_Superstition of the Cornish Miners_ (Vol. viii., p. 7.).--I cannot find
the information desired by your correspondent in the Cornish antiquaries,
and have in vain consulted other works likely to explain this tradition;
but the remarks now offered will perhaps be interesting in reference to the
_nation_ alluded to. The Carthaginians being of the same race, manners, and
religion as the Phoenicians, there are no particular data by which we can
ascertain the time of their first trading to the British coast for the
commodity in such request among the traders of the East. The genius of
Carthage being more martial than that of Tyre, whose object was more
commerce than conquest, it is not improbable that the former might by force
of arms have established a settlement in the Cassiterides, and by this
means have secured that monopoly of tin which the Phoenicians and their
colonies indubitably enjoyed for several centuries. Norden, in his
_Antiquities of Cornwall_, mentions it as a tradition universally received
by the inhabitants, that their tin mines were formerly wrought by the Jews.
He adds that these old works are there at this day called Attal Sarasin,
the ancient {216} cast-off works of the Saracens, in which their tools are
frequently found. Miners are not accustomed to be very accurate in
distinguishing traders of foreign nations, and these Jews and Saracens have
probably a reference to the old merchants from Spain and Africa; and those
employed by them might possibly have been Jews escaped the horrors of
captivity and the desolation which about that period befel their country.
"The Jews," says Whitaker (_Origin of Arianism_, p. 334.), "denominated
themselves, and were denominated by the Britons of Cornwall,
_Saracens_, as the genuine progeny of Sarah. The same name, no doubt,
carried the same reference with it as borne by the genuine, and as
usurped by the spurious, offspring of Abraham."