Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/219

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ADDENDA. Helston Borough Bounds, page 20.— At the close of this ceremony eleven dozen buns are thrown amongst the crowd to be scrambled for. One is always reserved for the Mayor. Wells, page 65. — Some wells in Cornwall (not holy) were famed for their wonder- ful virtues : I will mention two. The water of the first, which was west of Penzance, was esteemed a sovereign cure for sore eyes. People from far and near visited it, and even carried away the water in bottles. It was, however, best if possible to walk to the well before breakfast, and there bathe the eyes. The second was at Castle Chiin, between Penzance and St. Just ; its water endowed the drinkers with perpetual youth. Both have dried up within the last fifty years; Ghosts, page 99. — The following quaint story was told me by a girl whose grand- mother was the friend mentioned. In the last century there lived in Trezelah (a hamlet in the parish of Gulval, near Penzance), a widow who had been deprived of her rights. Walking one day in the fields near her home she saw a strange spotted dog who semed to know her ; she met it a second time, and decided when she next went out to take a friend with her. Again she saw it (her friend did not), and said " In the Name of the Lord, speak to me." It changed into her husband, who told her to be ready at a certain time, when he would fetch her. Soon after, her friend being in the house, the woman, who was giving her children their supper, said " The time is come, I must be gone ; " she then put on her sun-bonnet and went out. She was away about an hour, when she suddenly appeared with a great noise, as if someone had hurled her in through the door. Her story was that her husband had taken her up in his arms and carried her over the tree-tops as far as Ludgvan Church, where he deposited her on the Church-stile, from whence she saw a great many spirits, some good and some bad. The latter wanted her to join them, but her husband bade her remain where she was. What they told her was never known ; but by their aid she got back her rights. Then her husband bore her home again by the way they had come; but before he parted from her said "I must take something from you ; either your eyesight, or your hearing. " She preferred losing the latter, and from that hour could never hear a word. One of her shoes that in her flight through the air had caught on a tree-top, seven years after was placed on her window-sill.