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+Project Gutenberg's Legends & Romances of Brittany, by Lewis Spence
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Legends & Romances of Brittany
+
+Author: Lewis Spence
+
+Illustrator: W. Otway Cannell
+
+Release Date: January 6, 2010 [EBook #30871]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEGENDS & ROMANCES OF BRITTANY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Katherine Ward, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+LEGENDS & ROMANCES OF BRITTANY
+
+[Illustration: GRAELENT AND THE FAIRY-WOMAN _Fr._]
+
+
+  LEGENDS & ROMANCES
+  OF BRITTANY
+
+
+  _BY_
+  LEWIS SPENCE F.R.A.I.
+
+  AUTHOR OF "HERO TALES AND LEGENDS OF THE RHINE"
+  "A DICTIONARY OF MEDIEVAL ROMANCE AND ROMANCE WRITERS"
+  "THE MYTHS OF MEXICO AND PERU"
+  ETC. ETC.
+
+
+  _WITH THIRTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS BY_
+  W. OTWAY CANNELL A.R.C.A.(Lond.)
+
+  NEW YORK
+  FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
+  PUBLISHERS
+
+  THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH
+  GREAT BRITAIN
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Although the folk-tales and legends of Brittany have received
+ample attention from native scholars and collectors, they have not as
+yet been presented in a popular manner to English-speaking readers.
+The probable reasons for what would appear to be an otherwise
+incomprehensible omission on the part of those British writers who
+make a popular use of legendary material are that many Breton
+folk-tales strikingly resemble those of other countries, that from
+a variety of considerations some of them are unsuitable for
+presentation in an English dress, and that most of the folk-tales
+proper certainly possess a strong family likeness to one another.
+
+But it is not the folk-tale alone which goes to make up the
+romantic literary output of a people; their ballads, the heroic
+tales which they have woven around passages in their national
+history, their legends (employing the term in its proper sense),
+along with the more literary attempts of their romance-weavers,
+their beliefs regarding the supernatural, the tales which cluster
+around their ancient homes and castles--all of these, although
+capable of separate classification, are akin to folk-lore, and I
+have not, therefore, hesitated to use what in my discretion I
+consider the best out of immense stores of material as being much
+more suited to supply British readers with a comprehensive view of
+Breton story. Thus, I have included chapters on the lore which
+cleaves to the ancient stone monuments of the country, along with
+some account of the monuments themselves. The Arthurian matter
+especially connected with Brittany I have relegated to a separate
+chapter, and I have considered it only fitting to include such of
+the _lais_ of that rare and human songstress Marie de France as deal
+with the Breton land. The legends of those sainted men to whom
+Brittany owes so much will be found in a separate chapter, in
+collecting the matter for which I have obtained the kindest
+assistance from Miss Helen Macleod Scott, who has the preservation of
+the Celtic spirit so much at heart. I have also included chapters on
+the interesting theme of the black art in Brittany, as well as on
+the several species of fays and demons which haunt its moors and
+forests; nor will the heroic tales of its great warriors and
+champions be found wanting. To assist the reader to obtain the
+atmosphere of Brittany and in order that he may read these tales
+without feeling that he is perusing matter relating to a race of
+which he is otherwise ignorant, I have afforded him a slight
+sketch of the Breton environment and historical development, and in
+an attempt to lighten his passage through the volume I have here and
+there told a tale in verse, sometimes translated, sometimes original.
+
+As regards the folk-tales proper, by which I mean stories collected
+from the peasantry, I have made a selection from the works of Gaidoz,
+Sébillot, and Luzel. In no sense are these translations; they are
+rather adaptations. The profound inequality between Breton folk-tales
+is, of course, very marked in a collection of any magnitude, but as
+this volume is not intended to be exhaustive I have had no difficulty
+in selecting material of real interest. Most of these tales were
+collected by Breton folk-lorists in the eighties of the last century,
+and the native shrewdness and common sense which characterize much of
+the editors' comments upon the stories so carefully gathered from
+peasants and fishermen make them deeply interesting.
+
+It is with a sense of shortcoming that I offer the reader this volume
+on a great subject, but should it succeed in stimulating interest in
+Breton story, and in directing students to a field in which their
+research is certain to be richly rewarded, I shall not regret the
+labour and time which I have devoted to my task.
+
+  L. S.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                         PAGE
+        I The Land, the People and their Story                      13
+       II Menhirs And Dolmens                                       37
+      III The Fairies of Brittany                                   54
+       IV Sprites And Demons of Brittany                            96
+        V World-Tales in Brittany                                  106
+       VI Breton Folk-Tales                                        156
+      VII Popular Legends of Brittany                              173
+     VIII Hero-Tales of Brittany                                   211
+       IX The Black Art and Its Ministers                          241
+        X Arthurian Romance in Brittany                            254
+       XI The Breton Lays of Marie De France                       283
+      XII The Saints of Brittany                                   332
+     XIII Costumes and Customs of Brittany                         372
+          Glossary and Index                                       392
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  Graelent and the Fairy-Woman                          _Frontispiece_
+  Nomenoë                                                           23
+  The Death of Marguerite in the Castle of Trogoff                  34
+  Raising a Menhir                                                  44
+  The Seigneur of Nann And the Korrigan                             58
+  Merlin And Vivien                                                 66
+  The Fairies of Broceliande Find the Little Bruno                  72
+  Fairies in a Breton 'Houle'                                       81
+  The Poor Boy And the Three Fairy Damsels                          88
+  The Demon-Dog                                                    102
+  N'Oun Doare And the Princess Golden Bell                         112
+  The Bride of Satan                                               144
+  Gwennolaïk and Nola                                              170
+  The Devil in the Form of a Leopard appears before
+      the Alchemist                                                179
+  The Escape of King Gradlon from the Flooded City of
+      Ys                                                           186
+  A Peasant Insurrection                                           197
+  Morvan returns to his Ruined Home                                214
+  The Finding of Silvestik                                         232
+  Héloïse as Sorceress                                             250
+  King Arthur and Merlin at the Lake                               257
+  Tristrem and Ysonde                                              268
+  King Arthur and the Giant of Mont-Saint-Michel                   276
+  The Were-Wolf                                                    288
+  Gugemar comes upon the Magic Ship                                294
+  Gugemar's Assault on the Castle of Meriadus                      300
+  Eliduc carries Guillardun to the Forest Chapel                   312
+  Convoyon and his Monks carry off the Relics of St
+      Apothemius                                                   336
+  St Tivisiau, the Shepherd Saint                                  339
+  St Yves instructing Shepherd-boys in the Use of the
+      Rosary                                                       352
+  Queen Queban stoned to Death                                     369
+  Modern Brittany                                                  377
+  The Souls of the Dead                                            385
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I: THE LAND, THE PEOPLE AND THEIR STORY
+
+
+The romantic region which we are about to traverse in search of the
+treasures of legend was in ancient times known as Armorica, a
+Latinized form of the Celtic name, Armor ('On the Sea'). The Brittany
+of to-day corresponds to the departments of Finistère, Côtes-du-Nord,
+Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Loire-Inférieure. A popular division of
+the country is that which partitions it into Upper, or Eastern, and
+Lower, or Western, Brittany, and these tracts together have an area of
+some 13,130 square miles.
+
+Such parts of Brittany as are near to the sea-coast present marked
+differences to the inland regions, where raised plateaux are covered
+with dreary and unproductive moorland. These plateaux, again, rise
+into small ranges of hills, not of any great height, but, from their
+wild and rugged appearance, giving the impression of an altitude much
+loftier than they possess. The coast-line is ragged, indented, and
+inhospitable, lined with deep reefs and broken by the estuaries of
+brawling rivers. In the southern portion the district known as 'the
+Emerald Coast' presents an almost subtropical appearance; the air is
+mild and the whole region pleasant and fruitful. But with this
+exception Brittany is a country of bleak shores and grey seas, barren
+moorland and dreary horizons, such a land as legend loves, such a
+region, cut off and isolated from the highways of humanity, as the
+discarded genii of ancient faiths might seek as a last stronghold.
+
+Regarding the origin of the race which peoples this secluded
+peninsula there are no wide differences of opinion. If we take the
+word 'Celt' as describing any branch of the many divergent races which
+came under the influence of one particular type of culture, the true
+originators of which were absorbed among the folk they governed and
+instructed before the historic era, then the Bretons are 'Celts'
+indeed, speaking the tongue known as 'Celtic' for want of a more
+specific name, exhibiting marked signs of the possession of 'Celtic'
+customs, and having those racial characteristics which the science of
+anthropology until recently laid down as certain indications of
+'Celtic' relationship--the short, round skull, swarthy complexion, and
+blue or grey eyes.
+
+It is to be borne in mind, however, that the title 'Celtic' is shared
+by the Bretons with the fair or rufous Highlander of Scotland, the
+dark Welshman, and the long-headed Irishman. But the Bretons exhibit
+such special characteristics as would warrant the new anthropology in
+labelling them the descendants of that 'Alpine' race which existed in
+Central Europe in Neolithic times, and which, perhaps, possessed
+distant Mongoloid affinities. This people spread into nearly all parts
+of Europe, and later in some regions acquired Celtic speech and custom
+from a Celtic aristocracy.
+
+It is remarkable how completely this Celtic leaven--the true history
+of which is lost in the depths of prehistoric darkness--succeeded in
+impressing not only its language but its culture and spirit upon the
+various peoples with whom it came into contact. To impose a special
+type of civilization upon another race must always prove a task of
+almost superhuman proportions. To compel the use of an alien tongue by
+a conquered folk necessitates racial tact as well as strength of
+purpose. But to secure the adoption of the racial _spirit_ by the
+conquered, and adherence to it for centuries, so that men of widely
+divergent origins shall all have the same point of view, the same mode
+of thought, manner of address, aye, even the same _facies_ or general
+racial appearance, as have Bretons, some Frenchmen, Cornishmen,
+Welshmen, and Highlanders--that surely would argue an indwelling
+racial strength such as not even the Roman or any other world-empire
+might pretend to.
+
+But this Celtic civilization was not one and undivided. In late
+prehistoric times it evolved from one mother tongue two dialects which
+afterward displayed all the differences of separate languages
+springing from a common stock. These are the Goidelic, the tongue
+spoken by the Celts of Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, and the
+Brythonic, the language of the Welsh, the Cornish, and the people of
+Brittany.
+
+
+_The Breton Tongue_
+
+The Brezonek, the Brythonic tongue of Brittany, is undoubtedly the
+language of those Celtic immigrants who fled from Britain the Greater
+to Britain the Less to escape the rule of the Saxon invaders, and who
+gave the name of the country which they had left to that Armorica in
+which they settled. In the earliest stages of development it is
+difficult to distinguish Breton from Welsh. From the ninth to the
+eleventh centuries the Breton language is described as 'Old Breton.'
+'Middle Breton' flourished from the eleventh to the seventeenth
+centuries, since when 'Modern Breton' has been in use. These stages
+indicate changes in the language more or less profound, due chiefly to
+admixture with French. Various distinct dialects are indicated by
+writers on the subject, but the most marked difference in Breton
+speech seems to be that between the dialect of Vannes and that of the
+rest of Brittany. Such differences do not appear to be older than the
+sixteenth century.[1]
+
+
+_The Ancient Armoricans_
+
+The written history of Brittany opens with the account of Julius
+Cæsar. At that period (57 B.C.) Armorica was inhabited by five
+principal tribes: the Namnetes, the Veneti, the Osismii, the
+Curiosolitæ, and the Redones. These offered a desperate resistance to
+Roman encroachment, but were subdued, and in some cases their people
+were sold wholesale into slavery. In 56 B.C. the Veneti threw off the
+yoke and retained two of Cæsar's officers as hostages. Cæsar advanced
+upon Brittany in person, but found that he could make no headway while
+he was opposed by the powerful fleet of flat-bottomed boats, like
+floating castles, which the Veneti were so skilful in manoeuvring.
+Ships were hastily constructed upon the waters of the Loire, and a
+desperate naval engagement ensued, probably in the Gulf of Morbihan,
+which resulted in the decisive defeat of the Veneti, the Romans
+resorting to the stratagem of cutting down the enemy's rigging with
+sickles bound upon long poles. The members of the Senate of the
+conquered people were put to death as a punishment for their
+defection, and thousands of the tribesmen went to swell the
+slave-markets of Europe.
+
+Between A.D. 450 and 500, when the Roman power and population were
+dwindling, many vessels brought fugitives from Britain to Armorica.
+These people, fleeing from the conquering barbarians, Saxons, Picts,
+and Scots, sought as asylum a land where a kindred race had not yet
+been disturbed by invasion. Says Thierry, in his _Norman Conquest_:
+"With the consent of the ancient inhabitants, who acknowledged them as
+brethren of the same origin, the new settlers distributed themselves
+over the whole northern coast, as far as the little river Coesoron,
+and southward as far as the territory of the city of the Veneti, now
+called Vannes. In this extent of country they founded a sort of
+separate state, comprising all the small places near the coast, but
+not including within its limits the great towns of Vannes, Nantes, and
+Rennes. The increase of the population of this western corner of the
+country, and the great number of people of the Celtic race and
+language thus assembled within a narrow space, preserved it from the
+irruption of the Roman tongue, which, under forms more or less
+corrupted, was gradually becoming prevalent in every other part of
+Gaul. The name of _Brittany_ was attached to these coasts, and the
+names of the various indigenous tribes disappeared; while the island
+which had borne this name for so many ages now lost it, and, taking
+the name of its conquerors, began to be called the land of the Saxons
+and Angles, or, in one word, _England_."
+
+
+_Samson_
+
+One of these British immigrants was the holy Samson, who laboured to
+convert pagan Brittany to Christianity. He hailed from Pembrokeshire,
+and the legend relates that his parents, being childless, constructed
+a menhir[2] of pure silver and gave it to the poor in the hope that a
+son might be born to them. Their desire was fulfilled, and Samson, the
+son in question, became a great missionary of the Church. Accompanied
+by forty monks, he crossed the Channel and landed on the shores of the
+Bay of Saint-Brieuc, a savage and deserted district.
+
+As the keel of his galley grated on the beach the Saint beheld a man
+on the shore seated at the door of a miserable hut, who endeavoured to
+attract his attention by signs. Samson approached the shore-dweller,
+who took him by the hand and, leading him into the wretched dwelling,
+showed him his wife and daughter, stricken with sickness. Samson
+relieved their pain, and the husband and father, who, despite his
+humble appearance, was chief of the neighbouring territory, gave him a
+grant of land hard by. Here, close to the celebrated menhir of Dol, he
+and his monks built their cells. Soon a chapel rose near the ancient
+seat of pagan worship--in later days the site of a great cathedral.
+
+Telio, a British monk, with the assistance of St Samson, planted near
+Dol an orchard three miles in length, and to him is attributed the
+introduction of the apple-tree into Brittany. Wherever the monks went
+they cultivated the soil; all had in their mouths the words of the
+Apostle: "If any would not work, neither should he eat." The people
+admired the industry of the new-comers, and from admiration they
+passed to imitation. The peasants joined the monks in tilling the
+ground, and even the brigands from the hills and forests became
+agriculturists. "The Cross and the plough, labour and prayer," was the
+motto of these early missionaries.
+
+
+_Wax for Wine_
+
+The monks of Dol were renowned bee-farmers, as we learn from an
+anecdote told by Count Montalembert in his _Moines d'Occident_. One
+day when St Samson of Dol, and St Germain, Bishop of Paris, were
+conversing on the respective merits of their monasteries, St Samson
+said that his monks were such good and careful preservers of their
+bees that, besides the honey which the bees yielded in abundance, they
+furnished more wax than was used in the churches for candles during
+the year, but that the climate not being suitable for the growth of
+vines, there was great scarcity of wine. Upon hearing this St Germain
+replied: "We, on the contrary, produce more wine than we can consume,
+but we have to buy wax; so, if you will furnish us with wax, we will
+give you a tenth of our wine." Samson accepted this offer, and the
+mutual arrangement was continued during the lives of the two saints.
+
+Two British kingdoms were formed in Armorica--Domnonia and Cornubia.
+The first embraced the Côtes-du-Nord and Finistère north of the river
+Élorn, Cornubia, or Cornouaille, as it is now known, being situated
+below that river, as far south as the river Ellé. At first these
+states paid a nominal homage to their native kings in Britain, but on
+the final fall of the British power they proclaimed a complete
+independence.
+
+
+_The Vision of Jud-Hael_
+
+A striking story relating to the migration period is told concerning a
+Cambrian chieftain of Brittany, one Jud-Hael, and the famous British
+bard Taliesin. Shortly after the arrival of Taliesin in Brittany
+Jud-Hael had a remarkable vision. He dreamt that he saw a high
+mountain, on the summit of which was placed a lofty column fixed
+deeply in the earth, with a base of ivory, and branches which reached
+to the heavens. The lower part was iron, brilliantly polished, and to
+it were attached rings of the same metal, from which were suspended
+cuirasses, casques, lances, javelins, bucklers, trumpets, and many
+other warlike trophies. The upper portion was of gold, and upon it
+hung candelabra, censers, stoles, chalices, and ecclesiastical symbols
+of every description. As the Prince stood admiring the spectacle the
+heavens opened and a maiden of marvellous beauty descended and
+approached him.
+
+"I salute you, O Jud-Hael," she said, "and I confide to your keeping
+for a season this column and all that it supports"; and with these
+words she vanished.
+
+On the following day Jud-Hael made public his dream, but, like
+Nebuchadnezzar of old, he could find no one to interpret it, so he
+turned to the bard Taliesin as to another Daniel. Taliesin, says the
+legend, then an exile from his native land of Britain, dwelt on the
+seashore. To him came the messenger of Jud-Hael and said: "O thou who
+so truly dost interpret all things ambiguous, hear and make clear the
+strange vision which my lord hath seen." He then recounted Jud-Hael's
+dream to the venerable bard.
+
+For a time the sage sat pondering deeply, and then replied: "Thy
+master reigneth well and wisely, O messenger, but he has a son who
+will reign still more happily even than himself, and who will become
+one of the greatest men in the Breton land. The sons of his loins will
+be the fathers of powerful counts and pious Churchmen, but he himself,
+the greatest man of that race, shall be first a valiant warrior and
+later a mighty champion of heaven. The earlier part of his life shall
+be given to the world; the latter portion shall be devoted to God."
+
+The prophecy of Taliesin was duly fulfilled. For Judik-Hael, the son
+of Jud-Hael, realized the bard's prediction, and entered the cloister
+after a glorious reign.
+
+
+_Taliesin_
+
+Taliesin ('Shining Forehead') was in the highest repute in the middle
+of the twelfth century, and he was then and afterward, unless we
+except Merlin, the bardic hero of the greatest number of romantic
+legends. He is said to have been the son of Henwg the bard, or St
+Henwg, of Caerleon-upon-Usk, and to have been educated in the school
+of Cattwg, at Llanvithin, in Glamorgan, where the historian Gildas was
+his fellow-pupil. Seized when a youth by Irish pirates, he is said,
+probably by rational interpretation of a later fable of his history,
+to have escaped by using a wooden buckler for a boat. Thus he came
+into the fishing weir of Elphin, one of the sons of Urien. Urien made
+him Elphin's instructor, and gave him an estate of land. But, once
+introduced into the Court of that great warrior-chief, Taliesin became
+his foremost bard, followed him in his wars, and sang his victories.
+He celebrates triumphs over Ida, the Anglian King of Bernicia (_d._
+559) at Argoed about the year 547, at Gwenn-Estrad between that year
+and 559, at Menao about the year 559. After the death of Urien,
+Taliesin was the bard of his son Owain, by whose hand Ida fell. After
+the death of all Urien's sons Taliesin retired to mourn the downfall
+of his race in Wales, dying, it is said, at Bangor Teivi, in
+Cardiganshire. He was buried under a cairn near Aberystwyth.
+
+
+_Hervé the Blind_
+
+There is nothing improbable in the statement that Taliesin dwelt in
+Brittany in the sixth century. Many other British bards found a refuge
+on the shores of Britain the Less. Among these was Kyvarnion, a
+Christian, who married a Breton Druidess and who had a son, Hervé.
+Hervé was blind from birth, and was led from place to place by a wolf
+which he had converted (!) and pressed into the service of Mother
+Church.
+
+One day, when a lad, Hervé had been left in charge of his uncle's
+farm, when a ploughman passed him in full flight, crying out that a
+savage wolf had appeared and had killed the ass with which he had been
+ploughing. The man entreated Hervé to fly, as the wolf was hard upon
+his heels; but the blind youth, undaunted, ordered the terrified
+labourer to seize the animal and harness it to the plough with the
+harness of the dead ass. From that time the wolf dwelt among the sheep
+and goats on the farm, and subsisted upon hay and grass.
+
+
+_Nomenoë_
+
+Swarms of Irish from Ossory and Wexford began to arrive about the
+close of the fifth century, settling along the west and north coasts.
+The immigrants from Britain the Greater formed by degrees the
+counties of Vannes, Cornouaille, Léon, and Domnonée, constituted a
+powerful aristocracy, and initiated a long and arduous struggle
+against the Frankish monarchs, who exercised a nominal suzerainty over
+Brittany. Louis the Pious placed a native chief, Nomenoë, at the head
+of the province, and a long period of peace ensued. But in A.D. 845
+Nomenoë revolted against Charles the Bald, defeated him, and forced
+him to recognize the independence of Brittany, and to forgo the annual
+tribute which he had exacted. A ballad by Villemarqué describes the
+incident. Like Macpherson, who in his enthusiasm for the fragments of
+Ossianic lore 'reconstructed' them only too well, Villemarqué
+unfortunately tampered very freely with such matter as he collected,
+and it may even be that the poem on Nomenoë, for which he claims
+authority, is altogether spurious, as some critics consider. But as it
+affords a spirited picture of the old Breton chief the story is at
+least worth relating.
+
+The poem describes how an aged chieftain waits on the hills of Retz
+for his son, who has gone over to Rennes to pay the Breton tribute to
+the Franks. Many chariots drawn by horses has he taken with him, but
+although a considerable time has elapsed there is no indication of his
+return. The chieftain climbs to an eminence in the hope of discerning
+his son in the far distance, but no sign of his appearance is to be
+seen on the long white road or on the bleak moors which fringe it.
+
+The anxious father espies a merchant wending slowly along the highway
+and hails him.
+
+"Ha, good merchant, you who travel the land from end to end, have you
+seen aught of my son Karo, who has gone to conduct the tribute
+chariots to Rennes?"
+
+[Illustration: NOMENOË]
+
+"Alas! chieftain, if your son has gone with the tribute it is in vain
+you wait for him, for the Franks found it not enough, and have weighed
+his head against it in the balance."
+
+The father gazes wildly at the speaker, sways, and falls heavily with
+a doleful cry.
+
+"Karo, my son! My lost Karo!"
