Latest Folklore

Llangybi.

... there is a famous well, known as “Ffynon wen” (Holy Well): It was formerly supposed to possess healing powers. Its waters gush forth in abundance, and show no signs of abating even in the driest seasons.

Within a quarter-of-a-mile there used to be a large stone called “Llech Cybi” which the invalids who came to this well for healing were required to touch.

From ‘Notes and Queries’ in v1 of the Transactions of the Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society (1910-14).
archive.org/stream/antiqucardigan01carduoft#page/48

Under the Cardiganshire Llangybi Edward Lhuyd wrote: “On Ascension Eve they (the people) resort to Ffynnon Wen; after they have washed themselves, they go to Llech Gybi, that is an arrow’s flight from the well. There they put the sick under the Llech, where, if the sick sleeps, it is an infallible sign of recovery; if not, of death.”

From ‘The Lives of the British Saints, v2’ by S. Baring Gould and John Fisher (1908).
books.google.co.uk/books?id=uE3pXSdZd5gC&pg=PA213

Leabhar na Feinne (1872) by J F Campbell.

This book of Gaelic ballads includes one called ‘Laoidh an Truisealaich’ . It is “an imaginary conversation with a great standing Stone” and “Murray, the reciter, asserts that it was the custom in his youth to recite this ‘Lay of the Truiseal Stone,’ near the butt of Lewis in Shawbost.”

It’s quite long so if your Gaelic is up to it you may read it at
archive.org/stream/leabharnafeinne00campgoog#page/n239/mode/1up

It is locally known as “The Cave,” but the term “Picts’ House,” often given to such structures, is also applied to it.

..

A tradition which a family of that neighbourhood has preserved for the past two centuries, has, in the opinion of the present writer, a distinct bearing upon the “cave” and its builders.

This is that, a long time ago, a community of “clever” little people, known as “the merry elfins,” inhabited a “tounie,” or village, close to the place. The present inheritors of the tradition assume that they lived above ground, and do not connect them at all with this “cave,” of whose existence they were unaware until a comparatively recent date. But, in view of a mass of folk-lore ascribing to such “little people” an underground life, the presumption is that the “tounie” was nothing else than the “cave”. This theme cannot be enlarged upon here; but a study of the traditions relating to the inhabitants of those subterranean houses will make the identification clearer.

It may be added that the term “Picts’ house” applied to the Pitcur souterrain, is in agreement with the inherited belief, so widespread in Scotland, that the Picts were a people of immense bodily strength, although of small stature.

From ‘Pitcur and its merry elfins’ by David Macritchie, in Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist for 1897, p217. He’s ever hopeful, and I know the feeling exactly, of wanting to pin some local tale on a nearby megalithic spot.

The name, “Five-Wells,” has arisen from the circumstance that in the vicinity, five fields so abut upon a spring that each has a drinking-place or “well supplied therefrom. The name is also applied to a farmhouse near.

From John Ward’s ‘Five-Wells Tumulus, Derbyshire’ in the Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist (1901). He describes his excavations of the site.

I would therefore beg to call attention to what is perhaps the oldest stone in this island about which there is documentary evidence extending over thirteen centuries, and which is still standing in the identical spot where it was erected centuries earlier still.

[..] the Book of Chad [..] has the words behet hirmain guidauc = as far as the long stone of Gwyddog or Gwyddawg. Mr. Gwenogvryn Evans considers that this entry must have been made before A.D. 840..

There’s also mention of the ‘byrfaen’ or short stone, also on the boundary of Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire and nearby. But this is supposed to be lying ‘among a heap of debris, namely, in three pieces’.

WH Davey adds, ‘My son has asked in the immediate neighbourhood about the stones, but could get no further particulars except that it is supposed that they are on the site of a battle which took place in that locality.‘

However it seems that the short stone was never that short, because there’s also a quote from Nicholson’s 1813 ‘Cambrian Travellers’ Guide, in which it was said to be ‘15 feet long and 4 in width and thickness’.

From ‘A boundary stone with a good record’ in Illustrated Archaeologist v1 (1893).

The fort up here is only one of a variety of things you can point to around Dufftown to illustrate the undoubtedly true tale that follows. The writer was clearly very proud of his local legend.

