Proverb on giving someone a look of disdane.

"She look'd on me as a cow on a bastard calf."  Somerset.

Ray 1768

Spotting the Devil at Starcross

13th century Illustration of the Devil in the Codex Gigas, folio 270 recto, via wikipeedia

"An old man living in South Devon, once told me that as he was one night returning from Starcross to a farm about two miles off, as he passed Easton Wood he had " zeed the devil hiszel azitting pon tap o' a gaet-pawst. Th' eyes aw'n was like two gert glazing tay sassers, and I urned fit to break my neck till I got purty vur from he," he said.
 

A day or two after this, I met the old man's son of whom I enquired for his father. 

"Aw' mum," said he, "'e idden vitty 'et, a'n't agot awver th' fright he got tuther night. He zeth 'e zeed th' evil wan, up in Easton Wood, wi eyes blazing like a bull's-eye- lantern. He hissed and tissed to 'n. There was hundreds of little devils dancing all about in th' blue hell-flames. Poor old father was that scared that 'e cant tell a 'awk from a 'andsaw (heronshaw). Poor old father, 'e es in a brave fizz 'et."
 

"Yes," I replied, "don't you think if you could persuade him to pass by 'The Ship,' at Cockwood, instead of going in, he would see less of the old one ?" 

"Ess 'm, mayhap 'e widden zee th' dowl again if he stapped gwaine there."

One sees by this, how very different the son's tale was from the father's. The whole thing was wonderfully elaborated, and there is no doubt as it journeyed through the taprooms of Cockwood, Starcross, and Dawlish, it still farther grew in hideousness of detail."

Hewett 1900

Map - Starcross

Seven Years Bad Sex - some very local lore

Me and a pint...  If you want to use my photos please attribute this blog

[Watching US president Barak Obama drinking guiness in Eire I was reminded of a comedic bit of very local lore amongst some of my friends in Chagford - I dont know when it started, but I have known about it for at least 5 years.

Despite being made up (I think) by someone in my group of friends it has persisted and spread, and has roots that dangle freely in the cultural aquifer of our folklore. It has led to very pantomime staring into peoples eyes... It is this -

If you do not look the person in the eyes that you are saying 'cheers' to over a pint you are condemned to seven years bad sex.

Poor Obama....]

Devon charm to summon the spirits

Prince Arthur and the Fairy Queen. Johann Heinrich Füssli 1788

"Anoint your eyes for three days with the combined juices of the herbs, dill, vervain, and St. John's-wort, and the spirits in the air will become visible to you."

Hewett 1900

To insure good eyesight in Devon

Fennel on Slapton Sands - Gwen and James Anderson [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"Fennel, rose, vervain, celandine and rue,
Do water make which will the sight renew."

Hewett 1900

Unlucky in Devon - 52 & 53 (journey)

Lot's Wife -  By Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925) (Own work, Yair Haklai, 2009-08-21) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

It is unlucky to

"To put the left foot first in starting to walk, as it indicates too much caution and brings disappointment.

To look back after starting on a journey. (Remember Lot's wife.)"

Hewett 1900

[Hewett does tend to repeat herself!  53 is very similar to 'Unlucky in Devon 28']

 

Unlucky in Devon - 28

Hobbiton as it was in 2006 in New Zealand - For some reason this piece of Lore reminded me of Bilbo leaving his home on his eleventy-first birthday... By Rob Chandler (Original Hobbit Hole, Hobbiton New Zealand) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

It is unlucky -

"To return, or to look back when leaving the house to start on a journey, or even when going for a short walk. If compelled to return one should sit down and rest for a few minutes before making a fresh start."

Hewett 1900

The Black Dog of Roborough - part 1

Black Dog - By Liza Phoenix (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

"A MAN having to walk from Princetown to Plymouth took the road which crosses Roborough Down. He started at four o'clock from the Duchy Hotel, and as he walked at a good swinging pace, hoped to cover the sixteen miles in about three hours and a half' It was a lovely evening in December, cold and frosty, the stars and a bright moon giving enough light to enable him to see the roadway distinctly zigzagged across the moor. Not a friendly pony or a quiet Neddy crossed his path as he strode merrily onward whistling as he went. After a while the desolation of the scene seemed to strike him, and he felt terribly alone among the boulders and huge masses of gorse which hemmed him in. On, on he pressed, till he came to a village where a wayside inn tempted him to rest awhile and have just one nip of something "short" to keep his spirits up.

