132 Superstitions. A water-wagtail, in Cornwall a "tinner," perching on a window- sill, is the sign of a visit from a stranger. Carew says — "The Cornish tynners hold a strong imagination, that in the withdrawing of Noah's floud to the sea the same took his course from east to west, violently breaking vp, and forcibly carrying with it the earth, trees, and rocks, which lay anything loosely neere the vpper face of the ground. To confjrme the likelihood of which supposed truth, they doe many times digge vp whole and huge timber-trees, which they conceiue at that deluge to haue been ouerturned and whelmed." Miners frequently in conversation make^ use of technical prov- erbs, such as " Capel rides a good horse." Capel is schorl, and indicates the presence of tin. "It's a wise man that knows tin" alludes to the various forms it takes. To an old tune they sing the words — " Here's to the devil, with his wooden spade and shovel, Digging tin by the bushel, with his tail cocked up." And on the signboard of a public-house in West Cornwall a few years ago (and probably still) might be read — " Come all good Cornish boys* walk in, Here's brandy, rum, and shrub, and gin ; You can't do less than drink success To copper, fish, and tin." Miners believe that mundic (iron pyrites) being applied to a wound immediately cures it ; of which they are so sure that they use no other remedy than washing it in the water that runs through the mundic ore. — A Complete History of Cornwall, I'jjo. It is an easy transition from mines to fish, the next staple industry of Cornwall, and to the superstitions of its fishermen and sailors. Fish is a word in West Cornwall applied more particularly to pilchards (pelchurs). They frequent our coasts in autumn. " When the corn is in the shock, Then the fish are on the rock." And if on a close foggy day in that season you ask the question, — "Do you think it will rain.?" the answer often is — "No! it is
- All men are boys in Cornwall.
