Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore
Few Cornish people are probably aware how wide-spread still with us is the belief in charms and charmers, ghosts, and all other superstitions; nor that there are witches in our county, shunned and dreaded by some who fear their supposed power to ill-wish those who offend them,...
Right cheek burning, some one praising you; left one, abusing (a knot tied in the apron-string will cause the slanderer to bite his or her tongue); but left or right are both go...
14. Part 14I will give some of their charms culled from various sources, and remedies for diseases still used in Cornwall:--Take three burning sticks from the hearth of the "overlooker," m...
12. Part 12The small people go about in parties, but pisky in his habits, at least in West Cornwall, is a solitary little being. I gather however, from Mr. T. Q. Couch's History of Polperr...
8. Part 8On the opposite side of Buryan to the Quakers' burial-ground is the parish of Paul (St. Pol-de-Leon). Its church was burnt by the Spaniards in 1595. They landed on a rock, said...
15. Part 15"'Kimbly' in East Cornwall is the name of a thing, commonly a piece of bread, which is given under peculiar circumstances at weddings and christenings. When the parties set out...
7. Part 7Whether the memory of this flood is perpetuated by the old proverb, "As ancient as the floods of Dava," once commonly current in West Cornwall, but which I have not heard for ye...
13. Part 13The apparition of a lady carrying a lanthorn always on one part of the Cornish coast [24] foretells a storm and shipwrecks. She is supposed to be searching for her child who was...
2. Part 2"On Porthminster Beach on Christmas-day, as seen from the Malakoff, St. Ives, at nine o'clock in the morning the boys began to assemble on the beach with their bats and balls. A...
6. Part 6Cornish people possess in a marked degree all the characteristics of the Celts. They are imaginative, good speakers and story-tellers, describing persons and things in a style r...
11. Part 11The Rev. R. S. Hawker, in his book before-quoted, has a legend which he calls "The first Cornish Mole. A Morality." I, however, suspect it to be a pure invention of this author;...
17. Part 17Of this, which is a very common game at school-treats in some parts of West Cornwall, I have only lately, through the kindness of the Rev. S. Rundle, succeeded in getting a desc...
10. Part 10We must now, after this long digression, return to Mullion. Between it and the Lizard is a fine headland, the Rill, and on its summit are a number of loose, rough stones, known...
9. Part 9"Germoe, little Germoe lies under a hill, When I'm in Germoe I count myself well; True love's in Germoe, in Breage I've got none, When I'm in Germoe I count myself at home."--
3. Part 3"In Landewednack, on Shrove Tuesday, children from the ages of six to twelve perambulate the parish begging for 'Col-perra' (probably an old Cornish word); but, whatever be its...
5. Part 5"The patron saint of Polperro is St. Peter, to whom the church, built on the seaward hill (still called chapel hill) was dedicated. His festival is kept on the 10th of July (old...
1. Part 1Few Cornish people are probably aware how wide-spread still with us is the belief in charms and charmers, ghosts, and all other superstitions; nor that there are witches in our...
4. Part 4Parties of young girls to this day walk there in May to try for sweethearts. Crooked pins, or small heavy things, are dropped into the well in couples; if they keep together the...
18. Part 18We'll drenk et out of the well, my braave boys, Here's a health to the baarley mow. The well, the hoosghead, [38] the haalf hoosghead, ainker, [39] the haalf ainker, gallon, the...