MAWGAN CROSS, MENEAGE. 279 



111 the days when this stone was sculptured the people of 

 our Western land, like those in other places, used for their 

 monumental legends the ivords and formulce, as well as the letters, 

 which their religious teachers had acquired through tlie spread 

 of Roman civilization. 



But although in Cornwall no record in the Celtic dialect has 

 been found on any stone, that tongue was doubtless spoken by 

 the workmen who upreared the Latin- worded memorials, and it 

 must have been uttered pretty freely as they proceeded with 

 their work. 



Going back to the erection of the Mawgan Stone we can 



almost fancy that we hear the foremost of the workmen calling 



upon his fellows to nerve themselves for a final effort as they 



struggle with the heavy mass. He may have shouted such 



words of encouragement as these : — 



" How ! Hale kettep onea ! — gesouch hy yn moi'ter skuat* dhe godhe ! " 

 " Ho ! Haul everyone ! — Into the socket, plump* let it fall." 



(This Cornish sentence occurs in an old Sacred Drama, " Passio 



Christi," copied in the 15th century). 



Whether the ponderous shaft of Mawgan Cross has been 

 merely stuck in the earth, or whether it is fixed in rock or in a 

 sunken stone base, does not appear. 



Many authors besides C. S. Gilbert and Pedler have referred 

 to this ancient memorial with more or less correctness, amongst 

 others Thomas Martyn, Dr. Borlase, Moyle, Polwhele, Lysons 

 Hitchens, Gough (in his Camden), Polsue (in Lake's History)^ 

 Rhys, and Hiibner. 



In 1749, Martyn published his view of the stone as an 

 illustration to his second-sized map, shewing with singular 

 accuracy the letters as they still appear. 



In 1754, Dr. Borlase issued his figure of it in his 

 " Antiquities of Cornwall." He omitted some of the marks, 

 either from caution or because he failed to perceive them, and 

 (in consequence of the nearness of the letters to each other) he 

 mistook IV for N. 



*It is not easy to find a suitable equivalent for the well-known Cornish word 

 scuat, skuat, squat, (allied to scat), in this sentence. The expression is " Let it 

 fall ' squat ' into the mortise : " (crack, slap, thump, bang). See Williams's 

 Cornu-Brit : Lexicon, (articles Malan and squat). 



