“These _Guirrimears_,” he says, “which were used at the great conventions of the people, at which they had famous interludes celebrated with great preparations, and not without shows of devotion in them, solemnized in great and spacious downs of great capacity, encompassed about with earthen banks, and some in part stone-work, of largeness to contain thousands, the shapes of which remain in many places at this day, though the use of them long since gone.... This was a great means to keep in use the tongue with delight and admiration. They had recitations in them, poetical and divine, one of which I may suppose this small relique of antiquity to be, in which the passion of our Saviour, and his resurrection, is described.” If to these mystery-plays and poems we add some versions of the Lord’s Prayer, the Commandments, and the Creed, a protestation of the bishops in Britain to Augustine the monk, the Pope’s legate, in the year 600 after Christ (MS. Gough, 4), the first chapter of Genesis, and some songs, proverbs, riddles, a tale and a glossary, we have an almost complete catalogue of what a Cornish library would be at the present day. Now if we examine the language as preserved to us in these fragments, we find that it is full of Norman, Saxon, and Latin words. No one can doubt, for instance, that the following Cornish words are all taken from Latin, that is, from the Latin of the Church:— _Abat_, an abbot; Lat. _abbas_. _Alter_, altar; Lat. _altare_. _Apostol_, apostle; Lat. _apostolus_. _Clauster_, cloister; Lat. _claustrum_. _Colom_, dove; Lat. _columba_. _Gwespar_, vespers; Lat. _vesper_. _Cantuil_, candle; Lat. _candela_. _Cantuilbren_, candlestick; Lat. _candelabrum_. _Ail_, angel; Lat. _angelus_. _Archail_, archangel; Lat. _archangelus_. Other words, though not immediately connected with the service and the doctrine of the Church, may nevertheless have passed from Latin into Cornish, either directly from the daily conversation of monks, priests, and schoolmasters, or indirectly from English or Norman, in both of which the same Latin words had naturally been adopted, though slightly modified according to the phonetic peculiarities of each. Thus:— _Ancar_, anchor; the Latin, _ancora_. This might have come indirectly through English or Norman-French. _Aradar_, plough; the Latin, _aratrum_. This must have come direct from Latin, as it does not exist in Norman or English. _Arghans_, silver; _argentum_. _Keghin_, kitchen; _coquina_. This is taken from the same Latin word from which the Romance languages formed _cuisine, cucina_; not from the classical Latin, _culina_. _Liver_, book; _liber_, originally the bark of trees on which books were written. _Dinair_, coin; _denarius. Seth_, arrow; _sagitta. Caus_, cheese; _caseus_. _Caul_, cabbage; _caulis_.