In days of yore, Math ap Mathonwy, wisest of the Welsh, collected the words of all songs written or to be written and wrote them in "The Book of the Off-White Cow." He then began to bicycle around the British Isles selling subscriptions, but even though he had written in a very tiny hand, most people found that they did not have shelf space for 4,087 thick volumes. He therefore pronounced an hideous curse upon his life's work and consigned it to the flames. At his death, he was visited by the Angel of Retribution, who informed him that his female descendants to the seventh generation were fated to be metamorphosed into Brain Fairies--or, as they are called in France, with great fear and trembling, les fees du mots perduex. They must roam the world without rest until they have retrieved the words of all the songs in The Book of the Off-White Cow, inscribed them in a clear hand on China paper, and deposited them in an oaken chest hidden in a crypt beneath Glastonbury Cathedral. Prognostics maintain that when this chest is full, the world will end.

CC