_Source._--Giraldus Cambrensis, _Itinerarium Cambriae_, I. viii. I have
followed the Latin text tolerably closely.
_Parallels._--Mr. Hartland has a paper on "Robberies in Fairyland," in
_Arch. Rev._, iii. 39 _seq._ Davies, _Mythology of the British Druids_,
p. 155, tells a story of a door in a rock near a cave in the mountains
of Brecknock, which was left open for Mayday, and men used to enter, and
so reach that fairy island in the middle of the lake. The visitors were
treated very hospitably by their fairy hosts, but on the condition that
they might eat all, but pocket none; for once, a visitor took away with
him a fairy flower, and as soon as he got outside the door the flower
vanished, and the door was never more opened. "The Luck of Edenhall,"
still in existence, is supposed to be a trophy brought back from a
similar visit.
_Remarks._--Mr. Hartland suggests that these legends, and the relics
connected with them, are in some way connected with the heathen rites
prevalent in these islands before the introduction of Christianity,
which may have lingered on into historic times. The absence of sunlight
in this account of the House of the Fairies, as in "Childe Rowland" (on
which see note in _English Fairy Tales_), may be regarded as a point in
favour of Mr. MacRitchie's theories as to the identification of the
fairies with the mound-dwellers. The object of the expectoration was to
prevent Elidore's seeing his way back. Thus the fairies prevent the
indiscretions of the human midwives they employ.