Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/114

 106 after Merlin—Merlin's car—and marched from Paul to Penzance, which they also fired in several places. I am afraid the inhabitants did not make a very bold stand against them; for Merlin had prophesied centuries before—

And this caused them to lose courage, and falsify the old proverb:

Close by the highway, where the Buryan road joins the high-road from Paul to Penzance, is a smoothly-cut, conical granite stone, popularly supposed to have been placed there in memory of some woman who was found murdered at that spot, with nothing on to identify her, and with only a thimble and ring in her pocket. It really marks the place where an ancient gold ring, three inches and a-half in diameter, bearing the motto, "In hac spe vivo," was discovered in 1781. In the same parish, a short walk from this place, are some Druidical remains, which have the curious name of "Kerrisroundago." Some stones taken from it to repair Penzance pier were fatal to the horses who drew them, although they were young and healthy.

In the adjacent parish of Newlyn, a fishing village, the favourite resort of artists, a great deal of gossiping on summer evenings goes on around the small wells (here called peeths), whilst the women wait patiently for each in turn to fill her earthern pitchers; some of the most industrious bring their knitting in their pockets with them. Opposite one of these wells, towering over St. Peter's church, is a striking pile of rocks, "Tolcarn." On the summit are some curious markings in the stones, which, when a child, I was told were the devil's footprints; but the following legend, which I give on the authority of the Rev. W. S. Lach-Szyrma, Vicar of St. Peters, is quite new to me:—

"The summit of the rock is reticulated with curious veins of el van, about which a quaint Cornish legend relates that the Buccaboo, or storm-god of the old Cornish, once stole the fishermen's net. Being