Morning journal and courier., 1889-10-19
KING ARTHUR,s LAND.

dplc Auu uRtuIo'S 0ou. Dollotou III tuo gus
pei of peace, right and Justice"
KING ARTaUR,s LAND.
Cornish Antlq uisies, superstitions and
Customs.
HELsroN, Cornwall, OCT. 8.
To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Souvestre, who did SO much to preserve
the interesting traditions and reveal the
pleasing characteristics Of the people Of Brit
tany, aptly says that traditions If not true as
to facts. are always 30 as to sentiments. Ap-
plying this test to Cornwall, 1t would prove
the richest, and but partly worked, field for
the archaologist and antiquarian of any por-
ton of the British Isles. There is abundant
proof that an important commerce existed in
tin between the people of the extreme west
ern Cornish coast and the Phoenicians from
Gades, colony on the western Spanish
coast, more than eleven hundred years be-
fore the Christian era; while the most cele-
brated British arch@ologists believe that
Cornwall was actually colonized while the
rest of the island was yet desert, and even
the opposite continent of Gaul, and the
Sk0ntoA pau Va 11NAoR01 WoA0 uAAAh0NAeoAs
Evidences of exceedingly remote prehistoric
activities are everywhere apparent in western
England, and their numbers and interest in
crease from the boundaries of Devon through
Cornwall to Lands End. These consist of
cromlechs, whose rude forms of pagan bur-
ial memorials are scattered with such profu-
sion throughout Ireland; huge uninscribed
rnonn1ifha of er1ch Ia ayaf that thar INV
terry has not yet been unraveled; dams or
forths of tremendous earthen circles; cliff
castles in countless numbers upon the
heights of the overhanging granite and slate
of the sublime Cornish coast; immense align
ment and avenues of stone similar to the mar
velous stone chevaux de frise before mighty
Dun Eugus upon lonely Aranmore of the
western Irish coast; cave dwellings, the first
homes of men; and the hut and beehive
structures, those tiny and first examples Of
architecture illustrating the earliest Develop
ment in man of home and the ha bitation
longing and effort which first raised him, in
habit, above the wild beast with which he
struggled for mastery.
Indeed everywhere one may go in Cornwall
are found evidences Of that extreme an
tiquity which so impress and at times ap-
pals the student in Ireland; and coming to
a later period one cannot escape the proof
that the first Celts of Ireland and the frst
people of Cornwall were not only of coma
mon stock, but for centuries were, while pa
gans, people of common language, GUS
toms and interest. So, too, after the intro
duction of Christianity in Ireland, during
that period of peerless Christian zeal and
missionary sacrifice, one cannot but become
convinced that Cornwall as a religious de-
tendency of Ireland became the seat of a
wondrously fourishing Christian commune
ty; one which in time even ignored Roman
tradition and discipline, celebrated Easter as
with the Greeks, and insisted on its origin as
from the patriarchal seat at Jerusalem.
English ecclesiology and hagiology de not
| like to admit this; but Yankee as I am
| could show that threesfourths of the Oldest
| of antiquated renown in Cornwall, either to-
day bear the names, or originally derived
| their names from, the jealous Irish missiona.
ries who made Cornwall q Christian instead
of Pagan land.
In the Intervening of Psganism and
| Christianity there was undoubtedly large &C.
clesiastical sanction entertained towards
| Damonians, the ancient Cornish people.
Long isolation from the remainder of pro-
gressivs England, and the retention of dis
tinct language, the Cymrio division of the
| Celtic, to within little over q century since
fostered the clan theory of society and left
countless legends, superstitions and customs
i among this stolid though singularly impres
| ofv ond oartiynapfal manila
Whatever Wesley and Whitfield, with the
railway, the newspaper and the telegraph
may have done in altering the every day
lives of the Cornish folk, no power has yei
been able to Danish the endeared wraiths ol
the mysticisms and mysteries of legendari
ly heroic past. To-day, as firmly as Ave
centuries since, the inner heart of the Cor.
nish man clings to his "droll" or tale o.
giant, hobgoblin and fairy with aggressive
defensive tenacity; and few of these are
interesting by way of illustration. Belleriar
| was formerly the name of Lands End, al
also the name of a mighty giant who made il
his home. Cormoran built st. Michael'f
Jack the Giant-killer. Holiburn of the CARR
defended ordinary mortals against othe
giants than himself. The Giant of Nancle
dry principally subsisted upon little chill
dren. The giant Trebiggan frightened bat
children into virtuous lives, and dined of
the incorrigable ones, which he usually friet
on fiat rock by his cave door. The gian
Blunderbus, killed by little Tom Hickathrif
with cart axle, was the embodiment of sur
ly -laziness and cruel greed. The gian
| Wrath, terror of the coast, walked out to SCI
a dozen miles or 30, and, fastening tn
fshermens' boats to his girdle, strolled leis
urely back to his cave to serve his prisoner
up for food at will. Gogmagog lost tn
} kingdom of Cornwall to a Trojan giant, Co
rineus, in wrestling match. Thunderbon
walked the land, everywhere inspiring tsrro
by his awful ugliness. While the might
Bolster, whom Cruikshank endeavored to de
: | pict, was so huge that he could stride fror
st. Agnes Beacon to the top of earn Brae,
distance of six miles. This was the amorou
giant, who, while nearly killing his wife fror
overwork, was making love to good st. Ag
mes, who, to rid herself of his opportunities
persuaded Bolster, as a test of affection, t
bleed himself to death IN an attempt q
, Chapel Porth to fill a hole, which had q &c
, oret outlet to the sea, with blood let from
vein in his massive arm. To all Cornis
folk these monsters still live in fireside tale:
/ and the numberless monuments to q paga
{ past scattered over the rocky tors and viii
moors, such as the eromlechs, monoliths an
other rude stone monuments, are the house
hold goods and pastime implements of thi
: vanished but not vanquished race.
1Q0 leS6uub VI OOIuWdll are ~ btIouS'
varied and many that an attempt to give th
a reader of a newspaper article the faintes
idea of their general character cannot
! made. But Cornish fairies may safely
: summarized as the ''small people," tt
' "brownies," the "spriggans," the "buooas
or Knockers" and the "pixies," "piskies,
:, or "pigsies," as the latter are variousl
d termed. The first are the souls of the Co
Q nish folk of thousands of years ago, COZ
n demned to haunt the earth until they are OF
by one transformed into ants, when tbs
will disappear. They are not unfriendl..
y are shy and demure, and have been know
o to perform many kindly Offices. tt
. ''brownies' are dear, delightful househo
elves, happy in all good and sorrowing ov
all evil. The schoolmaster is said to be il
imical to these gentle Cornish sprites al
> they are fast disappearing. The "spriggal
"a is held to be the fairy representative of Il
h olden giant. He is rude and sometimes i
cious. He hsunts the old stone monument
and, If Cornish peasants are to be believed,
70 is dangerous ground about these haunts VIII
20 the .'spriggans" return for their periodic
"a bauches, when tons of rock are still bowl
!, through the air, over the beetling crags al
- across the dreary moors. The "pixy" is
joker and mischief maker of the worst sol
/. he delights in all sorts Of mad pranks, b