Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/154

 142 Superstitions. " Rheumatism will attack the man who carries a walking stick made of holly." — Cornubiana, Rev. S. Rundle. The belief in witchcraft in West Cornwall is much more general than most people imagine. Several cases have lately come under my own notice ; one, that of a man-servant in our employ who broke a blood-vessel, and for a long time was so ill that his life was despaired of. He was most carefully attended by a Penzance physician, who came to see him three times a day. But directly that his strength began to return he asked permission to go to Redruth to consult a "pellar," as he was quite sure that he had been "overlooked" and " ill- wished." An old Penzance man, afflicted with rheumatism, who gained his living by selling fruit in the streets, fancied himself ill-wished. He went to Helston to see a " Wiseman" residing there, to whom he paid seven-and-sixpence, with a further promise of five pounds on the removal of the " spell." As he was too poor to pay this himself a brother agreed to do it for him, but somehow failed to perform his contract. Now the poor old man thinks that the pellar's ill-wishes are added to his former pains. The "pellars" wore formerly magical rings, with a blue stone in them, said to have been formed by snakes breathing on hazel-twigs. Our country-people often searched for these stones.