Caradoc Evans

“ Did not the Big Man say, ‘Bern bach, speak to me the sacrifices of Evan Rhiw for my Terrible Temple.’ ‘Little Big Man,’ I answered, ‘the least of my flock gives more than him.’” Then Bern-Davydd, by the mouth of Bertha, sang: “Evan Rhiw, swifter is the hand of the Lord than the water which turns Old Daniel’s mill. Awful are the fingers that will grasp you by your rib trousers and throw you through the spouting flames into the Fiery Pool.” ”

“ Turn you away from your purpose, and act as I bid you.”
“I shall wed him in front of all you say, Josh,” said Betti. “Boy bach swellish is Gwylim.”
“O Betti, is it a light thing to you that you take your possessions to a man who never goes to capel?”
“Little man senseless, you are eloquent! Do you think I could live for ten minutes with that old hare of your wife Priscila?”
Rhys Shop proclaimed in the Seiet that the Terrible Man’s anger was like the pierce of a new pitchfork against Betti Lancoch. Joshua fell on his knees in his pew, wept, and prayed. ”

“ Sadrach put his fingers through the thin beard which covered the opening of his waistcoat, closed his eyes, and murmured a prayer. “Your mother Achsah is not what she should be. Indeed to goodness, now, what disgrace this is! Is it not breaking my heart? You did hear how I said to the nice Big Man that I was like Job? Achsah is mad.”
Rachel sobbed.
“Weep you not, Rachel. It is not for us to question the all-wise ways of the Big Man. Do you dry your eyes on your apron now, my daughter. You, too, have your mother's eyes. Let me weep in my solitude. ”

“ Dear me, have I not put her in the harness loft? It is not respectable to let her out. Twm Tybach would have sent his wife to the madhouse of Carmarthen. But that is not Christian. Rachel, Rachel, dry your eyes. It is not your fault that Achsah is mad. Nor do I blame Sadrach the Small, nor Esau, nor Simon, nor Sarah, nor Daniel, nor Samuel, nor Miriam. Goodly names have I given you all. Live you up to them. Still, my sons and daughters, are you not all responsible for Achsah’s condition? With the birth of each of you she has got worse and worse. Child-bearing has made her foolish. ”

“ Nanni spoke the truth, for she did remember Abel in her prayers. But the workhouse held for her none of the terrors it holds for her poverty-stricken sisters. Life was life anywhere, in cottage or in poorhouse, though with this difference: her liberty in the poorhouse would be so curtailed that no more would she be able to listen to the spirit-laden eloquence of the Respected Josiah Bryn-Bevan. ”

“ Will you bring discredit on me then?”
“Josh bach, there's good you are to call, man. Do you take this bucket of wash to the old pigs, and ask Madlen Tybach to come over and milk the cow on your way home.”
“My sister Betti, for what you do not know that the wages of sin is death?” said Joshua.
“Don’t you get savage, Josh. Am I not making myself look pretty for to see Gwylim’s father and mother tomorrow?”
“Pretty! This too on the eve of the Sabbath! Is not a pretty woman a snare to the godly? Look you at Potiphar’s wife now.” ”

“ What occurred in the loft over the cowshed before dawn crept in through the window with the iron bars I cannot tell you. God can. But the rising sun found Achsah crouching behind one of the hedges of the lane that brings you from Danyrefail to the tramping road, and there she stayed, her eyes peering through the foliage, until the procession came by: first Old Shemmi and Sadrach, with Sadrach the Small between them; then the minister of Capel Sion and his wife; then the men and the women of the congregation; and last came Martha and Sara Ann. ”

“ Is not our graveyard the fullest in all the land?”
“You say wisely, Bertha Daviss,” said the minister. “You say wisely, Bertha fach. Iss not the grave our last home then? We must begrudge it to no man. O little ones, there is largish space in the Big Man’s acre.”
“No, no, Respected bach,” cried Bertha. “For why? The graveyard is full. Father was the last to be laid there. And in comfort did he go up when he knew of that glory.”
Rhys Shop looked upon the minister. ”

