Miners' Superstitions.
Miners say that they often see little imps or demons underground. Their presence is considered favourable; they indicate the presence of lodes about which they work during the absence of the miners.
Miners do not like the form of the cross being made underground. A man going through some "levels" or "adits," made a cross by the side of one, to know his way back, as he would have to return by himself. He was compelled to alter it into another form.
If miners saw a sail when going to "bal" in the morning, they used always to drop a piece of tallow from their candles.
Christmas Eve in the Mines.
On Christmas Eve, in former days, the small people, or spriggans, would meet at the bottom of the deepest mines, and have a midnight mass. Then those who were in the mind would hear voices singing, "Now well; now well;" and the strains of some deep-toned organ would shake the rocks. Of the grandeur of those meetings, old stories could not find words sufficiently sonorous to speak; it was therefore left to the imagination, but this was certain, the temple formed by the fairy bands in which to celebrate the eve of the birth of a Saviour, in whose mercy they all had hope, was of the most magnificent description. Midsummer-eve and new-year's day and eve are holidays with the miners. It has been said they refuse to work on those days from superstitious reasons. I never heard of any.
Warnings and "Tokens."
Amongst the mining population there is a deeply-rooted belief in warnings. The following related by a very respectable man, formerly a miner, well illustrates this:-
My father, when a lad, worked with a companion (James or 'Jim', as he was called) in Germow. They lived close by Old Wheal Grey in Breage. One evening, the daughter of the person with whom they lodged came in to her mother, crying, "Billy and Jim ben out theer for more than a hour, and I ben chasin them among the Kilur banks, and they wasn't lev me catch them. As fast as I do go to one, they do go to another." "Hould your tongue, child," said the mother; "'twas their forenoon core, and they both ben up in bed this houre."
"I'm sure I ben chasin them," said the girl. The mother then went upstairs and awoke the lads, telling them the story. One of them said "Tis a warning; something will happen in an old end, and I shan't go to mine this core." "Nonsense," said the other; "don't let us be so foolish; the child has been playing with some strangers, and it isn't worth while to be spaled for any such foolishness." "I tell you," replied the other, "I won'[t go." As it was useless for one man to go alone, both remained away. In the course of the night, however, a run took place in the end they were working in, and tens of thousands of tons of kibblefuls came away. Had they been at work, it was scarcely possible for them to have escaped."
At Wheal Vor it has always been and is now believed that a fatal accident in the mine is presaged by the appearance of a hare or white rabbit in one of the engine-houses. The men solemnly declare that they have chansed these appearances till they were hammed in apparently, without being able to catch them. The white rabbit on one occasion being run into a "windbore" lying on the ground, and, though stopped in, escaped. In this mine there appears to be a general belief among the men in "tokens" and supernatural appearances. A few months ago, a fine old man reported, on being relieved from his turn as watcher, that during the night he heard a loud sound like the emptying of a cartload of rubbish in front of the account-house, where he was staying. On going out, nothing was to be seen. The poor fellow, considering the strange sound as a "warning," pined away and died within a few weeks.
The Ghost on Horseback.
Billy and John, working at Wheal Vor, were in the habit, early in the morning, of calling out a dog or two, kept by the occupier of an adjoining farm, and with them hunt over the Godolphin warren adjoining. One morning, while thus engaged, one of them gave the alarm that a man on horseback was coming down the road. "Tisn't possible," said the other; "no horse can ever come over that road." "There is a horse, and old Cap'n T. is upon it," replied the first. "Hold thy tongue," rejoined his comrade; "he's dead months ago." "I know that; but 'tis he, sure enough." Both crouched down behind a bush; and my informant, whose father was one of the parties, declared that the appearance of Capt. T., on a black horse, passed noiselessly down the road immediately before them, but without noticing their appearance.
The Black Dogs.
About seventy years since, a man and a lad were engaged in sinking a shaft at Wheal Vor mine, when the lad through carelessness or accident, missed in charging a hole, so that a necessity arose for the dangerous operation of picking out the chartge. This they proceeded to do, the man severely reprimanding the carelessness of his assistant. Several other miners at the time about being to change their core, were on the plat above, calling down and conversing occasionally with man and boy. Suddenly the charge exploded, and the latter were seen to be thrown up in the midst of a volume of flame. As soon as help could be procured, a party descended, when the remains fo the poor fellows were found to be shattered and scorched beyond recognition. When these were brought to the surface, the clothes and a mass of mangled flesh dropped from the bodies. A bystander, to spare the feelings of the relatives, hastily caught the revolting mass in a shovel, adn threw the whole into the blazing furnace Woolf's engine, close at hand. From that time the engineman declared that troops of little black dogs continually haunted the place, even when the doors were shut. Few of them like to talk about it; but it was difficult to obtain the necessary attendance to work the machine.
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