+
+The scene changes to the fortress of Nomenoë, and we see its master
+returning from the chase, accompanied by his great hounds and laden
+with trophies. His bow is in his hand, and he carries the carcass of a
+boar upon his shoulder. The red blood drops from the dead beast's
+mouth and stains his hand. The aged chief, well-nigh demented, awaits
+his coming, and Nomenoë greets him courteously.
+
+"Hail, honest mountaineer!" he cries. "What is your news? What would
+you with Nomenoë?"
+
+"I come for justice, Lord Nomenoë," replies the aged man. "Is there a
+God in heaven and a chief in Brittany? There is a God above us, I
+know, and I believe there is a just Duke in the Breton land. Mighty
+ruler, make war upon the Frank, defend our country, and give us
+vengeance--vengeance for Karo my son, Karo, slain, decapitated by the
+Frankish barbarians, his beauteous head made into a balance-weight for
+their brutal sport."
+
+The old man weeps, and the tears flow down his grizzled beard.
+
+Then Nomenoë rises in anger and swears a great oath. "By the head of
+this boar, and by the arrow which slew him," cries he, "I will not
+wash this blood from off my hand until I free the country from mine
+enemies."
+
+Nomenoë has gone to the seashore and gathered pebbles, for these are
+the tribute he intends to offer the bald King.[3] Arrived at the gates
+of Rennes, he asks that they shall be opened to him so that he may pay
+the tribute of silver. He is asked to descend, to enter the castle,
+and to leave his chariot in the courtyard. He is requested to wash his
+hands to the sound of a horn before eating (an ancient custom), but he
+replies that he prefers to deliver the tribute-money there and then.
+The sacks are weighed, and the third is found light by several
+pounds.
+
+"Ha, what is this?" cries the Frankish castellan. "This sack is under
+weight, Sir Nomenoë."
+
+Out leaps Nomenoë's sword from the scabbard, and the Frank's head is
+smitten from his shoulders. Then, seizing it by its gory locks, the
+Breton chief with a laugh of triumph casts it into the balance. His
+warriors throng the courtyard, the town is taken; young Karo is
+avenged!
+
+
+_Alain Barbe-torte_
+
+The end of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth were
+remarkable for the invasions of the Northmen. On several occasions
+they were driven back--by Salomon (_d._ 874), by Alain, Count of
+Vannes (_d._ 907)--but it was Alain Barbe-torte, 'Alain of the Twisted
+Beard,' or 'Alain the Fox' (_d._ 952), who gained the decisive victory
+over them, and concerning him an ancient ballad has much to say. It
+was taken down by Villemarqué from the lips of a peasant, an old
+soldier of the Chouan leader Georges Cadoudal.
+
+In his youth Alain was a mighty hunter of the bear and the boar in the
+forests of his native Brittany, and the courage gained in this manly
+sport stood him in good stead when he came to employ it against the
+enemies of his country, the hated Northmen. Rallying the Bretons who
+lurked in the forests or hid in the mountain fastnesses, he led them
+against the enemy, whom he surprised near Dol in the middle of the
+night, making a great carnage among them. After this battle the
+Scandinavian invaders were finally expelled from the Breton land and
+Alain was crowned King or Arch-chief in 937.
+
+A free translation of this ballad might run as follows:
+
+  Lurks the Fox within the wood,
+  His teeth and claws are red with blood.
+
+  Within his leafy, dark retreat
+  He chews the cud of vengeance sweet.
+
+  Oh, trenchant his avenging sword!
+  It falls not on the rock or sward,
+
+  But on the mail of Saxon foe:
+  Swift as the lightning falls the blow.
+
+  I've seen the Bretons wield the flail,
+  Scattering the bearded chaff like hail:
+
+  But iron is the flail they wield
+  Against the churlish Saxon's shield.
+
+  I heard the call of victory
+  From Michael's Mount to Élorn fly,
+
+  And Alain's glory flies as fast
+  From Gildas' church to every coast.
+
+  Ah, may his splendour never die,
+  May it live on eternally!
+
+  But woe that I may nevermore
+  Declaim this lay on Armor's shore,
+
+  For the base Saxon hand has torn
+  My tongue from out my mouth forlorn.
+
+  But if my lips no longer frame
+  The glories of our Alain's name,
+
+  My heart shall ever sing his praise,
+  Who won the fight and wears the bays![4]
+
+The Saxons of this lay are, of course, the Norsemen, who, speaking a
+Teutonic tongue, would seem to the Celtic-speaking Bretons to be
+allied to the Teuton Franks.
+
+
+_Bretons and Normans_
+
+During the latter half of the tenth and most of the eleventh century
+the Counts of Rennes gained an almost complete ascendancy in Brittany,
+which began to be broken up into counties and seigneuries in the
+French manner. In 992 Geoffrey, son of Conan, Count of Rennes, adopted
+the title of Duke of Brittany. He married a Norman lady of noble
+family, by whom he had two sons, Alain and Eudo, the younger of whom
+demanded a share of the duchy as his inheritance. His brother made
+over to him the counties of Penthièvre and Tréguier, part of the old
+kingdom of Domnonia in the north. It was a fatal transference, for he
+and his line became remorseless enemies of the ducal house, with whom
+they carried on a series of disastrous conflicts for centuries. Conan
+II, son of Alain, came under the regency of Eudo, his uncle, in
+infancy, but later turned his sword against him and his abettor,
+William of Normandy, the Conqueror.
+
+Notwithstanding the national enmity of the Normans and Bretons, there
+existed between the Dukes of Normandy and the Dukes of Brittany ties
+of affinity that rendered the relations between the two states
+somewhat complicated. At the time when Duke Robert, the father of
+William of Normandy, set out upon his pilgrimage, he had no nearer
+relative than Alain, Duke of Brittany, the father of Conan II,
+descended in the female line from Rollo, the great Norse leader, and
+to him he committed on his departure the care of his duchy and the
+guardianship of his son.
+
+Duke Alain declared the paternity of his ward doubtful, and favoured
+that party which desired to set him aside from the succession; but
+after the defeat of his faction at Val-ès-Dunes he died, apparently of
+poison, doubtless administered by the contrivance of the friends of
+William. His son, Conan II, succeeded, and reigned at the period when
+William was making his preparations for the conquest of England. He
+was a prince of ability, dreaded by his neighbours, and animated by a
+fierce desire to injure the Duke of Normandy, whom he regarded as a
+usurper and the murderer of his father Alain. Seeing William engaged
+in a hazardous enterprise, Conan thought it a favourable moment to
+declare war against him, and dispatched one of his chamberlains to him
+with the following message: "I hear that you are ready to pass the sea
+to make conquest of the kingdom of England. Now, Duke Robert, whose
+son you feign to consider yourself, on his departure for Jerusalem
+left all his inheritance to Duke Alain, my father, who was his cousin;
+but you and your abettors have poisoned my father, you have
+appropriated to yourself the domain of Normandy, and have kept
+possession of it until this day, contrary to all right, since you are
+not the legitimate heir. Restore to me, therefore, the duchy of
+Normandy, which belongs to me, or I shall levy war upon you, and shall
+wage it to extremity with all my forces."
+
+
+_The Poisoned Hunting-Horn_
+
+The Norman historians state that William was much startled by so
+hostile a message; for even a feeble diversion might render futile his
+ambitious hopes of conquest. But without hesitation he resolved to
+remove the Breton Duke. Immediately upon his return to Conan, the
+envoy, gained over, doubtless, by a bribe of gold, rubbed poison into
+the inside of the horn which his master sounded when hunting, and, to
+make his evil measures doubly sure, he poisoned in like manner the
+Duke's gloves and his horse's bridle. Conan died a few days after his
+envoy's return, and his successor, Eudo, took especial care not to
+imitate his relative in giving offence to William with regard to the
+validity of his right; on the contrary, he formed an alliance with
+him, a thing unheard of betwixt Breton and Norman, and sent his two
+sons to William's camp to serve against the English.
+
+These two youths, Brian and Alain, repaired to the rendezvous of the
+Norman forces, accompanied by a body of Breton knights, who styled
+them Mac-tierns.[5] Certain other wealthy Bretons, who were not of the
+pure Celtic race, and who bore French names, as Robert de Vitry,
+Bertrand de Dinan, and Raoul de Gael, resorted likewise to the Court
+of the Duke of Normandy with offers of service.
+
+Later Brittany became a bone of contention between France and
+Normandy. Hoel, the native Duke, claimed the protection of France
+against the Norman duchy. A long period of peace followed under Alain
+Fergant and Conan III, but on the death of the latter a fierce war of
+succession was waged (1148-56). Conan IV secured the ducal crown by
+Norman-English aid, and gave his daughter Constance in marriage to
+Geoffrey Plantagenet, son of Henry II of England. Geoffrey was crowned
+Duke of Brittany in 1171, but after his death his son Arthur met with
+a dreadful fate at the hands of his uncle, John of England. Constance,
+his mother, the real heiress to the duchy, married again, her choice
+falling upon Guy de Thouars, and their daughter was wed to Pierre de
+Dreux, who became Duke, and who defeated John Lackland, the slayer of
+his wife's half-brother, under the walls of Nantes in 1214.
+
+
+_French Influence_
+
+The country now began to flourish apace because of the many
+innovations introduced into it by the wisdom of its French rulers. A
+new way of life was adopted by the governing classes, among whom
+French manners and fashions became the rule. But the people at large
+retained their ancient customs, language, and dress; nor have they
+ever abandoned them, at least in Lower Brittany. On the death of John
+III (1341) the peace of the duchy was once more broken by a war of
+succession. John had no love for his half-brother, John of Montfort,
+and bequeathed the ducal coronet to his niece, Joan of Penthièvre,
+wife of Charles of Blois, nephew of Philip VI of France. This
+precipitated a conflict between the rival parties which led to years
+of bitter strife.
+
+
+_The War of the Two Joans_
+
+Just as two women, Fredegonda and Brunhilda, swayed the fortunes of
+Neustria and Austrasia in Merovingian times, and Mary and Elizabeth
+those of England and Scotland at a later day, so did two heroines
+arise to uphold the banners of either party in the civil strife which
+now convulsed the Breton land. England took the side of Montfort and
+the French that of Charles. Almost at the outset (1342) John of
+Montfort was taken prisoner, but his heroic wife, Joan of Flanders,
+grasped the leadership of affairs, and carried on a relentless war
+against her husband's enemies. After five years of fighting, in 1347,
+and two years subsequent to the death of her lord, whose health had
+given way after his imprisonment, she captured her arch-foe, Charles
+of Blois himself, at the battle of La Roche-Derrien, on the Jaudy. In
+this encounter she had the assistance of a certain Sir Thomas Dagworth
+and an English force. Three times was Charles rescued, and thrice was
+he retaken, until, bleeding from eighteen wounds, he was compelled to
+surrender. He was sent to London, where he was confined in the Tower
+for nine years. Meanwhile his wife, Joan, imitating her rival and
+namesake, in turn threw her energies into the strife. But another
+victory for the Montfort party was gained at Mauron in 1352. On the
+release of Charles of Blois in 1356 he renewed hostilities with the
+help of the famous Bertrand Du Guesclin.
+
+
+_Bertrand Du Guesclin_
+
+Bertrand Du Guesclin (_c._ 1320-80), Constable of France, divides with
+Bayard the Fearless the crown of medieval French chivalry as a mighty
+leader of men, a great soldier, and a blameless knight. He was born of
+an ancient family who were in somewhat straitened circumstances, and
+in childhood was an object of aversion to his parents because of his
+ugliness.
+
+One night his mother dreamt that she was in possession of a casket
+containing portraits of herself and her lord, on one side of which
+were set nine precious stones of great beauty encircling a rough,
+unpolished pebble. In her dream she carried the casket to a lapidary,
+and asked him to take out the rough stone as unworthy of such goodly
+company; but he advised her to allow it to remain, and afterward it
+shone forth more brilliantly than the lustrous gems. The later
+superiority of Bertrand over her nine other children fulfilled the
+mother's dream.
+
+At the tournament which was held at Rennes in 1338 to celebrate the
+marriage of Charles of Blois with Joan of Penthièvre, young Bertrand,
+at that time only some eighteen years old, unhorsed the most famous
+competitors. During the war between Blois and Montfort he gathered
+round him a band of adventurers and fought on the side of Charles V,
+doing much despite to the forces of Montfort and his ally of England.
+
+Du Guesclin's name lives in Breton legend as Gwezklen, perhaps the
+original form, and approximating to that on his tomb at Saint-Denis,
+where he lies at the feet of Charles V of France. In this inscription
+it is spelt "Missire Bertram du Gueaquien," perhaps a French rendering
+of the Breton pronunciation. Not a few legendary ballads which recount
+the exploits of this manly and romantic figure remain in the Breton
+language, and I have made a free translation of the following, as it
+is perhaps the most interesting of the number:
+
+
+THE WARD OF DU GUESCLIN
+
+  Trogoff's strong tower in English hands
+  Has been this many a year,
+  Rising above its subject-lands
+  And held in hate and fear.
+  That rosy gleam upon the sward
+  Is not the sun's last kiss;
+  It is the blood of an English lord
+  Who ruled the land amiss.
+
+  "O sweetest daughter of my heart,
+  My little Marguerite,
+  Come, carry me the midday milk
+  To those who bind the wheat."
+  "O gentle mother, spare me this!
+  The castle I must pass
+  Where wicked Roger takes a kiss
+  From every country lass."
+
+  "Oh! fie, my daughter, fie on thee!
+  The Seigneur would not glance
+  On such a chit of low degree
+  When all the dames in France
+  Are for his choosing." "Mother mine,
+  I bow unto your word.
+  Mine eyes will ne'er behold you more.
+  God keep you in His guard."
+
+  Young Roger stood upon the tower
+  Of Trogoff's grey château;
+  Beneath his bent brows did he lower
+  Upon the scene below.
+  "Come hither quickly, little page,
+  Come hither to my knee.
+  Canst spy a maid of tender age?
+  Ha! she must pay my fee."
+
+  Fair Marguerite trips swiftly by
+  Beneath the castle shade,
+  When villain Roger, drawing nigh,
+  Steals softly on the maid.
+  He seizes on the milking-pail
+  She bears upon her head;
+  The snow-white flood she must bewail,
+  For all the milk is shed.
+
+  "Ah, cry not, pretty sister mine,
+  There's plenty and to spare
+  Of milk and eke of good red wine
+  Within my castle fair.
+  Ah, feast with me, or pluck a rose
+  Within my pleasant garth,
+  Or stroll beside yon brook which flows
+  In brawling, sylvan mirth."
+
+  "Nor feast nor flowers nor evening air
+  I wish; I do entreat,
+  Fair Seigneur, let me now repair
+  To those who bind the wheat."
+  "Nay, damsel, fill thy milking-pail:
+  The dairy stands but here.
+  Ah, foolish sweeting, wherefore quail,
+  For thou hast naught to fear?"
+
+  The castle gates behind her close,
+  And all is fair within;
+  Above her head the apple glows,
+  The symbol of our sin.
+  "O Seigneur, lend thy dagger keen,
+  That I may cut this fruit."
+  He smiles and with a courteous mien
+  He draws the bright blade out.
+
+[Illustration: THE DEATH OF MARGUERITE IN THE CASTLE OF TROGOFF]
+
+  She takes it, and in earnest prayer
+  Her childish accents rise:
+  "O mother, Virgin, ever fair,
+  Pray, pray, for her who dies
+  For honour!" Then the blade is drenched
+  With blood most innocent.
+  Vile Roger, now, thine ardour quenched,
+  Say, art thou then content?
+
+  "Ha, I will wash my dagger keen
+  In the clear-running brook.
+  No human eye hath ever seen,
+  No human eye shall look
+  Upon this gore." He takes the blade
+  From out that gentle heart,
+  And hurries to the river's shade.
+  False Roger, why dost start?
+
+  Beside the bank Du Guesclin stands,
+  Clad in his sombre mail.
+  "Ha, Roger, why so red thy hands,
+  And why art thou so pale?"
+  "A beast I've slain." "Thou liest, hound!
+  But I a beast will slay."
+  The woodland's leafy ways resound
+  To echoings of fray.
+
+  Roger is slain. Trogoff's château
+  Is level with the rock.
+  Who can withstand Du Guesclin's blow,
+  What towers can brave his shock?
+  The combat is his only joy,
+  The tournament his play.
+  Woe unto those who would destroy
+  The peace of Brittany!
+
+In the decisive battle of Auray (1364) Charles was killed and Du
+Guesclin taken prisoner. John of Montfort, son of the John who had
+died, became Duke of Brittany. But he had to face Oliver de Clisson,
+round whom the adherents of Blois rallied. From a war the strife
+degenerated into a vendetta. Oliver de Clisson seized the person of
+John V and imprisoned him. But in the end John was liberated and the
+line of Blois was finally crushed.
+
+
+_Anne of Brittany_
+
+The next event of importance in Breton history is the enforced
+marriage of Anne of Brittany, Duchess of that country in her own
+right, to Charles VIII of France, son of Louis XI, which event took
+place in 1491. Anne, whose father, Duke Francis II, had but recently
+died, had no option but to espouse Charles, and on his death she
+married Louis XII, his successor. Francis I, who succeeded Louis XII
+on the throne of France, and who married Claude, daughter of Louis XII
+and Anne, annexed the duchy in 1532, providing for its privileges. But
+beneath the cramping hand of French power the privileges of the
+province were greatly reduced. From this time the history of Brittany
+is merged in that of France, of which country it becomes one of the
+component parts in a political if not a racial sense.
+
+We shall not in this place deal with the people of modern Brittany,
+their manners and customs, reserving the subject for a later chapter,
+but shall ask the reader to accompany us while we traverse the
+enchanted ground of Breton story.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+   [1] Consult E. Ernault, _Petite Grammaire bretonne_ (Saint-Brieuc,
+       1897); L. Le Clerc, _Grammaire bretonne_ (Saint-Brieuc,
+       1908); J. P. Treasure, _An Introduction to Breton Grammar_
+       (Carmarthen, 1903). For the dialect of Vannes see A.
+       Guillevic and P. Le Goff, _Grammaire bretonne du Dialect de
+       Vannes_ (Vannes, 1902).
+
+   [2] Lit. 'long stone,' a megalithic monument. See Chapter II,
+       "Menhirs and Dolmens." Students of folk-lore will recognize the
+       symbolic significance of the offering. We seem to have here
+       some connexion with pillar-worship, as found in ancient Crete,
+       and the adoration of the Irminsul among the ancient Saxons.
+
+   [3] Charles the Bald.
+
+   [4] For the Breton original and the French translation from which the
+       above is adapted see Villemarqué, _Barzaz-Breiz_, p. 112.
+
+   [5] 'Sons of the Chief.' MacTier is a fairly common name in Scotland
+       to-day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II: MENHIRS AND DOLMENS
+
+
+In the mind of the general reader Brittany is unalterably associated
+with the prehistoric stone monuments which are so closely identified
+with its folk-lore and national life. In other parts of the world
+similar monuments are encountered, in Great Britain and Ireland,
+Scandinavia, the Crimea, Algeria, and India, but nowhere are they
+found in such abundance as in Brittany, nor are these rivalled in
+other lands, either as regards their character or the space they
+occupy.
+
+To speculate as to the race which built the primitive stone monuments
+of Brittany is almost as futile as it would be to theorize upon the
+date of their erection.[6] A generation ago it was usual to refer all
+European megalithic monuments to a 'Celtic' origin, but European
+ethnological problems have become too complicated of late years to
+permit such a theory to pass unchallenged, especially now that the
+term 'Celt' is itself matter for fierce controversy. In the immediate
+neighbourhood of certain of these monuments objects of the Iron Age
+are recovered from the soil, while near others the finds are of Bronze
+Age character, so that it is probably correct to surmise that their
+construction continued throughout a prolonged period.
+
+
+_What Menhirs and Dolmens are_
+
+Regarding the nomenclature of the several species of megalithic
+monuments met with in Brittany some definitions are necessary. A
+menhir is a rude monolith set up on end, a great single stone, the
+base of which is buried deep in the soil. A dolmen is a large,
+table-shaped stone, supported by three, four, or even five other
+stones, the bases of which are sunk in the earth. In Britain the term
+'cromlech' is synonymous with that of 'dolmen,' but in France and on
+the Continent generally it is exclusively applied to that class of
+monument for which British scientists have no other name than 'stone
+circles.' The derivation of the words from Celtic and their precise
+meaning in that tongue may assist the reader to arrive at their exact
+significance. Thus 'menhir' seems to be derived from the Welsh or
+Brythonic _maen_, 'a stone,' and _hir_, 'long,' and 'dolmen' from
+Breton _taol_, 'table,' and _men_, 'a stone.'[7] 'Cromlech' is also of
+Welsh or Brythonic origin, and is derived from _crom_, 'bending' or
+'bowed' (hence 'laid across'), and _llech_, 'a flat stone.' The _allée
+couverte_ is a dolmen on a large scale.
+
+
+_The Nature of the Monuments_
+
+The nature of these monuments and the purpose for which they were
+erected were questions which powerfully exercised the minds of the
+antiquaries of a century ago, who fiercely contended for their use as
+altars, open-air temples, and places of rendezvous for the discussion
+of tribal affairs. The cooler archæologists of a later day have
+discarded the majority of such theories as untenable in the light of
+hard facts. The dolmens, they say, are highly unsuitable for the
+purpose of altars, and as it has been proved that this class of
+monument was invariably covered in prehistoric times by an earthen
+tumulus its ritualistic use is thereby rendered improbable. Moreover,
+if we chance upon any rude carving or incised work on dolmens we
+observe that it is invariably executed on the _lower_ surface of the
+table stone, the upper surface being nearly always rough, unhewn,
+often naturally rounded, and as unlike the surface of an altar as
+possible.
+
+Recent research has established the much more reasonable theory that
+these monuments are sepulchral in character, and that they mark the
+last resting-places of persons of tribal importance, chiefs, priests,
+or celebrated warriors. Occasionally legend assists us to prove the
+mortuary character of menhir and dolmen. But, without insisting any
+further for the present upon the purpose of these monuments, let us
+glance at the more widely known of Brittany's prehistoric structures,
+not so much in the manner of the archæologist as in that of the
+observant traveller who is satisfied to view them as interesting
+relics of human handiwork bequeathed from a darker age, rather than as
+objects to satisfy the archæological taste for discussion.
+
+For this purpose we shall select the best known groups of Breton
+prehistoric structures, and shall begin our excursion at the
+north-eastern extremity of Brittany, following the coast-line, on
+which most of the principal prehistoric centres are situated, and, as
+occasion offers, journeying into the interior in search of famous or
+interesting examples.
