LESCUDJACK CASTLE— ST. LEVAN Norm, and E.E. ; the tower is Perp. A good cross stands in the churchyard. St. Levan (9 m. S.W. of Penzance) is always supposed to be dedicated to the Irish St. Levan, but it is possible that this name is merely a modern misreading of Silvanus. Carew speaics of the parish as Siluan ; and the country-folk of to-day still sometimes call it Slevan. The Se/us or SiA's of the St. Just inscribed stone might be a contraction of Silvanus ; but all this must be conjectural. The St. Levan of popular tradition is a very real personage, whether his true name was Silvanus or not. His well and chapel stood a little below the church, on the cliff; and at Porthcurnow are traces of another oratory that may have belonged to him, on a mound that has given traces of pre-Christian sepulchres. The saint lived on fish — there was not much else to live on ; he used to catch one fish a day. One day he caught two, and threw them back ; three times he caught a couple, and then he realised that there was some miraculous purpose. Returning to his cell he found that his sister Breaca had come to dinner with her two children. These children ate so greedily that they were choked by the fish-bones ; this is said to explain why the Cornish used to call the bream " choke- cheeld ". The tale is told differently, but is very persistent. Another tale says that Levan quarrelled with a woman named Joanna — she seems to have abused him first ; and told her that in future any child christened in his well 159
