Cornish Superstitions

Smuggler's Exploitation of Superstitious Folk

The following story illustrates how some ruthless people were wont to profit by exploiting a prevailing superstition, where the favorite haunts of spirits happens to coincide with the smuggler's lair:

A woman living in Island Road, St. Ives, went outside at a late hour one night to draw water for her washing on the morrow. A few moments later she returned to her husband affright. "What's all the pore weth 'ee, Jiniffer?" he inquired seeing her state. "Why," she exclaimed, "I hadn't gone but a bit of the way from the door when I seed a great wagon comming down the street. I could hear the whip crack, though the hosse's hoofs were muffled. As it passed, I called out "Good night" to the man, but he never answered a word. And then when I looked up against him, I saw all to wance that he 'adn' got no head! I tell 'ee, Jan, "twas the devil himself I seed."

"Aais, you," replied her husband, suppressing a smile, "and what's more more he'll have 'ee too if you go forth again. It edn' gone twelve yet, you know!"

Such devices were often employed by smugglers in order to deter gossipping neighbors from prying on them while they were about their work.

Robert Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England.)

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