There were many conjurers in Wales in former times, and even at the present day there are a few who have the reputation of practising the Black Art; for we still hear occasionally of persons taking long journeys to consult them, especially in cases of supposed bewitched cattle, horses, pigs, etc. I have already given stories of conjurers counteracting the machinations of witches, and delivering both people and animals from their spell. But they were accredited with the power to do many other things beside. They could, it was thought, compel a thief to restore what he had stolen; could also reveal the future and raise and command spirits.
The possibility of raising spirits, or to cause them to appear, was once believed in in Wales, even in recent times; and Shakespeare in his Henry the Fourth, Act III., S. 1., makes the Welshman, Glendower say:--
"I can call Spirits from the vasty deep."
Wizards and others who practised magical arts were supposed to be able to summon spirits at will; but it seems that some could not control the demons after summoning them. An old man at Llandovery, named Mr. Price, who was once a butler at Blaennos, informed me that an old witch at Cilcwm, named Peggy, found it most difficult to control the spirits in the house, and sometimes she had to go out into a field, and stand within a circle of protection with a whip in her hand.
Conjurers possessed books dealing with the black art, which they had to study most carefully, for it was thought that according to the directions of magical books the spirits were controlled. It was considered dangerous for one ignorant of the occult science to open such books, as demons or familiar spirits came out of them, and it was not always easy to get rid of such unearthly beings. An old woman at Caio, in Carmarthenshire, informed me that the great modern wizard Dr. Harries, of Cwrtycadno, who lived in that parish, had one particular book kept chained and padlocked. The old woman also added that people were much afraid of this book, and that even the wizard himself was afraid of it, for he only ventured to open it once in twelve months, and that in the presence and with the assistance of another conjurer, a schoolmaster from Pencader, who occasionally visited him. On a certain day once every twelve months, Dr. Harries and his friend went out into a certain wooded spot not far from the house, and after drawing a circle round them, they opened the chained book. Whenever this ceremony was performed it caused thunder and lightning throughout the Vale of Cothi. My informant vouched for the truth of this, and stated that her husband had been a servant to Harries.