These shy,  mischievious piskies are seldom seen,  but their good deeds or pranks are often felt in the wild countryside of Cornwall.

Piskies can be helpful creatures.  One story is recalled of a poor farmer,  at a particularly low point in his life,  going to his barn one day and finding an extraordinary amount of corn had been threshed overnight.  The next evening he crept to the barn door and,  through a crack,  saw a shabbily dressed piskie vigorously working away with such rapid movements that appeared as a blur to the human eye.  The farmer felt he had to repay the piskie and made a new suit of green for him,  which he left in the barn. That evening he peeped through the crack and was just in time to hear the piskie in his new suit chanting  "Piskie fine and piskie gay, piskie now will fly away"  - his work had been done.  He had helped the farmer through a bad time and his reward made him chuckle with joy as he flew off into the darkness.

Cornish piskies can also be the most mischievious of creatures.  They take great delight in bewildering farmers by riding their ponies and chasing their cattle.  Unseen by the farmer,  their only calling card would be high-pitched laughter resonating through the undergrowth  (in Cornwall "to laugh like a piskie"  is a common saying).  Particularly naughty piskies can play tricks by appearing as a light at nightime to guide a wanderer into muddy moorland or prickly fuzz bushes.

However,  it is said no piskie could play a trick on a man who wore his coat inside out! So the next time you visit Cornwall....!!