34 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., in his collection of the tradi- 

 tions and superstitions of old Cornwall,* records several 

 curious legends of the " merrymaids " and " merrymen " (the 

 local name of mermaids), which he had gathered from the 

 fisher-folk and peasants in different parts of that county. 



And, in a pleasant article in 'All the Year Round,'! 1865, 

 "A Cornish Vicar "J mentions some of the superstitions of the 

 people in his neighbourhood, and the perplexing questions 

 they occasionally put to him. One of his parishioners, an 

 old man named Anthony Cleverdon, but who was popularly 

 known as " Uncle Tony," having been the seventh son of 

 his parents, in direct succession, was looked upon, in conse- 

 quence, as a soothsayer. This " ancient augur " confided to 

 his pastor many highly efficacious charms and formularies, 

 and, in return, sought for information from him on other 

 subjects. One day he puzzled the parson by a question 

 which so well illustrates the local ideas concerning mer- 

 maids, and the sequel of which is, moreover, so humorously 

 related by the vicar, that I venture to quote his own words, 

 as follows : — 



" Uncle Tony said to me, ' Sir, there is one thing I want 

 to ask you, if I may be so free, and it is this : why should 

 a merrymaid, that will ride about upon the waters in such 

 terrible storms, and toss from sea to sea in such ruckles as 

 there be upon the coast, why should she never lose her 

 looking-glass and comb ? ' * Well, I suppose,' said I, ' that 

 if there are such creatures, Tony, they must wear their 

 looking-glasses and combs fastened on somehow, like fins 



* 'Romances and Drolls of the West of England.' London: Hotten, 

 1871. 



t Vol. xiii. p. 336. 



.t The " Cornish Vicar " was, evidently, the Rev. Robert Stephen 

 Hawker, M.A., Vicar of Morwenstow, and author of ' Echoes from 

 Old Cornwall,' ' Footprints of Former Men in Cornwall/ etc. 