+
+
+_Dol_
+
+Dol is situated in the north of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine,
+not far from the sea-coast. Near it, in a field called the Champ
+Dolent ('Field of Woe'), stands a gigantic menhir, about thirty feet
+high and said to measure fifteen more underground. It is composed of
+grey granite, and is surmounted by a cross. The early Christian
+missionaries, finding it impossible to wean the people from
+frequenting pagan neighbourhoods, surmounted the standing stones
+with the symbol of their faith, and this in time brought about the
+result desired.[8]
+
+
+_The Legend of Dol_
+
+A strange legend is connected with this rude menhir. On a day in the
+dark, uncharted past of Brittany a fierce battle was fought in the
+Champ Dolent. Blood ran in streams, sufficient, says the tale, to turn
+a mill-wheel in the neighbourhood of the battlefield. When the combat
+was at its height two brothers met and grappled in fratricidal strife.
+But ere they could harm one another the great granite shaft which now
+looms above the field rose up between them and separated them.
+
+There appears to be some historical basis for the tale. Here, or in
+the neighbourhood, A.D. 560, met Clotaire, King of the Franks, and his
+son, the rebel Chramne. The rebellious son was signally defeated. He
+had placed his wife and two little daughters in a dwelling hard by,
+and as he made his way thence to convey them from the field he was
+captured. He was instantly strangled, by order of his brutal father,
+in the sight of his wife and little ones, who were then burned alive
+in the house where they had taken refuge. The Champ Dolent does not
+belie its name, and even thirteen centuries and a half have failed to
+obliterate the memory of a savage and unnatural crime, which, its
+remoteness notwithstanding, fills the soul with loathing against its
+perpetrators and with deep pity for the hapless and innocent victims.
+
+
+_A Subterranean Dolmen Chapel_
+
+At Plouaret, in the department of Côtes-du-Nord, is a curious
+subterranean chapel incorporating a dolmen. The dolmen was formerly
+partially embedded in a tumulus, and the chapel, erected in 1702, was
+so constructed that the great table-stone of the dolmen has become the
+chapel roof, and the supporting stones form two of its sides. The
+crypt is reached by a flight of steps, and here may be seen an altar
+to the Seven Sleepers, represented by seven dolls of varying size. The
+Bretons have a legend that this structure dates from the creation of
+the world, and they have embodied this belief in a ballad, in which it
+is piously affirmed that the shrine was built by the hand of the
+Almighty at the time when the world was in process of formation.
+
+
+_Camaret_
+
+Camaret, on the coast of Finistère, is the site of no less than
+forty-one standing stones of quartz, which outline a rectangular space
+600 yards in length at its base. Many stones have been removed, so
+that the remaining sides are incomplete. None of these monoliths is of
+any considerable size, however, and the site is not considered to be
+of much importance, save as regards its isolated character. At
+Penmarch, in the southern extremity of Finistère, there is an
+'alignment' of some two hundred small stones, and a dolmen of some
+importance is situated at Trégunc, but it is at Carnac, on the coast
+of Morbihan, that we arrive at the most important archæological
+district in Brittany.
+
+
+_Carnac_
+
+The Carnac district teems with prehistoric monuments, the most
+celebrated of which are those of Plouharnel, Concarneau, Concurrus,
+Locmariaquer, Kermario, Kerlescant, Erdeven, and Sainte-Barbe. All
+these places are situated within a few miles of one another, and a
+good centre from which excursions can be made to each is the little
+town of Auray, with its quaint medieval market-house and shrine of St
+Roch. Archæologists, both Breton and foreign, appear to be agreed that
+the groups of stones at Ménéac, Kermario, and Kerlescant are portions
+of one original and continuous series of alignments which extended for
+nearly two miles in one direction from south-west to north-east. The
+monolithic avenue commences quite near the village of Ménéac,
+stretching away in eleven rows, and here the large stones are
+situated, these at first rising to a height of from 10 to 13 feet, and
+becoming gradually smaller, until they attain only 3 or 4 feet. In all
+there are 116 menhirs at Ménéac. For more than three hundred yards
+there is a gap in the series, which passed, we come to the Kermario
+avenue, which consists of ten rows of monoliths of much the same size
+as those of Ménéac, and 1120 in number.
+
+Passing on to Kerlescant, with its thirteen rows of menhirs made up of
+570 individual stones, we come to the end of the avenue and gaze
+backward upon the plain covered with these indestructible symbols of a
+forgotten past.
+
+Carnac! There is something vast, Egyptian, in the name! There is,
+indeed, a Karnak in Egypt, celebrated for its Avenue of Sphinxes and
+its pillared temple raised to the goddess Mut by King Amenophis III.
+Here, in the Breton Carnac, are no evidences of architectural skill.
+These sombre stones, unworked, rude as they came from cliff or
+seashore, are not embellished by man's handiwork like the rich temples
+of the Nile. But there is about this stone-littered moor a mystery, an
+atmosphere no less intense than that surrounding the most solemn ruins
+of antiquity. Deeper even than the depths of Egypt must we sound if we
+are to discover the secret of Carnac. What mean these stones? What
+means faith? What signifies belief? What is the answer to the Riddle
+of Man? In the words of Cayot Délandre, a Breton poet:
+
+  Tout cela eut un sens, et traduisit
+  Une pensée; mais clé de ce mystère,
+  Où est elle? et qui pourrait dire aujourd'hui
+  Si jamais elle se retrouvera?[9]
+
+
+_A Vision_
+
+Over this wild, heathy track, covered with the blue flowers of the
+dwarf gentian, steals a subtle change. Nor air nor heath has altered.
+The lichen-covered grey stones are the same. Suddenly there arises the
+burden of a low, fierce chant. A swarm of skin-clad figures appears,
+clustering around a gigantic object which they are painfully dragging
+toward a deep pit situated at the end of one of the enormous alleys of
+monoliths. On rudely shaped rollers rests a huge stone some twenty
+feet in length, and this they drag across the rough moor by ropes of
+hide, lightening their labours by the chant, which relates the
+exploits of the warrior-chief who has lately been entombed in this
+vast pantheon of Carnac. The menhir shall serve for his headstone. It
+has been vowed to him by the warriors of his tribe, his henchmen, who
+have fought and hunted beside him, and who revere his memory. This
+stone shall render his fame immortal.
+
+And now the task of placing the huge monolith in position begins.
+Ropes are attached to one extremity, and while a line of brawny
+savages strains to raise this, others guide that end of the monolith
+destined for enclosure in the earth toward the pit which has been dug
+for its reception. Higher and higher rises the stone, until at last it
+sinks slowly into its earthy bed. It is held in an upright position
+while the soil is packed around it and it is made secure. Then the
+barbarians stand back a space and gaze at it from beneath their low
+brows, well pleased with their handiwork. He whom they honoured in
+life rests not unrecognized in death.
+
+[Illustration: RAISING A MENHIR]
+
+
+_The Legend of Carnac_
+
+The legend of Carnac which explains these avenues of monoliths bears a
+resemblance to the Cornish story of 'the Hurlers,' who were turned
+into stone for playing at hurling on the Lord's Day, or to that other
+English example from Cumberland of 'Long Meg' and her daughters. St
+Cornely, we are told, pursued by an army of pagans, fled toward the
+sea. Finding no boat at hand, and on the point of being taken, he
+transformed his pursuers into stones, the present monoliths.
+
+The Saint had made his flight to the coast in a bullock-cart, and
+perhaps for this reason he is now regarded as the patron of cattle.
+Should a bullock fall sick, his owner purchases an image of St Cornely
+and hangs it up in the stable until the animal recovers. The church at
+Carnac contains a series of fresco paintings which outline events in
+the life of the Saint, and in the churchyard there is a representation
+of the holy man between two bullocks. The head of St Cornely is said
+to be preserved within the edifice as a relic. On the 13th of
+September is held at Carnac the festival of the 'Benediction of the
+Beasts,' which is celebrated in honour of St Cornely. The cattle of
+the district are brought to the vicinity of the church and blessed by
+the priests--should sufficient monetary encouragement be forthcoming.
+
+
+_Mont-Saint-Michel_
+
+In the neighbourhood is Mont-Saint-Michel,[10] a great tumulus with a
+sepulchral dolmen, first excavated in 1862, when late Stone Age
+implements, jade celts, and burnt bones were unearthed. Later M.
+Zacharie Le Rouzic, the well-known Breton archæologist, tunnelled into
+the tumulus, and discovered a mortuary chamber, in which were the
+incinerated remains of two oxen. To this tumulus each pilgrim added a
+stone or small quantity of earth, as has been the custom in Celtic
+countries from time immemorial, and so the funerary mound in the
+course of countless generations grew into quite a respectable hill,
+on which a chapel was built, dedicated to St Michael, from the doorway
+of which a splendid prospect of the great stone alignments can be had,
+with, for background, the Morbihan and the long, dreary peninsula of
+Quiberon, bleak, treeless, and deserted.
+
+
+_Rocenaud_
+
+Near Carnac is the great dolmen of Rocenaud, the 'cup-and-ring'
+markings on which are thought by the surrounding peasantry to have
+been made by the knees and elbows of St Roch, who fell upon this stone
+when he landed from Ireland. When the natives desire a wind they knock
+upon the depressions with their knuckles, murmuring spells the while,
+just as in Scotland in the seventeenth century a tempest was raised by
+dipping a rag in water and beating it on a stone thrice in the name of
+Satan.
+
+
+_Cup-and-Ring Markings_
+
+What do these cup-and-ring markings so commonly discovered upon the
+monuments of Brittany portend? The question is one well worth
+examining at some length, as it appears to be almost at the
+foundations of Neolithic religion. Recent discoveries in New Caledonia
+have proved the existence in these far-off islands, as in Brittany,
+Scotland, and Ireland, of these strange symbols, coupled with the
+concentric and spiral designs which are usually associated with the
+genius of Celtic art. In the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and in the
+south-west of Scotland generally, stones inscribed with designs
+closely resembling those on the New Caledonian rocks have been found
+in abundance, as at Auchentorlie and Cockno, Shewalton Sands, and in
+the Milton of Colquhoun district, where the famous 'cup-and-ring
+altar' was discovered. At Shewalton Sands in particular, in 1904, a
+number of stones were found bearing crosses like those discovered in
+Portugal by Father José Brenha and Father Rodriguez. These symbols
+have a strong resemblance to certain markings on the Breton rocks, and
+are thought to possess an alphabetic or magical significance. In
+Scotland spirals are commonly found on stones marked with ogham
+inscriptions, and it is remarkable that they should occur in New
+Caledonia in connexion with a dot 'alphabet.' The New Caledonian
+crosses, however, approximate more to the later crosses of Celtic art,
+while the spirals resemble those met with in the earlier examples of
+Celtic work. But the closest parallel to the New Caledonian
+stone-markings to be found in Scotland is supplied by the examples at
+Cockno, in Dumbartonshire, where the wheel symbol is associated with
+the cup-and-ring markings.
+
+The cup-and-ring stones used to be considered the peculiar product of
+a race of 'Brythonic' or British origin, and it is likely that the
+stones so carved were utilized in the ritual of rain-worship or
+rain-making by sympathetic magic. The grooves in the stone were
+probably filled with water to typify a country partially covered with
+rain-water.[11]
+
+From these analogies, then, we can glean the purpose of the
+cup-and-ring markings upon the dolmens of Brittany, and may conclude,
+if our considerations are well founded, that they were magical in
+purpose and origin. Do the cup-shaped depressions represent water, or
+are they receptacles for rain, and do the spiral symbols typify the
+whirling winds?
+
+
+_The Gallery of Gavr'inis_
+
+Nowhere are these mysterious markings so well exemplified as in the
+wonderful tumulus of Gavr'inis. This ancient place of sepulture, the
+name of which means 'Goat Island,' lies in the Morbihan, or 'Little
+Sea,' an inland sea which gives its name to a department in the south
+of Brittany. The tumulus is 25 feet high, and covers a fine gallery 40
+feet long, the stones of which bear the markings alluded to. Whorls
+and circles abound in the ornamentation, serpent-like figures, and the
+representation of an axe, similar to those to be seen in some of the
+Grottes aux Fées, or on the Dol des Marchands. The sculptures appear
+to have been executed with metal tools. The passage ends in a square
+sepulchral chamber, the supports of which are eight menhirs of grained
+granite, a stone not found on the island. Such of the menhirs as are
+carved were obviously so treated before they were placed _in situ_, as
+the design passes round the edges.
+
+
+_The Ile aux Moines_
+
+The Ile aux Moines ('Monks' Island') is also situated in the Morbihan,
+and has many prehistoric monuments, the most extensive of which are
+the circle of stones at Kergonan and the dolmen of Penhapp. On the Ile
+d'Arz, too, are megalithic monuments, perhaps the best example of
+which is the cromlech or circle at Penraz.
+
+The folk-beliefs attached to the megalithic monuments of Brittany are
+numerous, but nearly all of them bear a strong resemblance to each
+other. Many of the monuments are called Grottes aux Fées or Roches aux
+Fées, in the belief that the fairies either built them or used them as
+dwelling-places, and variants of these names are to be found in the
+Maison des Follets ('House of the Goblins') at Cancoet, in Morbihan,
+and the Château des Paulpiquets, in Questembert, in the same district.
+Ty en Corygannt ('The House of the Korrigans') is situated in the same
+department, while near Penmarch, in Finistère, at the other end of the
+province, we find Ty C'harriquet ('The House of the Gorics' or
+'Nains'). Other mythical personages are also credited with their
+erection, most frequently either the devil or Gargantua being held
+responsible for their miraculous creation. The phenomenon, well known
+to students of folk-lore, that an unlettered people speedily forgets
+the origin of monuments that its predecessors may have raised in times
+past is well exemplified in Brittany, whose peasant-folk are usually
+surprised, if not amused, at the question "Who built the dolmens?"
+Close familiarity with and contiguity to uncommon objects not
+infrequently dulls the sense of wonder they should otherwise naturally
+excite. But lest we feel tempted to sneer at these poor folk for their
+incurious attitude toward the visible antiquities of their land, let
+us ask ourselves how many of us take that interest in the antiquities
+of our own country or our own especial locality that they demand.[12]
+
+
+_Fairy Builders_
+
+For the most part, then, the megaliths, in the opinion of the Breton
+peasant, are not the handiwork of man. He would rather refer their
+origin to spirits, giants, or fiends. If he makes any exception to
+this supernatural attribution, it is in favour of the saints he
+reverences so profoundly. The fairies, he says, harnessed their oxen
+to the mighty stones, selected a site, and dragged them thither to
+form a dwelling, or perhaps a cradle for the infant fays they were so
+fond of exchanging for human children. Thus the Roches aux Fées near
+Saint-Didier, in Ille-et-Vilaine, were raised by fairy hands, the
+elves collecting "all the big stones in the country" and carrying them
+thither in their aprons. These architectural sprites then mounted on
+each other's shoulders in order that they might reach high enough to
+place the mighty monoliths securely in position. This practice they
+also followed in building the dolmen near the wood of Rocher, on the
+road from Dinan to Dol, say the people of that country-side.
+
+But the actual purpose of the megaliths has not been neglected by
+tradition, for a venerable farmer at Rouvray stated that the fairies
+were wont to honour after their death those who had made good use of
+their lives and built the dolmens to contain their ashes. The presence
+of such a shrine in a country-side was a guarantee of abundance and
+prosperity therein, as a subtle and indefinable charm spread from the
+saintly remnants and communicated itself to everything in the
+neighbourhood.[13] The fairy builders, says tradition, went about
+their work in no haphazard manner. Those among them who possessed a
+talent for design drew the plans of the proposed structure, the less
+gifted acting as carriers, labourers, and masons. Apron-carrying was
+not their only method of porterage, for some bore the stones on their
+heads, or one under each arm, as when they raised the Roche aux Fées
+in Retiers, or the dolmen in La Lande Marie.[14] The space of a night
+was usually sufficient in which to raise a dolmen. But though 'run up'
+with more than Transatlantic dispatch, in view of the time these
+structures have endured for, any charge of jerry-building against
+their elfin architects must fall to the ground. Daylight, too,
+frequently surprised the fairy builders, so that they could not finish
+their task, as many a 'roofless' dolmen shows.
+
+There are many Celtic parallels to this belief. For example, it is
+said that the Picts, or perhaps the fairies, built the original church
+of Corstorphine, near Edinburgh, and stood in a row handing the stones
+on, one to another, from Ravelston Quarry, on the adjacent hill of
+Corstorphine. Such is the local folk-tale; and it has its congeners in
+Celtic and even in Hindu myth. Thus in the Highland tale of Kennedy
+and the _claistig_, or fairy, whom he captured, and whom he compelled
+to build him a house in one night, we read that she set her people to
+work speedily:
+
+  And they brought flags and stones
+  From the shores of Cliamig waterfall,
+  Reaching them from hand to hand.[15]
+
+Again, the Round Tower of Ardmore, in Ireland, was built with stones
+brought from Slieve Grian, a mountain some four or five miles distant,
+"without horse or wheel," the blocks being passed from hand to hand
+from the quarry to the site of the building. The same tradition
+applied to the Round Tower of Abernethy, in Perthshire, only it is in
+this case demonstrated that the stone of which the tower is composed
+was actually taken from the traditional quarry, even the very spot
+being geologically identified.[16] In like manner, too, was Rama's
+bridge built by the monkey host in Hindu myth, as recounted in the
+_Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata_ and the _R[=a]m[=a]yana_.
+
+Tales, as apart from beliefs, are not often encountered in connexion
+with the monuments. Indeed, Sébillot, in the course of his researches,
+found only some dozen of these all told.[17] They are very brief,
+and appear for the most part to deal with fairies who have been shut
+up by the power of magic in a dolmen. Tales of spirits enclosed in
+trees, and even in pillars, are not uncommon, and lately I have
+heard a peculiarly fearsome ghost story which comes from Belgium, in
+which it is related how certain spirits had become enclosed in a
+pillar in an ancient abbey, for the saintly occupants of which they
+made it particularly uncomfortable. Mr George Henderson, in one of
+the most masterly and suggestive studies of Celtic survivals ever
+published, states that stones in the Highlands of Scotland were
+formerly believed to have souls, and that those too large to be moved
+"were held to be in intimate connexion with spirits." Pillared
+stones are not employed in building dwellings in the Highlands,
+ill luck, it is believed, being sure to follow their use in this
+manner, while to 'meddle' with stones which tradition connects with
+Druidism is to court fatality.[18]
+
+
+_Stones that Travel_
+
+M. Salomon Reinach tells us of the Breton belief that certain sacred
+stones go once a year or once a century to 'wash' themselves in the
+sea or in a river, returning to their ancient seats after their
+ablutions.[19] The stones in the dolmen of Essé are thought to change
+their places continually, like those of Callernish and Lewis, and,
+like the Roman Penates, to have the gift of coming and going if
+removed from their habitual site.
+
+The megalithic monuments of Brittany are undoubtedly the most
+remarkable relics of that epoch of prehistoric activity which is now
+regarded as the immediate forerunner of civilization. Can it be that
+they were miraculously preserved by isolation from the remote
+beginnings of that epoch, or is it more probable that they were
+constructed at a relatively late period? These are questions of
+profound difficulty, and it is likely that both theories contain a
+certain amount of truth. Whatever may have been the origin of her
+megaliths, Brittany must ever be regarded as a great prehistoric
+museum, a unique link with a past of hoary antiquity.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+   [6] That it was Neolithic seems undoubted, and in all probability
+       Alpine--_i.e._ the same race as presently inhabits Brittany.
+       See Dottin, _Anciens Peuples de l'Europe_ (Paris, 1916).
+
+   [7] But _tolmen_ in Cornish meant 'pole of stone.'
+
+   [8] Ostensibly, at least; but see the remarks upon modern pagan
+       survivals in Chapter IX, p. 246.
+
+   [9] Which might be rendered:
+
+         All here is symbol; these grey stones translate
+         A thought ineffable, but where the key?
+         Say, shall it be recovered soon or late,
+         To ope the temple of this mystery?
+
+  [10] Not to be confused, of course, with the well-known island mount
+       of the same name.
+
+  [11] A Scottish sixteenth-century magical verse was chanted over such
+       a stone:
+
+         "I knock this rag wpone this stone,
+         And ask the divell for rain thereon."
+
+  [12] The writer's experience is that unlettered British folk often
+       possess much better information concerning the antiquities of a
+       district than its 'educated' inhabitants. If this information
+       is not scientific it is full and displays deep personal
+       interest.
+
+  [13] _Collectionneur breton_, t. iii, p.55.
+
+  [14] See _Comptes rendus de la Société des Antiquaries de France_, pp.
+       95 ff. (1836).
+
+  [15] J. G. Campbell, _Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands_.
+
+  [16] Small, _Antiquities of Fife_.
+
+  [17] _Traditions de la Haute-Bretagne_, t. i, p. 26.
+
+  [18] Henderson, _Survivals in Belief among the Celts_ (1911).
+
+  [19] _Cultes, Mythes, et Religiones_, t. iii, pp. 365-433.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III: THE FAIRIES OF BRITTANY
+
+
+Whatever the origin of the race which conceived the demonology
+of Brittany--and there are indications that it was not wholly
+Celtic--that weird province of Faëry bears unmistakable evidence
+of having been deeply impressed by the Celtic imagination, if it
+was not totally peopled by it, for its various inhabitants act in
+the Celtic spirit, are moved by Celtic springs of thought and
+fancy, and possess not a little of that irritability which has
+forced anthropologists to include the Celtic race among those
+peoples described as 'sanguine-bilious.' As a rule they are by
+no means friendly or even humane, these fays of Brittany, and if
+we find beneficent elves within the green forests of the duchy we
+may feel certain that they are French immigrants, and therefore
+more polished than the choleric native sprites.
+
+
+_Broceliande_
+
+Of all the many localities celebrated in the fairy lore of Brittany
+none is so famous as Broceliande. Broceliande! "The sound is like a
+bell," a far, faëry chime in a twilit forest. In the name Broceliande
+there seems to be gathered all the tender charm, the rich and haunting
+mystery, the remote magic of Brittany and Breton lore. It is, indeed,
+the title to the rarest book in the library of poetic and traditional
+romance.
+
+"I went to seek out marvels," said old Wace. "The forest I saw, the
+land I saw. I sought marvels, but I found none. A fool I came back, a
+fool I went; a fool I went, a fool I came back; foolishness I sought;
+a fool I hold myself."[20]
+
+Our age, even less sceptical than his, sees no folly in questing for
+the beautiful, and if we expect no marvels, nor any sleight of faëry,
+however desirous we are, we do not hold it time lost to plunge into
+the enchanted forest and in its magic half-gloom grope for, and
+perchance grasp, dryad draperies, or be trapped in the filmy webs of
+fancy which are spun in these shadows for unwary mortals.
+
+Standing in dream-girt Broceliande of a hundred legends, its shadows
+mirrored by dim meres that may never reflect the stars, one feels the
+lure of Brittany more keenly even than when walking by its fierce and
+jagged coasts menaced by savage grey seas, or when wandering on its
+vast moors where the monuments of its pagan past stand in gigantic
+disarray. For in the forest is the heart of Arthurian story, the
+shrine of that wonder which has drawn thousands to this land of
+legend, who, like old Wace, trusted to have found, if not elfin
+marvels, at least matter of phantasy conjured up by the legendary
+associations of Broceliande.
