(Image from Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle)
"See
saw; Margery Daw
Sold her bed
and lay upon straw;
She sold her
straw, and lay upon hay,
Piskies came
and carr'd her away."
- Notes and Queries, Series 1, Volume
11, Couch (1855)
A recent
query about pixies in the Fairy Folklore Facebook Group reminded me that I
still hadn’t gotten around to writing a blog post about Cornish folklore! I
visited in 2013 but for some reason never got around to blogging about it,
which I apologise for profusely as the Piskies certainly deserve a mention. The
fairy folk of Cornwall are still very much celebrated locally, especially in
Polperro where you can still choose from a wide selection of piskey statues and charms
in the Joad the Wad shop!
In this blog
I have only included stories that directly refer to piskies by name, but many
more stories of the “small folk” can be found in Cornwall, including a good
selection in Hunt’s Popular Romances of the West of England.
Are Piskies
and Pixies the same?
As far as I
currently understand, and please do correct me if I’m wrong, in Cornwall they
are known as piskay (Hitchins and Drew), piskey (Bottrell), pigsey (Hunt) or piskies
(Hunt), and further afield in Devon they are known as pixies, piscy or pixy
(Hunt). The most commonly used spelling seems to be piskey or piskies (plural)
so that is the name I will use here unless directly quoting another
source.
According to
Evans-Wentz, “Pisky or Pisgy is really Pixy. Though as a
patriotic Cornishman I ought not to admit it, I cannot deny, especially as
it suits my argument better, that the Devon form is the correct one.” He goes
on to explain, “I think the original word is really Cornish. The transposition
of consonants, especially when s is one of them, is not uncommon in
modern Cornish English.” This is outside of my area of expertise but feel free
to comment with your thoughts on this.
Most agree
on Piskies and Pixies being the same thing, but with regional names, however according
to Hunt's Popular Romances (1865) the piscy or pixy of East Devon and Somerset
is a different creature from his Cornish cousin, with the East Devon and
Somerset Pixies being mischievous but harmless, and the Cornish Pixies being
more cunning and with sharpened wits.
What are
Piskies?
Hunt's
Popular Romances (1865) divides the fairy family of Cornwall into 5 categories-
Small people, spriggans, buccas bockles and knockers, browneys, and piskies or pigseys.
He describes the piskey as 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 widespread 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 as become famous for his power to
give charms against Pigseys.” “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."
Evans-Wentz
disagrees with Hunt's classifications and comments "The Pobel Vean or
Small People, the Spriggans, and the Piskies are not really distinguishable
from one another. Bucca, who properly is but one, is a deity not a fairy".
He adds, "But the only true Cornish fairy is the Pisky, of the race which
is the Pobel Vean or Little People, and the Spriggan is only one of his
aspects. The Pisky would seem to be the ‘Brownie’ of the Lowland Scot".
This is a fair comparison as piskies do seem fond of helping on farms, and like
the brownie they disappear when given new clothing.
Courtney divides
the fairies of Cornwall into four classes and also removes the Bucca, listing
the classes as “the Small People, the Pixies (pronounced Piskies or Pisgies),
the Spriggans, and the Knockers.” (Folk-Lore Journal Vol 5, 1887)
Couch disagrees
with the categorisation of fairies of Cornwall and writes, "This creed has
received so many additions and modifications at one time, and has suffered so
many abstractions at another, that it is impossible to make any arrangement of
our fairies into classes. "The elves of halls, brooks, standing lakes, and
groves” are all now confounded under the generic name pisky." (Couch,
1871)
A most
thorough description of piskies can be found in Couch’s article in Notes and
Queries, Series 1, Volume 11, (1855) "Our piskies are little beings
standing midway between the purely spiritual and the material, suffering a few,
at least, of the ills incident to humanity. They have the power of making
themselves seen, heard, and felt. They interest themselves in man's affairs;
now doing him a good turn, anon taking offence at a trifle, and leading him
into all manner of mischief. The rude gratitude of the husbandman is construed
into an insult, and the capricious sprites mislead him on the first
opportunity, and laugh heartily at his misadventures. They are great enemies of
sluttery and encouragers of good husbandry. When not singing or dancing their
chief nightly amusement is in riding the colts, and plaiting the manes, or
tangling them with the seed-vessels of the burdock. Of a particular field in
this neighbourhood it is reported that the farmer never puts his horses in it
but he finds them in the morning in a state of great terror, panting and
covered with foam. Their form of government is monarchical, as frequent mention
is made of "the King of the piskies".
