great man's house: I will tell a story willingly.' The Mabinogi thereupon remarks as follows: 'Now Gwydion was the best story-teller in the world; and he entertained the court that night with amusing entertainments and history, so that he was admired of everybody in the court, and so that Pryderi was delighted to converse with him.' By and by, when Gwydion had charmed the king with his eloquence, he said he wondered whether another would be likely to transact his business with him better than he should himself, to which the king replied, that it was not at all probable, adding words to the effect, that his was an excellent tongue. Pryderi, on being told Gwydion's errand, said that he was bound by an engagement with his people to part with none of the swine until they had bred double their number in his kingdom. Gwydion asked him not to give him a refusal that evening; and retired unsuccessful but not disheartened. By the morning, Gwydion produced by magic twelve steeds, fitted out with saddles and bridles mounted with gold wherever iron might have been expected, and twelve jet black white-breasted greyhounds with collars and leashes such as no one could tell, that they were not likewise made of gold. These Gwydion offered to Pryderi in exchange for some of his swine, urging that he would be thereby freed from his engagement to his country neither to sell nor to give the swine away for nothing. Pryderi and his nobles were tempted by the splendour of the gift, and Gwydion set off with the swine as hurriedly as he could, for the charm would only last twenty-four hours, when the horses and the hounds would again become the fungus out of which they had been made. Gwydion and his men barely succeeded in reaching the
