Cyhyraeth

A groaning spirit. It is never seen but it makes a terrible noise, often at night and before a burying. Among groaning spirits it is considered to be the chief. It especially affected the twelve parishes in the hundred of Inis Cenin, which lie on the south-east side of the river Towy, "where some time past it groaned before the death of every person who lived that side of the country." The spirit also sounded before the deaths of persons "who were born in these parishes, but died elsewhere." Sometimes the voice is heard long before death, but not longer than three quarters of a year. The reason the Cyhyraeth was more often heard in the hundred of Inis Cenin was thought to be that Non, the mother St. David, lived in those parts, where a village is named after her, Llan-non, the church of Non.

The Cyhyraeth is sometimes heard on the sourthern sea-coast, in Glamorganshire, and another one is connected with the parish churchyard at St. Mellons.

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