Passing the reservoir beds, he came out on an open piece of road, with a pine copse on his right. Just then he fancied he heard the pit-pat of feet gaining upon him. Thinking it was a pedestrian bound for Plymouth, he turned to accost his fellow traveller, but there was no one visible, nor were any footfalls then audible. Immediately on resuming his walk, pit-pat, pit-pat, fell the echoes of feet again. And suddenly there appeared close to his right side an enormous dog, neither mastiff or bloodhound, but what seemed to him to be a Newfoundland of immense size. Dogs were always fond of him, and he of them, so he took no heed of this (to him) lovely canine specimen. Presently he spoke to him. "Well, doggie, what a beauty you are : how far are you going ?" at the same time lifting his hand to pat him. Great was the man's astonishment to find no resisting substance, though the form was certainly there, for his hand passed right through the seeming body of the animal. " Hulloh ! what's this ?" said the bewildered traveller. As he spoke the great glassy eyes gazed at him ; then the beast yawned, and from his throat issued a stream of sulphurous breath. Well, thought the man, I am in for it now ! I'll trudge on as fast as legs can carry me, without letting this queer customer think I am afraid of him. With heart beating madly and feet actually flying over the stony way, he hurried down the hill, the dog never for a moment leaving him, or slackening his speed..." [cont.]

Hewett 1900

A Meander Through the Lore of the Eyes...

[I have decided it is silly to have two blogs going on the same subject.  I shall keep the other one going to keep all these meanders together, but I shall also post them here. So, the first one...

I think I will start this exploration of the Westcountry Folklore Blog with the eye. This is the first point of contact between people about to communicate; some might say it is the seat of the soul.

Down here in the west there are many traditions associated with this potent body part.

The fear of the Evil Eye and in ‘overlooking’ where powerful tools used by some old Devonian witches. The results of being 'overlooked' could range from bad luck, to ill animals or even to death.

‘Bleeding’ (basically stabbing with the intent to draw blood, often with a rusty nail) of those thought to have given you the evil eye was one counter charm (Nummits and Crumits by Sarah Hewett 1900)

Charm against the Evil Eye - from Nummits and Crumits by Sarah Hewett 1900

The use of nails in toads, bulls hearts and other creatures also served as a devise to deflect the overlooking, as did (do) bottles filled with pins or thorns, or any sharp objects.  The intention here is to let your enemies encounter an array of sharpness, rather like a headgehog, instead of an easy soft target.

Hawthorn hung in Devon doorways protects against the evil eye, or so says Sarah Hewett in Nummits and Crummits (1900).

In the Three Crowns pub ladies toilet in Chagford there has been reported to me (by three separate women) a sensation of being watched, with loath full hatred, perhaps by a ghost.

One Cornish tale tells of the entrapment of Walter, an unfaithful lover, by the eyes of a powerful mermaid.  Similarly his conscience is finally opened and his fate sealed when he looked deep into the eyes of the mermaid, who is bent on revenge.

Legends of the pixies and the fairies and their ilk make great use of the power of sight and the eye.

At St Just in Cornwall at a place called the Gump a man who witnessed a fairy revel found all his senses sharpened, including his eyes, by the sound of fairy music.

The story of Anne Jefferies, born in 1626 in St. Teath, Cornwall, uses the motif of the bewitching power of the eye numerous times. When she first spots her fairy companions she notices immediately their beauty and the brightness of their eyes. When they finally abduct her after kissing her (another common fairy bewitchment) one runs his fingers over her eyes.  She feels them pricking as if with a pin, and then is left blind, only able to experience the transition to the faerie realm via a sensation of being whirled through the air at speed. Some time later one of her fairy companions says “tear away” and her site is returned, along with an exquisite vision of the fairy realm.  Her troubled return to this world also passed without vision, a fairy once again having passed his fingers across her eyes.

Anne Jefferies from Hunt

Similarly a girl taken as a servant to a fairy widower, by the name of Jenny Permuen from Towednack, Cornwall, had a bunch of small low growing leaves passed over her tear filled eyes to bring her into the widower’s realm.  Later on their journey the widower states “" there is yet a tear of sorrow on your eyelids, and no human tears can enter our homes, let me wipe them away."  With a final wipe from similar leaves an amazing vision of the faerie realm is opened up to her

More common is the power of fairy ointments on the eye.

