[44] See Appendix F, “Saracen.”
[45] “They maintaine these works to have been verie auncient, and first wrought by the Jewes with Pickaxes of Holme-Boxe and Hartshorne. They prove this by the name of those places yet enduring, to wit, Attall Sarazin, in English, the Jewes Offcast, and by those tooles daily found amongst the rubble of such workes.”—Survey of Cornwall. Carew. (Appendix F.)
[46] Is this supported by the statement of Dr Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, who says, “The Christian religion was planted in the Island of Great Britain during the time of the apostles, and probably by St Paul”?
[47] “Some are sent, like the spirit Gathon in Cornwall, to work the will of his master in the mines.”—Mrs Bray’s Traditions of Devonshire.
Who was the spirit Gathon?
“The miner starts as he hears the mischievous Gathon answering blow for blow the stroke of his pickaxe, or deluding him with false fires, noises, and flames.”—A Guide to the Coasts of Devon and Cornwall. Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.
Carne, in his “Tales of the West,” alludes to this:—“The miners have their full share of the superstitious feelings of the country, and often hear with alarm the noises, as it were, of other miners at work deep underground, and at no great distance. The rolling of the barrows, the sound of the pickaxes, and the fall of the earth and stones, are distinctly heard through the night,—often, no doubt, the echo of their own labours; but sometimes continued long after that labour has ceased, and occasionally voices seem to mingle with them. Gilbert believed that he was peculiarly exposed to these visitations; he had an instinctive shrinking from the place where the accident had happened; and, when left alone there, it was in vain that he plied his toil with desperate energy to divert his thoughts. Another person appeared to work very near him: he stayed the lifted pick and listened. The blow of the other fell distinctly, and the rich ore followed it in a loud rolling; he checked the loaded barrow that he was wheeling; still that of the unknown workman went on, and came nearer and nearer, and then there followed a loud, faint cry, that thrilled through every nerve of the lonely man, for it seemed like the voice of his brother. These sounds all ceased on a sudden, and those which his own toil caused were the only ones heard, till, after an interval, without any warning, they began again, at times more near, and again passing away to a distance.”—The Tale of the Miner.
“Now well! now well! the angel did say
To certain poor shepherds in the fields who lay