Illustration from North Cornwall
Fairies and Legends, Tregarthern (1906)
Evans-Wentz mentions "the not very common
idea that piskies are the souls of unbaptized children" and Henry Spragg,
aged 70 of Delabole, told Evan-Wentz "I can remember hearing the old
people say that the piskies are the spirits of dead-born children."
Evan-Wentz also mentions the belief that "the little people are the living
souls and bodies of the old Pagans, who, refusing Christianity, are
miraculously preserved alive, but are condemned to decrease in size until they
vanish altogether." He also mentions a theory of the survival of the
traditions of a "dark pre-Celtic people. These were not necessarily
pygmies, but smaller than Celts, and may have survived for a long time in forests
and hill countries, sometimes friendly to the taller race, whence come the
stories of piskies working for farmers, sometimes hostile, which may account
for the legends of changelings and other mischievous tricks."
Evans-Wentz spoke to some of the older generations on a visit to Cornwall and published these accounts in 1911, and both an 80-year-old and 82-year-old spoke of the belief that piskies were thought of as spirits. A 78-year-old told him "I always understood the piskies to be little people. A great deal was said about ghosts in this place. Whether or not piskies are the same as ghosts I cannot tell, but I fancy the old folks thought they were." Miss Mary Ann Chirgwin of Newlyn told him that "The old people used to say the piskies were apparitions of the dead come back in the form of little people, but I can’t remember anything more than this about them."
"Piskey" was also said to be a common name in the neighbourhood of Truro for moths; "which are there believed by some to be fairies, by others, departed souls. As a consequence of this latter belief, it is there thought that when moths are very numerous their appearance is an omen of a great mortality." (Thoms, 1865)
Evans-Wentz paid visit to the country home of Miss Susan E. Gay, author of a history of Falmouth. She explained, "The pixies and fairies are little beings in the human form existing on the ‘astral plane’, who may be in the process of evolution; and, as such, I believe people have seen them. The ‘astral plane’ is not known to us now because our psychic faculty of perception has faded out by non-use, and this condition has been brought about by an almost exclusive development of the physical brain; but it is likely that the psychic faculty will develop again in its turn.’"
"Others say: there were no piskies at all in Cornwall before the invasion of the saints; but when St. Keverne and St. Just and St. Sennen and the rest sailed across the sea of their goodly millstones (for such was their saintliness that they could not do the simplest thing except in a miraculous way), the piskies came with them, perched on their shoulders, or hanging on to their beards; for in those days sanctity wore a merry face, and holy men were well disposed towards the sprightly little folk, and loved to have them about them, to cheer their vigils with sport and frolic. Others again declare the piskies to be no others than the ancient pagan gods of Cornwall; and this to me is the most probable explanation of all." (Cornish Magazine Vol 2, Lee 1899)
I end this section with a wonderful poem by Couch titled The Piskies, published in The Cornish Magazine Vol 2 Jan-May 1899
"We were not good enough for Heaven,
Not bad enough for Hell :
And therefore unto us ’twas given
Unseen on earth to dwell :
To listen by the moonlit thatch,
By
window-blinds to lurk,
To watch men
on their knees, and watch
Men go about
their work.
We watch in
hope to be forgiven ;
But still we
cannot tell
Whose deeds
are good enough for Heaven,
Whose bad
enough for Hell."
What do
Piskies look like?
In a tale of
Piskey helping to thresh corn found in Bottrell's Traditions and Hearthside
Stories of West Cornwall, Second Series (1873), the old dame "saw that the
threshal was worked by a little old man, no more than three feet high, covered
only with a few rags, and his long hair that hung over his shoulders like a
bunch of rushes, (a bunch beaten for making sheep's spans). His face was
broader than it was long; she couldn't make out the colour of his great round
owl's-eyes, they were so shaded by his shaggy eyebrows, from between which his
long nose, like a snout, poked out. His mouth reached from ear to ear, and they
were set far back to make room for it. Pee noticed, too, that his teeth were
very long and jagged, for he was so eager about his work that, with each stroke
of the threshal, he kept moving his thin lips round and up and down, and his
tongue in and out. He had nothing of a chin or neck to speak of, but shoulders
broad enow for a man twice his height. His naked arms and legs were out of all
proportion, and too long for his squat body; and his splayed feet were more
like a quilkan's (frog's) than a man's." In another tale of a piskey
thresher the piskey is described as "a little fellow, clad in a very
tattered suit of green" (Notes and Queries, Series 1, Volume 11, Couch,
1855) In both tales the piskies are unfortunately offered new clothing, and as
expected disappear soon after.
