North Cornwall Fairies and LegendsTregarthen, Enys
Science
North Cornwall Fairies and Legends
Tregarthen, Enys
Folklore -- England -- Cornwall (County); Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
The child dreamt as she was ordered, and when she had put a bit of
the cake on the doorstep for the Piskeys, she saw in her dream a
crowd of Dinky Men in quaint little green coats, and caps as red as
bryony berries, and tiny fellows in red cloaks and green hats, come
and take up the cake with solemn faces and bent heads, and carry it
away over the moors towards the Piskey Circle. When they had gone,
she stood on the doorstep looking out over the moors, white with
the feathers the old Sky Woman had thrown down; then she lifted her
sweet little face to the sky, and saw that it was free from clouds
and full of stars, which, she thought, were chiming the wonderful
news of the Nativity. She was so happy listening to the music of the
Christmas stars that she forgot she had not tasted her cake till a
little Piskey sprang on to her nose to turn her dream.
'Dream that you are come over to the table and eating your cake,'
he said, slowly passing over the bridge of her nose.
'How can I dream that when I am out here on the doorstep listening to
the ringing of the star-bells?' murmured the child in her sleep. 'I
wonder if the Dinky Men like listening to the star-bells' music? They
are ringing up there in the dark because the Babe was born and laid
in the cratch.'
'We shall never get her to dream our dreams if we let her stay there on
the doorstep,' cried the Piskeys, looking strangely at one another. 'We
never had such trouble to make a cheeld dream our dreams before.'
'Dream your poor old Grannie feels the cold from the open door,' said
a Dinky Man, jumping on to Phillida's nose with all his weight, which
caused her to jerk her head in her sleep, and made the Dinky Man lose
his balance, and over he toppled on the heads of his tiny companions
sitting at the bottom of the pillow near the child's soft white neck,
much to the amusement of the other Piskeys and his own. They laughed
so much, including the wee fellow who was heavy-heeled, that he could
not order the dream, and a Piskey, when he could stop laughing for a
minute, jumped up and stepped on to Phillida's nose, and as he passed
over its bridge he said:
'Dream that you shut the door on the cold and the Sky Goose's feathers,
and come back to the table.' And Phillida reluctantly dreamt as the
Dinky Man ordered, and in her dream she saw herself sitting at the
table facing her grandmother, who was munching a bit of the cake and
smacking her withered old lips.
'This is a lovely cake, cheeld-vean. [19] We must eat every crumb of
it, for we shall never have such another.'
Phillida was glad her Grannie liked the cake, and she began to eat
the generous slice the old woman had given her, and as she ate it she
thought it was so delicious that she must go on eating cake for ever
and ever. 'I shan't want to eat grail-bread after this,' she said,
laughing out loud in her sleep. 'I shall always eat cake made
'"Of fairy cow's cream
And every good thing."'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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