cally the same superstitions and omens prevail. Some of these relate to witches, omens connected with luck, storm myths, transfixing the fiend in mid air, the enchained spirit neither saved nor lost, the mermaid and the lady of the lake, the river claiming its yearly tribute of a life, etc. It is not improbable that these Cornish tales may have been introduced when the Scandinavians, who formed settlements on the coast, were in alliance with the Wends, as they were both before and during the time of Cnut. West Cornwall has apparently some traces of the mythology of these Wendish allies of the Danes. The Wendish word for Thursday is Peründan, after Perun, the thunder god, corresponding to the Norse Thor, and the Cornish place-name Mên Perhen and others may be traces of him.
Near Penzance, also, the Cornish black spirit of evil omen called Bucca, Bugga, or Buccaboo, is still remembered, and he may probably be traced to the old Slavic Boge, the general name for a deity, which after the Christian conversion became degraded to that of a hobgoblin. The most notable of the folk-tales common to Scandinavia and Pomerania on the one hand and to Cornwall on the other is probably that of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ which is found with but slight variations, and does not appear to have been a native folk-tale in intervening countries. In Norway, the Cornish Jack the Giant-killer is also known.
The common personal names ending in -o among Cornish family names, such as Pasco, Jago, also point, apparently, to Scandinavian colonists.
The very old place-name Ruan, near the Lizard, is, of course, commonly derived from the saint so called, but, like some old names found in Anglo-Saxon charters, it is identical with the Latin Ruani used in old German records for the people of Rügen. The name of the Scilly Isles is Scandinavian, as is Grimsby, one of the places in the islands. St. Agnes, also, may not improbably be traced to Hagenes, a common name among the
