ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT iS^. Micliiicrs Mount (3 m. E. of Penzance) takes its name from the archangel, a dedication to which our forefathers often resorted when they built churches on high places ; they imagined that St. Michael would defend these against evil powers of the air. In many respects this resembles the Mont St. Michel of Normandy. It has sometimes been identified with the much- debated Ictis of Diodorus ; a supposition sup- ported by Max Muller, and doubted by Prof. Rhys. Rhys states that old traditions and the rock's Cornish name ("the hoar rock in the wood ") prove that it was not always insular ; but this is no argument, for Mount's Bay can only have been a forest in quite prehistoric times. Diodorus says that at low tide the Britons conveyed their tin to the island in waggons, and there sold it to foreign mer- chants ; 'and this might still be done, though the rock would certainly make a most incon- venient market. More likely, though the tin was produced in Cornwall, much of it was conveyed overland or by boat to the S.E. coast, possibly to the Isle of Thanet, and there sold. The question as to Ictis may still be considered open, and St. Michael's claim must honestly be held dubious. But the spot was evidently well known in very early days, and it is just possible that the Phoenicians used it as a port of shipment — rather, perhaps, for its safety than its convenience. It is said by tradition that St. Michael appeared on the summit, in the fifth century, and doubtless as 185