Illustration from Polperro Pisky-Lore and Legendland booklet
For the piskies of Polperro, a “disposition to laughter is a striking trait in their character, and a person who laughs heartily and unrestrainedly is said to "laugh like a pisky." I have been able to gather little about the personality of these beings. My old friend, before mentioned, described them as about a span long, clad in green, and wearing straw hats, or little red caps, on their heads. (Couch, 1871)
A piskey who
knocked on the door of a preacher in West Cornwall was described as "a
tiny little man, no bigger than a whitneck when it sits up on its hind paws.
Like a whitneck he was dressed in a brown coat and white waistcoat; his
breeches were brown also, his stockings were green, and his shoe-buckles were
two silver dewdrops. On his head he wore a red cap, which he doffed politely as
soon as the door opened, discovering a natty little wig made of grey lichen.
And in his right hand he flourished a straight twig, to the end of which a
shred of white linen was died, by way of flag of truce." (Cornish Magazine
Vol 2, Lee, 1899)
The King and Queen of the Piskies
The King and Queen of the Piskies
“Their form of government is monarchical, as frequent mention is made of "the King of the piskies.” He tells that two are known by name, as mentioned in the following rhyme:
“Jack o' the
lantern! Joan the wad,
Who tickled the
maid and made her mad;
Light me
home, the weather's bad.”
- Notes and Queries, Series 1, Volume 11, Couch
(1855)
Wad was an
old Cornish word for torch. Charms of Joan the Wad and Jack O’ Lantern have
been sold in Cornwall for many years, especially around Polperro, and they are
said to bring good luck, health and happiness. They can still be purchased
online from the Joan the Wad Shop. They also sell charms of the lesser known Nicky Nan Knight Of The Knockers, Billy Bucca Duke Of The Buccas, and Sam the Prince of the Spriggans.
Carvings of the Polperro Piskies, taken when the Joan the Wad shop was
on Fore Street
Advert from The Astonishing History
of the Lucky Cornish Piskies, 1950
Another piskey with a name was Colman Grey. It was found starving with cold and hunger by a farmer at Langreek, who took it home to warm it by the hearth, and he fed it with milk. It recovered and never spoke but became very lively and playful and was a favourite in the family, until about three or four days later when a shrill voice was heard calling three times "Colman Grey!" and at once the piskey sprang up and cried "Ho! Ho! Ho! my daddy is come!" and off it flew through the keyhole. (Notes and Queries, Series 1, Volume 11, Couch, 1855)
The Trouble with Piskies
"If a
traveller among the peasantry happened to lose his way, whether by daylight or
in darkness, especially if it was a road with which he had been well
acquainted, he immediately concluded that he was "piskay led:" and in
his belief he was confirmed, by the public opinion of his neighbours, who were
always ready on his return, to recount a number of similar adventures, as
corroborating evidences of the fact. 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. The turning of a garment inside out was therefore sometimes
adopted as a preventative, and sometimes reported as a remedy, when the spell
of the piskay was experienced." (Hitchins and Drew, 1824). However, according
to a late witty Cornish doctor, "Pisky led is often whiskey led." Which
may offer a more rational explanation for men getting lost walking home from
the pub. (Folk-Lore Journal Vol 5, 1887).
A clergyman,
whose veracity is unquestionable, assured me that many of the inhabitants of
Paul to this day believe devoutly that the piskies control the mists, and can,
when so disposed, cast a thick veil over the traveller. Sometimes the fairies
throw a light before his face that completely dazzles him, and leads him
backwards and forwards, without allowing him to make any progress in his
journey. This is called being pixy-laden; and a man lately going from Newlyn to
Paul, as straight a country road as can well be imagined, was thus teased by
the fairies, and it was not until he thought of turning his coat inside out
that he escaped the effects of their influence. (Halliwell, 1861)
Hunt’s
Popular Romances (1865) agrees, "No Pigsey could harm a man if his coat
were inside-out, and it became 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."
Piskies are
blamed for many a mischief, not just leading travellers astray. Hitchins and
Drew go on to explain that piskay was also blamed for the entangled threads of
the seamstress, if her patches were discomposed, her thimble was lost, domestic
articles mislaid, and much more! "If an accident happened, of which the
immediate cause was not obvious, the blame was instantly thrown upon the
piskays, and these invisible offenders were sometimes loaded with
execrations."
