Germoe is a small village near Breage where my great–granfather lived before coming to the US in 1866. This is a sample of the fierceness by which sober, or not so sober, miners believed in the fairy, with a fairy changeling thrown in for good measure.

Bal Lane in Germoe was a notorious place for piskies. One night Daniel Champion and his comrade came to Godolphin Bridge,—they were a little bit"overtook" with liquor. They said that when they came to"Bal Lane," they found it covered all over from end to end, and the Small People holding a fair there with all sorts of merchandise—the prettiest sight they ever met with. Champion was sure he saw his child there; for few nights before, his child in the evening was as beautiful a one as could be seen anywhere, but in the morning was changed for one as ugly and wizened as could be; and he was sure the Small People had done it. Next day, telling the story at Croft Gothal, his comrade was knocked backward, thrown into the bob–pit, and just killed. Obliged to be carried to his home, Champion followed, and was telling of their adventure with the Small People, when one said,"Don't speak about them; they're wicked, spiteful devils." No sooner were the words uttered than the speaker was thrown clean over stairs and bruised dreadfully,—a convincing proof to all present of the reality of the existence of the Small Folks.