The Elfin Creed of Cornwall
Spriggans, Piskies, Knockers and Brownies: an extract from Hunt’s Complete Cornish Folklore
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Cornwall has its own collection of mischievous fairies and humbling, awe-inspiring deities. Some share similarities to those in the other five Celtic nations, but those in the duchy are shaped by hard granite and a warm hearth, by storm-lashed coastlines and buttercup-strewn meadows, by yawning mines and the glistening ore that lies within. Tin. Copper. Gold. The Little Folk guard their treasure cautiously, whether it be metal or kindness. Tread carefully. Cast the corner of your pasty crust aside as an offering, and always—always—be respectful. Then you will be fine and dandy—truly, you will. Welcome to Cornwall.
Let’s hear from Robert Hunt in an extract from Hunt’s Complete Cornish Folklore…
The Elfin Creed of Cornwall
The Piscy or Pixy of East Devon and Somersetshire is a different creature from his cousin of a similar name in Cornwall. The former is a mischievous, but in all respects a very harmless creation, who appears to live a rollicking life amidst the luxuriant scenes of those beautiful counties. The latter, the Piskies of Cornwall, appear to have their wits sharpened by their necessities, and may be likened to the keen and cunning “Arab” boy of the London streets, as seen in contrast with the clever child who has been reared in every comfort of a well-regulated home. A gentleman, well known in the literary world of London, very recently told me that he once saw in Devonshire a troop of fairies. It was a breezy summer afternoon, and these beautiful little creatures were floating on the circling zephyrs up the side of a sunlit hill, and fantastically playing—
“Where oxlips and the nodding violet grow.”
They are truly the fairies of Midsummer Night’s Dream. They haunt the most rural and romantic spots, and they gather—
“On hill, in dale, forest, or mead.
By paved fountain, or by rushy brook.
Or on the beached margent of the sea,
To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind.”
No such fairies are ever met with on Dartmoor. A few, judging from Mrs Bray’s tales1, may have been tempted into the lovely valley of the Tavy, but certainly they never crossed the Tamar. The darker shades in the character of the Cornish fairy almost dispose me to conclude that they belong to an older family than those of Devonshire.
It should be understood that there are in Cornwall five varieties of the fairy family, clearly distinguishable:
1. The Small People
2. The Spriggans
3. Piskies, or Pigseys
4. The Buccas, Bockles, or Knockers
5. The Browneys
The Small People
Of the Small People I have heard two accounts. Indeed, it is by no means clear that the tradition of their origin does not apply to the whole five branches of this ancient family. The Small People are believed by some to be the spirits of the people who inhabited Cornwall many thousands of years ago—long, long before the birth of Christ. That they were not good enough to inherit the joys of heaven, but that they were too good to be condemned to eternal fires. They were said to be “poor innocents” (this phrase is now applied to silly children).
When they first came into this land, they were much larger than they are now, but ever since the birth of Christ they have been getting smaller and smaller. Eventually they will turn into muryans (ants), and at last be lost from the face of the earth.
These Small People are exceedingly playful amongst themselves, but they are usually demure when they know that any human eye sees them. They commonly aid those people to whom they take a fancy, and, frequently, they have been known to perform the most friendly acts towards men and women.
The above notion corresponds with the popular belief in Ireland, which is, “that the fairies are a portion of the fallen angels, who, being less guilty than the rest, were not driven to hell, but were suffered to dwell on earth.”2
In Cornwall, as in Wales, another popular creed is, that the fairies are Druids becoming — because they will not give up their idolatries—smaller and smaller. These Small People in many things closely resemble the Elves of Scandinavia.
The Spriggans
The Spriggans are quite a different class of beings. In some respects they appear to be offshoots from the family of the Trolls of Sweden and Denmark. The Spriggans are found only about the cairns, coits, or cromlechs, burrows, or detached stones, with which it is unlucky for mortals to meddle.
