Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/77

 Legends of Parishes, cte. 65 (as almost all know), that after marriage " whether husband or wife come first to drink thereof they get the mastery thereby." — Fuller. " In name, in shape, in quality. This well is very quaint ; The name, to lot of ' Kayne ' befell. No ouer — holy saint. " The shape, four trees of diuers kinde. Withy, oke, elme, and ash. Make with their roots an arched roofe, Whose floore this spring doth wash. " The quality, that man or wife. Whose chance or choice attaines, First of this sacred streame to drinke. Thereby the mastry gaines." — Carew. Southey makes a discomfited husband tell the story, who ends thus: " I hasten'd as soon as the wedding was done. And left my wife in the porch ; But i'faith she had been wiser than me. For she took a bottle to church." St. Keyne not only thus endowed her well, but during her stay at St. Michael's Mount she gave the same virtue to St. Michael's chair. This chair is the remains of an old lantern on the south-west angle of the tower, at a height of upwards of 250 feet from low water. It is fabled to have been a favourite seat of St. Michael's. Whittaker, in his supplement to Polwhele's History of Cornwall, says, " It was for such pilgrims as had stronger heads and bolder spirits to com- plete their devotions at the Mount by sitting in this St. Michael's chair and showing themselves as pilgrims to the country round ;" but it most probably served as a beacon for ships at sea. To get into it you must climb on to the parapet, and you sit with your feet dangling over a sheer descent of at least seventy feet ; but to get out of it is much more difficult, as the sitter is obliged to turn round in the seat. Notwithstanding this, and the danger of a fall through giddiness, which, of course, would be certain death, for there is not the slightest protection, I have seen ladies perform the feat. Curiously enough Southey has also written a ballad on St.