Here are more excerpts from the Melanie Jackson's novel Amarantha:

After this discussion between the young, handsome, mysterious Rector (the first person quoted) and Amarantha (the second voice quoted) , the actual scene with the Padstow villagers and the Obby Oss is given as such:

"Hmm... I hear drums" she said, prudently changing the subject. "Or is that thunder? Or perhaps the sea? I can smell it now.:

"Yes, there are drums. There will be a great deal of music today-flutes, whistles, fiddles and bodhrans. But above all, there will bedrums." Tamlane listened for a moment. I know this song. It is an ancient Kernow verse."

"What is it about? It seems a bit frantic."

"It is. Oddly enough, though, it is a love song." ...

Gold will fade. Silver will fade,
And velvets and silks, too.
Every known cloth will fade,
But not so my longing.

The sun will rise. The moon will rise.
The sea will rise up, too.
Winds will rise, and grass will rise,
But not the heart that's longing.

pp 124-125

-snip-

Amarantha and Tamlane arrive at the village and soon get separated in the midst of the crowd.

""Amarantha would have liked to know more about the dancers in the procession-the Teazers, her uncle had called them-but there was no chance to talk for the percussive beat of dancing feet and pounded drums filled the air and made the very earth beneath them seem to tremble with the blows.

Suddenly, the mob about them cheered and then began to sing, adding their voices to the musical din.

"What are we going to do?" the women asked?
And the men replied: Kill a little fish."
"How will you take it home?" the ladies cried.
In my belly!"
How wilyou eat it then?"
With my teeth and hands!

The mob surged swifty and renewed its wild cheering, waving long sticks in the air. Amarantha was pushed away from Tamane's side by a band of women..

"Stop! she commanded.Amarantha turned her head all about, but the masked and cloaked revelers were too close to permit her any view of her guardian...

The music changed, grew hypnotic and deafening. The mob began to chant.

Earth and water and fire and air-
Wind and flame and sea and stone-
Bold and blackthe Obby Oss comes!

Other young girls decked as sacrifices with wreathes of bluebells and hazel twigs. were herded into the street and ringed with chanting dancers. They were giggling so Amarantha assured herself that there was no need to be alarmed,but the rabble of grotesque masks and caped bodies was drawing tighter and tighter, threatening them with pointy sticks, and the shrieking voices were all but piercing her ears...

The Obby Oss comes!...The Obby Oss has come! Choose! Choose!

Something dark blotted out the sun. Amarantha spun around and was confronted by a midnight back monster... She had one moment to take in the fact that the beast looked a bit like Uncle Cyril's drawing of the horse god Epona and then the creature reared back and she was engulfed in its tattered, smothering skirts and a tangle of legs.

pp 127-129

-snip-

The story continues with Amarantha finally finding a way out of the "creature's bunting". She is reunited with the Rector Tamlane and tells him of her encounter with the Obby Oss. Tamlane said that because she was chosen by the Obby Oss "Legend says you shall have a child before the next Beltane".

And that's the end of that books account of the Padstow celebration.

I am respectfully sincerely interested in any opinions about these excerpts. Were they historically accurate?