Battle of Mortlach:-- In the year 1010, Malcolm II. obtained, in this parish, that signal victory over the Danes, which has ever since given the place a superior degree of fame, and makes it respected as classic ground. Human nature is inclined to regard, with a peculiar reverence, the very spot of earth on which was of old transacted any remarkable event.

Malcolm had been beat the year before by the Danes, and was obliged to leave them in possession of the lands of Moray. Anxious, however, to expel such intruders, he now returns upon them from the south, with a powerful force; and the Danes, having intelligence of his motions, came forward to give him battle.

It’s excitingly written but rather lengthy – you can read it here in the 1796 statistical account.
stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/link/1791-99/Banff/Mortlach/17/442/
Essentially three of the Scottish generals get themselves killed in their enthusiasm, and the home side fears that the game’s up. But the sensible King pops over to the church and has a quick pray. This perks him up and after a rousing speech to the army he ‘throws Enetus, one of the Danish generals, from his horse, and kills him with his own hand.’ After this the Scots rally and see off the Danes. There’s the cunning idea that the river could have been dammed to flood the Danish while they slept, but the author can’t quite fit that into the story convincingly, so attributes it to another occasion.

As traditional and pretty sure memorials of this famous battle, are pointed out;
1. The vestiges of an intrenchment, very distinct at this day, on the summit of the little Conval-hill, called by the neighbourhood the Danish Camp.
2. A number of tumuli, or cairns, supposed to have been collected over the bodies of the fallen.
3. A huge and irregularly roundish stone, formerly, it is said, on the grave of Enetus, but now rolled a few ells from its station over the corpse, and made a part of a fence about a field of corn; where it is denominated the Aquavitae Stone. To account for this appellation, and to prevent antiquarians from puzzling their brains with dark and learned hypotheses in time to come, it may not be improper to tell, that the men, whose brawny strength removed this venerable tenant, finding it rather a hard piece of work, got, as a solace for their toil, a pint of whisky, out of which, immediately, around the stone, they took a hearty dram. Every body knows, that, in Scotland, whisky and aquavitae are the same.

There are numerous other ‘proofs’ as well, including (possibly) a gold torc.
The stone, according to the RCAHMS record, was broken up c1860, and before being moved was originally at NJ32314072.

A ditch extends all along the top of the Malvern Range, which is said to have been constructed by Gilbert de Clare, the (red) Earl of Gloucester, who married Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward the 1st. The Earl resided at Hanley Castle and received the right of Malvern Chase as his wife’s dower, so, wishing to separate this from the lands of the Bishop of Hereford, he constructed a ditch. It is hardly possible that a ditch alone without a fence or pallisading could keep deer and other game from straying. He swore his usual oath, “By the Splendour of God, if I catch any man trespassing upon my manor I will cut off his hands.”

What an unutterable prat. This is from ‘Camps on the Malvern Hills’ by F G Hilton Price, in the journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, v10, 1881. W S Symonds also calls it the ‘Red Earl’s Ditch’ in his ‘Hanley Castle’ novel (see Waum’s Well).

This is from p29 of ‘Hanley Castle’ by W. S. Symonds. It’s a novel, but he says in his preface that he wrote it with the motive of interesting the local inhabitants in local history and traditions, so I imagine the Facts are true.

Bridget now proposed that we should descend the hill to the well of St. Waum, and take a drink of the water, so good for the healing of broken hearts, sore eyes and rheumatism. I laughed at the idea, as we were both strong and healthy, but down the hill we went for the sake of St. Waum’s spell and Bridget’s fancy.

The spring, for well there is none, bubbles forth from a green quaking turf near a narrow inlet of the hills at the corner of the forest which formerly covered a great part of the country between Hereford and the Malverns. Even now it is closely hidden by thickets of eglantine, hawthorn and hazel, and the path was so fully over-grown with trailing plants that we had charge boldly to get through at all.

He calls the cave above ‘the Cave of Glendower, or Hermit’s Cave’.
archive.org/stream/hanleycastleane00symogoog#page/n48

(I visited a spring today myself, and am covered in the nettle stings to prove it).

