Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/184

164 Pair-a-Mo. Pig fair in November at St. Ives. M.A.C. Pairmaid, fumade, or fermade. Names for a cured (formerly smoked) pilchard. Pilchards *^ when caught, used to be preserved by smoking," " therefore denominated fumadoes by the Italians to whom then, as now, we principally sold them, and which are still denominated fumadoes by the very populace of Cornwall, even when they are now pre- served by pressing. '^ Whitaker's ancient Cathedral of Cornwall, Vol. 2, pp, 248, 249. "Fumadoes were perhaps the gerres of Pliny. Camden. " They carry them into Spayne, Italic, Venice, and divers places within the straytes, where they are very vendible, and in those partes tooke name fumados for that they are dried in the smoake. (Norden, A.D. 1584). Pair play! Pair play! Make a ring! A favourite Cornish cry when there is a fight, or a strife for mastery. When Cornishmen fought, or cudgelled, or wrestled, they did so generously, and like men, and very often for the sake of prowess without a sign of rancour. They did not, two, three or four together, fall on a single man, or, kick or strike him when he was down, nor did they like cowards pull out their knives, or revolvers, but they used the weapons (and good ones too) with which nature had provided them. In their quarrels they were rough enough, but they were not typical of the modern "rough," on the contrary, in their quiet moments there were no men more civil, and good natured. "When the writer was a youth, it was common to see a fight in the street on a market day. The constable would be sometimes present, apparently to keep order. The men first shook hands, then set to, and again shook hands at the finish.