+
+But we must beware of each step in these twilit recesses, for the fays
+of Brittany are not as those of other lands. Harsh things are spoken
+of them. They are malignant, say the forest folk. The note of Brittany
+is scarce a joyous one. It is bitter-sweet as a sad chord struck on an
+ancient harp.
+
+The fays of Brittany are not the friends of man. They are not 'the
+good people,' 'the wee folk'; they have no endearing names, the gift
+of a grateful peasantry. Cold and hostile, they hold aloof from human
+converse, and, should they encounter man, vent their displeasure at
+the interruption in the most vindictive manner.
+
+Whether the fairies of Brittany be the late representatives of the
+gods of an elder day or merely animistic spirits who have haunted
+these glades since man first sheltered in them, certain it is that in
+no other region in Europe has Mother Church laid such a heavy ban upon
+all the things of faëry as in this strange and isolated peninsula. A
+more tolerant ecclesiastical rule might have weaned them to a timid
+friendship, but all overtures have been discouraged, and to-day they
+are enemies, active, malignant, swift to inflict evil upon the pious
+peasant because he is pious and on the energetic because of his
+industry.
+
+
+_The Korrigan_
+
+Among those forest-beings of whom legend speaks such malice none is
+more relentless than the Korrigan, who has power to enmesh the heart
+of the most constant swain and doom him to perish miserably for love
+of her. Beware of the fountains and of the wells of this forest of
+Broceliande, for there she is most commonly to be encountered, and you
+may know her by her bright hair--"like golden wire," as Spenser says
+of his lady's--her red, flashing eyes, and her laughing lips. But if
+you would dare her wiles you must come alone to her fountain by night,
+for she shuns even the half-gloom that is day in shadowy Broceliande.
+The peasants when they speak of her will assure you that she and her
+kind are pagan princesses of Brittany who would have none of
+Christianity when the holy Apostles brought it to Armorica, and who
+must dwell here under a ban, outcast and abhorred.
+
+
+_The Seigneur of Nann_[21]
+
+The Seigneur of Nann was high of heart, for that day his bride of a
+year had presented him with two beautiful children, a boy and a girl,
+both white as May-blossom. In his joy the happy father asked his wife
+her heart's desire, and she, pining for that which idle fancy urged
+upon her, begged him to bring her a dish of woodcock from the lake in
+the dale, or of venison from the greenwood. The Seigneur of Nann
+seized his lance and, vaulting on his jet-black steed, sought the
+borders of the forest, where he halted to survey the ground for track
+of roe or slot of the red deer. Of a sudden a white doe rose in front
+of him, and was lost in the forest like a silver shadow.
+
+At sight of this fair quarry the Seigneur followed into the greenwood.
+Ever his prey rustled among the leaves ahead, and in the hot chase he
+recked not of the forest depths into which he had plunged. But coming
+upon a narrow glade where the interlacing leaves above let in the sun
+to dapple the moss-ways below, he saw a strange lady sitting by the
+broken border of a well, braiding her fair hair and binding it with
+golden pins.
+
+The Seigneur louted low, begged that he might drink, and bending down
+set his lips to the water; but she, turning strange eyes upon
+him--eyes not blue like those of his bride, nor grey, nor brown, nor
+black, like those of other women, but red in their depths as the
+heart's blood of a dove--spoke to him discourteously.
+
+"Who are you who dare to trouble the waters of my fountain?" she
+asked. "Do you not know that your conduct merits death? This well is
+enchanted, and by drinking of it you are fated to die, unless you
+fulfil a certain condition."
+
+"And what is that?" asked the Seigneur.
+
+"You must marry me within the hour," replied the lady.
+
+"Demoiselle," replied the Seigneur, "it may not be as you desire, for
+I am already espoused to a fair bride who has borne me this very day a
+son and a daughter. Nor shall I die until it pleases the good God.
+Nevertheless, I wot well who you are. Rather would I die on the
+instant than wed with a Korrigan."
+
+Leaping upon his horse, he turned and rode from the woodland as a man
+possessed. As he drew homeward he was overshadowed by a sense of
+coming ill. At the gate of his château stood his mother, anxious to
+greet him with good news of his bride. But with averted eyes he
+addresses her in the refrain so familiar to the folk-poetry of all
+lands:
+
+  "My good mother, if you love me, make my bed. I am sick unto
+  death. Say not a word to my bride. For within three days I shall
+  be laid in the grave. A Korrigan has done me evil."
+
+Three days later the young spouse asks of her mother-in-law:
+
+"Tell me, mother, why do the bells sound? Wherefore do the priests
+chant so low?"
+
+"'Tis nothing, daughter," replies the elder woman. "A poor stranger
+who lodged here died this night."
+
+"Ah, where is gone the Seigneur of Nann? Mother, oh, where is he?"
+
+[Illustration: THE SEIGNEUR OF NANN AND THE KORRIGAN]
+
+"He has gone to the town, my child. In a little he will come to see
+you."
+
+"Ah, mother, let us speak of happy things. Must I wear my red or my
+blue robe at my churching?"
+
+"Neither, daughter. The mode is changed. You must wear black."
+
+Unconscious in its art, the stream of verse carries us to the church,
+whence the young wife has gone to offer up thanks for the gift of
+children. She sees that the ancestral tomb has been opened, and a
+great dread is at her heart. She asks her mother-in-law who has died,
+and the old woman at last confesses that the Seigneur of Nann has just
+been buried.
+
+That same night the young mother was interred beside her husband-lover.
+And the peasant folk say that from that tomb arose two saplings, the
+branches of which intertwined more closely as they grew.
+
+
+_A Goddess of Eld_
+
+In the depths of Lake Tegid in our own Wales dwelt Keridwen, a
+fertility goddess who possessed a magic cauldron--the sure symbol of a
+deity of abundance.[22] Like Demeter, she was strangely associated
+with the harmless necessary sow, badge of many earth-mothers, and
+itself typical of fertility. Like Keridwen, the Korrigan is associated
+with water, with the element which makes for vegetable growth.
+Christian belief would, of course, transform this discredited goddess
+into an evil being whose one function was the destruction of souls.
+May we see a relation of the Korrigan and Keridwen in Tridwan, or St
+Triduana, of Restalrig, near Edinburgh, who presided over a certain
+well there, and at whose well-shrine offerings were made by sightless
+pilgrims for many centuries?
+
+Many are the traditions which tell of human infants abducted by the
+Korrigan, who at times left an ugly changeling in place of the babe
+she had stolen. But it was more as an enchantress that she was
+dreaded. By a stroke of her magic wand she could transform the leafy
+fastnesses in which she dwelt into the semblance of a lordly hall,
+which the luckless traveller whom she lured thither would regard as a
+paradise after the dark thickets in which he had been wandering. This
+seeming castle or palace she furnished with everything that could
+delight the eye, and as the doomed wretch sat ravished by her beauty
+and that of her nine attendant maidens a fatal passion for her entered
+his heart, so that whatever he cherished most on earth--honour, wife,
+demoiselle, or affianced bride--became as naught to him, and he cast
+himself at the feet of this forest Circe in a frenzy of ardour. But
+with the first ray of daylight the charm was dissolved and the
+Korrigan became a hideous hag, as repulsive as before she had been
+lovely; the walls of her palace and the magnificence which had
+furnished it became once more tree and thicket, its carpets moss, its
+tapestries leaves, its silver cups wild roses, and its dazzling
+mirrors pools of stagnant water.
+
+
+_The Unbroken Vow_[23]
+
+Sir Roland of Brittany rides through gloomy Broceliande a league ahead
+of his troop, unattended by squire or by page. The red cross upon his
+shoulder is witness that he is vowed to service in Palestine, and as
+he passes through the leafy avenues on his way to the rendezvous he
+fears that he will be late, most tardy of all the knights of Brittany
+who have sworn to drive the paynim from the Holy Land. Fearful of such
+disgrace, he spurs his jaded charger on through the haunted forest,
+and with anxious eye watches the sun sink and the gay white moon sail
+high above the tree-tops, pouring light through their branches upon
+the mossy ways below.
+
+A high vow has Roland taken ere setting out upon the crusade--a vow
+that he will eschew the company of fair ladies, in which none had
+delighted more than he. No more must he mingle in the dance, no more
+must he press a maiden's lips with his. He has become a soldier of the
+Cross. He may not touch a lady's hand save with his mailed glove, he
+must not sit by her side. Also must he fast from dusk till dawn upon
+that night of his setting forth. "Small risk," he laughs a little
+sadly, as he spurs his charger onward, "small risk that I be mansworn
+ere morning light."
+
+But the setting of the moon tells him that he must rest in the forest
+until dawn, as without her beams he can no longer pursue his way. So
+he dismounts from his steed, tethers it to a tree, and looks about for
+a bed of moss on which to repose. As he does so his wandering gaze
+fixes upon a beam of light piercing the gloom of the forest. Well
+aware of the traditions of his country, he thinks at first that it is
+only the glimmer of a will-o'-the-wisp or a light carried by a
+wandering elf. But no, on moving nearer the gleam he is surprised to
+behold a row of windows brilliantly lit as if for a festival.
+
+"Now, by my vow," says Roland, "methought I knew well every château in
+this land of Brittany, nor wist I that seigneur or count held court
+in this forest of Broceliande."
+
+Resolved to view the château at still closer quarters, he draws near
+it. A great court fronts him where neither groom nor porter keeps
+guard, and within he can see a fair hall. This he enters, and
+immediately his ears are ravished by music which wanders through the
+chamber like a sighing zephyr. The murmur of rich viols and the call
+of flutes soft as distant bird-song speak to his very soul. Yet
+through the ecstasy comes, like a serpent gliding among flowers, the
+discord of evil thoughts. Grasping his rosary, he is about to retire
+when the doors at the end of the hall fly open, and he beholds a
+rapturous vision. Upon a couch of velvet sits a lady of such dazzling
+beauty that all other women compared with her would seem as
+kitchen-wenches. A mantle of rich golden hair falls about her, her
+eyes shine with the brightness of stars, her smile seems heavenly.
+Round her are grouped nine maidens only less beautiful than herself.
+
+As the moon moving among attendant stars, so the lady comes toward
+Roland, accompanied by her maidens. She welcomes him, and would
+remove his gauntlet, but he tells her of the vow he has made to wear
+it in lady's bower, and she is silent. Next she asks him to seat
+himself beside her on the couch, but he will not. In some confusion
+she orders a repast to be brought. A table is spread with fragrant
+viands, but as the knight will partake of none of them, in chagrin the
+lady takes a lute, which she touches with exquisite skill. He listens
+unmoved, till, casting away her instrument, she dances to him,
+circling round and round about him, flitting about his chair like a
+butterfly, until at length she sinks down near him and lays her head
+upon his mailed bosom. Upward she turns her face to him, all
+passion-flushed, her eyes brimming with love. Sir Roland falters.
+Fascinated by her unearthly beauty, he is about to stoop down to
+press his lips to hers. But as he bends his head she shrinks from
+him, for she sees the tender flush of morning above the eastern
+tree-tops. The living stars faint and fail, and the music of awakening
+life which accompanies the rising of the young sun falls upon the
+ear. Slowly the château undergoes transformation. The glittering roof
+merges into the blue vault of heaven, the tapestried walls become
+the ivied screens of great forest trees, the princely furnishings
+are transformed into mossy banks and mounds, and the rugs and carpets
+beneath Roland's mailed feet are now merged in the forest ways.
+
+But the lady? Sir Roland, glancing down, beholds a hag hideous as sin,
+whose malicious and distorted countenance betrays baffled hate and
+rage. At the sound of a bugle she hurries away with a discordant
+shriek. Into the glade ride Roland's men, to see their lord clasping
+his rosary and kneeling in thanksgiving for his deliverance from the
+evils which beset him. He had been saved from breaking his vow!
+
+The nine attendant maidens of the Korrigan bring to mind a passage in
+Pomponius Mela[24]: "Sena [the Ile de Sein, not far from Brest], in
+the British Sea, opposite the Ofismician coast, is remarkable for an
+oracle of the Gallic god. Its priestesses, holy in perpetual
+virginity, are said to be nine in number. They are called Gallicenæ,
+and are thought to be endowed with singular powers. By their charms
+they are able to raise the winds and seas, to turn themselves into
+what animals they will, to cure wounds and diseases incurable by
+others, to know and predict the future. But this they do only for
+navigators, who go thither purposely to consult them."
+
+Like the sylphs and salamanders so humorously described by the Abbé de
+Villars in _Le Comte de Gabalis_,[25] the Korrigans desired union with
+humanity in order that they might thus gain immortality. Such, at
+least, is the current peasant belief in Brittany. "For this end they
+violate all the laws of modesty." This belief is common to all lands,
+and is typical of the fay, the Lorelei, countless well and water
+sprites, and that enchantress who rode off with Thomas the Rhymer:
+
+  For if you dare to kiss my lips
+  Sure of your bodie I shall be.
+
+Unlike the colder Sir Roland, 'True Thomas' dared, and was wafted to a
+realm wondrously described by the old balladeer in the vivid phrase
+that marks the poetry of vision.
+
+
+_Merlin and Vivien_
+
+It was in this same verdant Broceliande that Vivien, another fairy,
+that crafty dame of the enchanted lake, the instructress of Lancelot,
+bound wise Merlin so that he might no more go to Camelot with oracular
+lips to counsel British Arthur.
+
+But what say the folk of Broceliande themselves of this? Let us hear
+their version of a tale which has been so battered by modern
+criticism, and which has been related in at least half a score of
+versions, prose and poetic. Let us have the Broceliande account of
+what happened in Broceliande.[26] Surely its folk, in the very forest
+in which he wandered with Vivien, must know more of Merlin's
+enchantment than we of that greater Britain which he left to find a
+paradise in Britain the Less, for, according to Breton story, Merlin
+was not imprisoned by magic art, but achieved bliss through his love
+for the fairy forest nymph.
+
+Disguised as a young student, Merlin was wandering one bright May
+morning through the leafy glades of Broceliande, when, like the
+Seigneur of Nann, he came to a beautiful fountain in the heart of the
+forest which tempted him to rest. As he sat there in reverie, Vivien,
+daughter of the lord of the manor of Broceliande, came to the water's
+edge. Her father had gained the affection of a fay of the valley, who
+had promised on behalf of their daughter that she should be loved by
+the wisest man in the world, who should grant all her wishes, but
+would never be able to compel her to consent to his.
+
+Vivien reclined upon the other side of the fountain, and the eyes of
+the sage and maiden met. At length Merlin rose to depart, and gave the
+damsel courteous good-day. But she, curious and not content with a
+mere salutation, wished him all happiness and honour. Her voice was
+beautiful, her eyes expressive, and Merlin, moved beyond anything in
+his experience, asked her name. She told him she was a daughter of a
+gentleman of that country, and in turn asked him who he might be.
+
+"A scholar returning to his master," was the reply.
+
+"Your master? And what may he teach you, young sir?"
+
+"He instructs me in the magic art, fair dame," replied Merlin, amused.
+"By aid of his teaching I can raise a castle ere a man could count a
+score, and garrison it with warriors of might. I can make a river flow
+past the spot on which you recline, I can raise spirits from the great
+deeps of ether in which this world rolls, and can peer far into the
+future--aye, to the extreme of human days."
+
+"Would that I shared your wisdom!" cried Vivien, her voice thrilling
+with the desire of hidden things which she had inherited from her
+fairy mother. "Teach me these secrets, I entreat of you, noble
+scholar, and accept in return for your instruction my most tender
+friendship."
+
+Merlin, willing to please her, arose, and traced certain mystical
+characters upon the greensward. Straightway the glade in which they
+sat was filled with knights, ladies, maidens, and esquires, who danced
+and disported themselves right joyously. A stately castle rose on the
+verge of the forest, and in the garden the spirits whom Merlin the
+enchanter had raised up in the semblance of knights and ladies held
+carnival. Vivien, delighted, asked of Merlin in what manner he had
+achieved this feat of faëry, and he told her that he would in time
+instruct her as to the manner of accomplishing it. He then dismissed
+the spirit attendants and dissipated the castle into thin air, but
+retained the garden at the request of Vivien, naming it 'Joyous
+Garden.'
+
+Then he made a tryst with Vivien to meet her in a year on the Vigil of
+St John.
+
+[Illustration: MERLIN AND VIVIEN]
+
+Now Merlin had to be present at the espousal of Arthur, his King,
+with Guinevere, at which he was to assist the archbishop, Dubric, as
+priest. The festivities over, he recalled his promise to Vivien, and
+on the appointed day he once more assumed the guise of a travelling
+scholar and set out to meet the maiden in the forest of Broceliande.
+She awaited him patiently in Joyous Garden, where they partook of a
+dainty repast. But the viands and the wines were wasted upon Merlin,
+for Vivien was beside him and she alone filled his thoughts. She was
+fair of colour, and fresh with the freshness of all in the forest, and
+her hazel eyes made such fire within his soul that he conceived a
+madness of love for her that all his wisdom, deep as it was, could not
+control.
+
+But Vivien was calm as a lake circled by trees, where no breath of the
+passion of tempest can come. Again and again she urged him to impart
+to her the secrets she so greatly longed to be acquainted with. And
+chiefly did she desire to know three things; these at all hazards must
+she have power over. How, she asked, could water be made to flow in a
+dry place? In what manner could any form be assumed at will? And,
+lastly, how could one be made to fall asleep at the pleasure of
+another?
+
+"Wherefore ask you this last question, demoiselle?" said Merlin,
+suspicious even in his great passion for her.
+
+"So that I may cast the spell of sleep over my father and my mother
+when I come to you, Merlin," she replied, with a beguiling glance,
+"for did they know that I loved you they would slay me."
+
+Merlin hesitated, and so was lost. He imparted to her that hidden
+knowledge which she desired. Then they dwelt together for eight days
+in the Joyous Garden, during which time the sage, to Vivien's delight
+and amaze, related to her the marvellous circumstances of his birth.
+
+Next day Merlin departed, but came again to Broceliande when the
+eglantine was flowering at the edge of the forest. Again he wore the
+scholar's garments. His aspect was youthful, his fair hair hung in
+ringlets on his shoulders, and he appeared so handsome that a tender
+flower of love sprang up in Vivien's heart, and she felt that she must
+keep him ever near her. But she knew full well that he whom she loved
+was in reality well stricken in years, and she was sorrowful. But she
+did not despair.
+
+"Beloved," she whispered, "will you grant me but one other boon? There
+is one secret more that I desire to learn."
+
+Now Merlin knew well ere she spoke what was in her mind, and he sighed
+and shook his head.
+
+"Wherefore do you sigh?" she asked innocently.
+
+"I sigh because my fate is strong upon me," replied the sage. "For it
+was foreseen in the long ago that a lady should lead me captive and
+that I should become her prisoner for all time. Neither have I the
+power to deny you what you ask of me."
+
+Vivien embraced him rapturously.
+
+"Ah, Merlin, beloved, is it not that you should always be with me?"
+she asked passionately. "For your sake have I not given up father and
+mother, and are not all my thoughts and desires toward you?"
+
+Merlin, carried away by her amorous eloquence, could only answer: "It
+is yours to ask what you will."
+
+Vivien then revealed to him her wish. She longed to learn from his
+lips an enchantment which would keep him ever near her, which would so
+bind him to her in the chains of love that nothing in the world could
+part him from her. Hearkening to her plea, he taught her such
+enchantment as would render him love's prisoner for ever.
+
+Evening was shrouding the forest in soft shadows when Merlin sank to
+rest. Vivien, waiting until his deep and regular breathing told her
+that he was asleep, walked nine times around him, waving her cloak
+over his head, and muttering the mysterious words he had taught her.
+When the sage awoke he found himself in the Joyous Garden with Vivien
+by his side.
+
+"You are mine for ever," she murmured. "You can never leave me now."
+
+"My delight will be ever to stay with you," he replied, enraptured.
+"And oh, beloved, never leave me, I pray you, for I am bespelled so as
+to love you throughout eternity!"
+
+"Never shall I leave you," she replied; and in such manner the wise
+Merlin withdrew from the world of men to remain ever in the Joyous
+Garden with Vivien. Love had triumphed over wisdom.
+
+The Arthurian version of the story does not, of course, represent
+Vivien as does the old Breton legend. In Geoffrey of Monmouth's book
+and in the _Morte d'Arthur_ she is drawn as the scheming enchantress
+who wishes to lure Merlin to his ruin for the joy of being able to
+boast of her conquest. In some romances she is alluded to as Nimue,
+and in others is described as the daughter of Dyonas, who perhaps is
+the same as Dylan, a Brythonic (British) sea-god. As the Lady of the
+Lake she is the foster-mother of Lancelot, and we should have no
+difficulty in classing her as a water deity or spirit very much like
+the Korrigan.
+
+
+_Merlin_
+
+But Merlin is a very different character, and it is probable that the
+story of his love for Vivien was composed at a comparatively late date
+for the purpose of rounding off his fate in Arthurian legend. A recent
+hypothesis concerning him is to the effect that "if he belongs to the
+pagan period [of Celtic lore] at all, he was probably an ideal
+magician or god of magicians."[27] Canon MacCulloch smiles at the late
+Sir John Rhys's belief that Merlin was "a Celtic Zeus," but his later
+suggestion seems equally debatable. We must remember that we draw our
+conception of Merlin as Arthurian archimagus chiefly from late
+Norman-French sources and Celtic tradition. Ancient Brythonic
+traditions concerning beings of much the same type as Merlin appear to
+have existed, however, and the character of Lailoken in the life of St
+Kentigern recalls his life-story. So far research on the subject seems
+to show that the legend of Merlin is a thing of complex growth,
+composed of traditions of independent and widely differing origin,
+most of which were told about Celtic bards and soothsayers. Merlin is,
+in fact, the typical Druid or wise man of Celtic tradition, and there
+is not the slightest reason for believing that he was ever paid divine
+honours. As a soothsayer of legend, he would assuredly belong to the
+pagan period, however much he is indebted to Geoffrey of Monmouth for
+his late popularity in pure romance.
+
+
+_The Fountain of Baranton_
+
+In the country of Broceliande lies the magic fountain of Baranton,
+sequestered among hills and surrounded by deep woods. Says a
+thirteenth-century writer of this fountain:
+
+"Oh, amazing wonder of the Fountain of Brecelien! If a drop be taken
+and poured on a certain rock beside the spring, immediately the water
+changes into vapour, forms itself into great clouds filled with hail;
+the air becomes thick with shadows, and resonant with the muttering of
+thunder. Those who have come through curiosity to behold the prodigy
+wish that they had never done so, so filled are their hearts with
+terror, and so does fear paralyse their limbs. Incredible as the
+marvel may seem, yet the proofs of its reality are too abundant to be
+doubted."
