I know of no other feasten ceremonies in this month; but here, as elsewhere, the children of the poor make up parties "to go a blackberrying." This fruit, by old people, is said not to be good after Michaelmas, kept by them 10th October (old style): after that date they told you the devil spat on them, and birds fouled them.
I knew an old lady whose birthday falling on that day she religiously kept it by eating for the last time that year blackberry-tart with clotted cream.
This brings me round to the month from which I started. Many of the feasts are of course omitted, as no local customs are now connected with them. There must be one for nearly every Sunday in the year, and a mere record of their names would be most wearisome. I cannot do better, therefore, than finish this portion of my work with two quotations. The first, from "Parochalia," by Mr. T. G. Couch, Journal Royal Institute of Cornwall, 1865, runs thus:—
"The patron saint of Janivet feast is not known; it is marked by no particular customs, but is a time for general visiting and merry-making, with an occasional wrestling-match. A local verse says:—
"On the nearest Sunday to the last Sunday in A-prel,
Lanivet men fare well.
On the first Sunday after the first Tuesday in May,
Lanivrey men fare as well as they."
Quotation number two is what Carew wrote in 1569:—
"The saints' feast is kept upon dedication-day by every house-holder of the parish within his own doors, each entertayning such forrayne acquaintance as will not fayle when their like time cometh about to requite him with the like kindness."
These remarks, and the jingling couplets, could be equally well applied to all the unmentioned feasts.
Trenance, Penzance.
