Madgy Figgy, old witch, retired from wrecking and went to live in St Buryan, where she spent her time playing naughty tricks. One day she had a rare good thought – she would go to Penzance market and buy a pig to fatten for her Christmas dinner. She found a pig she liked, thought the little piggy would grow to be a right fat porker, and she haggled with the farmer for a fair price. Her cousin, Tom Trenoweth, took a fancy to the pig too, offered the farmer more cash than Madgy did, and the pig was his. Madgy was not best pleased, 'That will be the most expensive pig you ever bought,' she muttered, cursing and shaking her finger.

Tom took the pig home, put her in the pigsty at the bottom of his garden, filled her trough with swill and shut the door, the latch firmly down. In the morning he went down the garden to see the pig. The latch was firmly up, the door was open, the swill still in the trough and the pig was out rooting in his neighbour's garden. It took all the men and boys from Church-town hours and hours to catch the pig and put her back in the sty.

Next night it was the same, and the next, and the next..the pig escaped and was off rooting and digging and destroying. Poor Tom had to pay for the damage. Folk from St Buryan gave him all their food scraps to add to the pig swill, but whatever the pig gobbled up she got thinner and thinner. Madgy Figgy offered to buy the skinny pig, but Tom refused to sell her, kept trying to fatten her up, fed her turnips and tatters and apple, but still the pig got thinner and thinner.

In the end Tom had had enough, set off to sell the pig at Penzance Market..he would sell her to anyone but the witch. He tied a rope to piggy's leg and led her on, but she escaped, ran off down the road to Penzance, Tom following. She slowed down when she got near Tregonebris Downs, near Sancreed, and Tom managed to throw a rope round her neck, tied it round his arm, she wouldn't get free again. He was leading her on, when a hare leapt out in front of them crying 'chee-ah,' and bolted off over the moor, with the pig in hot pursuit. The pig dragged Tom through brambles and blackthorn and furze. Ouch.

Hare ran thru a drain under the road at Tregonebris Bridge, pig followed, dragging Tom after her. Pig lay down in the middle of the drain, and would not budge, nice and cool, see. The drain was small, small enough for a skinny pig, too small for a large lad and Tom's arm was stretched almost out of its socket, the rope was cutting his skin. Ouch. Luckily he had his penknife in his pocket, so he cut the rope, and threw stones at the pig to try and get her out. Would she budge? No. It was cool and muddy and sludgy in the drain, just right.

Tom sat by the bridge with his pig all night, but she would not move.

He sat by the bridge all day, but she would not shift.

Tom was some hungry, Tom was some tired, when who should come by, knitting as she walked, but Madgy Figgy.

'Hello Tom' she said. 'Is that your pig I spy under the bridge? I'll buy her off you for half of what you paid for her, that's all the poor skinny thing is worth.'

Tom gladly agreed. Madgy threw in a loaf of bread too. Tom gobbled it up.

'Chee-ah. Chee-ah' sang Madgy, and the pig came out the drain and followed her home like a dog.

Madgy never did eat the pig. She kept her for breeding, the pig had many litters of fine fat piglets prone to mischief and hiding in drains.

Retold by Sue Field

from

William Bottrell ' Traditions and Hearthside Tales of West Cornwall Vol 2

witch is BettyTrenoweth

Robert Hunt 'Popular Romances from the West of England'