North Cornwall Fairies and LegendsTregarthen, Enys
Science
North Cornwall Fairies and Legends
Tregarthen, Enys
Folklore -- England -- Cornwall (County); Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
The Piskey's sad little voice so appeased 'the Lady Want' that she
fully forgave his ignorance, and told him he was quite nice-mannered
for a Piskey, and hoped the little Lantern Man had seen his laugh,
and would be able to tell him where to find it; and then her little
ladyship disappeared into the mole-hill, her tiny lady hands and all!
When she had gone, the little Piskey turned his face towards the east,
where the Tors rose up dark and shadowy against the moonlit sky. Then
he looked back at the great keep, and turned his glance on the Castle
Gardens, where, in the long ago, courtly knights and great ladies
walked among the flowers that blossomed there under the shadow of
the loopholed walls, and listened, as they walked, to the music of
the Tintagel sea and the great waves that sometimes broke against
the dark cliffs of the headland on which the grim old castle stood,
where Good King Arthur was born.
The little Piskey was saying good-bye to that delightful spot, with
its soft turf and the beautiful Piskey-ring on which he had danced
times without number; for the poor, lonely little fellow did not
know if he should ever come back again. Then he broke off a bit of
a knapweed stem for a staff to help him on his journey to Rough Tor
Marsh, [2] and before the moon had laid down a lane of silver fire
on the rippling waters between Tintagel Head and Trevose, the little
Piskey had set out on his travels in search of his laugh.
Piskeys always travel by night, and after many nights of wandering,
the little Piskey who had lost his laugh came to the bog country,
where he had last seen the little Lantern.
Very tired and footsore was that poor little Piskey after his long
journey, for, having lost his laugh, he had no dance in his feet to
help him along, and he felt so done up as he sat by the great bog,
or Piskey-bed, as he called it, that he did not much care whether he
found his laugh or not. But when he had rested awhile he felt better,
and looked over the great marshy place with eager eyes, to see if
the little Lantern Man was anywhere about. To his delight he was;
for far away in the distance he saw the white gleam of his Lantern.
He kept his eyes upon the light, and by-and-by, when the Lantern
came rocking over the bog in his direction, he stood up on the edge
of the water ready to call. It disappeared ever so many times among
the bog-myrtles and willows, but every time it reappeared it was
closer. When it came near enough for him to see the little Lantern
Man inside, he shouted:
'Little Man in the Lantern, please stop: I want to ask you
something.' But whether the Lantern Man heard or not, he did not stop,
and he and his Lantern flipped by the disappointed little Piskey as
quickly as a widdy-mouse [3] on the wing, and was lost to sight in
the reeds and rushes on the other side of the great marsh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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