+
+Huon de Méry was more fortunate than Wace. He sprinkled the magic
+stone which lay behind the fountain with water from the golden basin
+that hung from the oak that shaded it, and beheld many marvels. And so
+may he who has the seeing eye to-day.
+
+
+BROCELIANDE
+
+  Ah, how remote, forlorn
+  Sounded the sad, sweet horn
+  In forest gloom enchanted!
+  I saw the shadows of kings go riding by,
+  But cerements mingled and paled with their panoply,
+  And the moss-ways deadened the steps of steeds that never panted.
+
+  Ah, what had phantasy
+  In that sad sound to say,
+  Sad as a spirit's wailing?
+  A call from over the seas of shadowland,
+  A call the soul of the soul might understand,
+  But never, ah, never the mind, the steeps of soul assailing.
+
+
+_Bruno of La Montagne_
+
+The old fragmentary romance of Bruno of La Montagne is eloquent of the
+faëry spirit which informs all Breton lore. Butor, Baron of La
+Montagne, had married a young lady when he was himself of mature
+years, and had a son, whom he resolved to take to a fountain where the
+fairies came to repose themselves. The Baron, describing this magic
+well to the child's mother, says (we roughly translate):
+
+  "Some believe 'tis in Champagne,
+  And others by the Rock Grifaigne;
+  Perchance it is in Alemaigne,
+  Or Bersillant de la Montagne;
+  Some even think that 'tis in Spain,
+  Or where sleeps Artus of Bretaigne."
+
+The Seigneur gave his infant son into the keeping of Bruyant, a trusty
+friend of his, and they set out for the fairy fountain with a troop of
+vassals. They left the infant in the forest of Broceliande. Here the
+fairies soon found him.
+
+"Ha, sisters," said one whose skin was as white as the robe of
+gossamer she wore, and whose golden crown betokened her the queen of
+the others, "come hither and see a new-born infant. How, I wonder,
+does he come to be here? I am sure I did not behold him in this spot
+yesterday. Well, at all events, he must be baptized and suitably
+endowed, as is our custom when we discover a mortal child. Now what
+will you give him?"
+
+"I will give him," said one, "beauty and grace."
+
+"I endow him," said a second, "with generosity."
+
+[Illustration: THE FAIRIES OF BROCELIANDE FIND THE LITTLE BRUNO]
+
+"And I," said a third, "with such valour that he will overthrow all
+his enemies at tourney and on the battlefield."
+
+The Queen listened to these promises. "Surely you have little sense,"
+she said. "For my part, I wish that in his youth he may love one who
+will be utterly insensible to him, and although he will be as you
+desire, noble, generous, beautiful, and valorous, he will yet, for his
+good, suffer keenly from the anguish of love."
+
+"O Queen," said one of the fairies, "what a cruel fate you have
+ordained for this unfortunate child! But I myself shall watch over him
+and nurse him until he comes to such an age as he may love, when I
+myself will try to engage his affections."
+
+"For all that," said the Queen, "I will not alter my design. You shall
+not nurse this infant."
+
+The fairies then disappeared. Shortly afterward Bruyant returned, and
+carried the child back to the castle of La Montagne, where presently a
+fairy presented herself as nurse.
+
+Unfortunately the manuscript from which this tale is taken breaks off
+at this point, and we do not know how the Fairy Queen succeeded with
+her plans for the amorous education of the little Bruno. But the
+fragment, although tantalizing in the extreme, gives us some insight
+into the nature of the fairies who inhabit the green fastnesses of
+Broceliande.
+
+
+_Fairies in Folk-lore_
+
+Nearly all fairy-folk have in time grown to mortal height. Whether
+fairies be the decayed poor relations of more successful deities, gods
+whose cult has been forgotten and neglected (as the Irish _Sidhe_, or
+fairy-folk), or diminutive animistic spirits, originating in the
+belief that every object, small or great, possessed a personality, it
+is noticeable that Celtic fairies are of human height, while those of
+the Teutonic peoples are usually dwarfish. Titania may come originally
+from the loins of Titans or she may be Diana come down in the world,
+and Oberon may hail from a very different and more dwarfish source,
+but in Shakespeare's England they have grown sufficiently to permit
+them to tread the boards of the Globe Theatre with normal humans.
+Scores of fairies mate with mortal men, and men, as a rule, do not
+care for dwarf-wives. Among Celts, at least, the fay, whatever her
+original stature, in later times had certainly achieved the height of
+mortal womanhood.
+
+In Upper Brittany, where French is the language in general use, the
+usual French ideas concerning fairies prevail. They are called _fées_
+or _fetes_ (Latin _fata_), and sometimes _fions_, which reminds us of
+the _fions_ of Scottish and Irish folk-lore.[28] There are old people
+still alive who claim to have seen the fairies, and who describe them
+variously, but the general belief seems to be that they disappeared
+from the land several generations ago. One old man described them as
+having teeth as long as one's hand, and as wearing garments of
+sea-weed or leaves. They were human in aspect, said another ancient
+whom Sébillot questioned; their clothes were seamless, and it was
+impossible to say by merely looking at them whether they were male or
+female. Their garments were of the most brilliant colours imaginable,
+but if one approached them too closely these gaudy hues disappeared.
+They wore a kind of bonnet shaped like a crown, which appeared to be
+part of their person.
+
+The people of the coast say that the fairies are an accursed race who
+are condemned to walk the earth for a certain space. Some even think
+them rebellious angels who have been sent to earth for a time to
+expiate their offences against heaven. For the most part they inhabit
+the dolmens and the grottos and caverns on the coast.[29]
+
+On the shores of the Channel are numerous grottos or caverns which the
+Bretons call _houles_, and these are supposed to harbour a distinct
+class of fairy. Some of these caverns are from twenty to thirty feet
+high, and so extensive that it is unwise to explore them too far.
+Others seem only large enough to hold a single person, but if one
+enters he will find himself in a spacious natural chamber. The
+inhabitants of these depths, like all their kind, prefer to sally
+forth by night rather than by day. In the day-time they are not seen
+because they smear themselves with a magic ointment which renders them
+invisible; but at night they are visible to everybody.
+
+
+_The Lost Daughter_
+
+There was once upon a time a labourer of Saint-Cast named Marc
+Bourdais, but, according to the usage of the country, he had a
+nickname and was called Maraud. One day he was returning home when he
+heard the sound of a horn beneath his feet, and asked a companion who
+chanced to be with him if he had heard it also.
+
+"Of course I did," replied the fellow; "it is a fairy horn."
+
+"Umph," said Maraud. "Ask the fairies, then, to bring us a slice of
+bread."
+
+His companion knelt down and shouted out the request, but nothing
+happened and they resumed their way.
+
+They had not gone far, however, when they beheld a slice of beautiful
+white bread lying on a snowy napkin by the roadside. Maraud picked it
+up and found that it was well buttered and as toothsome as a cake, and
+when they had divided and eaten it they felt their hunger completely
+satisfied. But he who has fed well is often thirsty, so Maraud,
+lowering his head, and speaking to the little folk beneath, cried:
+"Hullo, there! Bring us something to drink, if you please."
+
+He had hardly spoken when they beheld a pot of cider and a glass
+reposing on the ground in front of them. Maraud filled the glass, and,
+raising it to his lips, quaffed of the fairy cider. It was clear and
+of a rich colour, and he declared that it was by far the best that he
+had ever tasted. His friend drank likewise, and when they returned to
+the village that night they had a good story to tell of how they had
+eaten and drunk at the expense of the fairies. But their friends and
+neighbours shook their heads and regarded them sadly.
+
+"Alas! poor fellows," they said, "if you have eaten fairy food and
+drunk fairy liquor you are as good as dead men."
+
+Nothing happened to them within the next few days, however, and it was
+with light hearts that one morning they returned to work in the
+neighbourhood of the spot where they had met with such a strange
+adventure. When they arrived at the place they smelt the odour of
+cakes which had been baked with black corn, and a fierce hunger at
+once took possession of them.
+
+"Ha!" said Maraud, "the fairies are baking to-day. Suppose we ask them
+for a cake or two." "No, no!" replied his friend. "Ask them if you
+wish, but I will have none of them."
+
+"Pah!" cried Maraud, "what are you afraid of?" And he cried: "Below
+there! Bring me a cake, will you?"
+
+Two fine cakes at once appeared. Maraud seized upon one, but when he
+had cut it he perceived that it was made of hairs, and he threw it
+down in disgust.
+
+"You wicked old sorcerer!" he cried. "Do you mean to mock me?"
+
+But as he spoke the cakes disappeared.
+
+Now there lived in the village a widow with seven children, and a hard
+task she had to find bread for them all. She heard tell of Maraud's
+adventure with the fairies, and pondered on the chance of receiving a
+like hospitality from them, that the seven little mouths she had to
+provide for might be filled. So she made up her mind to go to a fairy
+grotto she knew of and ask for bread. "Surely," she thought, "what the
+good people give to others who do not require it they will give to me,
+whose need is so great." When she had come to the entrance of the
+grotto she knocked on the side of it as one knocks on a door, and
+there at once appeared a little old dame with a great bunch of keys
+hanging at her side. She appeared to be covered with limpets, and
+mould and moss clung to her as to a rock. To the widow she seemed at
+least a thousand years old.
+
+"What do you desire, my good woman?" she asked.
+
+"Alas! madame," said the widow, "might I have a little bread for my
+seven children? Give me some, I beseech you, and I will remember you
+in my prayers."
+
+"I am not the mistress here," replied the old woman. "I am only the
+porteress, and it is at least a hundred years since I have been out.
+But return to-morrow and I will promise to speak for you."
+
+Next day at the same time the widow returned to the cave, and found
+the old porteress waiting for her.
+
+"I have spoken for you," said she, "and here is a loaf of bread for
+you, and those who send it wish to speak to you."
+
+"Bring me to them," said the widow, "that I may thank them."
+
+"Not to-day," replied the porteress. "Return to-morrow at the same
+hour and I will do so."
+
+The widow returned to the village and told her neighbours of her
+success. Every one came to see the fairy loaf, and many begged a
+piece.
+
+Next day the poor woman returned to the grotto in the hope that she
+would once more benefit from the little folks' bounty. The porteress
+was there as usual.
+
+"Well, my good woman," said she, "did you find my bread to your taste?
+Here is the lady who has befriended you," and she indicated a
+beautiful lady, who came smilingly from the darkness of the cavern.
+
+"Ah, madame," said the widow, "I thank you with all my heart for your
+charity."
+
+"The loaf will last a long time," said the fairy, "and you will find
+that you and your family will not readily finish it."
+
+"Alas!" said the widow, "last night all my neighbours insisted on
+having a piece, so that it is now entirely eaten."
+
+"Well," replied the fay, "I will give you another loaf. So long as you
+or your children partake of it it will not grow smaller and will
+always remain fresh, but if you should give the least morsel to a
+stranger the loaf will disappear. But as I have helped you, so must
+you help me. I have four cows, and I wish to send them out to
+pasture. Promise me that one of your daughters will guard them for
+me."
+
+The widow promised, and next morning sent one of her daughters out to
+look for the cows, which were to be pastured in a field where there
+was but little herbage. A neighbour saw her there, and asked what she
+was doing in that deserted place.
+
+"Oh, I am watching the fairy cows," replied she. The woman looked at
+her and smiled, for there were no cows there and she thought the girl
+had become half-witted.
+
+With the evening the fairy of the grotto came herself to fetch the
+cows, and she said to the little cowherd:
+
+"How would you like to be godmother to my child?"
+
+"It would be a pleasure, madame," replied the girl.
+
+"Well, say nothing to any one, not even to your mother," replied the
+fairy, "for if you do I shall never bring you anything more to eat."
+
+A few days afterward a fairy came to tell the girl to prepare to come
+to the cavern on the morrow, as on that day the infant was to be
+named. Next day, according to the fairy's instructions, she presented
+herself at the mouth of the grotto, and in due course was made
+godmother to the little fairy. For two days she remained there, and
+when she left her godchild was already grown up. She had, as a matter
+of fact, unconsciously remained with the 'good people' for ten years,
+and her mother had long mourned her as dead. Meanwhile the fairies had
+requested the poor widow to send another of her daughters to watch
+their cows.
+
+When at last the absent one returned to the village she went straight
+home, and her mother on beholding her gave a great cry. The girl could
+not understand her agitation, believing as she did that she had been
+absent for two days only.
+
+"Two days!" echoed the mother. "You have been away ten years! Look how
+you have grown!"
+
+After she had overcome her surprise the girl resumed her household
+duties as if nothing particular had happened, and knitted a pair of
+stockings for her godchild. When they were finished she carried them
+to the fairy grotto, where, as she thought, she spent the afternoon.
+But in reality she had been away from home this time for five years.
+As she was leaving, her godchild gave her a purse, saying: "This purse
+is full of gold. Whenever you take a piece out another one will come
+in its place, but if any one else uses it it will lose all its
+virtue."
+
+When the girl returned to the village at last it was to find her
+mother dead, her brothers gone abroad, and her sisters married, so
+that she was the only one left at home. As she was pretty and a good
+housewife she did not want for lovers, and in due time she chose one
+for a husband. She did not tell her spouse about the purse she had had
+from the fairies, and if she wanted to give him a piece of gold she
+withdrew it from the magic purse in secret. She never went back to the
+fairy cavern, as she had no mind to return from it and find her
+husband an old man.
+
+
+_The Fisherman and the Fairies_
+
+A fisherman of Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer, walking home to his cottage from
+his boat one evening along the wet sands, came, unawares, upon a
+number of fairies in a _houle_. They were talking and laughing gaily,
+and the fisherman observed that while they made merry they rubbed
+their bodies with a kind of ointment or pomade. All at once, to the
+old salt's surprise, they turned into ordinary women. Concealing
+himself behind a rock, the fisherman watched them until the now
+completely transformed immortals quitted their haunt and waddled away
+in the guise of old market-women.
+
+[Illustration: FAIRIES IN A BRETON 'HOULE']
+
+The fisherman waited until they were well out of sight, and then
+entered the cavern, where the first object that met his gaze was the
+pot of ointment which had effected the marvellous change he had
+witnessed. Taking some of the pomade on his forefinger, he smeared it
+around his left eye. He afterward found that he could penetrate the
+various disguises assumed by the fairies wherever he met them, and
+that these were for the most part adopted for the purposes of
+trickery. Thus he was able to see a fairy in the assumed shape of a
+beggar-woman going from door to door demanding alms, seeking an
+opportunity to steal or work mischief, and all the while casting
+spells upon those who were charitable enough to assist her. Again, he
+could distinguish real fish caught in his net at sea from merwomen
+disguised as fish, who were desirous of entangling the nets or
+otherwise distressing and annoying the fishermen.
+
+But nowhere was the disguised fairy race so much in evidence as at the
+fair of Ploubalay, where he recognized several of the elusive folk in
+the semblance of raree-showmen, fortune-tellers, and the like, who had
+taken these shapes in order to deceive. He was quietly smiling at
+their pranks, when some of the fairies who composed a troupe of
+performers in front of one of the booths regarded him very earnestly.
+He felt certain that they had penetrated his secret, but ere he could
+make off one of them threw a stick at him with such violence that it
+struck and burst the offending left eye.
+
+Fairies in all lands have a constitutional distaste for being
+recognized, but those of Brittany appear to visit their vengeance upon
+the members with which they are actually beheld. "See what thieves the
+fairies are!" cried a woman, on beholding one abstract apples from a
+countrywoman's pocket. The predatory elf at once turned round and tore
+out the eye that had marked his act.
+
+A Cornish woman who chanced to find herself the guardian of an
+elf-child was given certain water with which to wash its face. The
+liquid had the property of illuminating the infant's face with a
+supernatural brightness, and the woman ventured to try it upon
+herself, and in doing so splashed a little into one eye. This gave her
+the fairy sight. One day in the market-place she saw a fairy man
+stealing, and gave the alarm, when the enraged sprite cried:
+
+  "Water for elf, not water for self.
+  You've lost your eye, your child, and yourself."
+
+She was immediately stricken blind in the right eye, her fairy
+foster-child vanished, and she and her husband sank into poverty and
+want.
+
+Another Breton tale recounts how a mortal woman was given a polished
+stone in the form of an egg wherewith to rub a fairy child's eyes. She
+applied it to her own right eye, and became possessed of magic sight
+so far as elves were concerned. Still another case, alluded to in the
+_Revue Celtique_,[30] arose through 'the sacred bond' formed between a
+fairy man and a mortal woman where both stood as godparents to a
+child. The association enabled the woman to see magically. The fairy
+maiden Rockflower bestows a similar gift on her lover in a Breton tale
+from Saint-Cast, and speaks of "clearing his eyes like her own."[31]
+
+
+_Changelings_
+
+The Breton fairies, like others of their race, are fond of kidnapping
+mortal children and leaving in their places wizened elves who cause
+the greatest trouble to the distressed parents. The usual method of
+ridding a family of such a changeling is to surprise it in some
+manner so that it will betray its true character. Thus, on suspicion
+resting upon a certain Breton infant who showed every sign of
+changeling nature, milk was boiled on the fire in egg-shells,
+whereupon the impish youngster cried: "I shall soon be a hundred
+years old, but I never saw so many shells boiling! I was born in
+Pif and Paf, in the country where cats are made, but I never saw
+anything like it!" Thus self-revealed, the elf was expelled from
+the house. In most Northern tales where the changeling betrays itself
+it at once takes flight and a train of elves appears, bringing back
+the true infant. Again, if the wizened occupant of the cradle can be
+made to laugh that is accepted as proof of its fairy nature.
+"Something ridiculous," says Simrock, "must be done to cause him to
+laugh, for laughter brings deliverance."[32] The same stratagem
+appears to be used as the cure in English and Scots changeling tales.
+
+
+_The King of the Fishes_
+
+The Breton fays were prone, too, to take the shape of animals,
+birds, and even of fish. As we have seen, the sea-fairies of
+Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer were in the habit of taking the shape of fish
+for the purpose of annoying fishermen and damaging their gear.
+Another Breton tale from Saint-Cast illustrates their penchant for
+the fish shape. A fisherman of that town one day was lucky enough to
+catch the King of the Fishes disguised as a small golden fish. The
+fish begged hard to be released, and promised, if he were set free, to
+sacrifice as many of his subjects as would daily fill the fisherman's
+nets. On this understanding the finny monarch was given his liberty,
+and fulfilled his promise to the letter. Moreover, when the
+fisherman's boat was capsized in a gale the Fish King appeared, and,
+holding a flask to the drowning man's lips, made him drink a magic
+fluid which ensured his ability to exist under water. He conveyed the
+fisherman to his capital, a place of dazzling splendour, paved
+with gold and gems. The rude caster of nets instantly filled his
+pockets with the spoil of this marvellous causeway. Though probably
+rather disturbed by the incident, the Fish King, with true royal
+politeness, informed him that whenever he desired to return the way
+was open to him. The fisherman expressed his sorrow at having to
+leave such a delightful environment, but added that unless he
+returned to earth his wife and family would regard him as lost. The
+Fish King called a large tunny-fish, and as Arion mounted the dolphin
+in the old Argolian tale, so the fisherman approached the tunny,
+which
+
+  Hollowed his back and shaped it as a selle.[33]
+
+The fisherman at once
+
+  Seized the strange sea-steed by his bristling fin
+  And vaulted on his shoulders; the fleet fish
+  Swift sought the shallows and the friendly shore.[34]
+
+Before dismissing the fisherman, however, the Fish King presented him
+with an inexhaustible purse--probably as a hint that it would be
+unnecessary for him on a future visit to disturb his paving
+arrangements.
+
+
+_Fairy Origins_
+
+Two questions which early obtrude themselves in the consideration of
+Breton fairy-lore are: Are all the fays of Brittany malevolent? And,
+if so, whence proceeds this belief that fairy-folk are necessarily
+malign? Example treads upon example to prove that the Breton fairy is
+seldom beneficent, that he or she is prone to ill-nature and
+spitefulness, not to say fiendish malice on occasion. There appears to
+be a deep-rooted conviction that the elfish race devotes itself to the
+annoyance of mankind, practising a species of peculiarly irritating
+trickery, wanton and destructive. Only very rarely is a spirit of
+friendliness evinced, and then a motive is usually obvious. The
+'friendly' fairy invariably has an axe to grind.
+
+Two reasons may be advanced to account for this condition of things.
+First, the fairy-folk--in which are included house and field
+spirits--may be the traditional remnant of a race of real people,
+perhaps a prehistoric race, driven into the remote parts of the
+country by strange immigrant conquerors. Perhaps these primitive folk
+were elfish, dwarfish, or otherwise peculiar in appearance to the
+superior new-comers, who would in pride of race scorn the small,
+swarthy aborigines, and refuse all communion with them. We may be sure
+that the aborigines, on their part, would feel for their tall,
+handsome conquerors all the hatred of which a subject race is capable,
+never approaching them unless under compulsion or necessity, and
+revenging themselves upon them by every means of annoyance in their
+power. We may feel certain, too, that the magic of these conquered and
+discredited folk would be made full use of to plague the usurpers of
+the soil, and trickery, as irritating as any elf-pranks, would be
+brought to increase the discomfort of the new-comers.
+
+There are, however, several good objections to this view of the origin
+of the fairy idea. First and foremost, the smaller prehistoric
+aboriginal peoples of Europe themselves possessed tales of little
+people, of spirits of field and forest, flood and fell. It is unlikely
+that man was ever without these.
+
+  Yea, I sang, as now I sing, when the Prehistoric Spring
+  Made the piled Biscayan ice-pack split and shove,
+  And the troll, and gnome, and dwerg, and the gods of cliff and berg
+  Were about me and beneath me and above.[35]
+
+The idea of animism, the belief that everything had a personality of
+its own, certainly belonged to the later prehistoric period, for among
+the articles which fill the graves of aboriginal peoples, for use on
+the last journey, we find weapons to enable the deceased to drive off
+the evil spirits which would surround his own after death. Spirits, to
+early man, are always relatively smaller than himself. He beholds the
+"picture of a little man" in his comrade's eyes, and concludes it to
+be his 'soul.' Some primitive peoples, indeed, believe that several
+parts of the body have each their own resident soul. Again, the spirit
+of the corn or the spirit of the flower, the savage would argue, must
+in the nature of things be small. We can thus see how the belief in
+'the little folk' may have arisen, and how they remained little until
+a later day.
