Popular Romances of the West of England, Or, The Drolls, Traditions and Superstitions of Old Cornwall, 1. köide

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John Camden Hotten, 1865 - 319 pages
 

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Page 68 - Their dances were procession : But now, alas ! they all are dead, Or gone beyond the seas ; Or farther for religion fled, Or else they take their ease.
Page i - Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, With head uplift above the wave, and eyes That sparkling blazed ; his other parts besides, Prone on the flood, extended long and large, Lay floating many a rood...
Page 62 - Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire, I do wander every where, Swifter than the moon's sphere; And I serve the Fairy Queen, To dew her orbs upon the green. The cowslips tall her pensioners be; In their gold coats spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours.
Page 239 - While correcting these sheets I am informed of two recent instances of this superstition. One of them was the sacrifice of a calf by a farmer near Portreath, for the purpose of removing a disease which had long followed his horses and his cows. The other was the burning of a living lamb, to save, as the farmer said, ' his flocks from spells which had been cast on 'em.
Page 62 - As we dance the dew doth fall ; Trip it, little urchins all, Lightly as the little bee, Two by two, and three by three, And about go we, and about go we.2 Jo.
Page 312 - Jefferies, now living in the County of Cornwall, who was fed for six months by a small sort of Airy People, called Fairies; and of the strange and wonderful Cures she performed with Salves and Medicines she received from them, for which she never took one Penny of her Patients.
Page 11 - Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, Where the great vision of the guarded mount Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's hold; Look homeward angel now, and melt with ruth. And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth.
Page 308 - The more important doings of the guizards are of a theatrical character. There is one rude and grotesque drama which they are accustomed to perform on each of the four above-mentioned nights, and which, in various fragments or versions, exists in every part of Lowland Scotland. The performers, who are never less than three, but sometimes as many as six, having dressed themselves, proceed in a band from house to house, generally contenting themselves with the kitchen for an arena, whither, in mansions...
Page 237 - There can be no doubt but that a belief prevailed until a very recent period, amongst the small farmers in the districts remote from towns in Cornwall, that a living sacrifice appeased the wrath of God. This sacrifice must be by fire; and I have heard it argued that the Bible gave them warranty for this belief....
Page 230 - Rows of lighted candles, also, when the air is calm, are fixed outside the windows or along the sides of the streets. In St. Just, and other mining parishes, the young miners, mimicking their fathers' employments, bore rows of holes in the rocks, load them with gunpowder, and explode them in rapid succession by trains of the same substance. As the holes are not deep enough to split the rocks, the same little batteries serve for many years.

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