FAIRIES AND GIANTS OF CORNWALL. 145 
does not bark at her, it must be herself. Unluckily Tray does bark 
- at her, and she begins to think she is some large outlandish bird. 
The Elves of the Northern Nations, the Brownies of Scotland, 
and Pixies or Piskies of the West of England, and all of the same 
class, are derived from one common early source. There is a 
singular old legend respecting their origin, where, by a curious 
anachronism, the children of Eve are examined in the catechism, 
and Abel repeats something like the Lord’s Prayer. The Almighty 
visited Adam and Eve after the Fall; and at the time, Eve was 
washing her children, but had only finished with some of them, 
and brought those only to the Lord, being ashamed to shew the 
others. On being asked if she had any more, she replied, she had 
none, on which God said, “‘ What man hides from God, God will 
hide from man.” The unwashed children then became invisible, 
and took up their abode in hills, rocks, &c., and from them are 
descended the elves, trolls, and such like, while mankind sprung 
from the washed children. 
Some of these elves occasionally made themselves useful in a 
heuse, but were rather fanciful. They would clean up at night, 
and even thresh corn, and would take any mild refreshment left in 
their way; but any articles of clothing seemed to drive them off. 
One of the tribe called Kaboutermanneken, suppossed to reside in 
some part of Germany, frequented the house of a miller, who 
found his work was carefully performed at night, and left out 
bread and butter, of which the little fellow partook. So the miller 
watched to see what his lodger was like, and observed he was stark 
naked. He resolved to make him a little jacket and trowsers, and 
left them in his way, looking for the result. The manneken seemed 
much pleased, put on his new attire, and danced out, but was 
never seen afterwards. This is like Hunt’s Tale of the Piskie 
Threshers, and there is one, somewhat similar, in Grimm’s curious 
collection of Tales. 
The Fairies are generally considered to have been of small size, 
though not invariably so.. Some of them were benevolent, and 
handsome, and but few were privileged to see them; others were 
malignant, old, and ugly. All were endowed with superhuman 
power. : 
We do not find any notice of the Piskies in the early histories 
of Cornwall. Our particular accounts are those of Anne Jefferies, 
