One day in the year 1823 in the village with the delightful name of Nant yr Eira (the stream of the snow), Llangadfan, not far from Welshpool, an old woman was being evicted from the cottage where she had lived alone for more than seventy years. A young married man from another parish had purchased it and his name was Rhisiart ap Ifan. The villagers were very sorry for her but none of them was aware she was a witch and therefore quite capable of looking after herself. During the years the old woman had never gone begging and there was no reason to suppose she dealt in witchcraft, hence the sympathy of the villagers was all with her. Several people at the scene offered her help, which she refused. She said: "Just leave my things there, the weather is good." They insisted on storing her things in a barn at one of the farms and she moved there to wait until another house became vacant. She soon found another cottage through the help of her neighbours and settled down. This new cottage was only a few doors away from her former home. Rhisiart at times felt a little guilty when passing by the old woman. Then one day the witch's revenge on the man who had caused her to be evicted began. Strange knocking were heard all around the walls of his house, every vegetable and flower which had up to now flourished in his garden, withered and died. He worked as a farm labourer and suddenly found himself unable to plough a straight furrow. This especially upset him as he had prided himself on his skill at ploughing. It was not until a large hare, able mysteriously to get into his house, particularly at night, started to appear, did he connect these things with the eviction of the old lady who now lived down the street. After thinking about these happenings for some little time he became convinced that she must be a witch. He decided soon after that he would have to kill her as soon as he was certain she was in fact the hare. The supposition he had made became a certainty when he saw the hare sitting in her garden; a very large hare looking as if it really belonged there. It was impossible for him to get close enough the hare with a piece of iron, so he decided on another method. He loaded his shotgun with small iron pellets knowing full well that if even a small amount of blood was drawn by iron, she would never again be able to transform herself into anything. In his anger though Rhisiart would not feel appeased with just injuring the witch, she must die! The hare was now terrifying the man's wife and young family by appearing in their bedrooms after midnight and leaping on and off the beds and in and out of the baby's cradle. He got ready for the kill and chanced to see the hare as it was getting to dusk one evening, making its way towards the home. He ran to where he had secreted his shotgun and hid in his next door neighbours garden. The hare went up his garden path and the man loosed off two shots in quick succession before it had reached his front door. The animal gave a terrible agonising scream, fell, then got up and staggered away. Fearing it would not die of its injuries the man followed meaning to shoot it again. Suddenly the hare changed its shape into that of a fox, then into a huge badger, but the man still followed. By now it was almost crawling along, so he had a chance o reload, but the badger came to a stop then vanished! In it's place stood a large black bear snarling and advancing towards the terrified man. At this change the man slowed his pursuit, fearing the witch's magic powers were far greater than he had at fist thought. The snarling changed into a high pitched scream, and the bear charged at the man, who ran for his home in mortal terror. Three days later, a woman from the village who was not afraid of the witch and looked upon her as just another old lady, realised she had not been seen for a few days, and decided to call on her in case she was ill, or had fallen. She knocked several times but there was no reply, the only sound from within was of the witch's cat crying pitifully. She pushed open the door and to her horror found the old woman lying close to the empty hearth, with the cat sitting upon the chest. She ran for the village apothecary, who examined the body and stated that it was riddled with small iron pellets. The man Rhisiart, appeared before the local magistrate, but got away with the murder charge when he explained he had shot at a large hare that had been making a nuisance of itself around his house and garden, and not at a human being. From the moment of the shooting the witch though, Rhisiart suffered from ill health, which resulted in his death two years later at the early age of twenty-seven.
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