Sometimes
Piskey could be very troublesome indeed. (Bottrell, 1873). "Whilst she was
still stooping, and groping for her glove and the buckles, she felt a great
number of the small tribe—a score or more—leap on her back, neck, and head. At
the same time others, tripping up her heels, laid her flat on the ground and
rolled her over and over. More than once, when her face was uppermost, she
caught a glimpse of Piskey, all in rags as usual, mounted on a year-old colt,
his toes stuck in the mane, holding a rush in his hand to guide it. There he
sat, putting on the smaller sprights to torment her, making a tee-hee-hee and
haw-haw-haw, with his mouth open from ear to ear."
Piskies were
said to be very fond of riding horses, especially those belonging to local
farmers. “I was on a visit when a boy at a farm-house situated near Fowey
river. Well do I remember the farmer with much sorrow telling us one morning at
breakfast, that "the piskie people had been riding Tom again; " and
this he regarded as certainly leading to the destruction of a fine young horse.
I was taken to the stable to see the horse. There could be no doubt that the
animal was much distressed, and refused to eat his food. The mane was said to
be knotted into fairy stirrups; and Mr told me that he had no doubt at least
twenty small people had sat upon the horse's neck. He even assured me that one
of his men had seen them urging the horse to his utmost speed round and round
one of his fields.” A Liskeard farmer also found this to be a problem, “If
you’d had yourn hosses wrode to death every nite, you’d tell another tay! I
reckon. But as sure as I ‘se living the pigsies do ride on ‘em whenever they’ve
a mind to.” (Hunt, 1865)
A farmer in
Bosfrancan in St Burrien had a fine cow called Daisey, who had an udder like a
bucket yet she would only yield a gallon or so of milk before she would give a
gentle bleat, cock her ears up, and the milk would stop flowing. No one could
tell what was the matter, and they tried to get rid of but as fast as they
drove her up the lane, she would escape and be back in the field again before
they were half way home. On midsummer's evening, Daisey was the last cow to
milk and the maid's bucket was so full she could scarcely lift it so she
plucked up a handful of grass and clover to put in the head of her hat to
steady the bucket. She had no sooner placed the hat on her head when she saw
"hundreds and thousands of Small People swarming in all directions about
the cow, and dipping their hands into the milk, taking it out on the clover
blossoms and sucking them. The grass and clover, all in blossom, reached to the
cow's belly. Hundreds of the little creatures ran up the long grass and clover
stems, with buttercups, lady's smocks, convolvuluses, and foxglove flowers, to
catch the milk that Daisey let flow from her four teats, like a shower, among
them. Eight under the cow's udder the maid saw one much larger than the others,
lying on his back, with his heels cocked up to the cow's belly. She knew he
must be a Piskie, because he was laughing, with his mouth open from ear to ear.
The little ones were running up and down his legs, filling their cups, and
emptying them into the Piskie's mouth. Hundreds of others were on Daisey 'a
back, scratching her rump, and tickling her round the horns and behind the
ears. Others were smoothing down every hair of her shining coat into its place."
The maid realised she must have put a four leafed clover in her hat, granting
her sight of them. The mistress's mother knew the small people couldn't abide
the smell of fish, nor the taste of salt or grease, and advised the maid to rub
the cow's udder with fish brine. She did this, but soon wished she hadnt
interfered. Daisey would go around the fields bleating and crying as if she'd
lost her calf, and she pined away to skin and bone and was sold at the next
Burrien fair for next to nothing, and the farmer only found bad luck
afterwards. (Hunt, 1865)
One of
perhaps the more unusual activities blamed on Piskey is “After Michaelmas, it
is said, that blackberries are unwholesome because Piskey spoils them then.” A green bug,
frequently found on bramble bushes in autumn, is also called by the name of
piskey (Bottrell, 1873), so I’m not entirely sure who is getting the blame
here, the bugs or the fairies! A lady in Newlyn said it was after the 31st of October when
the blackberries are not fit to eat as "the pixies have been over
them" (Evans-Wentz, 1911).
