176 THE LAND'S END 



the same love of fun appeared in their bright, watchful, 

 penetrating eyes ; one had as much pleasure in the 

 game as the other ; they were, man and parrot, very 

 much on a level, very like little children, and like 

 children they were without a sense of humour. 



Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that 

 children's humour is rudimentary. Undoubtedly 

 there are individuals who possess it in a higher or 

 more developed state, just as there are children 

 who possess the sense of beauty, an ear for music, 

 and other faculties of the adult, but such cases are 

 exceptional. 



It chanced that just before my meeting with the 

 old man of the parrot I had been discussing the sub- 

 ject of this chapter with a gentleman of culture in 

 the district, a member of an old and distinguished 

 Cornish family, who has worked in his profession 

 among the people and knows them intimately. He 

 demurred to my idea that his countrymen (of the 

 lower ranks be it understood) were without the sense 

 of humour, and he instanced their " love of fun " as 

 a proof of the contrary. Mere love of fun, however, 

 always strongest in children and animals, is not the 

 same thing as that finer, brighter, more intellectual 

 sense we are discussing. 



But how strong the simple primitive love of fun is 

 in the Cornish people may be seen at Christmas time 

 in St. Ives in their " Guize-dancing," when night 

 after night a considerable portion of the inhabitants 

 turn out in masks and any fantastic costume they 

 can manufacture out of old garments and bright- 



