Page:A Book of the West (vol. 2).djvu/391

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LAND'S END CHURCHES
317


the smoking was abandoned, and fumadoes Is now corrupted into "fair maids."

There is a song of the pilchard fishery which is sung by the boatmen. I know of it but three verses, and I doubt if there be more.

"The cry is, 'All up! Let us all haste away!
And like hearty good fellows we'll row through the bay.

Haul away, my young men!
Pull away, my old blades!
For the county gives bounty
For the pilchard trades.'


" 'T is the silver 'fair maids' that cause such a strife
'Twixt the master-seiner and his drunken wife.
Haul away, etc.

" She throwed away her fiddles (?) and burnt all her thread,
And she turn'd him out o' doors for the good of the trade.
Haul away," etc.

The churches of the Land's End district are not remarkably fine. They are not, however, without interest.

The finest is that of S. Burian, about whom first of all a word or two.

Buriena was an Irish damsel, noted for being both slender and beautiful. In fact, her willowy form obtained for her the nickname of Caol, or "the Slim." She was a daughter of one Crimthan, "the Fox," a Munster chieftain, a granddaughter of Aengus, King of Munster, who was baptised by S. Patrick, on which occasion the apostle ran the spike at the end of the pastoral staff into the foot of