Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/356

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340
IV. THE CULTURE HERO.

my form and shape, so that no valet, no officer, or anybody else who has ever been in my suite, should know that it is not I. That,' said he, 'is to last till this time to-morrow twelvemonth, when this spot is to be our meeting-place.' 'But,' said Pwyỻ, 'though I remain there a year, what certainty have I of engaging him thou speakest of?' 'This night twelvemonth,' said Arawn, 'I have an appointment to meet him in the ford; be thou there in my form, and from one blow thou shouldst give, he will not recover; and though he should ask thee to give him another blow, give it not, however much he may implore thee: no matter how many I should give him, he would be as well as ever the next morning.' After this arrangement between the two, Arawn showed Pwyỻ the way to his court in Hades, and then hastened in Pwyỻ's form to Arberth to rule over Dyved. Pwyỻ was successful in his doings: he gave Havgan his mortal wound, and annexed his kingdom to that of Arawn, whom he then hastened to meet in the glade in the valley of the Cûch. Pwyỻ returned to his kingdom to find that it had been governed better than usual that year. Arawn likewise was pleased with what Pwyỻ had done, and to find that not even the queen had discovered his absence, though she unintentionally let him know that she could not understand why he had slept every night during the year with his face turned away towards the outside of the bed. Arawn then told her all about his absence, and both wondered greatly at the exceeding fidelity[1] with which Pwyỻ had kept his cove-

  1. This is quaintly put in the original, but without the slightest impropriety of speech; and as the whole story turns on it, I cannot imitate Lady Charlotte Guest when she omits it in toto in her trans-