North Cornwall Fairies and LegendsTregarthen, Enys
Science
North Cornwall Fairies and Legends
Tregarthen, Enys
Folklore -- England -- Cornwall (County); Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
They danced for a good hour, the little fiddler in their midst fiddling
his fiddle, all the while keeping time with his head and foot, heedless
that the daylight was driving the darkness away to the country to which
it belongs; and King Arthur the Bird flew up on the wall and watched,
and the mole who called herself the Lady Want let her dainty hands
be seen on the mole-hill, till the fiddling, dancing, and laughing
were finished, and the Piskeys went off to the Piskey-beds to sleep.
THE LEGEND OF THE PADSTOW DOOMBAR
In a far-away time Tristram Bird of Padstow bought a gun at a little
shop in the quaint old market which in those days opened to the quay,
the winding river, and the St. Minver sand-hills. When he had bought
his gun he began forthwith to shoot birds and other poor little
creatures.
After a while he grew more ambitious, and told the fair young maids of
Padstow that he wanted to shoot a seal or something more worthy of his
gun; and so one bright morning he made his way down to Hawker's Cove,
near the mouth of the harbour.
When Tristram got there he looked about him to see what he could shoot,
and the first thing he saw was a young maid sitting all alone on a
rock, combing her hair with a sea-green comb.
He was so overcome at such an unexpected sight that he quite forgot
what had brought him to the cove, and could do nothing but stare.
The rock on which the maiden sat was covered with seaweed, and
surrounded by a big pool, called in that distant time the Mermaid's
Glass.
She was apparently unconscious that a good-looking young man was
gazing at her with his bold dark eyes, and as she combed her long and
beautiful hair she leaned over the pool and looked at herself in the
Mermaid's Glass, and the face reflected in it was startling in its
beauty and charm.
Tristram Bird was very tall--six feet three in his stockings--and
being such a tall young man, he could see over the maiden's head into
the pool, and the face in its setting of golden hair reflected in its
clear depths entirely bewitched him, and so did her graceful form,
which was partly veiled in a golden raiment of her own beautiful hair.
As he stood gazing at the bewitching face looking up from the Mermaid's
Glass, its owner suddenly glanced over her shoulder, and saw Tristram
staring at her.
'Good-morning to you, fair maid,' he said, still keeping his bold
dark eyes fixed upon her, telling himself as he gazed that her face
was even more bewitching than was its reflection.
'Good-morning, sir,' said she.
'Doing your toilet out in the open,' he said.
'Yes,' quoth she, wondering who the handsome youth could be and how
he came to be there.
'Your hair is worth combing,' he said.
'Is it?' said she.
'It is, my dear,' he said. ''Tis the colour of oats waiting for
the sickle.'
'Is it?' quoth she.
'Yes; and no prettier face ever looked into the Mermaid's Glass.'
'How do you know?' asked she.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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