Chery of Zennor, Cornwall, did not need blindness, nor freedom from tears, to take her far enough into the fairy world to be of use as a servant, but when she was there she was told to keep her eyes shut at night, for fear she might ‘see things which she would not like’.  Her day time duties there involved the care of a small child, whom she was to take to a spring and anoint his eyes with an ointment kept there.  She was strictly forbidden from letting this potion touch her own eyes. After many fearsome adventures that would have frightened a lesser girl out of her wits Chery decided that this ointment would allow her to solve the riddle of the place she was in, for the child whose eyes she anointed seemed to see more than she could perceive.

Having touched but a “crum” of ointment to one of her eyes she found it overwhelmed with burning pain, much like that experienced by Anne Jefferies.  She washed her eye in the spring and found a myriad of small people revealed to her, an every tree and blade of grass, and even in the spring itself. Using her magic eye to spy on her master he found him to be unfaithful (as she perceived it), her jealousy leading to her banishment back to this world.

Another story from near Zennor and Saint Ives tells of a housewife who is taken blindfolded to a strange home and given a child to care for.  Part of the care involved anointing the boys eyes with special water after dawn. The water was not to touch her own eyes. She was taken back home, again blindfolded.  When she regained her sight she found the boy was not as beautiful as she had first thought, but his eyes retained their piercing glare. She carried out her duty before one day she thought to try some of the water on her own skin. Some went in one of her eyes and after blinking she saw little people all around her.  One day she went to the market and saw the boys father. He asked her which eye she saw him from, and from that day forward she was left blind in the water splashed eye, and the child was taken from her, as was her good fortune

Jenny Trayer, of Pendeen Cove, Cornwall, had the reputation of a being a witch, and used the power of her reputation to sell her husband Tom’s fish at a very profitable price, as well as engaging in some alcoholic smuggling. When her fiend Nancy caught sight of her applying some ointment (later revealed to be made from four leaved clovers gathered on a certain phase of the moon) to her husband’s eyes trouble eschewed.  Nancy seized her opportunity and managed to get some into her right eye (thinking it must be beneficial) without Jenny noticing. Later when Jenny caught Tom in the market steeling from a stall she confronted him, only to find she could only see him with the anointed eye.  Tom quickly poked the eye with his figure and she was forever blind on that side.  Without doing this Nancy would have had the power to see into the Fairy Realm, and all Tom’s misadventures.

A very similar story is told of Joan, from near Penzance, who caught reputed witch Betty Trenance rubbing ointment in her children’s eyes.  Immediately the little people, the fairy folk were revealed to her. On going to Penzance market she found Tom (Betty’s husband) engaged in thievery. As before Tom finds out which eye and blinds her in it, though this time by simply pointing at it.

But unlike Jenny, Joan’s adventures where not over yet.  She accidently climbed upon a fairy horse, disguised as a blind old nag. She was treated to a terrifying gallop across the countryside and a dipping in a filthy pond, as well as witnessing the devil and his headless (presumably also blind!) hell-hounds out hunting.

I remember reading a very similar story of the market and the blinding of an eye by a faerie in Devon. The story is of Morada of Holne, who looked after a fairy babe and had ointment for his eyes. Her comeuppance came at Ashburton, though unlike her Cornish compatriots only her fairy sight was removed (along with the baby, and she was well paid (from Folk Tales of Devon, by V Day Sharman 1952)

It seems that the transition to the ‘other’ realm in the Westcountry involved the power of the eye was all important. As we have seen blindness often marked the transition, just as transgression of the rules regarding the eye marked the end of the adventure. Sometimes there was pain, most times ointment.  There is the possibility that it is a hallucinogenic ointment that is being referred to (or am I too cynical? Perhaps it was simply the fairies!).  The ingredients are certainly vague – though maybe plant related and involving the moon.

Given the potency of the eyes it is not surprising that such care was given to looking after them, to guarding the amazing sense it gives us, which without most people in the past from which these traditions grew would have found the hard life of a labourer even harder still.  In the age before corrective glasses and contact lenses it could even effect the perceived beauty of an individual, in their crossed or boss-eyes. Imagine if everyone you currently knew with glasses on must live their life without them, and when the ‘stigma’ of uneven or peculiar eyes could lead to a loss of social standing. A single eye was given to the giant of Saint Michaels Mount to indicate his gruesomeness, and glassy sunken eyes an infant where even seen as a sign of being a Changeling, a thing to be feared greatly, for it meant your own child had been stolen.

By far the most common cure, was to use the supposed curative properties of Holy Wells or springs.  This brings to mind the pixies use of special dew or liquid, (especially Chery of Zennor’s use of ointment kept in a spring). Water sources associated with eye cures can be found across the Westcountry.

