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Many years ago, a witch living near Pembrokeshire went to the crossroads at midnight to collect certain items necessary to her crafts when she came across a broken branch, which having been smote by lightning was lying across the road. Underneath the log was trapped a man.
'Release me from this branch,' said the man. 'And your children will be blessed with long life.'
'I have no children,' said the witch.
'Release me and I will show you a secret place, where healing plants grow,' said the man.
'My satchel is full,' said the witch. 'I will release you from this trap if you tell me your name.'
The man would not give his name, so the witch took a bracelet of iron off her wrist and placed it on the man's arm.
She then removed a small axe from her bag and used it to cleave the smoking branch in two. Having freed the stranger, the witch led him home by the loop around his wrist where she prepared a chain to tether him by.
Three young maids also lived in the witches cabin, for the witch had lied about having no children. The girls asked for the chained man's name.
'This is not a man,' said the witch, and with an iron knife she carved three pieces of flesh from his thigh. She encouraged each of her daughters to eat, so that they would live a long life. The girls ate, and having eaten felt stronger than before.
The next morning, she did same to the other leg. After they consumed the stranger's flesh, the hair on their heads grew longer, warts on their noses were healed, and their eyesight was sharpened.
On the first night, the eldest daughter came to the fairy man.
'For what do you wish?' asked the fairy.
'I wish to live forever,' she said, and the fairy opened the wound on his thigh so that she could drink the elixir of his blood.
On the second night, the second daughter came to him.
'For what do you wish?' he asked.
'For gold,' she said, and the fairy tore out a lock of his shining golden hair to give to the second daughter.
On the third night, the youngest daughter came to see him.
'What do you wish, child?' asked the fairy.
'I wish for a friend,' said the girl, who was lonely, and the fairy offered his hand so that she might remove the iron band from his wrist and gain a true friend for life. They say that there used to be a fatherless family of witches living in Pembrokeshire, the last of which renounced her wickedness and became a respected wise woman who lived a very long time in comfort and happiness.