CORNISH HUMOUR 15? 



a lighting up of the whole face. The man, you imagine, 

 is looking out for some signal of a sympathetic or 

 understanding spirit in you, a token of kinship : but 

 when we go further and imagine it a humorous spirit 

 we are probably mistaken. We associate that peculiar 

 expression of the eyes with the humorous mind be- 

 cause we have found them together in so many per- 

 sons if we have been in Ireland. In the Cornishman, 

 too, that same expression of the eyes is exceedingly 

 common an expression which even more than feature 

 makes him differ so greatly from the Anglo-Saxon. 

 But it does not denote humour, seeing that he is in- 

 ferior to the dullest of the English in this respect. 

 But he is more alive than the Englishman, and his 

 ever-fresh child-like curiosity makes him seem more 

 human. 



This peculiar Irish-like alertness and liveliness of 

 mind, with a total want of a sense of humour, struck 

 me forcibly in the case of another Cornishman I 

 encountered in my rambles. But before I get to 

 this story another must be told by way of intro- 

 duction. 



Frequently in my wanderings on foot in that stoniest 

 part of a stony land, called the Connemara of Corn- 

 wall, where indeed the likeness of the people to the 

 Irish is most marked, I recalled an old anecdote about 

 a stony country which I heard in boyhood. I heard it 

 one morning at the breakfast table in my early home 

 in South America. We had a big party in the house, 

 and the talk turned on the subject of sharp and clever 

 replies made by natives to derisive questions asked 



