Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-19
KING ARTHUR'S LAND.
The Antiquities, Superstitions and
Customs of Cornwall.
A COUNTRY RICH In LEGENDS
The Great Work Accomplished by Jealous
Irish Missionaries.
EVIDENCES OF EXTREME ANTIQUITY

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPATcH.1
HELsroN, CORNWALL, October S.-Sou-
vestre. who did SO much to preserve the in
teresting traditions and reveal the pleasing
characteristics of the people Of Brittany,
aptIy SAYS that traditions, if not as true as
facts. are always so as to sentiments. Ap-
pIying this test to Cornwall, it would prove
the richest, and but partly-worked, field for
the archeologist and antiquarian of any por-
tion 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 Phenicians from
Gades, a colony on the western Spanish
coast more than LOO years before the
Christian era; while the most celebrated
British archaologists believe that Cornwall
was actually colonized while the rest of the
island was yet desert, and even the oppo-
site continent of Gaul, and the greater part
of Europe, were uninhsbited."
Evidences of exceedingly remote pre-
historic activities are everywhere apparent
in Western England, and their numbers and
interest increase from the boundaries Of
Devon through Cornwall to Lands End.
These consist of cromlechs, those rude forms
OF pagan memOI1dls eCdblcTcu Win
such profusion throughout ireland; huge
uninscribed monoliths of such remote age
that their mystery has not yet been un-
raveled; duns or forts of tremendous earthen
circles; cliff castles in countless numbers
upon the heights of the overhanging granite
and slate of the sublime Cornish coast; i'm
mense alignments and avenues of stone
similar to the marvellous stone chevaux de
frise before mighty Dun Engus upon lone
ly Aranmore off the western Irish coast;
cave dwellings, the first homes of men; and
the hut an beehive structures, those tiny
and first examples of architecture illustrat-
ing the earliest development in man of
home and the habitation longing and effort
which raised him, in habit, above the wild
beast with which ne struggled for mastery.
EXTREME ANTIQUITY.
Indeed, everywhere one may 90 in Corn
wall are found evidences of that extreme
antiquity which so impresses and at times
appalls the student in Ireland; and coming
to later period one cannot escape the
proof that the first Celts of Ireland and the
first people of Cornwall were not only of
common stock, but for centuries were, while
pagans, a people of common language, Gus
toms and interest So, too, after the intro
duction of Christianity in Ireland, during
missionary sacrifice, one cannot but become
convinced that Cornwall as a religious de-
pendency of Ireland became the seat of q
vondrouslY fiourishing Christian commu-
nifty; one which in time even ignored Ro-
man 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 do
not like to admit this; but Yankee as / am
/ could show that three-fourths of the oldest
and best known hamlets towns and places
of antiquated renown in Cornwall either to-
day bear the names of, or originally derived
their names from, the jealous Irish mission
aries who made Cornwall q Christian in
stead of pagan land.
In the Intervening of Paganism and
Christianity there was undoubtedly large
ecclesiastical sanction entertained toward
many of the supersttious practices Of the
Damonians, the ancient Cornish people.
Long isolation from the remainder of pro-
gressive England, and the retention of
distinct language, the Cymric division of
the Celtic, to within but little over a Gen.
tury since, fostered the clan theory of So
ciety and left countless legends, supersti-
tions and customs among this stolid though
singularly impressive and sentimental peo-
pie.
A LAND OF LEGENDS.
The legends of Cornwall are so strange,
varied and many that an attempt to give
the reader of newspaper article the faint
est idea Of their general character cannot be
made. But Cornish fairies may safely be
summarized as the "small people," the
brownies" the "spriggans," the 'fbuccas,"
or knockers" and the pixies, "piskies"
or "pigsies," as the latter are variously
termed. The first are the souls of the Corn
ish folk of thousands of years ago, con.
demned to haunt the earth until they are
one by one transformed into ants, when they
will disappear. They are not unfriendly,
are shy and demure, and have been known
to perform many kindly Offices. The
brownies" are dear, delightful household
elves, happy in all good and sorrowing over
all evil.
The schoolmaster is said to be inimical to
these gentle Cornish sprites and they are
fast disappearing. The "spriggan" is held
10 be the fairy representative OF the olden
giant. He is rude and sometimes vicious.
He haunts the old stone monuments, and if
Cornish peasants are to be believed it is
dangerous ground about these haunts when
the "spriggans" return for their periodic
debauches, when tons of rock are still
bowled through the air, over the beetling
crsgs, and across the dreary moors.
The ''pixy" is a joker and mischiefmaker
of the worst sort. BE delights in all sorts
of mad Dranks, but to his credit, be it said,
like that little green joker of Irish fairy
mythology, the leprechaun, his mischief is
chiefly expended upon mortals noted for
their neighborhood meannesses, avarice and
greed. The knockers" have their haunts
exclusively in the mines. Various theories
are advanced as to their origin. They are
souls of "Finicans" (Phenicians) or Jewish
slaves, or Cornish miners killed in the
mines, with invisible picks and mallets still
sounding or knocking" for the best
= ''pitches" or lodes. But woe to the miner
who offends them.
CORNISH sUPERsTITIoNs.
So along down this line OF Cornish wrath,
mystery and portent come boundless troops
of superstitions. Volumes might be filled
with them. Here are few: Nobody will
cross Two-Stiles, lane insCrowan parish,
at night for fear of meeting the devil. A
child ''passed through" the body of live
ash sapling, split near the trunk and held
open for that purpose, will recover from
disease. Bullock calves are still burned in
remote Cornish farming districts to drive
evil spirits from the herds IF you will
walk around the old abandoned sepulcher
in Crowan .churchyard nine times, exactly
at midnight, you may meet and make any
sort of terms desired with the evil one
There are score Of Holy wells still re-
maining in Cornwall whose waters possess
almost miraculous power. St. Cuthbert's
We'll is sought for the cure of ''rickets" in
children. who are bathed in it the first three
wednesdays In May. No child ever christ
..o1 IN Redruth Well has been hanged