CORNISH CUSTOMS 143 for wrestling, they being no whit behind the men of Devonshire and Somerset in this. They have other special games of their own too. Of which the chief is " hurling," though now only kept up in the parishes of St. Columb Major and Minor, in other words in the neighbourhood of Newquay, though a collection is made at St. Ives in a silver "hurlers' ball." The game is that of a ball being flung and thrown from one to the other, with goals which may be two miles apart. Some- times one match takes days to decide. It is an extremely rough-and-tumble sport. In the season a match is played on the wide flat firm expanse of Newquay sands and hundreds take part in it, badges being used to discriminate between the players. And on Shrove Tuesday a game is played in the town of St. Columb the ball being thrown up in the market-place and all traffic being held up for the occasion. The goals used to be " either the mansion-house of one of the leading gentlemen of the party, a parish church, or some other well- known place." The ball is rather larger than a cricket-ball, but not so large as a football, and is silvered over. The struggle is expressively de- scribed by Carew: "The hurlers take then* way over hills, dales, hedges and ditches, through