I looked up ‘waum’ and it rather despatches the idea of a christian saint. The OED says it meant in Old English, ‘a gushing forth or upwelling of water, a spring, or the water of such’ and also ‘the bubbling and heaving of water etc. in the process of boiling’. Interesting!

I also found this nearby stoney folklore. Clutter’s cave is the same cave mentioned above.

In a ravine to the south-east of the Beacon Camp and a little below Clutter’s Cave, against the roots of an old crab tree, lies a huge block of syenite. This stone is called the “Divination” Stone, and has been described in ancient manuscripts as the show stone, suggesting that at one time singular religious rites were performed upon it.

The exact dimensions of the stone I did not take, but simply measured the part that bore the appearance of having been hollowed out by man. The hollow portion of the stone faces south and is 4 feet wide from east to west, and 3 1/2 feet from north to south; the centre of the depression is 4 inches in depth.

A little beyond is a British trackway still visible in places, leading from the top of the hill, to an old spring called “Waums” Well.

From ‘Camps on the Malvern Hills’ by F G Hilton Price, in the journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, v10, 1881.

That of old, all those of any publict spirit in the parioch specially the gentlemen conveened upon St. Stephens day if lawfull, and failzeing thereof the next lawfull day at the Knock of Alves, with their best horse and armes, and ran there races westward two miles and 1/2 of distance ending at the Kairne of Kilbuyack.

From ‘Geographical Collections Relating to Scotland made by Walter MacFarlane’ by Sir Arthur Mitchell, v1 (1906). MacFarlane originally published it in 1748.
archive.org/stream/publicationssco06socigoog#page/n29
St Stephen’s day is the 26th December should you wish to recreate the racing. Maybe the cairn is the ruined ‘Moray Cairn’ at NJ 1106 6147?

This is going to be a long story, for which I apologise, but I’ve not seen it reproduced elsewhere. It is (I think) from Walter de Mapes’ / Walter Map’s writings. He died in about the year 1200. His main work is ‘De Nugis Curialium’ so I am assuming this is taken from there (but I’ve not been able to find another English translation). However the list on Wikipedia that describes its contents doesn’t really have anything that looks relevant. It’s got lots of weird stuff (phantom animals, the wild hunt, vampires, a Northumberland ghost story) but not Stonehenge. So I’m a bit bemused for the moment. Anyway it makes a change from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s (also 12th century) version.The following quote, wherever it originally comes from and whoever translated it, is taken from ‘The Beauties of England and Wales’ by John Britton (v15, 1814), p365. books.google.co.uk/books?id=pi1JAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA365

After Emrys (ie Ambrosius) had tranquillized every place, he made a journey to Salisbury (ie Sarum) to behold the graves of those whom Hengistyr had caused to be slain of the British. At that time three hundred monks formed a community in the monastery of Ambri Mount; for so it was called, because it was founded by a person named Ambri. And Emrys was grieved to see that spot devoid of every mark of honour; so he summoned to him all the stone-masons and carpenters in Britain, to erect a trophy which whould be an eternal memorial around that sepulture. But after they had assembled together their ingenuity failed them;

thereupon Tramor, Archbishop of Caer-Llion, drew near, and thus spoke to Emrys: ‘My Lord cause thou to come before thee Merdin (Merlin) the bard of Gortheyrn, for he is able to invent a wonderful structure, through his skill, to be of eternal duration.‘

So Merdin was brought to Emrys; and the king was joyful to see him; and Emrys desired him to foretel the events that were to happen in this island. But Merdin replied: “It is not right to declare those things except when there is a necessity; and were I, on the contrary, to speak of them, the spirit that instructs me would depart, when I should stand in need of it.” Upon that the king would not press him further, but enquired of him how he could invent a fair and lasting work over that spot.

Thereupon Merdin advised a journey to Ireland to the place where stood the Cor-y-Cawri, or the circle of the giants on the mountain of Cilara. For thereon he said, are stones of an extraordinary quality, of which nobody has any knowledge; for they are not to be obtained by might nor by strength, but by art, and were they at this place in the state they are there, they would stand to all eternity.