In Somerset those that specifically mention eyes are Bully Well, in Chew Magna (unusual because it is not connected to a saint) and a well in Saint Anne’s Wood, now in Bristol. As yet my research has not turned up any wells in Dorset. In Devon I remember reading of a couple of wells near Ashburton in Devon, including Saint Gudula's Well, that cured eyes.  Fice's well near Princetown I think had an eye curing attachment, as did one of the Leechwells in Totnes, both in Devon. Cornwall, predictably, has the most eye curing wells recorded by the Victorians, the country being particularly fascinating to them given its recognized Celtic heritage. Saint Minver’s Well, near Wadebridge, Saint Breward’s Well, near Camelford (for inflamed eyes) and Saint’s Well, Polperro (also for inflamed eyes and other ailments) all gave relief to eye problems. The later had an associated ceremony, involving the potent power of three – on three successive sunrises while fasting bathing in the well was recommended.

‘Kenning’ or ‘Kinning’ stones (large beads) where another eye cure, one being kept at the end of the 19^th century in Black Torrington, Devon, another at Thrustleton, Devon and two more were to be found in Cornwall.

The eye itself can be curative. This Devon rhyme from Nummits and Crummits by Sarah Hewett (1900) says of an itching hand-

Rub it on the eye,
'Twill go by-and-bye ;
Rub it on wood,
'Twill sure to come good.

As my research progresses I may well add to this essay, filling out the blanks and expanding my thoughts.  I hope you have enjoyed this little jaunt into the world of eyes and their lore in the Westcountry.

Eye have.]

Bully Well - Chew Magna

"Of Bully Well no legend is forthcoming. Its waters are said to be efficacious for diseases of the eye."

Hope 1893

Map - Chew Magna

The Well of Saint Anne-in-the-Wood

Ruins of Keynsham Abbey - Rick Crowley [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsRick Crowley [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"This well is in St. Anne's Wood ; near it was a building, probably used as a guest-house, and also a chapel, which was formerly attached to Keynsham Abbey, a monk of this abbey generally residing on the spot. Pilgrimages were made to it, and on the well being cleared, in 1878, many coins and tokens, offerings of the pilgrims, were found. July 26 was the day on which the pilgrimages were usually made.

The water of this well was formerly considered good for affection of the eye. 

The chapel was dismantled, and the pilgrimages, against which Latimer once preached a sermon in Bristol, were suppressed in 1536."

Hope 1893

Map - Saint Annes
Map - Keynsham Abbey

Saint Breward's Well

"This well is situated in a valley near a farm called "Chapel," close to Camelford. It is, or was, visited by sufferers from inflamed eyes and other complaints. As an offering, the sufferer threw in a pin, or small coin, to the saint.--Western Antiquary, 37."

 

Hope 1893

Map - Saint Breward's Well

Polperro: Saint's Well

"The reputed virtues of this well have survived the entire destruction of the edifice which enclosed the spring, for it is still resorted to by those afflicted with inflamed eyes and other ailments, and if "ceremonies due" are done aright, with great benefit. It must be visited on three mornings before sunrise, fasting, a  relic of a veritable ceremony, as witnesseth Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale, line 33. 

If the goode man that the beest oweth,
Wol every wike er that the cok him croweth,
Fastynge, drinke of this well a draugbt,
As thilke holy Jew oure eldres taught,
His beestes, and his stoor schal multiplier "

Hope 1893

Map - Polperro

The Mermaids Vengence - part 14

"..."Come, sit beside me, Walter, and let us talk of love." He sat down without a word, and looked into the maiden's face with a vacant expression of fondness. Presently she placed her hand upon his heart; a shudder passed through his frame; but having passed, he felt no more pain, but a rare intensity of delight. The maiden wreathed her arm around his neck, drew Walter towards her, and then he remembered how often he had acted thus towards Selina. She bent over him and looked into his eyes. In his mind's mirror he saw himself looking thus into the eyes of his betrayed one.

"You loved her once?" said the maiden.

"I did indeed," answered Walter, with a sigh.

"As you loved her, so I love you," said the maiden, with a smile which shot like a poisoned dart through Walter's heart. She lifted the young man's head lovingly between her hands, and bending over him, pressed her lips upon and kissed his forehead, Walter curiously felt that although he was the kissed, yet that he was the kisser.

"Kisses," she said, "are as true at sea as they are false on land. You men kiss the earth-born maidens to betray them. The kiss of a sea-child is the seal of constancy. You are mine till death."

