86 COENUBIANA. 



present bridge, a deadly battle took place between the Danes 

 and the Oornu-Oelts. The wounded Danes were carried on litters 

 made of the handles of spears, to the present glebe, and from 

 these spear handles the Dane-wort spring. The third legend of 

 the kind is that of the Mill-proo, which always seems to me to be 

 one of the most extraordinary on record. The Mill-proo (fig. 

 4) is a dwarf cylinder of stone, pierced throughout by a circular 

 hole, and its origin is said to be this. At certain times of the 

 year, an adder may be found asleep in such a position as to form 

 a complete circle. If a hazel wand of twelve month's growth be 

 placed in the centre of the ring formed by the adder, it is 

 unable to extricate itself. By its hissing, it attracts all the adders 

 in the neighbourhood, which come to the succour of their dis- 

 tressed friend. Slaver is emitted by all of them around the 

 bewitching hazel. As soon as a complete circle is made, the 

 adder is freed. The slaver congeals into stone, and is known as 

 the mill-proo, a fine specimen of which was found some time 

 ago in the stream-works below Q-odolphin Bridge. It is 

 composed of porcelain stone, is an ounce in weight, an inch in 

 diameter on the fiat part, on the cylindrical part -^-^ long in 

 inches, 3 inches in circumference, and has three small punctures 

 on the fiat surface, nearly equi-distant from one another. 

 These, however, may have been the result of accident. In 

 connection with this class of legend I may now allude to 

 another, though of a different cast. Whence the Cornish 

 obtained the legend I know not, unless it be taken as a 

 slight evidence in favour of a Jewish settlement here. The 

 curlews are said to have assisted the Israelites to escape from 

 Pharaoh by going behind them and obliterating their track. 



Cheonogbam. 



A Chronogram consists of a sentence in which a date or 

 number is expressed by Roman capitals forming parts of words, 

 which, with this exception, are written in ordinarj'- type. Mr. 

 Hilton, in his standard work on Chronograms (Yol. 1, pp. 27, 29,) 

 quotes two Cornish chronograms, whence they would seem to be 

 rare in this county. A third is given in Tregelles' Cornish 

 Worthies, p. 361, from the pen of Sydney Grodolphin. A fourth, 

 and fifth of a peculiarly interesting type, have recently been 



