In some lines written in 1693, on the origin of the Oxford Terræ filius, we read:—

“These undergraduates' oracles

Deduced from Cornwall's guary miracles,—

From immemorial custom there

They raise a turfy theatre!

When from a passage underground,

By frequent crowds encompassed round,

Out leaps some little Mephistopheles,

Who e'en of all the mob the offal is,” etc.

The following extract from a Cornish paper gives some curious words still current among the people:—