+
+A much more scientific theory of the origin of the belief in fairies
+is that which sees in them the deities of a discredited religion, the
+gods of an aboriginal people, rather than the people themselves. Such
+were the Irish _Daoine Sidhe_, and the Welsh _y Mamau_ ('the
+Mothers')--undoubtedly gods of the Celts. Again, although in many
+countries, especially in England, the fairies are regarded as small of
+stature, in Celtic countries the fay proper, as distinct from the
+brownie and such goblins, is of average mortal height, and this would
+seem to be the case in Brittany. Whether the gorics and courils of
+Brittany, who seem sufficiently small, are fairies or otherwise is a
+moot point. They seem to be more of the field spirit type, and are
+perhaps classed more correctly with the gnome race; we thus deal with
+them in our chapter on sprites and demons. It would seem, too, as if
+there might be ground for the belief that the normal-sized fairy race
+of Celtic countries had become confounded with the Teutonic idea of
+elves (Teut. _Elfen_) in Germany and England, from which, perhaps,
+they borrowed their diminutive size.
+
+But these are only considerations, not conclusions. Strange as it may
+seem, folk-lore has by no means solved the fairy problem, and much
+remains to be accomplished ere we can write 'Finis' to the study of
+fairy origins.
+
+
+_The Margots_
+
+Another Breton name for the fairies is _les Margots la fée_, a title
+which is chiefly employed in several districts of the Côtes-du-Nord,
+principally in the _arrondissements_ of Saint-Brieuc and Loudéac, to
+describe those fairies who have their abode in large rocks and on the
+wild and extensive moorlands which are so typical of the country.
+These, unlike the _fées houles_, are able to render themselves
+invisible at pleasure. Like human beings, they are subject to
+maladies, and are occasionally glad to accept mortal succour. They
+return kindness for kindness, but are vindictive enemies to those who
+attempt to harm them.
+
+But fairy vindictiveness is not lavished upon those unwitting mortals
+who do them harm alone. If one chances to succeed in a task set by the
+immortals of the forest, one is in danger of death, as the following
+story shows.
+
+
+_The Boy who Served the Fairies_
+
+A poor little fellow was one day gathering faggots in the forest when
+a gay, handsomely dressed gentleman passed him, and, noticing the
+lad's ragged and forlorn condition, said to him: "What are you doing
+there, my boy?"
+
+"I am looking for wood, sir," replied the boy. "If I did not do so we
+should have no fire at home."
+
+"You are very poor at home, then?" asked the gentleman.
+
+"So poor," said the lad, "that sometimes we only eat once a day, and
+often go supperless to bed."
+
+[Illustration: THE POOR BOY AND THE THREE FAIRY DAMSELS]
+
+"That is a sad tale," said the gentleman. "If you will promise to
+meet me here within a month I will give you some money, which will
+help your parents and feed and clothe your small brothers and
+sisters."
+
+Prompt to the day and the hour, the boy kept the tryst in the forest
+glade, at the very spot where he had met the gentleman. But though he
+looked anxiously on every side he could see no signs of his friend. In
+his anxiety he pushed farther into the forest, and came to the borders
+of a pond, where three damsels were preparing to bathe. One was
+dressed in white, another in grey, and the third in blue. The boy
+pulled off his cap, gave them good-day, and asked politely if they had
+not seen a gentleman in the neighbourhood. The maiden who was dressed
+in white told him where the gentleman was to be found, and pointed out
+a road by which he might arrive at his castle.
+
+"He will ask you," said she, "to become his servant, and if you accept
+he will wish you to eat. The first time that he presents the food to
+you, say: 'It is I who should serve you.' If he asks you a second time
+make the same reply; but if he should press you a third time refuse
+brusquely and thrust away the plate which he offers you."
+
+The boy was not long in finding the castle, and was at once shown into
+the gentleman's presence. As the maiden dressed in white had foretold,
+he requested the youth to enter his service, and when his offer was
+accepted placed before him a plate of viands. The lad bowed politely,
+but refused the food. A second time it was offered, but he persisted
+in his refusal, and when it was proffered to him a third time he
+thrust it away from him so roughly that it fell to the ground and the
+plate was broken.
+
+"Ah," said the gentleman, "you are just the kind of servant I require.
+You are now my lackey, and if you are able to do three things that I
+command you I will give you one of my daughters for your wife and you
+shall be my son-in-law."
+
+The next day he gave the boy a hatchet of lead, a saw of paper, and a
+wheelbarrow made of oak-leaves, bidding him fell, bind up, and measure
+all the wood in the forest within a radius of seven leagues. The new
+servant at once commenced his task, but the hatchet of lead broke at
+the first blow, the saw of paper buckled at the first stroke, and the
+wheelbarrow of oak-leaves was broken by the weight of the first little
+branch he placed on it. The lad in despair sat down, and could do
+nothing but gaze at the useless implements. At midday the damsel
+dressed in white whom he had seen at the pond came to bring him
+something to eat.
+
+"Alas!" she cried, "why do you sit thus idle? If my father should come
+and find that you have done nothing he would kill you."
+
+"I can do nothing with such wretched tools," grumbled the lad.
+
+"Do you see this wand?" said the damsel, producing a little rod. "Take
+it in your hand and walk round the forest, and the work will take care
+of itself. At the same time say these words: 'Let the wood fall, tie
+itself into bundles, and be measured.'"
+
+The boy did as the damsel advised him, and matters proceeded so
+satisfactorily that by a little after midday the work was completed.
+In the evening the gentleman said to him:
+
+"Have you accomplished your task?"
+
+"Yes, sir. Do you wish to see it? The wood is cut and tied into
+bundles of the proper weight and measurement."
+
+"It is well," said the gentleman. "To-morrow I will set you the second
+task."
+
+On the following morning he took the lad to a knoll some distance from
+the castle, and said to him:
+
+"You see this rising ground? By this evening you must have made it a
+garden well planted with fruit-trees and having a fish-pond in the
+middle, where ducks and other water-fowl may swim. Here are your
+tools."
+
+The tools were a pick of glass and a spade of earthenware. The boy
+commenced the work, but at the first stroke his fragile pick and spade
+broke into a thousand fragments. For the second time he sat down
+helplessly. Time passed slowly, and as before at midday the damsel in
+white brought him his dinner.
+
+"So I find you once more with your arms folded," she said.
+
+"I cannot work with a pick of glass and an earthenware spade,"
+complained the youth.
+
+"Here is another wand," said the damsel. "Take it and walk round this
+knoll, saying: 'Let the place be planted and become a beautiful garden
+with fruit-trees, in the middle of which is a fish-pond with ducks
+swimming upon it.'"
+
+The boy took the wand, did as he was bid, and the work was speedily
+accomplished. A beautiful garden arose as if by enchantment, well
+furnished with fruit-trees of all descriptions and ornamented with a
+small sheet of water.
+
+Once more his master was quite satisfied with the result, and on the
+third morning set him his third task. He took him beneath one of the
+towers of the castle.
+
+"Behold this tower," he said. "It is of polished marble. You must
+climb it, and at the top you will find a turtle-dove, which you must
+bring to me."
+
+The gentleman, who was of opinion that the damsel in white had helped
+his servant in the first two tasks, sent her to the town to buy
+provisions. When she received this order the maiden retired to her
+chamber and burst into tears. Her sisters asked her what was the
+matter, and she told them that she wished to remain at the castle, so
+they promised to go to the town in her stead. At midday she found the
+lad sitting at the foot of the tower bewailing the fact that he could
+not climb its smooth and glassy sides.
+
+"I have come to help you once more," said the damsel. "You must get a
+cauldron, then cut me into morsels and throw in all my bones, without
+missing a single one. It is the only way to succeed."
+
+"Never!" exclaimed the youth. "I would sooner die than harm such a
+beautiful lady as you."
+
+"Yet you must do as I say," she replied.
+
+For a long time the youth refused, but at last he gave way to the
+maiden's entreaties, cut her into little pieces, and placed the bones
+in a large cauldron, forgetting, however, the little toe of her left
+foot. Then he rose as if by magic to the top of the tower, found the
+turtle-dove, and came down again.[36] Having completed his task, he
+took a wand which lay beside the cauldron, and when he touched the
+bones they came together again and the damsel stepped out of the
+great pot none the worse for her experience.
+
+When the young fellow carried the dove to his master the gentleman
+said:
+
+"It is well. I shall carry out my promise and give you one of my
+daughters for your wife, but all three shall be veiled and you must
+pick the one you desire without seeing her face."
+
+The three damsels were then brought into his presence, but the lad
+easily recognized the one who had assisted him, because she lacked the
+small toe of the left foot. So he chose her without hesitation, and
+they were married.
+
+But the gentleman was not content with the marriage. On the day of the
+bridal he placed the bed of the young folks over a vault, and hung it
+from the roof by four cords. When they had gone to bed he came to the
+door of the chamber and said:
+
+"Son-in-law, are you asleep?"
+
+"No, not yet," replied the youth.
+
+Some time afterward he repeated his question, and met with a similar
+answer.
+
+"The next time he comes," said the bride, "pretend that you are
+sleeping."
+
+Shortly after that his father-in-law asked once more if he were
+asleep, and receiving no answer retired, evidently well satisfied.
+
+When he had gone the bride made her husband rise at once. "Go
+instantly to the stables," said she, "and take there the horse which
+is called Little Wind, mount him, and fly."
+
+The young fellow hastened to comply with her request, and he had
+scarcely left the chamber when the master of the castle returned and
+asked if his daughter were asleep. She answered "No," and, bidding her
+arise and come with him, he cut the cords, so that the bed fell into
+the vault beneath. The bride now heard the trampling of hoofs in the
+garden outside, and rushed out to find her husband in the act of
+mounting.
+
+"Stay!" she cried. "You have taken Great Wind instead of Little Wind,
+as I advised you, but there is no help for it," and she mounted behind
+him. Great Wind did not belie his name, and dashed into the night like
+a tempest.
+
+"Do you see anything?" asked the girl.
+
+"No, nothing," said her husband.
+
+"Look again," she said. "Do you see anything now?"
+
+"Yes," he replied, "I see a great flame of fire."
+
+The bride took her wand, struck it three times, and said: "I change
+thee, Great Wind, into a garden, myself into a pear-tree, and my
+husband into a gardener."
+
+The transformation had hardly been effected when the master of the
+castle and his wife came up with them.
+
+"Ha, my good man," cried he to the seeming gardener, "has any one on
+horseback passed this way?"
+
+"Three pears for a sou," said the gardener.
+
+"That is not an answer to my question," fumed the old wizard, for such
+he was. "I asked if you had seen any one on horseback in this
+direction."
+
+"Four for a sou, then, if you will," said the gardener.
+
+"Idiot!" foamed the enchanter, and dashed on in pursuit. The young
+wife then changed herself, her horse, and her husband into their
+natural forms, and, mounting once more, they rode onward.
+
+"Do you see anything now?" asked she.
+
+"Yes, I see a great flame of fire," he replied.
+
+Once more she took her wand. "I change this steed into a church," she
+said, "myself into an altar, and my husband into a priest."
+
+Very soon the wizard and his wife came to the doors of the church and
+asked the priest if a youth and a lady had passed that way on
+horseback.
+
+"Dominus vobiscum," said the priest, and nothing more could the wizard
+get from him.
+
+Pursued once more, the young wife changed the horse into a river,
+herself into a boat, and her husband into a boatman. When the wizard
+came up with them he asked to be ferried across the river. The boatman
+at once made room for them, but in the middle of the stream the boat
+capsized and the enchanter and his wife were drowned.
+
+The young lady and her husband returned to the castle, seized the
+treasure of its fairy lord, and, says tradition, lived happily ever
+afterward, as all young spouses do in fairy-tale.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [20] _Roman de Rou_, v. 6415 ff.
+
+  [21] Consult original ballad in Vicomte de la Villemarqué's _Chants
+       populaires de la Bretagne_.
+
+  [22] MacCulloch, _The Religion of the Ancient Celts_, p. 116
+       (Edinburgh, 1911).
+
+  [23] See _Ballads and Metrical Tales, illustrating the Fairy Mythology
+       of Europe_ (anonymous, London, 1857) for a metrical version of
+       this tale.
+
+  [24] Lib. III, cap. vi.
+
+  [25] Paris, 1670. Strange that this book should have been seized upon
+       by students of the occult as a 'text-book' furnishing
+       longed-for details of the 'lost knowledge' concerning
+       elementary spirits, when it is, in effect, a very whole-hearted
+       satire upon belief in such beings!
+
+  [26] Villemarqué, _Myrdhinn, ou l'Enchanteur Merlin_ (1861).
+
+  [27] MacCulloch, _The Religion of the Ancient Celts_, p. 122.
+
+  [28] Or subterranean dwellers. See D. MacRitchie's _Fians, Fairies,
+       and Picts_ (1893).
+
+  [29] See the chapter on "Menhirs and Dolmens."
+
+  [30] Vol. i, p. 231.
+
+  [31] _Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1880).
+
+  [32] _Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie._
+
+  [33] Saddle.
+
+  [34] See the author's _Le Roi d'Ys and other Poems_ (London, 1910).
+
+  [35] Kipling, "Primum Tempus."
+
+  [36] In folk-tales of this nature a ladder is usually made of the
+       bones, but this circumstance seems to have been omitted in the
+       present instance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV: SPRITES AND DEMONS OF BRITTANY
+
+
+The idea of the evil spirit, malicious and revengeful, is common to
+all primitive peoples, and Brittany has its full share of demonology.
+Wherever, in fact, a primitive and illiterate peasantry is found the
+demon is its inevitable accompaniment. But we shall not find these
+Breton devils so very different from the fiends of other lands.
+
+
+_The Nain_
+
+The nain is a figure fearsomely Celtic in its hideousness, resembling
+the gargoyles which peer down upon the traveller from the carven
+'top-hamper' of so many Breton churches. Black and menacing of
+countenance, these demon-folk are armed with feline claws, and their
+feet end in hoofs like those of a satyr. Their dark elf-locks, small,
+gleaming eyes, red as carbuncles, and harsh, cracked voices are all
+dilated upon with fear by those who have met them upon lonely heaths
+or unfrequented roads. They haunt the ancient dolmens built by a
+vanished race, and at night, by the pale starlight, they dance around
+these ruined tombs to the music of a primitive refrain:
+
+  "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
+  Thursday and Friday."
+
+Saturday and Sunday they dare not mention as being days sacred from
+fairy influence. We all remember that in the old tale of Tom Thumb the
+elves among whom the hero fell sang such a refrain. But wherefore? It
+would indeed be difficult to say. Deities, credited and discredited,
+have often a connexion with the calendar, and we may have here some
+calendric reference, or again the chant may be merely a nonsense
+rhyme. Bad luck attached itself to the human who chanced to behold the
+midnight revels of the nains, and if he entered the charmed circle and
+danced along with them his death was certain to ensue before the year
+was out. Wednesday was the nains' high-day, or rather night, and their
+great _nuit festale_ was the first Wednesday in May. That they should
+have possessed a fixed festival at such a period, full of religious
+significance for most primitive peoples, would seem to show that they
+must at one time have been held in considerable esteem.
+
+But although the nains while away their time in such simple fashion as
+dancing to the repetition of the names of the days of the week, they
+have a less innocent side to their characters, for they are forgers of
+false money, which they fabricate in the recesses of caverns. We all
+recall stories of fairy gold and its perishable nature. A simple youth
+sells something on market day to a fairy, and later on turning over in
+his pocket the money he has received he finds that it has been
+transformed into beans. The housewife receives gold from a fairy for
+services rendered, and carefully places it in a drawer. A day when she
+requires it arrives, but, alas! when she opens the cabinet to take it
+out she finds nothing but a small heap of withered leaves. It is such
+money that the nains manufacture in their subterranean mints--coin
+which bears the fairy impress of glamourie for a space, but on later
+examination proves to be merely dross.
+
+The nains are also regarded as the originators of a cabalistic
+alphabet, the letters of which are engraved on several of the
+megalithic monuments of Morbihan, and especially those of Gavr'inis.
+He who is able to decipher this magic script, says tradition, will be
+able to tell where hidden treasure is to be found in any part of the
+country. Lest any needy folk be of a mind to fare to Brittany to try
+their luck in this respect it is only right to warn them that in all
+probability they will find the treasure formula in ogham characters or
+serpentine markings, and that as the first has long ago been
+deciphered and the second is pure symbolism they will waste their time
+and money in any event.
+
+Sorcery hangs about the nain like a garment. Here he is a prophet and
+a diviner as well as an enchanter, and as much of his magic power is
+employed for ill, small wonder that the Breton peasant shudders and
+frowns when the name of the fearsome tribe is spoken and gives the
+dolmens they are supposed to haunt the widest of wide berths _au clair
+de la lune_.
+
+
+_Crions, Courils, and Gorics_
+
+Brittany has a species of dwarfs or gnomes peculiar to itself which in
+various parts of the country are known as crions, courils, or
+gorics. It will at once be seen how greatly the last word resembles
+Korrigan, and as all of them perhaps proceed from a root meaning
+'spirit' the nominal resemblance is not surprising. Like the nains,
+these smaller beings inhabit abandoned Druidical monuments or dwell
+beneath the foundations of ancient castles. Carnac is sometimes
+alluded to in Breton as 'Ty C'harriquet,' 'the House of the Gorics,'
+the country-folk in this district holding the belief that its
+megalithic monuments were reared by these manikins, whom they
+describe as between two and three feet high, but exceedingly
+strong, just as the Scottish peasantry speak of the Picts of
+folk-lore--'wee fouk but unco' strang.' Every night the gorics
+dance in circles round the stones of Carnac, and should a mortal
+interrupt their frolic he is forced to join in the dance, until,
+breathless and exhausted, he falls prone to the earth amid peals of
+mocking laughter. Like the nains, the gorics are the guardians of
+hidden treasure, for the tale goes that beneath one of the menhirs of
+Carnac lies a golden hoard, and that all the other stones have been
+set up the better to conceal it, and so mystify those who would
+discover its resting-place. A calculation, the key to which is to
+be found in the Tower of London, will alone indicate the spot where
+the treasure lies. And here it may be of interest to state that
+the ancient national fortalice of England occurs frequently in Breton
+and in Celtic romance.[37] Some of the immigrant Britons into
+Armorica probably came from the settlement which was later to grow
+into London, and may have carried tales of its ancient British
+fortress into their new home.
+
+The courils are peculiar to the ruins of Tresmalouen. Like the gorics,
+they are fond of dancing, and they are quite as malignantly inclined
+toward the unhappy stranger who may stumble into their ring. The
+castle of Morlaix, too, is haunted by gorics not more than a foot
+high, who dwell beneath it in holes in the ground. They possess
+treasures as great as those of the gnomes of Norway or Germany, and
+these they will sometimes bestow on lucky mortals, who are permitted,
+however, to take but one handful. If a person should attempt to seize
+more the whole of the money vanishes, and the offender's ears are
+soundly boxed by invisible hands.
+
+The night-washers (_eur tunnerez noz_) are evil spirits who appear at
+night on the banks of streams and call on the passers-by to assist
+them to wash the linen of the dead. If they are refused, they seize
+upon the person who denies them, drag him into the water, and break
+his arms. These beings are obviously the same as the Bean Nighe, 'the
+Washing Woman' of the Scottish Highlands, who is seen in lonely places
+beside a pool or stream, washing the linen of those who will shortly
+die. In Skye she is said to be short of stature. If any one catches
+her she tells all that will befall him in after life. In Perthshire
+she is represented as "small and round and dressed in pretty green."
+
+
+_The Teurst_
+
+In the district of Morlaix the peasants are terribly afraid of beings
+they call teursts. These are large, black, and fearsome, like the
+Highland ourisk, who haunted desert moors and glens. The _teursta
+poulict_ appears in the likeness of some domestic animal. In the
+district of Vannes is encountered a colossal spirit called Teus or
+Bugelnoz, who appears clothed in white between midnight and two in the
+morning. His office is to rescue victims from the devil, and should he
+spread his mouth over them they are secure from the Father of Evil.
+The Dusii of Gaul are mentioned by St Augustine, who regarded them as
+_incubi_, and by Isidore of Seville, and in the name we may perhaps
+discover the origin of our expression 'the deuce!'
+
+
+_The Nicole_
+
+The Nicole is a spirit of modern creation who torments the honest
+fishermen of the Bay of Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Malo. Just as they are
+about to draw in their nets this mischievous spirit leaps around them,
+freeing the fish, or he will loosen a boat's anchor so that it will
+drift on to a sand-bank. He may divide the cable which holds the
+anchor to the vessel and cause endless trouble. This spirit received
+its name from an officer who commanded a battalion of fishermen
+conscripts, and who from his intense severity and general reputation
+as a martinet obtained a bad reputation among the seafaring
+population.
+
+
+_The Mourioche_
+
+The Mourioche is a malicious demon of bestial nature, able, it would
+seem, to transform himself into any animal shape he chooses. In
+general appearance he is like a year-old foal. He is especially
+dangerous to children, and Breton babies are often chided when noisy
+or mischievous with the words: "Be good, now, the Mourioche is
+coming!" Of one who appears to have received a shock, also, it is
+said: "He has seen the Mourioche." Unlucky is the person who gets in
+his way; but doubly so the unfortunate who attempts to mount him in
+the belief that he is an ordinary steed, for after a fiery gallop he
+will be precipitated into an abyss and break his neck.
+
+
+_The Ankou_
+
+Perhaps there is no spirit of evil which is so much dreaded by the
+Breton peasantry as the Ankou, who travels the duchy in a cart,
+picking up souls. In the dead of night a creaking axle-tree can be
+heard passing down the silent lanes. It halts at a door; the summons
+has been given, a soul quits the doomed house, and the wagon of the
+Ankou passes on. The Ankou herself--for the dread death-spirit of
+Brittany is probably female--is usually represented as a skeleton. M.
+Anatole le Braz has elaborated a study of the whole question in his
+book on the legend of death in Brittany,[38] and it is probable that
+the Ankou is a survival of the death-goddess of the prehistoric
+dolmen-builders of Brittany. MacCulloch[39] considers the Ankou to be
+a reminiscence of the Celtic god of death, who watches over all things
+beyond the grave and carries off the dead to his kingdom, but greatly
+influenced by medieval ideas of 'Death the skeleton.' In some Breton
+churches a little model or statuette of the Ankou is to be seen, and
+this is nothing more nor less than a cleverly fashioned skeleton. The
+peasant origin of the belief can be found in the substitution of a
+cart or wagon for the more ambitious coach and four of other lands.
+
+
+_The Youdic_
+
+Dark and gloomy are many of the Breton legends, of evil things, gloomy
+as the depths of the forests in which doubtless many of them were
+conceived. Most folk-tales are tinged with melancholy, and it is
+rarely in Breton story that we discover a vein of the joyous.
