Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/109

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Legends of Parishes, etc. 97 followed by the twelve mothers with their infants in their arms. The clerk arranged them in lines five deep, the mothers in front, opposite the belfry door. Mr. Woods directed each to pass her child from one to the other of its sponsors, and then hand it to him that he might hold it up for the demon to see ; but for some time the cunning bird hid himself behind a pinnacle, and nothing would induce him to look, until one of the children, growing tired, began to cry, and all the others chimed in, screaming in chorus at the top of their voices. Then the demon hopped down from his perch and peered over the parapet to try and find out what could be the matter. The sight of the twelve children had such an effect upon him that he too gave an unearthly yell and flew away never to re-appear. The church bells were soon after put in order, and it is well known that no evil spirit ever ventures within sound of their ringing." " One of the three Jagos, who were Vicars of Wendron, was much renowned for his powers of necromancy. He was in the habit of taking people to St. Wendron Cross, where a man called Tucker was buried, and asking them whether they had a mind to see Tucker man ; he would make him rise from the dead as a mark of delicate attention to them." — Cornubiana, Rev. S. Rundle, Penzance Natural History Society, 1885- 1886. I will close this list of worthies by a short notice of Parson Dodge, a vicar of Talland, a village on the south coast of Corn- wall, and then give an encounter of the famous Nonconformist divine, John Wesley, with some spirits whom he vanquished at St. Agnes on the north. The church of Talland is not in the centre of the parish, but near the sea; a legend accounts for its position thus : It was begun at a spot called Pulpit, but each night a voice was heard saying: " If you will my wish fulfil. Build the church on Talland hill ; " and the stones put up by day were removed. (Tales similar to this are told of many Cornish churches. The work of removal is sometimes carried on by the devil ; at Altarnon he was accompanied