So Emrys said, laughingly, by what means can they be brought from thence? Merdin replied, laugh not, because I speak only seriousness and truth; those stones are mystical, and capable of producing a variety of cures; they were originally brought thither by giants from the extremities of Spain; and they placed them in their present position. The reason of their bringing them was, that when any of them was attacked by disease, they used to make a fomentation in the midst of the stones, first laving them with water, which they poured into the fomentation; and through that they obtained health from the disease that might affect them, for they put herbs in the fomentation; and those healed their wounds.

When the Britons heard of the virtues of those stones, immediately they set off to bring them. Uthyr Pendragon being commissioned to be their leader, taking 15,000 armed men with him; Merdin also was sent as being the most scientific of his contemporaries. At that time Gillamori reigned in Ireland, who, on hearing of their approach, marched against them with a great army, and demanded the object of their errand. Having learned their business, he laughed, saying, ‘It is no wonder to me that a feeble race of men have been able to ravage the isles of Britain, when its natives are so silly as to provoke the people of Ireland to fight with them about stones.’ Then they fought fiercely, and numbers were slain on both sides, until at length Gillamori gave way, and his men fled.

Then Merdin said, “Exert your utmost skill to carry the stones,” but it availed them not. Merdin then laughed, and without any labour but by the effect of science, he readily brought the stones to the ships. So they then brought them to Mount Ambri.

Then Emrys summoned to him all the chiefs and graduated scholars of the kingdom, in order, through their advice, to adorn that place with a magnificent ornament. Thereupon they put the crown of the kingdom upon his head, celebrated the festival of Whitsuntide for three days successively; rendered to all in the island their respective rights; and supplied his men in a becoming manner with gold, silver, horses and arms.

So when every thing was prepared Emrys desired Merdin to elevate the stones as they were in Cilara; and this he accomplished. Then every body confessed that ingenuity surpassed strength.

As the ancient parochial boundary between Warminster and Corsley passes over the larger hill, it has been for time out of mind customary for a great concourse of people to assemble here on Palm Sunday to defend the boundary, and prevent encroachments.

From ‘The Beauties of England and Wales’ volume 15, by John Britton and others (1814).

... “Cley” has nothing to do with the earth called clay because the hill is entirely of chalk. The name is a mere corruption of an old word, Cleg, which means hill.

Cley Hill had its revel. This was on Palm Sunday, and was probably a relic of the procession which on that day used to be made before the Reformation. It is said this gathering took place in order to keep up the boundaries of two parishes that cross the hill. The custom however led to riot and abuse and was discontinued.

Mentioned similarly in the Warminster and Westbury Journal, 12th August 1882.

Apparently from Howell’s ‘Collection of Proverbs’ from 1659, but quoted in ‘English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases’ by W C Hazlitt (1907):

Sutton Wall and Kenchester Hill
Are able to buy London, were it to sell.

These are two places fruitful in the country, saith Mr. Howell.

Maybe it’s a misquote and should imply the two places were better than London in the past? as they both have big forts (Kenchester is next to Credenhill Park Wood fort) – rather like the rhymes that tell ‘when [local old place] was a bustling town,
[local big city] was a furzy down’. Maybe, maybe not.

‘Traditionary lines’ from ‘Herefordshire Words and Phrases’ by F T Havergal (1887)
archive.org/details/herefordshirewo00havegoog

Hope under Dinmore, and if Dinmore should fall,
The Devil would have Hope and Dinmore and all.

As long as Helsby hill wears a hood,
The weather’s never very good.

Observational but not particularly useful advice recorded in Holland’s 1886 ‘Glossary of words used in the county of Chester’.

There are two forts here above Llanbedrog, separated by a small valley. Pen-y-Gaer is apparently the more obvious today, according to Coflein. There are lots of springs around this high land, and a path / road lead toward one with particular renown – Ffynnon Bedrog (SH32263226). Coflein calls it a wishing well, but the Reverend Baring Gould knows better.

In Wales [St Petroc] is more especially associated by tradition with Llanbedrog. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was there considered to be “beneficial to offer to Pedrog for gangrenes.” His Holy Well, Ffynnon Bedrog, is on Bryn Du, in the parish. It enjoyed a great reputation formerly, and many traditions linger of the miraculous cures effected by its waters in every conceivable ailment. Some years ago a round vessel of dark stone was found at its bottom full of pins. Thieves could be discovered by it. A bit of bread thrown on its surface by the injured person sank at the mention of the thief’s name among a number of suspected persons.