“ This is what he said:
“Filthier you are than a cow.”
“Evan, indeed to goodness,” Hannah replied, “iobish you talk. Sober dear, do I not work to the bone?” With a knife she scraped through the refuse on her arm and displayed to him the thinness to which she referred. Then in her anger she spoke: “Slack you are, Evan Rhiw. Your little land you drink in the tavern of Mistress Shames. Are not the people mouthing your foolish ways on the tramping road and in Shop Rhys?”
Matilda entered the kitchen, and threw these words at him: “Dull and whorish you are, son of the Bad Spirit. ”

“ But Mali did not hear anything of that which Shaci said under the open chimney or that which he read by the light of the tallow candle. She felt shame for Dan, her son, whose name would be denounced from the pulpit and spoken with scorn by the congregation, and she remembered his deeds, first and last. Dear people, why was it destined for Dan to trespass in the eyes of Sion? Heart alive, are not the evil ways of the English known far and wide? And their helpless wastefulness? Look you at Owen, the son of Antony. Owen was in a grand shop draper in Swansea. ”

“ Now in those days the ruler of Capel Sion was the Respected Bern-Davydd, famous throughout the land for his singing eloquence; thus oftentimes Eben sang the minister’s sayings while he kept guard over Shames’s sheep.
Understanding broke upon him suddenly.
“Dear, dear,” he said to himself, “this is the talent the Great Male gave me. I am to be a preacher bach.”
In the holiness of his joy he rose to his feet and sang:
“The dear Big Man has given His little servant a talent. Sheep bach that belong to Shames, what do you think the talent is now? ”

“ Abram said. “Angry is the Big Man against you.”
“Has she not laid with Jos Gernos? Has not the boy bought a ring for wedding?”
Abram Bowen sang:
“O Silas Penlon, why you are not religious? Is it for you to throw stones? Old male you are, Silas, indeed to goodness, and the time is shortly coming for you to be screwed down in your coffin.”
“Abram Bowen,” Silas urged, “do you listen to reason now, there's a nice, godly little boy bach.”
“Silas Penlon,” answered Abram, “I say unto you, sinner, that you will go down on your knees and thank the Big Man that I came to Penlon. ”

“ The rumour began to be spread that William Jenkins, Shop General, was courting in bed with the wench of Penrhos, and it got to the ears of Simon and Beca.
“What for you want to court William Shinkins, Shop General, in bed for?” said Simon.
“There's bad you are,” said Beca.
“Is not Bertha Daviss saying that he comes up here on his old iron horse?” said Simon.
“Indeed to goodness,” answered Sara Jane, “what is old Bertha doing out so late for? Say she to you that Rhys Shop was with her?” ”

“ At the end of the Big Seat Abel Shones was praying for Old Shemmi; now as Shemmi saw and heard this thing he too fell on his knees and prayed for the cure of Twm Tybach. Lloyd the Schoolin’, having taken off his boots, stood on the seat of his pew, asking God to repent of His intention of spoiling Capel Sion as He had done with Sodom and Gomorrah.
“Don’t you now, little Big Man," he prayed, “be influenced either this way or that way by their talk. Think you to yourself, they do not know what they do.” ”

“ Eben, having walked over the mile and a half of heather, and having come to the point from which you can on a clear day see the waters of Cardigan Bay, opened the gate of the enclosure in which Shames’s sheep spent the night.
This Eben did every day till he grew out of knee-breeches into long corduroy trousers. His life was lonely; books were closed against him, because he had not been taught to read; and the sense of the beautiful or the curious in Nature is slow to awake in the mind of the Welsh peasant. After a time Eben began to hold whispered conversations with himself. ”

“ Sam cried, “say you that Esther fach is not drowned.”
“Sam, indeed to goodness,” Bertha said to him, “trouble not your mind about a harlot.”
“Now, dear me,” answered Sam, “foolish is your speech, Bertha. How shall I come home without Esther?”
“There's Catrin, Sam bach. Owe you nothing to Catrin? Is she not in child by you?”
Old Shemmi’s hay waggon came into the roadway, and Sam said to the man who drove the horse:
“Male bach nice, don’t you begin before Esther comes, and she will be soon. Maybe she’s sleeping.”
“In the arms of a man,” said Catrin. ”

“ Am I not religious? Ask you the Respected Davydd Bern-Davydd. Matilda is strange and amazed in her eyes, and she is set on mischief, and why brawls she loudly about me? Ach, indeed! Bad is this for your male son.” For this God cursed his belongings: two horses sickened and perished, great rain fell upon his hay, which was ripe to be stacked; a cow destroyed her calf. The congregation was sore and murmured against him: “Pity now that our hay is rotting because of the bad sin of Evan Rhiw.” A body of them wailed to Bern-Davydd. ”

