ON THE ETHNOGKAPJIICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED KINGDOJI. 6.?5 



people of your parish sliall liave plenty of fist, they shall never have a 

 harbour to bring them into.' Both these curses are still in operation. 



The Tolvan, or holed stone, near Gweek, on the borders of Wendron 

 parish, was formerly in repute as a means of curing weak or rickety- 

 infants, who were brought, often from a distance, to be passed through 

 the hole. The stone itself is a large granite slab, formerly lying in an 

 inclined position in the corner of a croft. A cottage having been built 

 on the site, a slice broken off from the stone is now made to do duty as 

 part of the garden wall, the opening in the stone being stuffed with straw 

 or thorns. 



The Dowsing Rod still finds some who have faith in it. Of this Mr. 

 Connoch has furnished some curious instances. Stories of its success are 

 current, even among the most intelligent. 



The vicar of Manaccan, Dr. Eagar, states that, while the majority of 

 the inhabitants of the two villages in his parish, Manaccan church town 

 and Helford, ai'e strangers to the village by birth, they are all natives of 

 the Meneage or south country. This district is in many ways so peculiar 

 that an ethnographic survey of the kingdom should certainly contain 

 some account of it. The 'Meneage' (i.e., probably 'stony' district) 

 consists of twelve parishes lying south of Helford River and a line 

 passing from Gweek at the head of that river through Helston. It is 

 thus the peninsula whose southern point is the Lizard. Dr. Eagar has 

 noticed the existence of a very strongly marked melanochroic type 

 among the inhabitants, and, on inquiry, has found that the persons who 

 represent that type are of families that have belonged to the district as 

 far back as they can trace, though not necessarily to any specified 

 neighbourhood within the district. He has noticed the same type in 

 county Kerry, Ireland. As seen in Cornwall, it is a very handsome 

 type. The number of handsome meyi in his parish is very remai'kable, 

 and, for some curious reason, physical beauty seems commoner there 

 among men than among women. The women of this type are often very 

 handsome too — gipsy-looking, with sallow complexions and very bright 

 eyes. Some of the men of this type look almost like Spaniards. The 

 suggestion that this is due to an intermixture of Spanish blood from the 

 Armada seems to Dr. Eagar to be improbable, and he thinks it due to 

 the greater presence of a non-Aryan element in the population. The 

 plnjsique of the people is good. The men are well built, and many of the 

 women have beautiful figures as well as faces. Phthisis is almost un- 

 known, and death before old age is very rare. Three years ago 10 per 

 cent, of the population of Manaccan (357 in 1881, 379 in 1891) were 

 upwards of seventy, and not one of them was bedridden ; one woman, 

 aged eighty-eight, is so now. The dialect still exists among the old 

 people. Plurals in -en are common : a boarded floor, for instance, is 

 '■ the planclien.'' This occurs all over Cornwall. Thus, near Ealmouth, 

 the blackthorn blossoms are ' sloen-blowth.* The final verbal -e obtains 

 largely, and has even a living force. 'All the people do clarJce there,' 

 said a parish clerk of a church where the whole congregation said the 

 responses. So, too, they say ' to milke ' and ' to clunke ' — i.e., to swallow. 

 In the district round Manaccan the bluetit is called ' patenapali ' ; a 

 pallet is a ' mabyle.' Among Christian names are many ' Hannibals ' ; 

 in the oldest register ' Gwalter ' and ' GwilUam ' often occur ; ' Loveday ' 

 is not uncommon among girls. Surnames are either place-names, 

 mostly in ' Tre-,' or patronymics, as in Wales, such as WiUiams, Richards, 



