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Page 3
_Mount Sinai._--(On the fly-leaf of the travellers' book.)
"Here in too were inscribed as in one legend, all whose in the rule of
the year come from different parts, different cities and countries,
pilgrims and travellers of any different rank and religion or
profession, for advise and notice thereof to their posterity, and even
also in owr own of memory acknowledging. 1845, Mount Sinai."
VIATOR.
[Footnote 1: The name of this gentleman will be recognised by some of the
readers of NOTES AND QUERIES as that of a most indefatigable explorer of
the wonders of the mountain, and the author, in the _Transactions of the
Catanian Academy_., of excellent descriptions of its recent eruptions.]
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_May-dew._--Every one has heard of the virtues of "May-dew," but perhaps
the complex superstition following may be less generally known. A
respectable tradesman's wife in this town (Launceston) tells me that the
poor people here say that a swelling in the neck may be cured by the
patient's going _before sunrise_, on the 1st of May, to the grave of the
last young man who has been buried in the church-yard, and applying the
dew, gathered by passing the hand _three times_ from the {475} head to the
foot of the grave, to the part affected by the ailment.[2] This was told me
yesterday in reply to a question, whether the custom of gathering "May-dew"
is still prevailing here. I may as well add, that the common notion of
improving the complexion by washing the face with the early dew in the
fields on the 1st of May extensively prevails in these parts; and they say
that a child who is weak in the back may be cured by drawing him over the
grass wet with the morning dew. The experiment must be thrice performed,
that is, on the mornings of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of May. I find no
allusion to these specific applications of "May-dew" in Ellis's _Brand_.
H.G.T.
[Footnote 2: If the patient be a woman, the grave chosen must be that of
the last young man buried, and that of the last young woman in the case of
a man patient.]
_Piskies._--An old woman, the wife of a respectable farmer at a place
called "Colmans," in the parish of Werrington, near Launceston, has
frequently told my informant before-mentioned of a "piskey" (for _so_, and
not _pixy_, the creature is called _here_, as well as in parts of Devon)
which frequently _made its appearance_ in the form of small child in the
kitchen of the farm-house, where the inmates were accustomed to set a
little stool for it. It would do a good deal of household work, but if the
hearth and chimney corner were not kept neatly swept, it would pinch the
maid. The piskey would often come into the kitchen and sit on its little
stool before the fire, so that the old lady had many opportunities of
seeing it. Indeed it was a familiar guest in the house for many months. At
last it left the family under these circumstances. One evening it was
sitting on the stool as usual, when it suddenly started, looked up, and
said,--
"Piskey fine, and Piskey gay,
Now Piskey! run away!"
and vanished; after which it never appeared again. This distich is the
first utterance of a piskey I have heard.
The word "fine" put me in mind of the expression "_fine_ spirit," "_fine_
Ariel," &c., noticed by DR. KENNEDY lately in NOTES AND QUERIES (Vol. ii.,
p. 251.). It is worth notice that the people here seem to entertain no
doubt as to the identity of piskies and fairies. Indeed I am told, that the
old woman before mentioned called her guest indifferently "piskey" or
"fairy."
The country people in this neighbourhood sometimes put a prayer-book under
a child's pillow as a charm to keep away the piskies. I am told that a poor
woman near Launceston was fully persuaded that one of her children was
taken away and a piskey substituted, the disaster being caused by the
absence of the prayer-book on one particular night. This story reminds me
of the "killcrop."
H.G.T.
1. The _dun cow_ of Dunsmore filled with milk every vessel that was brought
to her till an envious witch tried to milk her in a sieve.
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