Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/141

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

Fairies. 129 in revenge threw all their tools in his lap, which lamed him for the rest of his life. Mr. Bottrell tells a similar story of a man named Tom Trevorrow, who when he was working underground heard the knockers just before him, and roughly told them "to be quiet and go." Upon which, a shower of stones fell suddenly around him, and gave him a dreadful fright. He seems however to have quickly got over it, and soon after, when eating his dinner, a number of squeaking voices sang, "Tom Trevorrow ! Tom Trevorrow ! Leave some of thy ' fuggan ' * for bucca, Or bad luck to thee to-morrow ! " But Tom took no notice and ate up every crumb, upon which the knockers changed their song to " Tommy Trevorrow ! Tommy Trevorrow ! We'll send thee bad luck to-morrow ; Thou old curmudgeon, to eat all thy fuggan. And not leave a ' didjan ' f for bucca" After this such persistent ill-luck followed him that he was obliged to leave the mine. Bucca is the name of a spirit that in Cornwall it was once thought necessary to propitiate. Fishermen left a fish on the sands for bucca, and in the harvest a piece of bread at lunch-time was thrown over the left shoulder, and a few drops of beer spilled on the ground for him, to ensure good luck. Bucca, or bucca-boo, was, until very lately (and I expect in some places still is) the terror of children, who were often when crying told "that if they did not stop he would come and carry them off." It was also the name of a ghost; but now-a-days to call a person a "great bucca" simply implies that you think him a fool. There were two buccas — " 'Bucca Gwidden,' the white, or good spirit, 'Bucca Dhu,' the black, malevolent one." Fuggan, a cake made of flour and raisins often eaten by miners for dinner, t Didjan, a tiny bit. S