A correspondent writes: “This is known, that they were a remarkably mischievous and thievish tribe. If ever a house was robbed, a child stolen, cattle carried away, or a building demolished, it was the work of the Spriggans. Whatever commotion took place in earth, air, or water, it was all put down as the work of these spirits. Wherever the giants have been, there the Spriggans have been also. It is usually considered that they are the ghosts of the giants; certainly, from many of their feats, we must suppose them to possess a giant’s strength. The Spriggans have the charge of buried treasure.”
The Piskie
This fairy is a most mischievous and very unsociable sprite. His favourite fun is to entice people into the bogs by appearing like the light from a cottage window, or as a man carrying a lantern.
The Piskie partakes, in many respects, of the character of the Spriggan. So wide-spread were their depredations, and so annoying their tricks, that it at one time was necessary to select persons whose acuteness and ready tact were a match for these quick-witted wanderers, and many a clever man has become famous for his power to give charms against Pigseys. It does not appear, however, that anything remarkable was required of the clever man. “No Pigsey could harm a man if his coat were inside-out, and it became a very common practice for persons who had to go from village to village by night, to wear their jacket or cloak so turned, ostensibly to prevent the dew from taking the shine off the cloth, but in reality to render them safe from the Pigseys.”3
They must have been a merry lot, since to “laugh like a Piskie” is a popular saying. These little fellows were great plagues to the farmers, riding their colts and chasing their cows.
The Buccas or Knockers
These are the sprites of the mines, and correspond to the Kobals of the German mines, the Duergars, and the Trolls. They are said to be the souls of the Jews who formerly worked the tin mines of Cornwall. They are not allowed to rest because of their wicked practices as tinners, and they share in the general curse which ignorant people believe still hangs on this race.
The Browney
This spirit was purely of the household. Kindly and good, he devoted his every care to benefit the family with whom he had taken up his abode. The Browney has fled, owing to his being brought into very close contact with the schoolmaster, and he is only summoned now upon the occasion of the swarming of the bees. When this occurs, mistress or maid seizes a bell-metal, or a tin pan, and, beating it, she calls “Browney, Browney!” as loud as she can until the good Browney compels the bees to settle.
Mr Thorns has noticed that in Cornwall “The moths which some regard as departed souls, others as fairies, are called Pisgies.” This is somewhat too generally expressed; the belief respecting the moth, so far as I know, is confined to one or two varieties only. Mr Couch informs us that the local name, around Polperro, of the weasel is Fairy. So that we have evidence of some sort of metempsychosis amongst the elf family. Moths, ants, and weasels it would seem are the forms taken by those wandering spirits.
We read in Bishop Corbet, whose work was published in 1648, and was reprinted many years after by Bishop Percy—
The fairies were of the old profession;
Their songs were Ave Maries,
Their dances were procession.
But now, alas! they all are dead,
Or gone beyond the seas,
Or, further, for religion fled.
Or else they take their ease.
Other writers have supposed that at the time of the Reformation the fairies departed from the land. This hypothesis is not warranted by evidence. It is possible that they may have taken possession of some of the inferior creatures, but they are certainly still to be found in those regions which lie beyond the reach of the railway-giant, with his fiery mouth, or of that electric spirit who, travelling on his mysterious wires, can beat the wildest elf that ever mounted “night-steeds”.
An extract from Hunt’s Complete Cornish Folklore, Robert Hunt.
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1 Traditions, Legends, Superstitions, and Sketches of Devonshire, on the Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy, by Mrs Bray.
2 See Keightley’s Fairy Mythology.
3 The Cornish had formerly a great belief in piskays or fairies. If a traveller happened to lose his way, he immediately concluded he was “piskay led”. To dispel the charm with which the “piskay-led” traveller was entangled, nothing was deemed sufficient but that of his turning one of his garments inside-out. This generally fell upon one of his stockings; and if this precaution had been taken before the commencement of the journey, it was fully believed that no such delusion would have happened. —Drew and Hitchins’ History of Cornwall, p. 97.
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