Leckwith lies across the River Ely from Canton, on the west side of Cardiff, and the old road between them crosses the river at Leckwith Bridge. Marie Trevelyan heard this story from, or about, an old man who used to walk it, and she kept his words.
One day, many years before, he was walking along the road from Canton to Leckwith when a strange-looking man fell in beside him. Whether he went fast or slow, he could not get rid of him. The stranger said nothing, but kept giving him imploring looks from sunken eyes. "At last," said the old man, "I called nine names, but it did no good. He only kept looking at me, and then I got into a rage, and cursed him, but he didn't say nothing. At last I says, 'In the name of God, what do you want?'"
Then tears ran down the stranger's face, and he spoke slowly. "I couldn't speak until you asked me in the name of God. I am dead, but I cannot rest till my head is buried. I was a boatman down the Ely River, and my head is on the bank, and the devils do play with it continually, using it as a football. If you will come with me and get it from them, and bury it, I shall rest."
The old man agreed. It was late and very dark. The ghost led him to a bend of the River Ely just above where the Taff Vale Railway bridge now crosses. There, by a bluish light, he saw what he first took for a group of people playing ball. They were little devils, kicking the poor man's head about. "I was feared at first," he said, "but then I knew what to do. I thought I would go to them praying (for I had often engaged in the prayer-meetings at Bethel)." As he came near them, praying, they all flew away. He picked up the head and buried it in a soft place, digging the hole with his knife, while the ghost stood and watched him the whole time. When he had finished, "he did go away like a puff of smoke."
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