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Page 14
In this tale the word was invariably spelt "pixey."
TYSIL.
_Pixies._--The _puckie_-stone is a rock above the Teign, near Chagford.
In the _Athen�um_ I mentioned the rags in which the pixies generally
appear. In _A Narrative of some strange Events that took place in Island
Magee and Neighbourhood in 1711_, is this description of a spirit that
troubled the house of Mr. James Hattridge:
"About the 11th of December, 1710, when the aforesaid Mrs. Hattridge
was sitting at the kitchen-fire, in the evening, before daylight
going, a little boy (as she and the servants supposed) came in and
sat down beside her, having an old black bonnet on his head, with
short black hair, a half-worn blanket about him, trailing on the
ground behind him, and a _torn_ black vest under it. He seemed to be
about ten or twelve years old, but he still covered his face,
holding his arm with a piece of the blanket before it. She desired
to see his face, but he took no notice of her. Then she asked him
several questions; viz., if he was cold or hungry? If he would have
any meat? Where he came from, and where he was going? To which he
made no answer, but getting up, danced very nimbly, leaping higher
than usual, and then ran out of the house as far as the end of the
garden, and sometimes into the cowhouse, the servants running after
him to see where he would go, but soon lost sight of him; but when
they returned, he would be close after them in the house, which he
did above a dozen of times. At last the little girl, seeing her
master's dog coming in, said, 'Now my master is coming he will take
a course with this troublesome creature,' upon which he immediately
went away, and troubled them no more till the month of February,
1711."
This costume is appropriate enough for an Irish spirit; but here may
possibly be some connexion with the ragged clothes of the Pixies. (Comp.
"Tatrman," _Deutsche Mythol._, p. 470.; and Canciani's note "De
Simulachris de Pannis factis," _Leges Barbar._, iii. p. 108.; _Indic.
Superst._) The common story of Brownie and his clothes is, I suppose,
connected. {515}
In some parts of Devonshire the pixies are called "derricks," evidently
the A.-S. "doeorg." In Cornwall it is believed that wherever the pixies
are fond of resorting, the depths of the earth are rich in metal. Very
many mines have been discovered by their singing.
R.J.K.
THE POOL OF THE BLACK HOUND.
In the parish of Dean Prior is a narrow wooded valley, watered by a
streamlet, that in two or three places falls into cascades of
considerable beauty. At the foot of one of these is a deep hollow called
the Hound's Pool. Its story is as follows.
There once lived in the hamlet of Dean Combe a weaver of great fame and
skill. After long prosperity he died, and was buried. But the next day
he appeared sitting at the loom in his chamber, working diligently as
when he was alive. His sons applied to the parson, who went accordingly
to the foot of the stairs, and heard the noise of the weaver's shuttle
in the room above. "Knowles!" he said, "come down; this is no place for
thee." "I will," said the weaver, "as soon as I have worked out my
quill," (the "quill" is the shuttle full of wool). "Nay," said the
vicar, "thou hast been long enough at thy work; come down at once!"--So
when the spirit came down, the vicar took a handful of earth from the
churchyard, and threw it in its face. And in a moment it became a black
hound. "Follow me," said the vicar; and it followed him to the gate of
the wood. And when they came there, it seemed as if all the trees in the
wood were "coming together," so great was the wind. Then the vicar took
a nutshell with a hole in it, and led the hound to the pool below the
waterfall. "Take this shell," he said; "and when thou shalt have dipped
out the pool with it, thou mayst rest--not before." And at mid-day, or
at midnight, the hound may still be seen at its work.
R.J.K.
POPULAR RHYMES.
The following popular rhymes may perhaps amuse some of your readers.
They are not to be found in the article "Days Lucky or Unlucky," in
Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, or in Sir Henry Ellis's notes (see his
edition, vol. ii. p. 27.), and perhaps have never been printed:--
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