He pointed out that the name of Helleston--_i.q._,
Hell's Stone--corroborated this tradition. He went on to say that
annually, on the 8th of May, from time immemorial his parishioners
had met in the streets and engaged in a public dance which either
commemorated mankind's deliverance from the Spirit of Evil, or had no
meaning at all.
The Vicar of Troy, warming to this new contention, riposted in
masterly style. He answered Helleston's claim to a monopoly, or even
a predominant interest, in the Devil by pelting his opponent with
Devil's Quoits, Devil's Punch-bowls, Walking-sticks, Frying-pans,
Pudding-dishes, Ploughshares; Devil's Strides, Jumps, Footprints,
Fingerprints; Devil's Hedges, Ditches, Ridges, Furrows; Devil's
Cairns, Cromlechs, Wells, Monoliths, Caves, Castles, Cliffs, Chasms;
Devil's Heaths, Moors, Downs, Commons, Copses, Furzes, Marshes, Bogs,
Streams, Sands, Quicksands, Estuaries; Devil's High-roads, By-roads,
Lanes, Footpaths, Stiles, Gates, Smithies, Cross-roads; from every
corner of the Duchy. He matched Helleston's May-dance with at least
a score of similar May-day observances in different towns and
villages of Cornwall. He quoted the Padstow Hobby-horse, the
Towednack Cuckoo-feast, the Madron Dipping Day, the Troy May-dragon,
and proved that the custom of ushering in the summer with song and
dance and some symbolical rite of purgation was well-nigh universal
throughout Cornwall.
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