Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/140

 1 2 8 Fairies. before quoted from Mr. Bottrell he gives a third charm for getting a child restored, as follows: "Make by night a smoky fire, with green ferns and dry. When the chimney and house are full of smoke as one can bear, throw the changeling on the hearthstone ; go out of the house, turn three times round ; when one enters, the right child will be restored." Spriggans, too, guard the vast treasures that are supposed to be buried beneath our immense earns and in our cliff castles. No matter if the work be carried on by night or by day, they are sure to punish the rash person who ventures to dig in hopes of securing them. When he has got some way down, he finds himself surrounded by hundreds of ugly beings, in some cases almost as tall as he, who scare the unhappy man until he loses all control over himself, throws down his tools, and rushes off as fast as he can possiby go. The fright often makes him so ill that he has to lie for days in bed. Should he ever summon up courage to return to the spot, he will find the pit refilled, and no traces to show that the ground had been disturbed. Knockers (pronounced knackers) are mine fairies, popularly sup- posed to be (as related elsewhere) the souls of the Jews who crucified Christ, sent by the Romans to work as slaves in the tin mines. In proof of this, they are said never to have been heard at. work on Saturdays, nor other Jewish festivals. They are com- pelled to sing carols at Christmas time. Small pieces of smelted tin found in old smelting-works are known as " Jews' bowels." These fairies haunt none but the richest tin mines, and many are reputed to have been discovered by their singing and knocking underground ; and miners think when they hear them that it is a sign of good luck, because when following their noises they often chance on lodes of good ore. When a miner goes into an "old level" and sees a bright light, it is a sure sign that he will find tin there. Knockers like spriggans are very ugly beings, and, if you do not treat them in a friendly spirit, very vindictive. "As stiff as Barker's knee " is a common saying in Cornwall ; he having in some way angered the knockers, either by speaking of them disrespectfully or by not leaving (as was formerly the custom) a bit of his dinner on the ground for them (for good luck), they