Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/97

 Legends of Parishes, etc. 85 Sometimes at the present day it is "Bucca" is calling, Bucca being the nickname in Penzance for the inhabitants of Newlyn. " Penzance boys up in a tree, Looking as wisht (weak, downcast) as wisht can be ; Newlyn 'Buccas,' strong as oak. Knocking them down at every poke." The weather at Mount's Bay is also foretold by the look of the Lizard land, which lies south : " Wlien the Lizard is clear, rain is near." The marsh on Marazion Green still exists, and not many years ago no one cared to cross it after nightfall, especially on horseback, for at a certain spot close by the marsh a white lady was sure to arise from the ground, jump on the rider's saddle, and, like the " White Lady of Avenel," ride with him pillion-fashion as far as the Red river* that runs into the sea just below the smelting- works at Chyandour, a suburb of Penzance. The last person who saw her was a tailor of this town, who died in 1840. He was commonly called " Buck Billy," from his wearing till the day of his death a pigtail, a buff waistcoat, and a blue coat with yellow buttons. Marazion, or Market-jew, which latter is a corruption of its old Cornish name, Marghaisewe, meaning a Thursday's market, is a small town exactly opposite St. Michael's Mount. Until its present church was built its mayor sat in a very high seat with his back against a window. This is the origin of the Cornish proverb : " In your own light, like the mayor of Market-jew." This mayor is jokingly said to have three privileges. The first is, " That he may sit in his own light ; " the second, " Next to the parson ; " and the third, "If he see a pig in a gutter he may turn it out and take its place."f In the churchyard of the neighbouring parish of St. Hilary is a monument to the Rev. John Penneck, M.A., who, in the early part of the last century, was Chancellor of Exeter Cathedral. His ghost is very eccentric, sometimes getting into a passion, and on these occasions raising a great storm of wind. t Marazion is no longer a Corporate town.
 * A small stream coloured by running through tin mining works,