400 ANNUAL EXCUBSION. 



love and in magic, things did not always work well, and instead 

 of the young lord falling in love with the old lady, the philtre 

 worked on the young witch Bitha. Here was a dramatic 

 situation worthy of a transpontine drama. The old lady, finding 

 her philtres vain, married the old lord, but her love for the 

 young man and the witch Bitha turned to hate. She persuaded 

 the old lord to form a plot to send off his son and sell him for a 

 slave, but the young lord found this out, and ran away to the 

 East, where he himself became a student of the black art and an 

 adept in sorcery. The old lady of Pengersick turned her skill 

 on her husband and poisoned him, Bitha, the young witch^ 

 telling him on his deathbed of his wife's evil deeds. The magic 

 potions, however, poisoned the health of the old lady of 

 Pengersick, and covered her skin with scales, probably leprosy, 

 and she, on hearing of her son-in-law's return on his father's 

 death to claim the property, drowned herself. Bitha lived on 

 the Downs and she gained nothing by her magic, for she got 

 fearfully ugly and her skin grew like a toad's. The young lord 

 of Pengersick brought home with him an eastern bride, a lovely 

 fairy-like creature as skilled in magic as himself, but seemingly 

 of a better kind (a white witch). Often when by his enchant- 

 ments in this tower he raised the storm, in the midst of the 

 tempest the soft voice of the enchantress lady was heard 

 accompanied by her harp, and the storm lulled. The lord was 

 feared, the mystic lady was loved. But she never went outside 

 the grounds and used sometimes, near Praa Sands, to sing, and 

 the fish and the mermaids came to listen to her. The young lord 

 had a magic horse which he brought from the east, and his old 

 enemy, the witch of Praddam, plotted a charm against him to 

 poison his horse, and to drench him with enchanted liquor. The 

 crock was laid in a narrow lane, and the witch watched for the 

 lord to pass. He came. Pengersick whispered some words to 

 the horse, who kicked over the tub, which was suddenly turned 

 into a coffin, in which the witch fell, and she was carried off in 

 it to the sea. By his charms the lord of Pengersick put down the 

 giants of the Mount and the neighbourhood. He extended the 

 house to a palace built by enchantment ; but his glories had an 

 end. A dark stranger came to Marazion ; the stranger told no 

 one of his business, and wandered by night on the sea shore. 