One evening
John Taprail moored his boat beside a much larger barge and in the middle of
the night was awoke by a voice warning him to get up and shift his rope over as
his boat was in danger. He hurried to the boat only to find no dangers at all,
but on his way back he spotted a crowd of little people congregated under the
shelter of a boat lying dry upon the beach, and they were holding their hats
out as one of their kind pitched a gold piece into each hat one by one. The
sight of the gold made John forget the respect due to an assemblage of piskies
and their habit of punishing those who intrude on their privacy, and he crept
over and managed to add his hat in without being noticed. He withdrew his hat
and snuck away before detection, taking his gold with him, but the defrauded
piskies were soon on his heels and he barely escaped, leaving the tail of his
sea-coat in their hands. (Crouch, 1871)
A tale
common in many areas of the UK is that of the fairy midwife, and a piskey
version can be found in Polperro. An old nurse was called upon to help a
diminutive lady in labour and paid generously for her services. Afterwards she
was washing the baby when she accidently applied soap to one of her eyes, and
lo and behold her true surroundings were revealed to her and she saw "a
crowd of piskies thronged the room, and went through unimaginable pranks".
She returned home but spotted one of them later at a local fair, and when he
asked which eye she could see him with she pointed to the eye she had smeared with
the fairy suds, and she immediately received a blow from his pisky first and
she was blind forever in that eye.
Like their
fairy cousins of other areas, piskies were sometimes said to be responsible for
the theft of human children. "A woman who lived near Breage Church had a
fine girl baby, and she thought the piskies came and took it and put a withered
child in its place. The withered child lived to be twenty years old, and was no
larger when it died than when the piskies brought it. It was fretful and
peevish and frightfully shrivelled. The parents believed that the piskies often
used to come and look over a certain wall by the house to see the child. And I
heard my grandmother say that the family once put the child out of doors at
night to see if the piskies would take it back again.’" (Evans Wentz,
1911)
Another
method of getting the real child back was to pay a visit to Men-an-Tol. "At
the Men-an-Tol there is supposed to be a guardian fairy or pixy who can make
miraculous cures. And my other knew of an actual case in which a changeling was
put through the stone in order to get the real child back. It seems that evil
pixies changed children, and that the pixy at the Men-an-Tol being good, could,
in opposition, undo their work." In another story the true child could
only be returned by laying a four-leaf clover on the changeling. (Evans-Wentz,
1911)
Illustration
from North Cornwall Fairies and Legends, Tregarthern (1906)
Piskies
Being Helpful
Piskies
could also be very helpful, and were especially known for helping with
threshing corn and cleaning houses. In a tale in Bottrell's Traditions and Hearthside
Stories of West Cornwall(1873) an old dame in a story tells "ever since I
can remember, I have heard it said that Piskey threshed the corn in Boslow of
winter's nights, and did other odd jobs all the year round for the old couple
who lived here, but I wouldn't believe it. Yet here he es!" Unfortunately
the old dame makes a mistake in fairy etiquette and when the small folk start
sneezing due to all the straw dust she says "God bless 'e little
men!" and they disappear and she feels a handful of dust thrown into her
eyes as Piskey says "I spy thy snout, old Peepan Pee; And I'll serve thee
out, or es much to me.". Remember, the fairies never like to be spied
upon!
In many
tales the piskies are similar to the Scottish Brownie, helping on farms and in
old houses, and like their Scottish cousin they leave when given new clothing.
The old dame in the tale mentions "We all know ragged as Piskey es, he's
so proud that he won't wear cast-off clothes, or else he should have some of my
dear old man's—the Lord rest him." She makes him some brand-new clothes,
and sure enough when he puts on his new breeches, stockings, coat, and cap he
sings "Piskey fine and Piskey gay, Piskey now will run away." and is
never seen again. In another tale the man who spies the threshers incautiously
thanked them through the key-hole, and when the piskies, who love to work
"unheard and unespied", heard him they instantly vanished and never
visited the barn again. (Notes and Queries, Series 1, Volume 11, Couch, 1855)
A farmer's
wife at "Colmans" in the parish of Werrington of a piskey that
"frequently made its appearance in the form of a 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.
