Stories are told of the Piskies, Spriggans, Skillywiddens
and Knockers.
The Piskies were the good little people
who helped the elderly and infirm with their household tasks. They are described
as wearing wigs of grey lichen, with bright unwinking eyes staring out from
wrinkled faces. Though they could be mischievous too, people were said to
be piskey-led when benighted, losing all sense of time and place they would
wander helplessly about until they fell into an exhausted sleep.
Spriggans were bad. They haunted the
hilltops and ancient burial mounds guarding the supposedly buried treasures
lying beneath. They could call up unseasonable bad weather and raise up
whirlwinds and sudden storms and mists.
Skillywiddens were just as mischievous.
They could turn the milk sour just for fun. They played around the farms
and moorland and often led the stock astray.
The Knockers were believed to be the
spirits of old miners because they were found only in the mines. In the
eerie surroundings of the old workings by the flicker of candlelight it
was easy to believe in these underground sprites. The sounds of their activities
with picks, shovels and drills was a familiar one and many a miner would
leave a portion of his crowst (lunchtime meal), usually a piece of pasty
for the knockers to enjoy. After all, knockers only worked in profitable
parts of the mines so you needed to encourage them.
The Mermaid of Zennor
In Zennor Church there is a pew end carved in the shape of a mermaid holding a comb and mirror. The story is told of the days long ago when from the sea she heard Matthew Trewhella singing in the church and came in to listen. They fell in love and lived happily in Zennor together. However, one day Matthew wanted to go out fishing although the mermaid begged him not to. A wave washed him into the sea and with a despairing cry the mermaid dived in after him. They were never seen again
Cornish Giants
There are many stories about the Giants who had homes in Cornwall. Indeed the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk is supposedly based on the tale of one of the giants of St Michael's Mount near Penzance.
Tregeagle was set the task of emptying Dosmary Pool on Bodmin Moor, but this proved impossible and he was sent to Padstow to plait ropes of sand near the mouth of the river Camel. The people of Padstow found it difficult to take out their fishing boats because of the sandbanks and Tregeagle was blamed. He was sent from Padstow to Porthleven where his job was to dredge loads of shingle from the banks of the estuary. However, he slipped and dropped his load which formed Loe Bar at the mouth blocking the river.