"block." A log in Cornwall is almost always called a "block." "Throw a block on the fire."
Candles painted by some member of the family were often lighted at the same time.
The choir from the parish church and dissenting chapels go from house to house singing "curls" (carols), for which they are given money or feasted ; but the quaint old carols, "The first good joy that Mary had," "I saw three ships come sailing in," common forty years ago, are now never heard. The natives of Cornwall have been always famous for their carols, some of their tunes are very old. Even the Knockers, Sprig-gans, and all the underground spirits that may be always heard working where there is tin (and who are said to be the ghosts of the Jews who crucified Jesus), in olden times held mass and sang carols on Christmas-eve.
At the plentiful supper always provided on this night,[1] egg-hot, or eggy-hot, was the principal drink. It was made with eggs, hot beer, sugar, and rum, and was poured from one jug into another until it became quite white and covered with froth. A sweet giblet pie was one of the standing dishes at a Christmas dinner — a kind of mince-pie, into which the giblets of a goose, boiled and finely chopped, were put instead of beef. Cornwall is noted for its pies, that are eaten on all occasions ; some of them are curious mixtures, such as squab-pie, which is made with layers of well-seasoned fat mutton and apples, with onions and raisins. Mackerel pie : the ingredients of this are mackerel and parsley stewed in milk, then covered with a paste and baked. When brought to table a hole is cut in the paste, and a basin of clotted cream thrown in it. Muggetty pie, made from sheep's entrails (muggets), parsley, and cream. "The devil is afraid to come into Cornwall for fear of being baked in a pie." There is a curious Christmas superstition connected with the Fogo, Vug, or Vow (local names for a cove) at Pendeen, in North St. Just.
"At dawn on Christmas-day the spirit of the 'Vow' has frequently
been seen just within the entrance near the cove, in the form of a beautiful lady dressed in white, with a red rose in her mouth. There
- ↑ A very general one for poor people in some parts of the country on Christmas-eve was pilchards and unpeeled potatoes boiled together in one "crock."
