Bwca

The Welsh name for the Brownie. Often mischevious and fond of playing pranks on humans. He is known to act as a Will o the Wisp, leading a traveller up a narrow path to edge of a cliff. The Bwca will then blow out his candle and jump over, laughing loudly and leaving his victim to grope in the dark as best as he can. They have slightly nastier tempers and are prone to tantrums if their work is criticized. They also despise tattletales and people with long noses. (gwarrwin-a-throt) The hidden name of a Monmouthshire Bwca. Though naturally helpful, brownies can become maliscious if they are offended. In a story told to the Welsh folklorist John Rhys at the turn of the century, a helpful bwca (the Welsh equivilent of a brownie) savagely attacked a servent girl on a Monmouthshire farm when she paid him for his work with a bowl of urine instead of his usual bowl of milk and piece of wheat bread. In disgust the bwca move to a neighbouring farm, where he worked willingly until the servent girl began to mock him. He moved to a third farm, and became friends with Moses, the manservent. But Moses was killed in battle, and the grief stricken bwca became a malevolent bogie. This so upset the farmer that he called a local wise man, who on a moonlit night caught the bwca by his nose and banished him to the banks of the red sea for 14 generations.