From p102 of ‘Lives of the British Saints, Vol. 1’ by S Baring-Gould and John Fisher (1907).
archive.org/stream/cu31924092447816#page/n125

[Famed] for her prophetic gifts was the Lady of Lawers (Bantighearna Lathuir), one of the Breadalbane family, married to Campbell of Lawers. Her prophecies relate to the house and lands of Breadalbane, and are written, it is believed, in a book shaped like a barrel, and secured with twelve iron hoops or clasps in the charter room of Taymouth Castle. This book is called ‘The Red Book of Balloch’.

[..] A stone called the ‘Boar Stone’ (Clach an Tuirc), a boulder of some two or three hundred tons in a meadow near Loch Tay, will topple over when a strange heir comes to Taymouth...

From p 276 of ‘Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland’ by John Gregorson Campbell (1900).
archive.org/stream/cu31924029909896#page/n299
A slight overestimate of the weight of the stone I fear.

On the top of a high stone in Scaristavor parks, the raven will drink its fill of men’s blood [..]

This stone is about ten ft. high, and is one of the three fragments into which a larger stone, used by an old woman of former days as a hammer to knock limpets off the rocks (ord bhairneach) was broken. Of the other two, one is in Uigh an du tuath, and one in Tarnsa Islet. At a spot from which these three fragments can be seen, there is hidden an urn of silver and an urn of gold (croggan oir’s cr. airgid). It is easy to find a place whence one can see two, but when about to see the third, one of the first two disappears. Five or six yards make all the difference. A herdsman once found the spot, but when digging for the treasure he happened to see a heifer that had fallen on its back in a stream. He ran to its rescue, and never could find the place again.

From p274 of ‘Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland’ by John Gregorson Campbell (1900).
archive.org/stream/cu31924029909896#page/n297

This stone probably does not have anything to do with this story: you’d imagine you’d want one more horizontal for balancing milk in. But it being (as the RCAHMS record strongly states) ‘one of the most impressive standing stones in Lorn’, it surely has added to the Respect for Stones in the area. The Acharra stone is a hefty 3.7m high with a pointy tip. It’s about a mile from Achadh nan Darach.

The being which attached herself to the farm-house of Achindarroch (Acha-nan-darach, field of oaks) in Glenduror, Appin, Argyleshire, was variously known as the Glaistig and as the Gruagach of Glenduror. She attended to the cattle, and took particular charge of keeping the calves from the cows at night. She followed the house (not the family), and was alive not many years ago. A portion of the milk was poured out for her every evening on a stone called Clach na Glaistig (the Glaistig stone), and once this was neglected by a new tenant, the calves were found next morning with the cows.

Her face was described by those who professed to have seen her, as being like a grey stone overgrown with lichens. A servant girl, going on a dark evening to draw water from a stream flowing past the house, was asked by her fellow-servants if she was not afraid of the Glaistig. In her reply she spoke contemptuously of that being, and on her way to the stream received a slap on the cheek that twisted her head to one side. The following evening, going on the same errand, she got a slap on the other cheek that put her head right.

From p162 of ‘Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland’ by John Gregorson Campbell (1900), where you can read more about this type of creature, associated with various Scottish locations (and generally with similar Gruagach stones for milk).
archive.org/stream/cu31924029909896#page/n185/

The key local legends here link the fourteenth-century Robert The Bruce to the area’s prehistoric monuments from thousands of years earlier. Bruce was taken ill at the Battle Of Slioch against the Comyns (1307). His camp was supposed to have been on Robin’s Height, to the north of Slioch, and the OSA in 1799 described the hill as having large inscribed stones and entrenchments. Whatever these earthworks and stones were, they are long gone. The prehistoric round cairn and long barrow on Newtongarry Hill to the north-east, along with a third, now vanished tumulus, were said to have been built by Bruce’s men as observation and communications posts, with the sick king giving orders from the camp. In later years one of the tumuli was named the Fairy Hillock, and was also supposed to have been a place of execution.

