Cornwall - Land of the Saints’ or perhaps not?

No one believes in Piskies, do they?

Well, it pays to be careful in Cornwall so those that know keep quiet.

Piskies are tiny people, barely a foot high and dressed in greens and russets and reds.

They tease and they trick and are full of mischief and laughter. They are thought to be the spirits of the banished original Cornish people who were driven to the hills when the Iberians came.

There are many strange stories of long ago when Cornish folk saw the ‘little people’ and their moonlight revels in the towans – sand dunes.

‘Old Richard’ witnessed the funeral procession at Lelant Church of a Pisky Queen, a beautiful lady no bigger than a small doll and he escaped to tell the tale.

‘Laugh like a Pisky! ‘Tis better than being like Jan Tresize’s geese, never happy unless they be where they baint’, as the Cornish say.

The Knockers or Buccas are goblins of the mines. Their picks are heard tapping at the rich seams sought by the miners and their laughter is heard in the disused workings and lodes and old tunnels.

Always just out of sight, but those who meddle with them risk getting a dig! Perhaps best to leave them a corner of pasty as the old miners used to do!

Now, the Spriggans are ephemeral spirits who live in and around the old prehistoric cromlechs, rings and megaliths of the desolate places.

A hazard for those unwise enough to explore or who dare to walk the old places by night!

And for those who doubt such things exist, well a reader of this very tale had one visit recently!