human
Pisky fine, pisky gay! Pisky now will fly away.
gpt
Pisky new coat, and pisky new hood, Pisky now will do no more good.
human
When mischievously inclined pisky often leads benighted people a sad dance; like Will of the Wisp, he takes them over hedges and ditches, and sometimes round and round the same field, from which they in vain try to find their way home (although they can always see the path close at hand), until they sit down and turn their stockings the wrong side out, as an old lady, born in the last century, whom I well knew, once told me she had done. To turn a pocket inside out has the same effect. But to quote the words of a late witty Cornish doctor,
gpt
Pisky led is often whiskey led.
human
A Voyage with the Piskies. A Polperro lad meeting them one night as he was going on an errand heard them say in chorus,
gpt
I'm for Portallow Green (a place in the neighbourhood). Repeating the cry after them,
human
The next place they visited was Seaton Beach, between Polperro and Plymouth; the third and last cry was
gpt
I'm for the King of France's cellar. Again he decided on joining them, dropped the bundle he was carrying on the sands, and
human
Afterwards they strolled through the palace, where in a room he saw all the preparations made for a feast, and could not resist the temptation of pocketing one of the rich silver goblets from the table. The signal for their return was soon given, and once more he found himself on Seaton Beach, where he had just time to pick up his bundle before he was whisked home. All these voyages were made in the short space of five minutes. When on his return he told his adventures they were listened to with incredulity until he produced the goblet, which proved the truth of his tale. After having been kept for generations this trophy has disappeared.
gpt
These little creatures seem sometimes, Mr. Couch says,
human
The pisky's midwife is common,--a mortal who has been decoyed into fairyland discovers it by accidentally rubbing her eye with a bit of soap whilst washing the baby. Like those who have stolen and applied the green ointment, she loses the sight of it by a blow from an angry pisky's fist. She meets and recognizes the father at a fair where, as usual, he is pilfering, and foolishly asks after the welfare of mother and child. But all these stories in West Cornwall would be told of the
gpt
as well as the well-known
human
Colman Grey (of course the name varies), which relates how a farmer one day found a poor, half-starved looking bantling, sitting alone in the middle of a field, whom he took home and fed until he grew quite strong and lively. A short time after a shrill voice was suddenly heard calling thrice upon
gpt
Colman Grey. Upon which the imp cried
human
Ho! ho! ho! my daddy is come! flew through the keyhole, and was never heard of after. Unbaptised children were, in this county at the beginning of the century, said to turn, when they died, into piskies; they gradually went through many transformations at each change, getting smaller until at last they became
gpt
Meryons