(Choice Notes from Notes and Queries, Folk Lore 1859)
The Astonishing
History of the Lucky Cornish Piskies (1950) tells of piskies bestowing a
wonderful gift on a young blacksmith. Matthey Hosken, son of the smith of
Porthennis, was a thoughtful and studious lad but his father did not appreciate
his habit of "trying to make iron do what iron won't do", as he had a
terrible habit of spoiling jobs. In his spare time he liked to climb the
headland and lie among the furze with his back against the ancient cromlech
overlooking the sea. Here he would lie and dream of intricate iron traceries
and fine filigree work that one day he would accomplish, once he had learned
the secret to make iron do what iron won't do. The piskies were aware of his
hopes and dreams and that he was a good young fellow who followed an old and honourable
trade, and they decided to help him prosper and told him of "the flux, the
secret of Teague the smith, he who was armourer to King Arthur and his
Knights." In the church of Porthennis, there stood a screen of ironwork,
the centre panel of which had a spider in its web, that was a marvel that
caused smiths from all over the country to wonder how the iron had been wrought
so thin, but young Hosken let the secret die with him, and unfortunately his
masterpiece later rusted away to nothingness. This seems to be a rewrite of an
earlier version by Couch, where the gift was bestowed upon the blacksmith's son
by a wren bird after he promises to stop shooting birds. Interestingly, in
Couch's version the wrens are described as "the friend of a race that
inhabited Cornwall ages ago. It builds in their cromlechs, and its song
remembers them". (Couch, 1929)
Piskies do
seem rather fonder of metal than the fairy folk of other areas. The Polperro
Pisky-Lore and Legendland booklet tells “In Cornwall it is believed that
wherever the piskies are fond of resorting the depths of the earth are rich in
metal. Very many mines have been discovered by their singing”.
A piece of
tin put into an ant's nest could "through pisky power be transmuted into
silver, provided that it was inserted at some varying lucky moment about the
time of the new moon." (Folk-Lore Journal Vol 5, 1887)
I’m not sure
if this counts as being helpful, but it definitely did the man no harm. A lad
from Portallow was sent to Polperro to buy some household necessaries from the
shop, but night had set in by the time he headed home. When he heard a voice
say "I'm for Portallow Green' he thought he may as well have the company
and he answered "I'm for Portallow Green" too. He suddenly found
himself on the Green surrounded by "a throng of little laughing
piskies" and when a cry was heard from several tiny voices of "I'm
for Seaton Beach" he joined in and was whisked away with them. After they
had danced a while he heard a cry of "I'm for the King of France's
cellar" and once again he joined in, and immediately found himself in a
spacious cellar, and joined his mysterious companions in tasting the richest of
wines. He returned home to Portallow Green with them eventually, but stole a
goblet along the way to prove his journey, and it remained in his family for
many generations after. (Notes and Queries, Series 1, Volume 11, Couch, 1855)
Appeasing
the Piskies
"A
recent old cottage tenant at Poliphant, near Launceston, when asked why he
allowed a hole in the wall
of his house to remain unrepaired, answered that he would not have it stopped
up on any account,
as he left it on purpose for the piskeys to come in and out, as they had done
for years." (An itinerary of Launceston, 1865)
Milk seems
to be a favourite of the piskies. "It was only last winter, in a cottage
not a hundred yards from where I am writing, that milk was set at night for
piskies, who had been knocking on walls and generally making nuisances of
themselves. Apparently the piskies only drank the ‘astral’ part of the milk
(whatever that may be) and then the neighbouring cats drank what was left, and
it disagreed with them. (Evans-Wentz, 1911)
An article
by Charles Lee in the Cornish Magazine Vol 2 (1899) tells of an old woman who
never looked dirty, for "Every night she opened the window a little way,
set a dish of milk on the table, and went to bed. Every morning the milk was
gone, the cloam washed and put by, the slab polished, the floor swept and
sprinkled with white sand, and not a cobweb left under the planchin."
Protection
from Piskies
"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 pisky substituted, the disaster being caused by the absence of the
prayer-book on one particular night." (Choice Notes, 1859)
If you had
been cursed by a piskey, Mrs Jane Tregurtha of Newlyn advises that "to
remove the curses people would go to the wells blessed by the saints."
(Evans-Wentz, 1911)
"In
West Cornwall knobs of lead, known as pisky's pows or pisky feet, were placed
at intervals on the roofs of farm-houses to prevent the piskies from dancing on
them and turning the milk sour in the dairies." (Folk-Lore Journal Vol 5,
1887)
Apart from the
above and turning an article of your clothing inside out, little else seems to have
been written on how to protect against piskies, other than not angering them in
the first place! A Penzance man told Evans-Wentz that “people of miserly nature
used to put salt around a cow to keep the pixies away; and then the pixies
would lead such mean people astray the very first opportunity that came.” In
the previously mentioned tale of Daisey the cow, the piskies were kept away
with fish and salt, but the story certainly did end well for the farmer. Perhaps
using protection against the piskies isn’t quite such a good idea after all,
and it’s better to leave them to their business.
Seeing
Piskies & Where to Find Them
If you’d
like to go and see a piskey, I’d urge you to think again! The piskies certainly
don’t like to be spied on, and to do so would put yourself in great danger.
Piskies were once used by parents as a warning. An 82-year-old man told Evans-Wentz
in 1911 that “If we as children did anything wrong, the old folks would say to
us, “The piskies will carry you away if you do that again.”’