"Death!" almost shrieked Walter.

A full consciousness of his situation now broke upon Walter. He had heard the tales of the gossips respecting the mermaid origin of Selina; but he had laughed at them as an idle fancy. he now felt they were true. For hours Walter was compelled to sit by the side of his beautiful tormentor, every word of assumed love and rapture being a torture of the most exquisite kind to him. He could not escape from the arms which were wound around him. He saw the tide rising rapidly. ..." [cont.]

Hunt 1903

The Mermaids Vengence - part 11

"...Walter, led by the melancholy song, advanced slowly along the sands. He discovered that the sweet, soft sounds proceeded from the other side of a mass of rocks, which project far out over the sands, and that now, at low-water, there was no difficulty in walking around it. Without hesitation he did so, and he beheld, sitting at the mouth of a cavern, one of the most beautiful women he had ever beheld. She continued her song, looking upwards to the stars, not appearing to notice the intrusion of a stranger. Walter stopped, and gazed on the lovely image before him with admiration and wonder, mingled with something of terror. He dared not speak, but fixed, as if by magic, he stood gazing on. After a few minutes, the maiden, suddenly perceiving that a man was near her, uttered a piercing shriek, and made as if to fly into the cavern. Walter sprang forward and seized her by the arm, exclaiming, "Not yet, my pretty maiden, not yet." She stood still in the position of flight, with her arm behind her, grasped by Walter, and turning round her head, her dark eyes beamed with unnatural lustre upon him. Impressionable he had ever been, but never had he experienced anything so entrancing, and at the same time so painful, as that gaze. It was Selina's face looking lovingly upon him, but it seemed to possess some new power--a might of mind from which he felt it was impossible for him to escape. Walter slackened his hold, and slowly allowed the arm to fall from his hand. The maiden turned fully round upon him. "Go!" she said. He could not move. "Go, man!" she repeated. He was powerless.

"Go to the grave where the sinless one sleepeth!
Bring her cold corpse where her guarding one weepeth;
Look on her, love her again, ay! betray her,
And wreath with false smiles the pale face of her slayer!
Go, go! now, and feel the full force of my sorrow!
For the glut of my vengeance there cometh a morrow."..." [cont.]

Hunt 1903

Annie Jefferies and the Fairies - part 4

'...Anne found herself arrayed in the most highly-decorated clothes. So grand, indeed, did she appear, that she doubted her identity. Anne was constantly attended by her six friends; but the finest gentleman, who was the first to address her, continued her favourite, at which the others appeared to be very jealous. Eventually Anne and her favourite contrived to separate themselves, and they retired into some most lovely gardens, where they were hidden by the luxuriance of the flowers. Lovingly did they pass the time, and Anne desired that this should continue for ever. However, when they were at the happiest, there was heard a great noise, and presently the five other fairies at the head of a great crowd came after them in a violent rage. Her lover drew his sword to defend her, but this was soon beaten down, and he lay wounded at her feet. Then the fairy who had blinded her again placed his hands upon her eyes, and all was dark. She heard strange noises, and felt herself whirled about and about, and as if a thousand flies were buzzing around her.

At length her eyes were opened, and Anne found herself on the ground in the arbour where she had been sitting in the morning, and many anxious faces were around her, all conceiving that she was recovering from a convulsion fit.'

Hunt 1903

Annie Jefferies and the Fairies - part 3

'...This gentleman looked so sweetly on Anne that she was charmed beyond measure, and she put down her hand as if shake hands with her little friend, when he jumped into her palm and she lifted him into her lap. He then, without any more ad clambered upon her bosom and neck, and began kissing her. Anne never felt so charmed in her life as while this one little gentleman was playing with her; but presently he called his companion and they all clambered up by her dress as best they could, and kissed her neck, her lips, and her eyes. One of them ran his fingers over her eyes, and she felt as if they had been pricked with a pin. Suddenly Anne became blind, and she felt herself whirled through the air at a great rate. By and by, one of her little companions said something which sounded like "Tear away," and lo! Anne had her sight at once restored. She was in one of the most beautiful places -- temples and palaces of gold and silver. Trees laden with fruits and flowers. Lakes full of gold and silver fish and the air full of birds of the sweetest song, and the more brilliant colours. Hundreds of ladies and gentlemen were walking about. Hundreds more were idling in the most luxurious bowers, the fragrance of the flowers oppressing them with sense of delicious repose. Hundreds were also dancing, engaged in sports of various kinds. Anne was, however, surprised to find that these happy people were no longer the small people she had previously seen. There was now no more than the difference usually seen in a crowd, between their height and her own...' [cont.]

