Morning journal and courier., 1891-02-21

-May.Day Fcstivtttes-The Fish
Wives of Ancient ST. Ives-"Har-
vest-Home'' Suppers-ssFurry Day.
and ssTakfng Sunday.''
BoDMIN, Cornwall, Feb. 4.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Everywhere behind the coasts of Corn
wall are footsteps of the giants; relics of
pagan life, remains of Cyclopean builders
in huge monolith, cromlech and cairn, a
noble field for the student of antiquity
while the student of men will find inhabi-
ting this region race of sturdy folk, old
as the Phenicians, almost as isolate as
those of Connaught, proud of their Ar
thurian blood, strong in noble toll, grudg-
ing of innovation, loyal in life and friend
ships, and holding with brave tenacity to
the folklore and all legends, forgivable
superstitions and customs which link their
work-a-day lives to the dimmest pagan
days into which loyal and loving Corn
ish fancy may soar.
They are fsher-folk, the bravest and
most daring known to the sea-swept shores
of the British Isles. They are miners, the
sturdiest and most manly in all the world
that bring riches from the earth's depths.
They are peasant farmers, who have
wrung from British landlordism, through
tremendous independence, something like
shining homes and ample comfort. They
are all Cornishmen, whose united roar, as
in the old ballad,
And will they scorn Ire, Pol and Pen.
And shall Trelawney die:
Then twenty thousand Cornish men
Will know the reason why,
have more than once modified the purpos
es of English parliaments and changed the
policies of English kings.
Their superstitions~a innumeIable ant
outlandish; ~ ugh, so far as l can judge
they in no wise lessen or abate Cornish
religious zeal and loyalty. They neither
hinder nor detract from devout lives
But, as nearly as l can define them, they
are transfused and not unwelcome he
redity of paganistic myths to which sim
pie and far from intellectual people cling
as prideful proof of their own extreme
antiquity.
Out of this halffairy, half black-art
mythology of Cornwall have come mum
berless curious Cornish customs, which al
the telegraphs, all the railways, all tht
newspapers, and indeed all the vigorou:
Wesleyan Methodism, of England, have sc
far been unable to clay" or dispel, or even
modify in any marked degree. Miners
will pound church-bench to splinters
from their glorious fervor at "prayer-
meeting" and in an hour thereafter go on
tiptoe to their all-night's labor in the
''shift," from three to five thousand feet
''below grass" fearing to give atfront by
honest noise from their hob-nailed boots
to the 'sbuccas," or knockers" thoss
elves of the mines whom they sacredly
believe control their good or i'll luck at al
mine labor. Fisherman of Whitessnd
Narration, Penzance or ancient st. Ives
will experience and exhibit equal spiritua
| and physical elation at prayer or class
meeting, and, at the turn of the tide th'
same night, as they brave death along
lee shore in the bowling Atlantic, calml.
throw a companion overheard. who might
by even whistling bar of Chow Vain i
All Beneath the Skies" tempt the malevo
lent attentions of every bucha-boo ant
fury of the sea. So, too, the peasant
farmers will hasten back from church ser
vice to engage in the pagan sacrifice by fir
of bull-calf, that their herds may be re
lieved from "fairy- strokes" and the yari
Gus and vagarous powers of witches
While villagers of all faiths and work
will walk nine times around church-yar,
at midnight to have certainty of every-da
avoidance of the devil; and will on all oc
casions lift their hats sooner to a dreade
magpie than beloved parson, to guar
against the possibility of ill-luck.
These superstitions are but hint of th
thousands that exist among Cornish pee
pie From time immemorial, "a ma
must take the new year in" to all habits
tions; that is, good luck will only come
woman where a man or boy has first ell
tered the house on New Years day, an
all Cornish women will so manage ma
ters; the simplest and mort general metl
cd being to employ boys to sand the
door-steps. The American custom
watching the old year out and the ne
year in' has almost a prototype amor
Cornish folk in watching" ali night f,
the arrival of May-day. Immediately a
ter midnight it is ushered in with gre
uproar of songs, general hilarity, and {
especial profusion of all manner of shr
musical instruments. One of the mo
] rigidly preserved of Cornish customs
q that the mother of newly-christen'
child must bestow gift, of proportiona
value to her means and position, upon L
0 first person she may meet upon the roa
9 after the ceremony of christening. At
= Ives and other western towns of Cornw'
|. professions of uproarious boys on Shro
d Tuesday march through the streets ban
Q ing at doors with stones tied to stro
cords, the meantime demanding,
/ .sGive me pancake, now-now-now,
It Or I'll souse in your door with row-tow-tov
d Pancakes or ha'pennies are invariably
Il slowed. Apple-trees are "blessedn
1t some on July 20, st. James day, and
70 others at Christmas time. A painful