Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/236

228

(George Rawlings, September 1st, 1865, through E. Hunt, F.R.S., Drole, &c., Old Cornwall.)

Mr. Rawlings all through his song has written "For summer has come unto day," but this is clearly a mistake. He also gives another which he calls the "May-song," but it is not as well worth transcribing: it bears in some parts a slight resemblance to that sung at the Helston Hal-an-tow. See page 231.

In East Cornwall they have a custom of bathing in the sea on the three first Sunday mornings in May. And in West Cornwall children were taken before sunrise on those days to the holy wells, notably to that of St. Maddern (Madron) near Penzance, to be there dipped