Empire unusual suggested

106 PASSPORT TO MAGONIA
does not pass there as it does here. And we have in such stories
the first idea of the relativity of time. How did this idea come to
the storytellers, ages ago? What inspired them? No one can answer
such questions. But it is a fact that the dissymmetry of the
time element between Elfland and our world is present in the
tales from all countries.
Discussing this supernatural lapse of time in fairyland, Hartland
relates the true story of Rhys and Llewellyn, recorded about
1825 in the Vale of Ncath, Wales. Rhys and Llewellyn were
fellow servants to a farmer. As they went home one night, Rhys
told his friend to stop and listen to the music. Llewellyn heard
no music. But Rhys had to dance to the tune he had heard a
hundred times. He begged Llewellyn to go ahead with the horses,
saying that he would soon overtake him, but Llewellyn arrived
home alone. The next day, he was suspected of murdering Rhys
and jailed. But a farmer "who was skilled in fairy matters" guessed
the truth. Several men gathered—among them the narrator of
the story—and took Llewellyn to the spot where he said his companion
had vanished. Suddenly, "Hush!" cried Llewellyn. "I hear
music, I hear sweet harps."
All listened but could hear nothing. Llewellyn's foot was on the
outer edge of the fairy ring. He told the narrator to place his foot
on his, and then he too heard the sounds of many harps and saw
a number of Little People dancing in a circle twenty feet or so
in diameter. After him, each of the party did the same and observed
the same thing. Among the dancing Little Folk was Rhys.
Llewellyn caught him by his smock-frock as he passed close to
them and pulled him out of the circle. At once Rhys asked,
"Where are the horses?" and asked them to let him finish the
dance, which had not lasted more than five minutes. And he could
never be persuaded of the time that had elapsed. He became
melancholy, fell ill, and soon after died.
Such stories can be found in Keightlcy's The Fairy Mythology
and other books, although of course the story of Rhys and Llewellyn
is remarkable because it dates from the nineteenth century,
thus providing a measure of continuity between fairy and UFO
lore. In the tales of this type, several modes of recovery of the
persons taken are offered. One of them consists in touching the
TO MAGONIA . . . AND BACK! 107
abducted man with a piece of iron, and the objection of supernatural
beings to this metal is one of the themes of fairy lore.
Near Bridgcnd, Wales, is a place where it is reported that a
woman who had been taken by the fairies came back ten years
later and thought she had not been away more than ten days.
Hartland gives another charming story on the same theme, concerning
a boy named Gitto Bach, or Little Griffith, a farmer's son
who disappeared:
During two whole years nothing was heard of him; but at length
one morning when his mother, who had long and bitterly mourned
for him as dead, opened the door, whom should she see sitting on
the threshold but Gitto with a bundle under his arm. He was dressed
and looked exactly as when she last saw him, for he had not grown
a bit. "Where have you been all this time?" asked his mother. "Why,
it was only yesterday I went away," he replied; and opening the
bundle he showed her a dress the "little children" as he called them,
had given him for dancing with them. The dress was of white paper
without seam. With maternal caution she put it into the fire.
The best-known stories where time relativity is the main theme
are of course of the "Rip van Winkle" type, patterned after numerous
folk stories that allegedly concern actual events. Strangely
enough, we again find the identical theme in ages-old Chinese
folklore. Witness the story of Wang Chih, one of the holy men
of the Taoists.
One day, as Wang Chih wandered through the mountains of
Kii Chow gathering firewood, he saw a grotto where some old
men were playing chess. He came in to watch their game and laid
down his ax. One of the old men gave him something like a datestone
and instructed him to place it on his mouth. "No sooner
had he done so than hunger and thirst passed away." Some time
later, one of the aged players told him, "It is long since you came
here; you should go home now." But as he turned to pick up his
ax, Wang Chih found that the handle had turned into dust. He
reached the valley, but found not hours or days but centuries had
passed, and nothing remained of the world as he had known it.
A similar tradition exists in Denmark. For instance, in a tale
which is typical of the pattern, a bride thoughtlessly walked
through the fields during the festivities of her wedding day and