But she knew that the caldron must burn a year anda day without ceasing, until three blessed drops of the water of knowledgewere obtained from it; and those three drops would give all the wisdom shewanted.So she put a boy named Gwion to stir the caldron and a blind man namedMorda to feed the fire; and made them promise never to let it ceaseboiling for a year and a day. She herself kept gathering magic herbs andputting them into it. One day when the year was nearly over, it chancedthat three drops of the liquor flew out of the caldron and fell on thefinger of Gwion. They were fiery hot, and he put his finger to his mouth,and the instant he tasted them he knew that they were the enchanted dropsfor which so much trouble had been taken. By their magic he at onceforesaw all that was to come, and especially that Cardiwen the enchantresswould never forgive him.Then Gwion fled. The caldron burst in two, and all the liquor flowedforth, poisoning some horses which drank it. These horses belonged to aking named Gwyddno. Cardiwen came in and saw all the toil of the wholeyear lost. Seizing a stick of wood, she struck the blind man Mordafiercely on the head, but he said, "I am innocent. It was not I who didit." "True," said Cardiwen; "it was the boy Gwion who robbed me;" and sherushed to pursue him. He saw her and fled, changing into a hare; but shebecame a greyhound and followed him.
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