I. "Once in October, in the year
1805, as a small vessel of the Traeth was upon the Menai, sailing
very slowly, the weather being very calm, the people on board saw a
strange creature like an immense worm swimming after them. It soon
overtook them, climbed on board through the tiller-hole, and coiled
itself on the deck under the mast - the people at first were
dreadfully frightened, but taking courage they attacked it with an
oar and drove it overboard; it followed the vessel for some time,
but a breeze springing up they lost sight of it."
"And how did you learn this?" said the last who had addressed me.
"I read the story," said I, "in a pure Welsh book called the
Greal."
"I now remember hearing the same thing," said an old man, "when I
was a boy; it had slipt out of my memory, but now I remember all
about it. The ship was called the ROBERT ELLIS. Are you of these
parts, gentleman?"
"No," said I, "I am not of these parts."
"Then you are of South Wales - indeed your Welsh is very different
from ours."
"I am not of South Wales," said I, "I am the seed not of the sea-
snake but of the coiling serpent, for so one of the old Welsh poets
called the Saxons.
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