far the English have been wont to ascribe to the devil the shape of a horse I know not; but with regard to the Welsh it may here be pointed out that they were familiar with a fancy of that kind, as in the story about Peredur tempted to mount the demon-steed, and in the identity of Brun de Morois with the horse called Du Moro (p. 370) in Welsh. Still more to the point is the story of March ab Meirchion's equine ears, and of the identity of his name with that of the Irish Morc or Margg, not to mention Labraid, who had the same peculiar ears, and had to wife the daughter of the king of Fir Morca (p. 593). Now More it was, who, according to the Irish story, acted as chief of the Fomori in levying tribute in Ireland from the Sons of Nemed, consisting of two-thirds of their children and of the produce of their husbandry in the corn-field and in the dairy. This agrees in substance with the effects of the shout on the First of May, as described in the story of Llûᵭ. In Malen's March we have a specimen of a monster such as would be in Irish an Echchenn, or Horse-head, and he is to be identified probably with Ellyll Malen, or Malen's Demon. In any case, Malen's scourge,[1] however desig-
- ↑ For Malen's Demon, see Triads, i. 70 = ij. 45 = iij. 95, and for the foreign origin of March Malen, see Triad, iij. 11. The word Malen, Malaen, Melen or Melan, for all these forms occur, are very obscure; but they seem to represent a feminine to be regarded as possibly derived from the same origin as mall or mallt, whose meaning can be somewhat more nearly defined. Now mall being used in the feminine becomes with the definite article Y Vall (written y Fall, meaning the evil one), a personification which enters into the term Plant y Fall, which might be Englished by disregarding the gender into 'Children of Belial or the devil's imps.' Moreover, the Yellow Plague is called Y Fall Felen, 'the Yellow Mall,' also Y Fad Felen, or 'the Yellow Death;' and the word mall sometimes has the force