Hunt 1903

Annie Jefferies and the Fairies - part 2

'...One day Anne, having finished her morning's work, was sitting in the arbour in her master's garden, when she fancied she heard some one moving aside the branches, as though endeavouring to look in upon her; and she thought it must be her sweetheart, so she resolved to take no notice. Anne went on steadily with her work, no sound was heard but the regular beat of the knitting-needles one upon the other. Presently she heard a suppressed laugh, and then again a rustle amidst the branches. The back of the arbour was towards the lane, and to enter the garden it was necessary to walk down the lane to the gate, which was, however, not many yards off.

Click, click went the needles, click, click, click. At last Anne began to feel vexed that the intruder did not show himself, and she pettishly said, half aloud --

"You may stay there till the kueney [Moss, or mildew; properly. cuney.] grows on the gate, ere I 'll come to 'ee."

There was immediately a peculiar ringing and very music laugh. Anne knew this was not her lover's laugh, and she felt afraid. But it was bright day, and she assured herself that no one would do her any mischief, as she knew herself to be a general favourite in the parish. Presently Anne felt assured that the garden gate had been carefully opened and again closed, so she wait anxiously the result. In a few moments she perceived at the entrance of the arbour six little men, all clothed very handsome in green. They were beautiful little figures, and had very charming faces, and such bright eyes. The grandest of these little visitors, who wore a red feather in his cap, advanced in front the others, and, making a most polite bow to Anne, addressed her familiarly in the kindest words..." [cont.]

Hunt 1903

The adventurs of Chery of Zennor - part 12

'...Well, next morning the child was washed, his eyes anointed, and the cow milked; she sent the boy to gather her some flowers in the garden, and taking a "crum" of ointment, she put it into her eye. Oh, her eye would be burned out of her head! Cherry ran to the pool beneath the rock to wash her burning eye; when lo! she saw at the bottom of the water, hundreds of little people, mostly ladies, playing,--and there was her master, as small as the others, playing with them. Everything now looked different about the place. Small people were everywhere, hiding in the flowers sparkling with diamonds, swinging in the trees, and running and leaping under and over the blades of grass. The master never showed himself above the water all day; but at night he rode up to the house like the handsome gentleman she had seen before. He went to the enchanted chamber and Cherry soon heard the most beautiful music.

In the morning, her master was off, dressed as if to follow the hounds. He returned at night, left Cherry to herself and proceeded at once to his private apartments. Thus it was day after day, until Cherry could stand it no longer. So she peeped through the keyhole, and saw her master with lots of ladies, singing; while one dressed like a queen was playing on the coffin...'

Hunt 1903

The adventurs of Chery of Zennor - part 11

Cherry told the old woman she "wouldn't cum ony furder for the wurld," She thought from the first she was got into a land of Small People underground, only master was like other men; but now she know'd she was with the conjurors, who had turned all these people to stone. She had heard talk on 'em up in Zennor, and she knew they might at any moment wake up and eat her.

Old Prudence laughed at Cherry, and drove her on, insisted upon her rubbing up a box, "like a coffin on six legs," until she could see her face in it. Well, Cherry did not want for courage, so she began to rub with a will; the old woman standing by, knitting all the time, calling out every now and then, "Rub! rub! rub! harder and faster!" At length Cherry got desperate, and giving a violent rub at one of the corners, she nearly upset the box. When, O Lor! it gave out such a doleful, unearthly sound, that Cherry thought all the stone-people were coming to life, and with her fright she fell down in a fit. The master heard all this noise, and came in to inquire into the cause of the hubbub. He was in great wrath, kicked old Prudence out of the house for taking Cherry into that shut-up room, carried Cherry into the kitchen, and soon, with some cordial, recovered her senses. Cherry could not remember what had happened; but she knew there was something fearful in the other part of the house. But Cherry was mistress now--old Aunt Prudence was gone. Her master was so kind and loving that a year passed by like a summer day. Occasionally her master left home for a season; then he would return and spend much time in the enchanted apartments, and Cherry was certain she had heard him talking to the stone-people. Cherry had everything the human heart could desire, but she was not happy; she would know more of the place and the people. Cherry had, discovered that the ointment made the little boy's eyes bright and strange, and she thought often that he saw more than she did; she would try; yes, she would!..' [cont.]

Hunt 1903