English Fairy and Other Folk Tales JACK THE GIANT-KILLER. 1

picks and spades, began to dig a little hole close by the sacramental table. Their task being completed,
others, with great care, removed the body and placed it in the hole. The entire company crowded around,
eager to catch a parting glimpse of that beautiful corpse ere yet it was placed in the earth. As was
lowered into the ground they began to tear off the flowers and break their branches of myrtle, crying:
"Our queen is dead! our queen is dead!" At length one of the men who had dug the grave threw a
shovelful of earth upon the body; and the shriek of the fairy host so alarm Richard, that he involuntarily
joined in it In a moment all the lights were extinguished, and the fairies were heard flying in great
consternation in every direction. Many them brushed past the terrified man, and, shrieking, pierced him
with sharp instruments. He was compelled to save his life by the most rapid flight.
Footnotes
1 Robert Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England. 1st series, p. 93.
THE PISKIES IN THE CELLAR. 1
"HE AVAILED HIMSELF OF HIS OPPORTUNITIES."
ON the Thursday immediately preceding Christmas-tide (year not recorded) were assembled at "The
Rising Sun" the captain and men of a Stream Work 2 in the Couse below. This Couse was a flat alluvial
moor, broken by gigantic mole-bills, the work of many a generation of tinners. One was half inclined, on
looking at the turmoiled ground, to believe with them that the tin grew in successive crops, for, after
years of turning and searching, there was still enough left to give the landlord his dole, and to furnish
wages to some dozen Streamers. This night was a festival observed in honour of one Picrous, 3 and
intended to celebrate the discovery of tin on this day by a man of that name. The feast is still kept, though
the observance has dwindled to a supper and its attendant merrymaking.
Our story has especially to do with the adventures of one of the party, John Sturtridge, who, well primed
with ale, started on his homeward way for Luxulyan Church-town. John had got as far as Tregarden
Down without any mishap worth recording, when, alas I he happed upon a party of the little people, who
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