Adapted from Welsh Folk-Lore by Owain Elias
A PENTREFOELAS MAN WAS COMING HOME one lovely summer’s night when, within a stone’s throw of his house, he heard in the far distance singing of the most enchanting kind.
He stopped to listen to the sweet sounds which filled him with a sensation of deep pleasure. He had not listened long ere he perceived that the singers were approaching. By and by they came to the spot where he was, and he saw that they were marching in single file and consisted of a number of small people, robed in close-fitting grey clothes, and they were accompanied by speckled dogs that marched along two deep like soldiers.
When the procession came quite opposite the enraptured listener, it stopped, and the small people spoke to him and earnestly begged him to accompany them, but he would not. They tried many ways, and for a long time, to persuade him to join them, but when they saw they could not induce him to do so they departed, dividing themselves into two companies and marching away, the dogs marching two abreast in front of each company. They sang as they went away the most entrancing music that was ever heard.
The man stood where he was, utterly spellbound, listening to the ravishing music of the Fairies, and he did not enter his house until the last sound had died away in the far-off distance.