“ There’s little you show yourself in the sight of Capel Sion.”
“Mouth you to us now,” said Lamech, “that you will let the bad wench be.”
“Iss, say you like that,” said Puah. “Think you the Big Man has chosen such as Lissi to be a Bern-Davydd?”
“Little people,” answered Adam, “shortsighted you be then. Expect you, Lamech, the Big Father to perform a miracle with Puah as He did with Sara? Will she conceive and bear for you a child? Puah has passed her fruitfulness, and am I not the hope of the Bern-Davydds?”
“But, dull Adam bach,” said Puah, “why do you go low for a female? Mercy me! ”

“ Dan who is in a shop draper in Llanelly and who is the son of Mali and Shaci, why must you tempt the Big Man to anger, boy? Mournful is your dirt. Pack you the woman about her business; let her walk in shame back to her own people. ”

“ Martha interposed: “Throw you the vain crow out, Sadrach, else sure something bad will hap to me and your father for harbouring him in our land.”
Pedr continued: “Said the little white Jesus: ‘Mind you, Pedr bach, not to forget to tell the sons of Capel Sion that they have thieved from the widow and the orphan; tell you the daughters too, Pedr bach, that they speak slander and deal lightly with the things that are holy in my sight.’ There's sayings for you! What for you laugh, boys bach? Is not the Judge of the earth right? Would you laugh at Daniel? At Elijah? Why for you laugh? ”

“ Sadrach the Small flung a rake at Pedr’s head.
“Now, now, that is not like the off-spring of a religious father,” Sadrach the Large rebuked his son. “Be you calm, my child. The temptation is great, but remember you that Pedr is not sensible in his head.”
“O people,” Pedr continued, “listen. Thus said the Big Man: ‘Capel Sion has become as a temple of pig buyers; a woman without glory. Pedr bach, do you say to them that I will destroy their crops and rot their bones, that not one male, nor female, nor child shall rise from the grave when my little servant Gabriel blows on his old trumpet. ”

“ Old Ianto spoke from his bed:
“Dinah, go you off to your loft now. Indulge in no evil thoughts concerning Michael. Think you no less of him, little daughter, because the Big Man has not blessed him with much.”
Dinah untied the tape which held her skirt around her waist, and removed the cotton bodice which covered her loosely hanging breasts, and went up the ladder into the loft.
In the morning she baked a loaf of plank bread, which with a bowl of milk warm from the cow she laid before the tramp. ”

“ Lamech opened his Bible for spiritual guidance; he read aloud these words:
“Ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.”
“Throw you your light of wisdom on the speech, Lamech,” said Puah.
“The Big Man means that it’s better for others to tell our father. Adam may plead that what we say is not true, and we will be rebuked. Let some cunning one go and bear witness.”
Puah tied her wide bonnet strings under her chin, and drew on her feet her elastic-side boots, and went to Llanwen and told Joshua to go and inform her father-in-law of the wickedness of Adam. ”

“ Noontide he was sitting on the gate of the field in which Nansi and Dewi were mowing his hay. There came to him a stalwart man named Abram Bowen, who then was the chief singing man in Capel Sion.
“Dear now, very good crop of hay you’ve got, man," said Abram Bowen. “Silas bach, is this not a credit to you?”
Nansi and Dewi were approaching the gate, making great curves with their scythes. Nansi paused and looked at the men.
“Nansi, you silly cow,” cried Silas, “what for you wait? Dewi will cut off your little legs if you don't go faster. Do you hurry now, for the night cometh.” ”

“ Gwylim came and courted Betti in full daylight, wherefore the men of Sion grew angry, and they called on Joshua and said to him: “Speak you to her, little Josh, for is she not your sister, man?” Joshua took counsel of God. God answered him by a dream. “Well-well, Josh bach,” He said, “very terrible is this about the wench Betti. Windy is the female. Command you her to remain unwed. Moreover, not right for her to take a husband away from Capel Sion. Ach y fi! Giving her farm and pennies and silver and yellow gold to a male who worships trappings and ceremonials in the old church! ”