+
+[Illustration: THE DEMON-DOG]
+
+Among the peaks of the Montagnes d'Arrée lies a vast and dismal peat
+bog known as the Yeun, which has long been regarded by the Breton folk
+as the portal to the infernal regions. This Stygian locality has
+brought forth many legends. It is, indeed, a remarkable territory. In
+summer it seems a vast moor carpeted by glowing purple heather, which
+one can traverse up to a certain point, but woe betide him who would
+advance farther, for, surrounded by what seems solid ground, lies a
+treacherous quagmire declared by the people of the neighbourhood to be
+unfathomable. This part of the bog, whose victims have been many, is
+known as the Youdic. As one leans over it its waters may sometimes be
+seen to simmer and boil, and the peasants of the country-side devoutly
+believe that when this occurs infernal forces are working beneath,
+madly revelling, and that it is only the near presence of St Michael,
+whose mount is hard by, which restrains them from doing active harm to
+those who may have to cross the Yeun.
+
+Countless stories are afloat concerning this weird maelstrom of mud
+and bubbling water. At one time it was the custom to hurl animals
+suspected of being evil spirits into its black depths. Malevolent
+fiends, it was thought, were wont to materialize in the form of great
+black dogs, and unfortunate animals of this type, if they evinced such
+peculiarities as were likely to place them under suspicion, were taken
+forthwith to the Youdic by a member of the enlightened priesthood of
+the district, and were cast into its seething depths with all the
+ceremonies suitable to such an occasion.
+
+A story typical of those told about the place is that of one Job Ann
+Drez, who seems to have acted as sexton and assisted the parish priest
+in his dealings with the supernatural. Along with the priest, Job
+repaired one evening after sunset to the gloomy waters of the Youdic,
+dragging behind him a large black dog of the species most likely to
+excite distrust in the priestly mind. The priest showed considerable
+anxiety lest the animal should break loose.
+
+"If he should get away," he said nervously, "both of us are lost."
+
+"I will wager he does not," replied Job, tying the cord by which the
+brute was led securely to his wrist.
+
+"Forward, then," said the priest, and he walked boldly in front, until
+they came to the foot of the mountain on the summit of which lies the
+Youdic.
+
+The priest turned warningly to Job. "You must be circumspect in this
+place," he said very gravely. "Whatever you may hear, be sure not to
+turn your head. Your life in this world and your salvation in the next
+depend absolutely on this. You understand me?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I understand."
+
+A vast desolation surrounded them. So dark was the night that it
+seemed to envelop them like a velvet curtain. Beneath their feet they
+heard the hissing and moaning of the bog, awaiting its prey like a
+restless and voracious wild beast. Through the dense blackness they
+could see the iridescent waters writhing and gleaming below.
+
+"Surely," said Job half to himself, "this must be the gateway to
+hell!"
+
+At that word the dog uttered a frightful howl--such a howl as froze
+Job's blood in his veins. It tugged and strained at the cord which
+held it with the strength of a demon, striving to turn on Job and rend
+him.
+
+"Hold on!" cried the priest in mortal terror, keeping at a safe
+distance, however. "Hold on, I entreat you, or else we are undone!"
+
+Job held on to the demon-dog with all his strength. Indeed, it was
+necessary to exert every thew and sinew if the animal were to be
+prevented from tearing him to pieces. Its howls were sufficient to
+strike terror to the stoutest heart. "Iou! Iou!" it yelled again and
+again.
+
+But Job held on desperately, although the cord cut his hands and blood
+ran from the scarified palms. Inch by inch he dragged the brute toward
+the Youdic. The creature in a last desperate effort turned and was
+about to spring on him open-mouthed, when all at once the priest,
+darting forward, threw his cloak over its head. It uttered a shriek
+which sounded through the night like the cry of a lost soul.
+
+"Quick!" cried the priest. "Lie flat on the earth and put your face on
+the ground!"
+
+Scarcely had the two men done so than a frightful tumult ensued. First
+there was the sound of a body leaping into the morass, then such an
+uproar as could only proceed from the mouth of the infernal regions.
+Shrieks, cries, hissings, explosions followed in quick succession for
+upward of half an hour; then gradually they died away and a horrible
+stillness took their place. The two men rose trembling and unnerved,
+and slowly took their way through the darkness, groping and stumbling
+until they had left the awful vicinity of the Yeun behind them.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [37] See Nutt, _Celtic and Mediæval Romance_.
+
+  [38] _La Légende de la Mort._
+
+  [39] _Religion of the Ancient Celts_, p. 345
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V: WORLD-TALES IN BRITTANY
+
+
+I have entitled this chapter 'World-Tales' to indicate that the
+stories it contains are in plot or _motif_ if not in substance common
+to the whole world--that, in short, although they are found in
+Brittany, they are no more Breton than Italian, Russian, American, or
+Australian. But although the story which tells of the search for the
+golden-haired princess on the magic horse is the possession of no one
+particular race, the tales recounted here have the Breton colouring
+and the Breton spirit, and in perusing them we encounter numerous
+little allusions to Breton customs or manners and obtain not a few
+sidelights upon the Breton character, its shrewdness and its goodwill,
+while we may note as well the narrowness of view and meanness so
+characteristic of peoples who have been isolated for a long period
+from contact with other races.
+
+The first two of these tales are striking ones built upon two
+world-_motifs_--those of the magic horse and the search for the
+golden-haired princess, who is, of course, the sun, two themes which
+have been amalgamated in not a few deathless stories.
+
+
+_The Youth who did not Know_
+
+One day the Marquis of Coat-Squiriou was returning from Morlaix, when
+he beheld lying on the road a little fellow of four or five years of
+age. He leapt from his horse, picked the child up, and asked him what
+he did there.
+
+"I do not know," replied the little boy.
+
+"Who is your father?" asked the Marquis.
+
+"I do not know," said the child for the second time.
+
+"And your mother?" asked the kindly nobleman.
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Where are you now, my child?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Then what is your name?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+The Marquis told his serving-man to place the child on the crupper of
+his horse, as he had taken a fancy to him and would adopt him. He
+called him N'Oun Doare, which signifies in Breton, 'I do not know.' He
+educated him, and when his schooling was finished took him to Morlaix,
+where they put up at the best inn in the town. The Marquis could not
+help admiring his adopted son, who had now grown into a tall, handsome
+youth, and so pleased was he with him that he desired to signify his
+approval by making him a little present, which he resolved should take
+the form of a sword. So they went out into the town and visited the
+armourers' shops in search of a suitable weapon. They saw swords of
+all kinds, but N'Oun Doare would have none of them, until at last they
+passed the booth of a seller of scrap-metal, where hung a rusty old
+rapier which seemed fit for nothing.
+
+"Ha!" cried N'Oun Doare, "that is the sword for me. Please buy it, I
+beg of you."
+
+"Why, don't you see what a condition it is in?" said the Marquis. "It
+is not a fit weapon for a gentleman."
+
+"Nevertheless it is the only sword I wish for," said N'Oun Doare.
+
+"Well, well, you are a strange fellow," said the Marquis, but he
+bought the sword nevertheless, and they returned to Coat-Squiriou. The
+next day N'Oun Doare examined his sword and discovered that the blade
+had the words "I am invincible" engraved upon it.
+
+Some time afterward the Marquis said to him: "It is time that you had
+a horse. Come with me to Morlaix and we will purchase one." They
+accordingly set out for Morlaix. In the market-place they saw many
+fine animals, but with none of them was N'Oun Doare content. On
+returning to the inn, however, he espied what looked like a
+broken-down mare standing by the roadside, and to this sorry beast he
+immediately drew the attention of the Marquis.
+
+"That is the horse for me!" he cried. "I beg of you, purchase it for
+me."
+
+"What!" cried the Marquis, "that broken-down beast? Why, only look at
+it, my son." But N'Oun Doare persisted, and at last, despite his own
+better judgment, the Marquis bought the animal. The man who sold it
+was a cunning-looking fellow from Cornouaille, who, as he put the
+bridle into N'Oun Doare's hand, whispered:
+
+"You see the knots on the halter of this animal?"
+
+"Yes," replied N'Oun Doare; "what of them?"
+
+"Only this, that each time you loosen one the mare will immediately
+carry you five hundred leagues from where you are."
+
+The Marquis and his ward returned once more to the château, N'Oun
+Doare riding his new purchase, when it entered into his head to untie
+one of the knots on the halter. He did so, and immediately descended
+in the middle of Paris--which we must take the story-teller's word for
+it is five hundred leagues from Brittany!
+
+Several months afterward the Marquis had occasion to go to Paris, and
+one of the first people he met there was N'Oun Doare, who told him of
+his adventure. The Marquis was going to visit the King, and took his
+_protégé_ along with him to the palace, where he was well received.
+
+Some nights afterward the youth was walking with his old mare outside
+the walls of Paris, and noticed something which glittered very
+brightly at the foot of an ancient stone cross which stood where four
+roads met. He approached it and beheld a crown of gold, set with the
+most brilliant precious stones. He at once picked it up, when the old
+mare, turning its head, said to him: "Take care; you will repent
+this."
+
+Greatly surprised, N'Oun Doare thought that he had better replace the
+crown, but a longing to possess it overcame him, and although the mare
+warned him once more he finally resolved to take it, and, putting it
+under his mantle, rode away.
+
+Now the King had confided to his care part of the royal stables, and
+when N'Oun Doare entered them their darkness was immediately lit up by
+the radiance of the crown which he carried. So well had the Breton lad
+attended to the horses under his charge that the other squires had
+become jealous, and, observing the strange light in N'Oun Doare's part
+of the stable, they mentioned it to the King, who in turn spoke of it
+to the Marquis of Coat-Squiriou. The Marquis asked N'Oun Doare the
+meaning of the light, and the youth replied that it came from the
+ancient sword they had bought at Morlaix, which was an enchanted
+weapon and shone at intervals with strange brilliance. But one night
+his enemies resolved to examine into the matter more closely, and,
+looking through the keyhole of the stable, they saw that the wondrous
+light which had so puzzled them shone from a magnificent crown of
+gold. They ran at once to tell the King, and next night N'Oun Doare's
+stable was opened with a master-key and the crown removed to the
+King's quarters. It was then seen that an inscription was engraved
+upon the diadem, but in such strange characters that no one could read
+it. The magicians of the capital were called into consultation, but
+none of them could decipher the writing. At last a little boy of seven
+years of age was found who said that it was the crown of the Princess
+Golden Bell. The King then called upon N'Oun Doare to approach, and
+said to him:
+
+"You should not have hidden this thing from me, but as you are guilty
+of having done so I doom you to find the Princess Golden Bell, whom I
+desire shall become my wife. If you fail I shall put you to death."
+
+N'Oun Doare left the royal presence in a very perturbed state of mind.
+He went to seek his old mare with tears in his eyes.
+
+"I know," said the mare, "the cause of your sorrow. You should have
+left the golden crown alone, as I told you. But do not repine; go to
+the King and ask him for money for your journey."
+
+The lad received the money from the King, and set out on his journey.
+Arriving at the seashore, one of the first objects he beheld was a
+little fish cast up by the waves on the beach and almost at its last
+gasp.
+
+"Throw that fish back into the water," said the mare. N'Oun Doare did
+so, and the fish, lifting its head from the water, said:
+
+"You have saved my life, N'Oun Doare. I am the King of the Fishes, and
+if ever you require my help call my name by the seashore and I will
+come." With these words the Fish-King vanished beneath the water.
+
+A little later they came upon a bird struggling vainly to escape from
+a net in which it was caught.
+
+"Cut the net and set that poor bird free," said the wise mare.
+
+Upon N'Oun Doare doing so the bird paused before it flew away and
+said:
+
+"I am the King of the Birds, N'Oun Doare. I will never forget the
+service you have rendered me, and if ever you are in trouble and need
+my aid you have only to call me and I shall fly swiftly to help you."
+
+As they went on their way N'Oun Doare's wonderful mare crossed
+mountains, forests, vast seas, and streams with a swiftness and ease
+that was amazing. Soon they beheld the walls of the Château of the
+Golden Bell rising before them, and as they drew near they could hear
+a most confused and terrible noise coming from it, which shook N'Oun
+Doare's courage and made him rather fearful of entering it. Near the
+door a being of the most curious aspect was hung to a tree by a chain,
+and this peculiar individual had as many horns on his body as there
+are days in the year.
+
+"Cut that unfortunate man down," said the mare. "Will you not give him
+his freedom?"
+
+"I am too much afraid to approach him," said N'Oun Doare, alarmed at
+the man's appearance.
+
+"Do not fear," said the sagacious animal; "he will not harm you in any
+manner."
+
+N'Oun Doare did so, and the stranger thanked him most gratefully,
+bidding him, as the others whom he had rescued had done, if he ever
+required help to call upon Grifescorne, King of the Demons, for that
+was his name, and he would be with him immediately.
+
+"Enter the château boldly and without fear," said the mare, "and I
+will await you in the wood yonder. After the Princess Golden Bell has
+welcomed you she will show you all the curiosities and marvels of her
+dwelling. Tell her you have a horse without an equal, which can dance
+most beautifully the dances of every land. Say that your steed will
+perform them for her diversion if she will come and behold it in the
+forest."
+
+Everything fell out as the mare had said, and the Princess was
+delighted and amused by the mare's dancing.
+
+"If you were to mount her," said N'Oun Doare, "I vow she would dance
+even more wonderfully than before!"
+
+The Princess after a moment's hesitation did so. In an instant the
+adventurous youth was by her side, and the horse sped through the air,
+so that in a short space they found themselves flying over the sea.
+
+"You have tricked me!" cried the infuriated damsel. "But do not
+imagine that you are at the end of your troubles; and," she added
+viciously, "you will have cause to lament more than once ere I wed the
+old King of France."
+
+They arrived promptly at Paris, where N'Oun Doare presented the lovely
+Princess to the monarch, saying:
+
+"Sire, I have brought to you the Princess Golden Bell, whom you desire
+to make your wife."
+
+[Illustration: N'OUN DOARE AND THE PRINCESS GOLDEN BELL]
+
+The King was dazed by the wondrous beauty of the Princess, and was
+eager for the marriage to take place immediately, but this the royal
+maiden would not hear of, and declared petulantly that she would not
+be wed until she had a ring which she had left behind her at her
+château, in a cabinet of which she had lost the key.
+
+Summoning N'Oun Doare, the King charged him with the task of finding
+the ring. The unfortunate youth returned to his wise mare, feeling
+much cast down.
+
+"Why," said the mare, "foolish one! do you not remember the King of
+the Birds whom you rescued? Call upon him, and mayhap he will aid you
+as he promised to do."
+
+With a return of hope N'Oun Doare did as he was bid, and immediately
+the royal bird was with him, and asked him in what way he could help
+him. Upon N'Oun Doare explaining his difficulty, the Bird-King
+summoned all his subjects, calling each one by name. They came, but
+none of them appeared to be small enough to enter the cabinet by way
+of the keyhole, which was the only means of entrance. The wren was
+decided to be the only bird with any chance of success, and he set out
+for the château.
+
+Eventually, with much difficulty and the loss of the greater part of
+his feathers, the bird procured the ring, and flew back with it to
+Paris. N'Oun Doare hastened to present the ring to the Princess.
+
+"Now, fair one," said the impatient King, "why delay our wedding
+longer?"
+
+"Nay," said she, pouting discontentedly, "there is one thing that I
+wish, and without it I will do nothing."
+
+"What do you desire? You have only to speak and it shall be brought."
+
+"Well, transport my château with all it contains opposite to yours."
+
+"What!" cried the King, aghast. "Impossible!"
+
+"Well, then, it is just as impossible that I should marry you, for
+without my château I shall not consent."
+
+For a second time the King gave N'Oun Doare what seemed an insurmountable
+task.
+
+"Now indeed I am as good as lost!" lamented the youth as they came to
+the château and he saw its massive walls towering above him.
+
+"Call Grifescorne, King of the Demons, to your assistance," suggested
+the wise mare.
+
+With the aid of the Demon-King and his subjects N'Oun Doare's task was
+again accomplished, and he and his mare followed the demon army to
+Paris, where they arrived as soon as it did.
+
+In the morning the people of Paris were struck dumb to see a wonderful
+palace, its golden towers flashing in the sun, rising opposite to the
+royal residence.
+
+"We shall be married at last, shall we not?" asked the King.
+
+"Yes," replied the Princess, "but how shall I enter my château and
+show you its wonders without a key, for I dropped it in the sea when
+N'Oun Doare and his horse carried me over it."
+
+Once more was the youth charged with the task, and through the aid of
+the Fish-King was able to procure the key, which was cut from a single
+diamond. None of the fishes had seen it, but at last the oldest fish,
+who had not appeared when his name was pronounced, came forward and
+produced it from his mouth.
+
+With a glad heart the successful N'Oun Doare returned to Paris, and as
+the Princess had now no more excuses to make the day of the wedding
+was fixed and the ceremony was celebrated with much splendour. To the
+astonishment of all, when the King and his betrothed entered the
+church N'Oun Doare followed behind with his mare. At the conclusion of
+the ceremony the mare's skin suddenly fell to the ground, disclosing a
+maiden of the most wonderful beauty.
+
+Smiling upon the bewildered N'Oun Doare, the damsel gave him her hand
+and said: "Come with me to Tartary, for the king of that land is my
+father, and there we shall be wed amid great rejoicing."
+
+Leaving the amazed King and wedding guests, the pair quitted the
+church together. More might have been told of them, but Tartary is a
+far land and no news of them has of late years reached Brittany.
+
+
+_The Princess of Tronkolaine_
+
+There was once an old charcoal-burner who had twenty-six grandchildren.
+For twenty-five of them he had no great difficulty in procuring
+godparents, but for the twenty-sixth--that, alas! was a different
+story. Godmothers, indeed, were to be found in plenty, but he could
+not find anyone to act as godfather.
+
+As he wandered disconsolately along the high road, dwelling on his bad
+luck, he saw a fine carriage coming toward him, its occupant no less a
+personage than the King himself. The old man made an obeisance so low
+that the King was amused, and threw him a handful of silver.
+
+"My good man," he said, "here are alms for you."
+
+"Your Majesty," replied the charcoal-burner, "I do not desire alms. I
+am unhappy because I cannot find a godfather for my twenty-sixth
+grandchild."
+
+The King considered the matter.
+
+"I myself will be godfather to the child," he said at length. "Tell me
+when it is to be baptized and I will meet you at the church."
+
+The old man was delighted beyond measure, and in due time he and his
+relatives brought the child to be baptized. When they reached the
+church, sure enough, there was the King waiting to take part in the
+ceremony, and in his honour the child was named Charles. Before taking
+leave the King gave to the charcoal-burner the half of a coin which he
+had broken in two. This Charles on reaching his eighteenth birthday
+was to convey to the Court at Paris, as a token whereby his godfather
+should know him. His Majesty also left a thousand crowns, which were
+to be utilized in the education and general upbringing of the child.
+
+Time passed and Charles attained his eighteenth birthday. Taking the
+King's token, he set out for the royal abode. As he went he
+encountered an old man, who warned him on no account to drink from a
+certain well which he would pass on his way. The lad promised to
+regard the warning, but ere he reached the well he had forgotten it.
+
+A man sat by the side of the well.
+
+"You are hot and tired," he said, feigning courtesy, "will you not
+stop to drink?"
+
+The water was cool and inviting. Charles bent his head and drank
+thirstily. And while he drank the stranger robbed him of his token;
+but this he did not know till afterward.
+
+Gaily Charles resumed his way, while the thief went to Paris by a
+quicker route and got there before him.
+
+Boldly the thief demanded audience of the King, and produced the token
+so wickedly come by. The sovereign ordered the other half of the coin
+to be brought out, and lo! they fitted exactly. And because the thief
+had a plausible face the good King did not doubt that he was indeed
+his godson. He therefore had him treated with all honour and respect,
+and bestowed gifts upon him lavishly.
+
+Meanwhile Charles had arrived in Paris, and, finding that he had been
+deprived of his only means of proving his identity to the King, he
+accepted the situation philosophically and set about earning his
+living. He succeeded in obtaining a post as herdsman on the royal
+estates.
+
+One day the robber was greatly disconcerted to find the real Charles
+at the very gates of the palace. He determined to be rid of him once
+for all, so he straightway approached the King.
+
+"Your Majesty, there is a man among your retainers who has said that
+he will demand of the sun why it is so red at sunrise."
+
+"He is indeed a foolish fellow," said the King. "Our decree is that he
+shall carry out his rash boast to-morrow ere sunset, or, if it be but
+idle folly, lose his head on the following morning."
+
+The thief was delighted with the success of his plot. Poor Charles was
+summoned before the King and bidden to ask the sun why he was so red
+at sunrise. In vain he denied having uttered the speech. Had not the
+King the word of his godson?
+
+Next morning Charles set out on his journey. Ere he had gone very far
+he met an old man who asked him his errand, and afterward gave him a
+wooden horse on which to ride to the sun. Charles thought this but a
+sorry joke. However, no sooner had he mounted his wooden steed than it
+rose into the air and flew with him to where the sun's castle towered
+on the peak of a lofty mountain.
+
+To the sun, a resplendent warrior, Charles addressed his query.
+
+"In the morning," said the sun, "I pass the castle of the Princess of
+Tronkolaine, and she is so lovely that I must needs look my best."
+
+Charles, mounted on his wooden horse, flew with this answer to Paris.
+The King was satisfied, but the thief gnashed his teeth in secret
+rage, and plotted yet further against the youth.
+
+"Your Majesty," he said, "this herdsman who tends your herds has said
+that he will lead hither the Princess of Tronkolaine to be your
+bride."
+
+"If he has said so," replied the King, "he shall lead her hither or
+forfeit his life."
+
+"Alas!" thought Charles, when he learned of the plot, "I must bid
+farewell to my life--there is no hope for me!"
+
+All the same he set out boldly enough, and by and by encountered the
+old man who had helped him on his previous mission. To him Charles
+confided his troubles, begging for advice and assistance.
+
+The old man pondered.
+
+"Return to the Court," he said, "and ask the King to give you three
+ships, one laden with oatmeal, another with bacon, and the third with
+salt meat. Then sail on till you come to an island covered with ants.
+To their monarch, the Ant-King, make a present of the cargo of
+oatmeal. He will direct you to a second island, whereon dwell fierce
+lions. Fear them not. Present your cargo of bacon to their King and he
+will become your friend. Yet a third island you will touch, inhabited
+only by sparrow-hawks. Give to their King your cargo of salt meat and
+he will show you the abode of the Princess."
+
+Charles thanked the sage for his advice, which he promptly proceeded
+to follow. The King granted him the three ships, and he sailed away
+in search of the Princess.
+
+When he came to the first island, which was swarming with ants, he
+gave up his cargo of grain, and so won the friendship of the little
+creatures. At the second island he unloaded the bacon, which he
+presented to the King of the Lions; while at the third he gave up the
+salt beef to the King of the Sparrow-hawks, who directed him how to
+come at the object of his quest. Each monarch bade Charles summon him
+instantly if he had need of assistance.
+
+Setting sail from the island of the sparrow-hawks, the youth arrived
+at length at the abode of the Princess.
+
+She was seated under an orange-tree, and as Charles gazed upon her he
+thought her the most beautiful woman in the world, as indeed she was.