Mysterious Aberdeenshire

Geoff Holder

Some water spirits were less than benevolent. A man desperate to reach his sick wife but despaired because the Luib Bridge over the Don had been swept away in a flood, accepted an offer from a very tall individual to carry him across. In the mid-river the kelpie, for such the stranger was, tried to drown the man, who only escaped after a fierce struggle. When he reached the bank the fustrated creature threw a boulder at him. Passers-by added stones to the boulder until it became known as Kelpie’s Cairn.

W. Gregor

The Witch. (Stories From Congarff)

Next day came down to the castle of Dunadeer: from its eminent situation on the top of a high circular hill, it is observable at a great distance.

Lessly, bishop of Ross, whose history of Scotland was printed at Rome in the fifteenth century, says that this hill was called Dun d’ore, the Golden Mountain, on account of its abounding with gold; that it was owing to this, that the teeth of the sheep which feed upon it, look as if overlaid with gold; and a large circle of stones on the hill, give a brazen sound.*

And the common people have still a tradition current among them, that persons skilled in magic, by performing certain ceremonies at sun-rise, will see the shrubs assume the appearance of gold, on those parts of the hill that most abound with it. From whence these fables derived their origin must be uncertain: but as to the last, one could easily conceive, how the whole summit of the mount would have a golden hue, when receiving the warm glow of the morning, before the sun-beams reached the plain.

*Lesslaei, Hist. Scotiae, 29. The bishop observes, that tradition said, the great circle of stones had composed the temple of an idol:- it may be superfluous to remark, that more probably the stones were druidical, and the fable of the sound they gave, calculated to inspire votaries with greater awe.

From ‘Antiquities and Scenery of the North of Scotland’ by Charles Cordiner (1780).
books.google.co.uk/books?id=67NCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT45

A visit was paid to St. Ann’s Well, and its pure waters were very refreshing. Its legend is lost, as is many another, from the much more frequent changes of abode by the agricultural labourers in these days.
Further up in the same field is the Lady Well; and here, said Mr. Lewis, a lady is said to have committed suicide. Nobody goes for its waters as they do to St. Ann’s, but happily the place seems not to be haunted.

In contrast to all the other tales of St Ann’s Well!
From

The visitors [to Woldbury Camp] were soon engaged in examining its embankments, considering the water supply, and taking the height of the summit, where stood that now familiar object, an Ordnance Survey pole. The papers were to be read beneath the yew trees on the large south-western embankment, where “the British Chieftain was buried,” said a resident on the spot.

From

About eight miles north of Aberystwyth is an ancient grave known as Bedd Taliesin. According to a local tradition, Taliesin, Chief Bard of the Island of Britain was buried on this spot. The grave, which is composed of stones, is in the centre of a large heap of earth or mound surrounded by stone circles, and some generations ago bones, and even a human skull, were found in it, which probably were the remains of the great ancient poet.

There is a superstition respecting Bedd Taliesin that should anyone sleep in it for one night, he would the next day become either a poet or an idiot. There is a similar popular belief in connection with Cader Idris, in Merionethshire, where an eminant bard once tried the experiment.

Taliesin’s Grave is in the Parish of Llanfihangel genau’r Glyn, and in the adjoining parish of Llancynfelin there is a village bearing the name of Taliesin; and, according to the ‘Mabinogion,’ the great poet was born somewhere between the Dyvi and Aberystwyth. The people of North Cardiganshire believe to this day that Taliesin was both born and buried in their district. The origin of his birth, which was supposed to be very miraculous, and other legends which cling to the memory of this great man are to be found in the Mabinogion.

from ‘Folk-lore of west and mid-Wales’ by John Ceredig Davies (1911).
archive.org/stream/folkloreofwestmi00daviuoft#page/n7/mode/2up

“I think the strangest custom must be that of St Elvis Church where there are the remains of St Teilo’s Well and Church with a pilgrims graveyard. It is said that the sick were brought here and given the holy water then laid to rest in the shade of a cromlech. If they slept all would be well but if they were visited by Caladruis (a ravenish bird of ill omen) their chances were not good. It seems rather like the stories of old people being bedded down in cold hospital corridors in the hope they would develop pneumonia – did that actually happen?”

Taken from; Burials; cenquest.co.uk/Home.htm

Left to die at a  cromlech? bit like the Inuit’s old people who were taken out into the snow to die.
St.Elvis never ceases to amaze......