IV


HOW THE CYMRY LAND BECAME INHABITED


In all Britain to-day, no wolf roams wild and the deer are all tame.

Yet in the early ages, when human beings had not yet come into the
land, the swamps and forests were full of very savage animals. There
were bears and wolves by the thousand besides lions and the woolly
rhinoceros, tigers, with terrible teeth like sabres.

Beavers built their dams over the little rivers, and the great horned
oxen were very common. Then the mountains were higher, and the woods
denser. Many of the animals lived in caves, and there were billions of
bees and a great many butterflies. In the bogs were ferns of giant
size, amid which terrible monsters hid that were always ready for a
fight or a frolic.

In so beautiful a land, it seemed a pity that there were no men and
women, no boys or girls, and no babies.

Yet the noble race of the Cymry, whom we call the Welsh, were already
in Europe and lived in the summer land in the South. A great
benefactor was born among them, who grew up to be a wonderfully wise
man and taught his people the use of bows and arrows. He made laws, by
which the different tribes stopped their continual fighting and