Adventure and adventurers > Black's guide to the counties of Dorset, Devon, & Cornwall

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BRANCH ROUTE TAVISTOCK TO EXETER.
their path at happy Christmas time, he is safe from their spells,
They are much given to nocturnal rides upon the farmers’ horses,
and to stealing their cider, having a keen appreciation of good
things. Gold, silver, jewels—these they treasure up in their
mysterious caverns, though they never adorn their persons with
them ■—
“ Little pixy, fair and slim,
Without a rag to cover him."
They lie about in the hedgerows’ shade like so many shape¬
less bundles, but start up into life and merriment when the stars
come out upon the serene heights of heaven, and gaily dance a
frolicksome measure upon the blossomy mead :—
“ Then, for the third part of a minute, hence—
Some, to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds;
Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern wings,
To make my small elves coats ; and some, keep back
The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
At their quaint spirits.”—(ShaJcspeare.)
The legends relative to the pixies, still told by the winter
fire in many a Devonshire cottage, are fantastic in the extreme.
A hideous little fellow bade a famous “ wise woman” attend, on
one occasion, a suffering mother and her new-born babe. The
wise woman instructed the mother to apply a certain ointment
which she gave her to the infant’s eyes. The mother did so, but
took an early opportunity to try its efficacy upon her own. And
lo ! the beauties of the inner world were immediately revealed
to her, and she could see the pixies, lithe and graceful, crowding
about every part of her cottage. But she also saw the young
gentleman who had summoned the wise woman to her assistance
making free with the contents of her hen-roost, and in the first
flush of her surprise she exclaimed, “ Ho, ho, my master ! so it
is thou who stealest my eggs !” “What now,” replied the Pixy,
“ hast thou dared to make use of the ointment ?” And he rudely
smote her in the eyes with his clenched fist, so that the unhappy
woman was blind for ever after !
The pixies have a passion for flowers,—for
“ The bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows ;
Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine;”