This soon changed the aspect of things; the storm rolled back, and sunshine was once more in the cottage. The coins were all gathered up, and they found a scrap of paper, on which, when they got the priest to read it, they discovered was written an exact account of each year’s profits, and Tom’s share. The three years’ shares had been duly hoarded for him by his master and mistress; and now this old couple found they had enough to make them comfortable for the rest of their days. Many were the prayers said by Tom and his wife for the happiness and health of the honest Jew tin merchant and his wife.
Charles Kingsley in his “Yeast: a Problem,” asks this question—Tregarra answers,—
“They are _the ghosts_, the miners hold, _of the old Jews that crucified our Lord, and were sent for slaves by the Roman emperors to work the mines_: and we find their old smelting-houses, which we call _Jews’ houses_, and their blocks at the bottom of the great bogs, which we call _Jews’ tin_: and then a town among us too, which we call _Market-Jew_, but the old name was Marazion, that means the bitterness of Zion, they tell me; and bitter work it was for them, no doubt, poor souls! We used to break into old shafts and adits which they had made, and find fine old stag’s-horn pickaxes, that crumbled to pieces when we brought them to grass. And they say that if a man will listen of a still night about these shafts, he may hear the ghosts of them at work, knocking and picking, as clear as if there was a man at work in the next level.”
In _Notes and Queries_ will be found some learned discussions on the question of the Jews working the Cornish tin mines, as though it were merely one of tradition. That the Jews farmed the tin mines of Cornwall and Devonshire is an historical fact, of which we have evidence in charters granted by several of our kings, especially by King John. Carew in his “Survey of Cornwall” gives some account of their mode of dealing with the tinners. Hence the terms “Jews’ houses,” given to old and rude smelting-works,—many of which I have seen,—and hence the name of “Jews’ tin,” given to the old blocks of tin, specimens of which may be seen in the _Museum of Practical Geology_, and in the museum of the _Royal Institution of Cornwall_, at Truro. “_Atall Sarazin_” is another term applied to some of the old waste-heaps of the ancient tin mines.