However, if
you would still like to see a piskey, a Penzance man offers this method,
"I have heard my nurse say that she could see scores of them whenever she
picked a four-leaf clover and put it in the wisp of straw which she carried on
her head as a cushion for the bucket of milk. Her theory was that the richness
of the milk was what attracted them. Pixies, like fairies, very much enjoyed
milk" He also adds that “According to some country-people, the pixies have
been seen in the day-time, but usually they are only seen at night.” Richard
Harry, the historian of Mousehole, tells that the piskies are thought to appear
on moonlight nights. Frank Ellis, aged 78, of Trevescan advises "If you
keep quiet when they are dancing you’ll see them, but if you make any noise
they’ll disappear." Mr Male, aged 82 of Delabole, tells "Piskies
always come at night, and in marshy ground there are round places called pisky
beds where they play." (Evan-Wentz, 1911).
The Journal
of the Royal Institution of Cornwall of 1864 mentions that stone spindle-whorls
found during the tilling of the ground are called in Cornwall "Piskey
Grinding-Stones".
One sign of
there being piskies nearby is the presence of a fairy circle. “In certain grass
fields, mushrooms growing in a circle might be seen of a morning, and the old
folks pointing to the mushrooms would say to the children, “Oh, the piskies
have been dancing there last night.”’ (Evan-Wentz, 1911).
Below are further
details of some of the places you may want to visit in search of piskies….
The Pisky-House,
Bosahan
Little
information is given on this site apart from William Murphy paid the site a
visit with a surveyor and "the two of them heard such unearthly noises in
it that they came running home in great excitement, saying they had heard the
piskies.’" (Evans-Wentz, 1911)
Bal Lane,
Germoe
Bal Lane in
Germoe was said to be a notorious place for Piskies, according to Hunt's
Popular Romances (1865) and one man returning from drinking found it
"covered all over from end to end, and the Small People holding a fair
there with all sorts of merchandise the prettiest sight they ever met
with." He thought he saw his child there, and in the morning found an ugly
wizened child in its place.
Logan
Rock Cairn
"If the
adventurous traveller who visits the Land's End district will go down as far as
he can on the south-west side of the Logan Rock Cairn, and look over, he will
see, in little sheltered places between the cairns, close down to the water's
edge, beautifully green spots, with here and there some ferns and cliff-pinks.
These are the gardens of the Small People, or, as they are called by the
natives, Small Folk. They are beautiful little creatures, who appear to pass a
life of constant enjoyment amongst their own favourite flowers." A native
of St Levan tells "when I have been to sea close under the cliffs, of a
fine summer's night, I have heard the sweetest of music, and seen hundreds of
little lights moving about amongst what looked like flowers. Ay! and they are
flowers too, for you may smell the sweet scent far out at sea. Indeed, I have
heard many of the old men say, that they have smelt the sweet perfume, and
heard the music from the fairy gardens of the Castle, when more than a mile
from the shore." Strangely enough, you can find no flowers but the
sea-pinks in these lovely green places by day, yet they have been described by
those who have seen them in the midsummer moonlight as being covered with
flowers of every colour, all of them far more brilliant than any blossoms seen
in any mortal garden." (Hunt, 1865) This same story, almost word for word,
appears in the Polperro Pisky-Lore and Legendland booklet, but the location has
been changed to the Polperro cliffs and the small folk are called piskies
instead.
Polperro
Last but not
least, a visit to Polperro is a must for anyone interested in learning more about
piskies, and I recommend including a visit to the Joan the Wad shop on
Lansallos Street to buy some lucky Polperro Piskies. If you live too far away to travel, they also sell online through their website. Below are some photos of
the shop, with many thanks to the Joan the Wad shop for providing these wonderful photos.
Lucky Piskies
Mention must be made of the tradition of Piskies being lucky. I'm not sure when this tradition began, but it certainly became popular, and as mentioned above in the section on Kings and Queens, many various charms and statues were and still are available to grant luck to the owner. A huge collection of them can be viewed here on the PelTorro Website.
Some of my own lucky piskies and adverts for them
The Joan the Wad shop in Polperro had a lucky well inside the shop itself, and it can still be seen today in their premises on Lansallos Street.
