Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/18

 late Tregellas, Bottrell's Traditions and Hearth-side Stories of West Cornwall, first and second series; and a little work by "Uncle Jan Trenoodle" (Sandys), which contains amongst other things a colection of poems in the Cornish dialect by Davies Gilbert.

§ 3. Like all other Celts, the Cornish are an imaginative and poetical people, given to quaint sayings, similes, and pithy proverbs. I have heard of a man being "so drunk that he couldn't see a hole in a nine-rung ladder;" of a piece of beef "as salt as Lot's wife's elbow." A woman a few days since in describing the "Bâl gals,” said, "they were all as sweet as blossom;" and another that some boy "was as hardened as Pharoah." You may be often greeted on entering a house with, "You are as welcome as flowers in May." A servant when she adds a little hot to cold water, will speak of it as taking the edge off the cold." A labourer will tell you that "he's sweating like a fuz' bush (a furze bush) on a dewy morning." Any one who has seen such a thing will recognize the force of the simile. Once I asked an old Land's End guide what made all those earth-heaps in a field through which we were passing? His reply was, "What you rich people never have in your house, a want" (a mole).

Few proverbs express more in a few words than the following:— "Those that have marbles may play; but those that have none must look on." "'Tis well that wild cows have short horns." "You've no more use for it than a toad for a side pocket." "All play and no play, like Boscastle Market, which begins at twelve o'clock and ends at noon."

A great many of the sayings relate to long-since-forgotten worthies, such as:—"But—says Parson Lasky." "Oh! my blessed parliament, says Molly Franky." "All on one side, like Smoothy's wedding." "Like Nicholas Kemp, you've occasion for all." "As knowing as Kate Mullet, and she was hanged for a fool."

A few may be interesting from an antiquarian point of view:— "To be presented in Halgaver Court." "Kingston Down well wrought is worth London town dear bought." "Working like a Trojan." "As deep as Garrick." "As bright as Dalmanazar." "As ancient as the floods of Dava." Of the two last I have never heard an explanation.