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From: Elizabeth Agar <>
Subject: Christmas Customs - #2 - M.A.Courtney
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 10:08:31 +1100


This is the second "Christmas" transcript from "Cornish Feasts and
Folklore" by Miss M. A. Courtney, published in 1890.
--------------------------------------------

There is a curious Christmas superstition connected with the Fogo, Vog, or
Vow (local names for a cove) at Pendeen, in North St. Just.

"At dawn on Christmas-day the spirit of the 'Vow' has frequently been seen
just within the entrance near the cove, in the form of a beautiful lady
dressed in white, with a red rose in her mouth. There were persons living
a few years since who had seen the fair but not less fearful vision; for
disaster was sure to visit those who intruded on the spirit's morning
airing." - (Bottrell, Traditions, &c., West Cornwall, 2nd series.)

The following is an account by an anonymous writer of a Christmas custom in
East Cornwall:-

"In some places the parishioners walk in procession, visiting the principal
orchards in the parish. In each orchard one tree is selected, as the
representative of the rest; this is saluted with a certain form of words,
which have in them the form of an incantation. They then sprinkle the tree
with cider, or dash a bowl of cider against it, to ensure its bearing
plentifully the ensuing year. In other places the farmers and their
servants only assemble on the occasion, and after immersing apples in cider
hang them on the apple-trees. They then sprinkle the trees with cider; and
after uttering a formal incantation, they dance round it (or rather round
them), and return to the farmhouse to conclude these solemn rites with
copious draughts of cider.

"In Warleggan, on Christmas-eve, it was customary for some of the household
to put in the fire (bank it up), and the rest to take a jar of cider, a
bottle, and a gun to the orchard, and put a small bough into the bottle.
Then they said:-

"Here's to thee, old apple-tree!
Hats full, packs full, great bushel-bags full!
Hurrah! and fire off the gun."

- (Old Farmer, Mid Cornwall, through T. Q. Couch, Sept. 1883, W.
Antiquary.)

The words chanted in East Cornwall were:-

"Health to thee, good apple-tree,
Pocket-fulls, hat-fulls, peck-fulls, bushel-bag fulls."

An old proverb about these trees runs as follows:-

"Blossom in March, for fruit you may search,
Blossom in April, eat you will,
Blossom in May, eat night and day."

"At one time small sugared cakes were laid on the branches. This curious
custom has been supposed to be a propitiation of some spirit" - (Mrs.
Damant, Cowes, through Folk-Lore Society.)

From Christmas to Twelfth-tide parties of mummers known as 'Goose or
Geese-dancers' paraded the streets in all sorts of disguises, with masks
on. They often behaved in such an unruly manner that women and children
were afraid to venture out. If the doors of the houses were not locked
they would enter uninvited and stay, playing all kinds of antics, until
money was given them to go away. "A well-known character amongst them,
about fifty years ago (1862), [sic - book published 1890] was the
hobby-horse, representd by a man carrying a piece of wood in the form of a
horse's head and neck, with some contrivance for opening and shutting the
mouth with a loud snapping noise, the performer being so covered with a
horse-cloth or hide of a horse as to resemble the animal, whose curvetings,
biting and other motions be imitated. Some of these 'guise-dancers'
occasionally masked themselves with the skins of the heads of bullocks
having the horns on." - (The Land's End District, by R. Edmonds)

Sometimes they were more ambitious and acted a version of the old play,
"St. George and the Dragon," which differed but little from that current in
other countries.

Bottrell, in his Traditions in W. Cornwall (2nd series), gives large
extracts from another Christmas-play, "Duffy and the Devil." It turns upon
the legend, common in all countries, of a woman who had sold herself to the
devil, who was to do her knitting or spinning for her. He was to claim his
bargain at the end of three years if she could not find out his name before
the time expired. Of course, she gets it by stratagem; her husband, who
knows nothing of the compact, first meets the devil, while out hunting, the
day before the time is up, and makes him half-drunk. An old woman in
Duffy's pay (Witch Bet) completes the work, and in that state the devil
sings the following words, ending with his name, which Bet remembers and
tells her mistress:-

"I've knit and spun for her
Three years to the day;
To-morrow she shall ride with me
Over land and over sea.
Far away! far away!
For she can never know
That my name is "Tarraway.' "

Bet and some other witches then sing in chorus:-

"By night and by day
We will dance and play
With our noble captain,
Tarraway! Tarraway!"

Mr. Robert Hunt in his Romances and Drolls of Old Cornwall has a variation
of this play, in which the devil sings:-

"Duffy my lady, you'll never know - what?
That my name is Ferry-top, Ferry-top - top."

These "goose-dancers" became such a terror to the respectable inhabitants
of Penzance that the Corporation put them down about ten years since, and
every Christmas-eve a notice is posted in conspicuous places forbidding
their appearance in the streets, but they still perambulate the streets of
St. Ives. Guise-dancing wit must have very much deteriorated since the
beginning of the present century, as writers before that time speak of the
mirth it afforded; and the saying, "as good as a Christmas-play," is
commonly used to describe a very witty or funny thing.

It was the custom in Scilly eighty years ago for girls to go to church on
Christmas morning dressed all in white, verfying the old proverb -- "pride
is never a-cold."

[to be continued - at a guess, three more]

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