Image kindly provided by The Joan the Wad shop
The piskies still seem to giving good luck more recently too. A newspaper article in the Falmouth Packet September 2018 titled ‘Cornish Pisky leads to lost wedding ring found near Coverack’ tells how a holidaymaker lost his wedding ring on the beach near Coverack, only for it to be found two weeks later by Caroline Beadle, co-creator of Cornish Pisky Pals in the village, who was walking along the same beach, with one of her creations in her pocket.
The Decline
of the Piskies
Hitchins and
Drew describe in 1824 the already declining belief in piskies, "But the
age of piskays, like that of chivalry, is gone. There is perhaps at present
scarcely a house in Cornwall, which they are reputed to visit. They neither
steal children, nor displace domestic articles. Even the fields and lanes which
they formerly frequented, seem to be nearly forsaken. Their music is rarely
heard; and they appear to have forgotten to attend their ancient midnight
dance. The diffusion of knowledge, by which the people have been enlightened
during the last half century, has considerably reduced the number of piskays:
and even the few that remain, are evidently preparing to take their
departure."
In 1871
Couch wrote regarding Polperro, "The belief in the little folk is far from
dead among us, although the people of this generation hold it by a slighter
tenure than their forefathers did, and are aware that piskies are now fair
objects of ridicule, whatever they may formerly have been."
In a story
of a piskey and a preacher, the piskies tell him that when the white monks came
from Ireland and sprinkled them with holy water they shrank as the drops fell
on them, and became as dwarfs. Later, the monks were replaced by people in
black gowns and as people were not sure who to follow the piskies stopped
shrinking, but then one day not long ago they woke to find they had suddenly
grown old overnight, "so wizened were our faces, so shrunken our
limbs" and the grass now towered above their heads. A new preacher from
the East had arrived with another new creed. Some piskies wanted to move to
Ireland, others wanted to waylay the preacher, but they instead decided to
speak with him. They explained their situation and asked if there was room for
them in his message as forgotten they would perish, but the preacher showed no
sympathy and denounced the piskies as evil spirits, and imps of the pit, and he
foretold the imminent doom of all piskies, spriggans, knockers, and brownies,
and how they would in a little white be forgotten and perish from the land.
They piskies wailed shrilly and fled shrieking and lamenting into the woods,
never to be seen again (Cornish Magazine Vol 2, Lee, 1899).
I’m very
glad to say that the piskies have never been completely forgotten, partly with
great thanks to the Joan the Wad shop in Polperro for continuing to promote
these traditions. Just remember, as long as we continue to remember the Cornish
piskies, they will never shrink and disappear completely!
I will end by sharing with you a 'Prayer to the Piskies' found in an undated little booklet called A Short History of "Joan the Wad" Queen of the Lucky Cornish Piskeys, issued from Joan's cottage in Lanivet in Bodmin:
"Oh, Piskey fine, piskey gay,
Piskey lead me not astray,
Piskey rain, Piskey hail,
Piskey, wellwish me by sail.
Oh, Piskey, in the dark wisht wood,
Piskey, help me to be good,
Piskey frost, piskey snow,
Piskey'm mazed my love to know,
Oh, Piskey in the cauchy well,
Piskey, please my love to tell."
Piskey lead me not astray,
Piskey rain, Piskey hail,
Piskey, wellwish me by sail.
Oh, Piskey, in the dark wisht wood,
Piskey, help me to be good,
Piskey frost, piskey snow,
Piskey'm mazed my love to know,
Oh, Piskey in the cauchy well,
Piskey, please my love to tell."
Sources and Further Information
The History
of Cornwall: From the Earliest Records and Traditions, to the Present Time,
Hitchins and Drew (1824)
Notes and
Queries, Series 1, Volume 11, Folk Lore of a Cornish Village, Couch (1855)
Choice Notes
from Notes and Queries, Folk Lore (1859)
Rambles in
Western Cornwall by the Footsteps of the Giants, Halliwell (1861)
An itinerary
of Launceston, Cornwall (1865)
Three
Notelets on Shakespeare, Thoms (1865)
Popular Romances of the West of England, Hunt (1865)
The History of Polperro, Couch (1871)
Traditions
and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Second Series, Bottrell (1873)
Cornish
Folk-Lore Part III, The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5, Courtney (1887)
Legendary
Lore of the Holy Wells of England, Hope (1893)
The Cornish
Magazine Vol 2 Jan-May, articles by Couch and Lee (1899)
The
Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, Evans-Wentz (1911)
News from
the Duchy, Couch (1929)
The
Astonishing History of the Lucky Cornish Piskies, Bailey (1950)
Polperro
Pisky-Lore and Legendland, Pisky Place booklet (undated but appears to be pre-1950s)
