Bullhorns (snails) inside the mines were propitiated with a bit of tallow taken from the miner's candle.
Children were warned to speak up clearly when seeing a miner on the way to work lest this light incivility send the man to work with a poor heart thinking of the dreaded ill wisher.
The old alluvial tin streamers had many taboos about using the names of animals and birds which they might meet with in the mines; and so referred to the owl as the braced farcer, the fox as the long tail, the cat as a rooker, and the rat as a peep.
The appearance of a black dog and the white hare at Wheal Vor mine near Breage was always said to presage some fatal disaster.
