Folklore Tapes Mix 1
Previously only available through News Letter Issue 1 December 2012
‘It is said that the arch spirit of evil once took up his abode in cockerham, and so scared and disturbed the inhabitants of that quiet place, that at length in public meeting, to consider how to free themselves from this fiendish persecution, they appointed the schoolmaster, as the wisest and cleverest man in the place, to do his best to drive the devil away.
Using the precribed incantation at midnight, the pedagogue succeeded in raising satan ; but when he saw his large horns and tail, saucer eyes and long claws, he became almost speechless. According to the recognized procedure in such cases, the devil granted him the privilege of setting three tasks, which if he (Satan) accomplished, the schoolmaster became his prey ; if he failed, it would compel the flight of the demon from Cockerham.
The first task, to count the number of dewdrops on certain hedges, was soon accomplished ; and so was the second, to count the number of stalks in a field of grain. The third task was then proposed in the following words, according to a doggerel version of the tradition ;-Now make me, dear sir, a rope of yon sand, which will bear washing in Cocker, and not lose a strand.’
Speedily the rope was twisted of fine sand, but it would not stand washing’ so the devil was foiled, and at one stride he stepped over the bridge over Broadfleet, at Pilling Moss.’
