Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/255

 235 person who is present in the mind at the time the pin is thrown in. It is a companion superstition to that of sticking pins into a wax image, an animal's heart, an orange, or an apple, which is prevalent over a great part of the world. A pin is, speaking myth- ologically, a deadly thing, perhaps because it is a spear or dagger in miniature; a prick from one is more dangerous than from a needle or a splinter of wood, because it gives the sufferer the ^ evil humours' of the person who has carried it on his person. In Iceland, if there is any fear that a dead person's spirit will walk, pins are driven into the soles of the corpse's feet. Pin-tail. A person who is very small and narrow in the hips. Pip. A disease among chicken. Pipe, or Bunny of ore. A great collection of ore without any vein coming into, or going from it. Pryce, Piran. Intoxicated. " He was Piran last night." This is a slander on St. Piran, who is traditionally said to have died drunk, yet, says Carew, " if legend lye not he lived 200 years and died at Piran." Piran broad-cloth. The rush mats made there. Tonkin. Pirl. To whirl, twirl, or twist around. Piskey. A fairy. The common clothes moth is also so called from some old superstition. In Eobt. Hunt's delightful book, "The Eomances of the West of