+
+The Princess, looking up, beheld a comely youth, beneath whose ardent
+gaze her eyes fell. Smiling graciously, she invited him into her
+castle, and he, nothing loath, followed her into the great hall, where
+tempting viands were spread before him.
+
+When he had supped he made known his errand to the Princess, and
+begged her to accompany him to Paris. She agreed only on condition
+that he would perform three tasks set him, and when Charles was
+curious to know what was required of him she led him into another room
+where was a large heap of every kind of seed--corn, barley, clover,
+flax--all mixed up anyhow.
+
+"This is the first task," said the Princess: "you must put each kind
+of seed into a different heap, so that no single seed shall be out of
+its place. This you must accomplish ere to-morrow at sunrise." With
+that she left the room.
+
+Charles was in despair, until he bethought him of his friend the King
+of the Ants, whom he begged to help him. Scarcely had he uttered the
+words when ants began to fill the room, coming from he knew not where.
+In less time than it takes to tell they had arranged the seeds into
+separate heaps, so that no single seed was out of its place.
+
+When the Princess arrived in the morning she was astonished to find
+the hero fast asleep and the work accomplished. All day she
+entertained him hospitably in her castle, and at nightfall she showed
+him the second task. An avenue of great oaks led down from the castle.
+Giving him a wooden axe and a wooden saw, the Princess bade him cut
+down all the trees ere morning.
+
+When she had left him Charles called upon the King of the Lions.
+Instantly a number of lions bounded upon the scene, and with teeth and
+claws soon performed the task.
+
+In the morning the Princess, finding Charles asleep and all the trees
+cut down, was more astonished than ever.
+
+The third task was the most difficult of all. A high mountain had to
+be levelled to the plain in a single night. Without the help of the
+sparrow-hawks, Charles would certainly have failed, but these faithful
+creatures worked with a will, and soon had the great mountain carried
+away piece by piece and dropped into the sea.
+
+When the Princess came for the third time and found the hero asleep by
+the finished task she fell in love with him straightway, and kissed
+him softly on the brow.
+
+There was now nothing further to hinder his return, and he begged the
+Princess to accompany him to Paris. In due time they arrived in that
+city, to be welcomed with great warmth by the people. The beauty of
+the lady won all hearts. But great was the general astonishment when
+she declared that she would marry, not the King, but the youth who had
+brought her to Paris! Charles thereupon declared himself the true
+godson of the King, and the monarch, far from being angry, gave the
+couple his blessing and great estates; and when in course of time he
+died they reigned in his stead.
+
+As for the thief, he was ordered to execution forthwith, and was
+roasted to death in a large oven.
+
+
+_The Princess Starbright_
+
+This is another tale which introduces the search for the sun-princess
+in a peculiar setting.
+
+In the long ago there lived near the Lake of Léguer a jolly miller who
+found recreation after his work in shooting the wild swans and ducks
+which frequented that stretch of water. One December day, when it was
+freezing hard and the earth was covered with snow, he observed a
+solitary duck near the edge of the lake. He shot at it, and went
+forward to pick it up, when he saw to his amazement that it had
+changed into a beautiful princess. He was ready to drop into the snow
+with fright, but the lady came graciously forward to him, saying:
+
+"Fear not, my brave fellow, for know that I have been enchanted these
+many years under the form of a wild duck, because of the enmity of
+three malicious demons. You can restore me permanently to my human
+shape if you choose to show only a little perseverance and courage."
+
+"Why, what do you desire me to do, madam?" stammered the miller,
+abashed by the lady's beauty and condescension.
+
+"What only a brave man could accomplish, my friend," she replied; "all
+that you have to do is to pass three consecutive nights in the old
+manor which you can see over there."
+
+The miller shuddered, for he had heard the most terrible stories in
+connexion with the ruined manor, which had an evil name in the
+district.
+
+"Alas! madam," he said, "whom might I not encounter there! Even the
+devil himself----"
+
+"My good friend," said the Princess, sadly, "if you do as I ask you
+will have to encounter not one but a dozen devils, who will torment
+you in every possible way. But fear nothing, for I can provide you
+with a magic ointment which will preserve you entirely from all the
+injuries they would attempt to inflict upon you. Even if you were dead
+I could resuscitate you. I assure you that if you will do as I ask you
+will never regret it. Beneath the hearthstone in the hall of the manor
+are three casks of gold and three of silver, and all these will belong
+to you and to me if you assist me; so put your courage to the proof, I
+pray you."
+
+The miller squared his shoulders. "Lady," he said, "I will obey you,
+even if I have to face a hundred devils instead of twelve."
+
+The Princess smiled encouragingly and disappeared. On the following
+night the miller set out for the old manor, carrying a bundle of
+faggots to make a fire, and some cider and tobacco to refresh him
+during his vigil. When he arrived in the dismal old place he sat
+himself down by the hearth, where he had built a good fire, and lit
+his pipe. But he had scarcely done so when he heard a most tremendous
+commotion in the chimney. Somewhat scared, he hid himself under an old
+bed which stood opposite the hearth, and, gazing anxiously from his
+place of concealment, beheld eleven grisly fiends descend from the
+flue. They seemed astonished to find a fire on the hearth, and did not
+appear to be in the best of tempers.
+
+"Where is Boiteux?" cried one. "Oh," growled another, who appeared to
+be the chief of the band, "he is always late."
+
+"Ah, behold him," said a third, as Boiteux arrived by the same road as
+his companions.
+
+"Well, comrades," cried Boiteux, "have you heard the news?" The others
+shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads sulkily.
+
+"Well," said Boiteux, "I am convinced that the miller of Léguer is
+here, and that he is trying to free the Princess from the enchantment
+which we have placed upon her."
+
+A hurried search at once took place, the demons scrambling from one
+part of the room to the other, tearing down the curtains and making
+every effort to discover the hiding-place of the intruder. At last
+Boiteux, peering under the bed, saw the miller crouching there, and
+cried out: "Here is the rogue beneath the bed."
+
+The unlucky miller was then seized by the foot and dragged into the
+shrieking and leaping circle. With a gesture of command the chief
+demon subdued the antics of his followers.
+
+"So, my jolly miller," said he, "our friend the Princess has found a
+champion in you, has she? Well, we are going to have some sport with
+you, which I fear will not be quite to your taste, but I can assure
+you that you will not again have the opportunity of assisting a
+princess in distress."
+
+With this he seized the miller and thrust him from him with great
+force. As he flew like a stone from a sling, another of the fiends
+seized him, and the unhappy man was thrown violently about from one to
+the other. At last they threw him out of the window into the
+courtyard, and as he did not move they thought that he was dead. But
+in the midst of their laughter and rejoicing at the easy manner in
+which they had got rid of him, cockcrow sounded, and the diabolic
+company swiftly disappeared. They had scarcely taken their departure
+when the Princess arrived. She tenderly anointed the miller's hurts
+from the little pot of magic ointment she had brought with her, and,
+nothing daunted, now that he was thoroughly revived, the bold fellow
+announced his intention of seeing the matter through and remaining in
+the manor for the two following nights.
+
+He had scarcely ensconced himself in his seat by the chimney-side on
+the second night when the twelve fiends came tumbling down the chimney
+as before. At one end of the room was a large heap of wood, behind
+which the miller quickly took refuge.
+
+"I smell the smell of a Christian!" cried Boiteux. A search followed,
+and once more the adventurous miller was dragged forth.
+
+"Oho!" cried the leader, "so you are not dead after all! Well, I can
+assure you that we shall not botch our work on this occasion."
+
+One of the grisly company placed a large cauldron of oil upon the
+fire, and when this was boiling they seized their victim and thrust
+him into it. The most dreadful agony seized the miller as the liquid
+seethed around his body, and he was just about to faint under the
+intensity of the torture when once again the cock crew and the
+fiendish band took themselves off. The Princess quickly appeared, and,
+drawing the miller from the cauldron, smeared him from head to foot
+with the ointment.
+
+On the third night the devils once more found the miller in the
+apartment. In dismay Boiteux suggested that he should be roasted on a
+spit and eaten, but unluckily for them they took a long time to come
+to this conclusion, and when they were about to impale their victim on
+the spit, the cock crew and they were forced to withdraw, howling in
+baffled rage. The Princess arrived as before, and was delighted to see
+that this time her champion did not require any assistance.
+
+"All is well now," she said. "You have freed me from my enchantment
+and the treasure is ours."
+
+They raised the hearthstone from its place, and, as she had said, the
+three casks of gold and the three casks of silver were found resting
+beneath it.
+
+"Take what you wish for yourself," said the Princess. "As for me, I
+cannot stay here; I must at once make a journey which will last a year
+and a day, after which we shall never part again."
+
+With these words she disappeared. The miller was grieved at her
+departure, but, consoling himself with the treasure, made over his
+mill to his apprentice and, apprising one of his companions of his
+good luck, resolved to go upon a journey with him, until such time as
+the Princess should return. He visited the neighbouring countries,
+and, with plenty of money at his disposal, found existence very
+pleasant indeed. After some eight months of this kind of life, he and
+his friend resolved to return to Brittany, and set out on their
+journey. One day they encountered on the road an old woman selling
+apples. She asked them to buy, but the miller was advised by his
+friend not to pay any heed to her. Ignoring the well-meant advice, the
+miller laughed and bought three apples. He had scarcely eaten one when
+he became unwell. Recalling how the fruit had disagreed with him, he
+did not touch the other apples until the day on which the Princess had
+declared she would return. When on the way to the manor to meet her,
+he ate the second apple. He began to feel sleepy, and, lying down at
+the foot of a tree, fell into a deep slumber.
+
+Soon after the Princess arrived in a beautiful star-coloured chariot
+drawn by ten horses. When she saw the miller lying sleeping she
+inquired of his friend what had chanced to him. The man acquainted her
+with the adventure of the apples, and the Princess told him that the
+old woman from whom he had purchased them was a sorceress.
+
+"Alas!" she said, "I am unable to take him with me in this condition,
+but I will come to this place to-morrow and again on the following
+day, and if he be awake I will transport him hence in my chariot. Here
+are a golden pear and a handkerchief; give him these and tell him that
+I will come again."
+
+She disappeared in her star-coloured equipage. Shortly afterward the
+miller wakened, and his friend told him what had occurred and gave him
+the pear and the kerchief. The next day the friends once more repaired
+to the spot where the Princess had vanished, but in thoughtlessness
+the miller had eaten of the third apple, and once more the Princess
+found him asleep. In sorrow she promised to return next day for the
+last time, once more leaving a golden pear and a handkerchief with his
+friend, to whom she said:
+
+"If he is not awake when I come to-morrow he will have to cross three
+powers and three seas in order to find me."
+
+Unluckily, however, the miller was still asleep when the Princess
+appeared on the following day. She repeated what she had said to his
+friend concerning the ordeal that the unfortunate miller would have to
+face before he might see her again, and ere she took her departure
+left a third pear and a third handkerchief behind her. When the miller
+awoke and found that she had gone he went nearly crazy with grief, but
+nevertheless he declared his unalterable intention of regaining the
+Princess, even if he should have to travel to the ends of the earth in
+search of her. Accordingly he set out to find her abode. He walked and
+walked innumerable miles, until at last he came to a great forest. As
+he arrived at its gloomy borders night fell, and he considered it
+safest to climb a tree, from which, to his great satisfaction, he
+beheld a light shining in the distance. Descending, he walked in the
+direction of the light, and found a tiny hut made of the branches of
+trees, in which sat a little old man with a long white beard.
+
+"Good evening, grandfather," said the miller.
+
+"Good evening, my child," replied the old man. "I behold you with
+pleasure, for it is eighty years since I have seen any human being."
+
+The miller entered the hut and sat down beside the old man, and after
+some conversation told him the object of his journey.
+
+"I will help you, my son," said the ancient. "Do you see these
+enchanted gaiters? Well, I wore them at your age. When you buckle them
+over your legs you will be able to travel seven leagues at a single
+step, and you will arrive without any difficulty at the castle of the
+Princess you desire so much to see again."
+
+The miller passed the night in the hut with the old hermit, and on the
+following morning, with the rising of the sun, buckled on the magic
+gaiters and stepped out briskly. All went well to begin with, nothing
+arrested his progress, and he sped over rivers, forests, and
+mountains. As the sun was setting he came to the borders of a second
+forest, where he observed a second hut, precisely similar to that in
+which he had passed the previous night. Going toward it, he found it
+occupied by an aged woman, of whom he demanded supper and lodging.
+
+"Alas! my son," said the old woman, "you do ill to come here, for I
+have three sons, terrible fellows, who will be here presently, and I
+am certain that if you remain they will devour you."
+
+The miller asked the names of the sons, and was informed by the old
+woman that they were January, February, and March. From this he
+concluded that the crone he was addressing was none other than the
+mother of the winds, and on asking her if this was so she admitted
+that he had judged correctly. While they were talking there was a
+terrible commotion in the chimney, from which descended an enormous
+giant with white hair and beard, breathing out clouds of frost.
+
+"Aha!" he cried, "I see, mother, that you have not neglected to
+provide for my supper!"
+
+"Softly, softly, good son," said the old dame; "this is little Yves,
+my nephew and your cousin; you must not eat him." The giant, who
+seemed greatly annoyed, retired into a corner, growling. Shortly
+afterward his brothers, February and March, arrived, and were told the
+same tale regarding the miller's relationship to them.
+
+Our hero, resolved to profit by the acquaintanceship, asked the
+gigantic February if he would carry him to the palace of the Princess,
+whom he described.
+
+"Ah," said February, "without doubt you speak of the Princess
+Starbright. If you wish I will give you a lift on my back part of the
+way."
+
+The miller gratefully accepted the offer, and in the morning mounted
+on the back of the mighty wind-giant, who carried him over a great
+sea. Then, after traversing much land and a second ocean, and while
+crossing a third spacious water, February expressed himself as quite
+fatigued and said that he could not carry his new cousin any farther.
+The miller glanced beneath him at the great waste of waters and begged
+him to make an effort to reach the land on the other side. Giving vent
+to a deep-throated grumble, February obeyed, and at last set him down
+outside the walls of the town where the castle of the Princess
+Starbright was situated. The miller entered the town and came to an
+inn, and, having dined, entered into conversation with the hostess,
+asking her the news of the place.
+
+"Why," said the woman, amazed, "where do you come from that you don't
+know that the Princess Starbright is to be married to-day, and to a
+husband that she does not love? The wedding procession will pass the
+door in a few moments on its way to the church."
+
+The miller was greatly downcast at these words, but plucking up
+courage he placed on a little table before the inn the first of the
+pears and handkerchiefs that the Princess had left with his friend.
+Shortly afterward the wedding procession passed, and the Princess
+immediately remarked the pear and the kerchief, and also recognized
+the miller standing close by. She halted, and, feigning illness,
+begged that the ceremony might be postponed until the morrow. Having
+returned to the palace, she sent one of her women to purchase the
+fruit and the handkerchief, and these the miller gave the maiden
+without question. On the following day the same thing happened, and on
+the third occasion of the Princess's passing the same series of events
+occurred. This time the Princess sent for the miller, and the pair
+embraced tenderly and wept with joy at having recovered each other.
+
+Now the Princess was as clever as she was beautiful, and she had a
+stratagem by which she hoped to marry the miller without undue
+opposition on the part of her friends. So she procured the marriage
+garments of the prince, her _fiancé_, and attiring the miller in them,
+took him to the marriage feast, which had been prepared for the fourth
+time at a late hour; but she hid her lover in a secluded corner from
+the public gaze. After a while she pretended to be looking for
+something, and upon being asked what she had lost, replied:
+
+"I have a beautiful coffer, but, alas! I have lost the key of it. I
+have found a new key, but it does not fit the casket; should I not
+search until I have recovered the old one?"
+
+"Without doubt!" cried every one. Then the Princess, going to the
+place where the miller was concealed, led him forth by the hand.
+
+"My lords and gentles," she said, "the coffer I spoke of is my heart;
+here is the one key that can fit it, the key that I had lost and have
+found again."
+
+The Princess and the miller were married amid universal rejoicings;
+and some time after the ceremony they did not fail to revisit the Lake
+of Léguer, the scene of their first meeting, the legend of which still
+clings like the mists of evening to its shores.
+
+This quaint and curious tale, in which the native folk-lore and French
+elements are so strangely mingled, deals, like its predecessor, with
+the theme of the search for the fairy princess. We turn now to another
+tale of quest with somewhat similar incidents, where the solar nature
+of one of the characters is perhaps more obvious--the quest for the
+mortal maiden who has been carried off by the sun-hero. We refrain in
+this place from indicating the mythological basis which underlies such
+a tale as this, as such a phenomenon is already amply illustrated in
+other works in this series.
+
+
+_The Castle of the Sun_
+
+There once lived a peasant who had seven children, six of them boys
+and the seventh a girl. They were very poor and all had to work hard
+for a living, but the drudges of the family were the youngest son,
+Yvon, and his sister, Yvonne. Because they were gentler and more
+delicate than the others, they were looked upon as poor, witless
+creatures, and all the hardest work was given them to do. But the
+children comforted each other, and became but the better favoured as
+they grew up.
+
+One day when Yvonne was taking the cattle to pasture she encountered a
+handsome youth, so splendidly garbed that her simple heart was filled
+with awe and admiration. To her astonishment he addressed her and
+courteously begged her hand in marriage. "To-morrow," he said, "I
+shall meet you here at this hour, and you shall give me an answer."
+
+Troubled, yet secretly happy, Yvonne made her way home, and told her
+parents all that had chanced. At first they laughed her to scorn, and
+refused to believe her story of the handsome prince, but when at
+length they were convinced they told her she was free to marry whom
+she would.
+
+On the following day Yvonne betook herself to the trysting-place,
+where her lover awaited her, even more gloriously resplendent than on
+the occasion of his first coming. The very trappings of his horse were
+of gleaming gold. At Yvonne's request he accompanied her to her home,
+and made arrangements with her kindred for the marriage. To all
+inquiries regarding his name and place of abode he returned that these
+should be made known on the wedding morning.
+
+Time passed, and on the day appointed the glittering stranger came to
+claim his wife. The ceremony over, he swept her into a carriage and
+was about to drive away, when her brothers reminded him of his promise
+to reveal his identity.
+
+"Where must we go to visit our sister?" they asked.
+
+"Eastward," he replied, "to a palace built of crystal, beyond the Sea
+of Darkness."
+
+And with that the pair were gone.
+
+A year elapsed, and the brothers neither saw nor heard anything of
+their sister, so that at length they decided to go in search of her.
+Yvon would have accompanied them, but they bade him stay at home.
+
+"You are so stupid," they said, "you would be of no use to us."
+
+Eastward they rode, and ever eastward, till at length they found
+themselves in the heart of a great forest. Then night came on and they
+lost the path. Twice a great noise, like the riot of a tempest, swept
+over their heads, leaving them trembling and stricken with panic.
+
+By and by they came upon an old woman tending a great fire, and of her
+they inquired how they might reach the abode of their brother-in-law.
+
+"I cannot tell," said the old woman, "but my son may be able to direct
+you."
+
+For the third time they heard the noise as of a great wind racing over
+the tree-tops.
+
+"Hush!" said the old woman, "it is my son approaching."
+
+He was a huge giant, this son of hers, and when he drew near the fire
+he said loudly:
+
+"Oh ho! I smell the blood of a Christian!"
+
+"What!" cried his mother sharply. "Would you eat your pretty cousins,
+who have come so far to visit us?"
+
+At that the giant became quite friendly toward his 'cousins,' and when
+he learned of their mission even offered to conduct them part of the
+way.
+
+Notwithstanding his amiability, however, the brothers spent an anxious
+night, and were up betimes on the following morning.
+
+The giant made ready for departure. First of all he bade the old woman
+pile fresh fuel on the fire. Then he spread a great black cloth, on
+which he made the brothers stand. Finally he strode into the fire, and
+when his clothes were consumed the black cloth rose into the air,
+bearing the brothers with it. Its going was marked by the sound of
+rushing wind which had terrified them on the preceding day. At length
+they alighted on a vast plain, half of which was rich and fertile,
+while the other half was bleak and arid as a desert. The plain was
+dotted with horses, and, curiously enough, those on the arid side were
+in splendid condition, whereas those on the fertile part were thin and
+miserable.
+
+The brothers had not the faintest idea of which direction they ought
+to take, and after a vain attempt to mount the horses on the plain
+they decided to return home. After many wanderings they arrived at
+their native place once more.
+
+When Yvon learned of the ill-success which had attended their mission
+he decided to go himself in search of his sister, and though his
+brothers laughed at him they gave him an old horse and bade him go.
+
+Eastward and eastward he rode, till at length he reached the forest
+where the old woman still tended the fire. Seeing that he was strong
+and fearless, she directed him by a difficult and dangerous road,
+which, however, he must pursue if he wished to see his sister.
+
+It was indeed a place of terrors. Poisonous serpents lay across his
+track; ugly thorns and briers sprang underfoot; at one point a lake
+barred his way.
+
+Finally a subterranean passage led him into his sister's country,
+where everything was of crystal, shining with the splendour of the sun
+itself. At the end of a gleaming pathway rose a castle built entirely
+of crystal, its innumerable domes and turrets reflecting the light in
+a thousand prismatic hues.
+
+Having gained access to the castle through a cave, Yvon wandered
+through its many beautiful chambers, till in one of these he came
+upon his sister asleep on a silken couch.
+
+Entranced with her beauty, and not daring to wake her, he slipped
+behind a curtain and watched her in silence; but as time went on he
+marvelled that she did not wake.
+
+At eventide a handsome youth--Yvon's brother-in-law--entered the
+chamber, struck Yvonne sharply three times, then flung himself down by
+her side and went to sleep. All night Yvon waited in his place of
+concealment. In the morning the young man rose from his couch, gave
+his wife three resounding blows, and went away. Only then did Yvon
+emerge and wake his sister.
+
+Brother and sister exchanged a tender greeting, and found much to talk
+of after their long separation. Yvon learned that the country to which
+he had come was a peculiar place, where meat and drink could be
+entirely dispensed with, while even sleep was not a necessity.
+
+"Tell me, Yvonne," he said, remembering what he had seen of his
+brother-in-law, "does your husband treat you well?"
+
+Yvonne assured him that her husband was all she could wish--that she
+was perfectly happy.
+
+"Is he always absent during the day?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"Always."
+
+"Do you know where he goes?"
+
+"I do not, my brother."
+
+"I have a mind," said Yvon, "to ask him to let me accompany him on his
+journey. What say you, sister?"
+
+"It is a very good plan," said Yvonne.
+
+At sundown her husband returned home. He and Yvon became very good
+friends, and the latter begged to be allowed to accompany him on his
+journey the following day.
+
+"You may do so," was the response, "but only on one condition: if you
+touch or address anyone save me you must return home."
+
+Yvon readily agreed to accept the condition, and early next morning
+the two set off. Ere long they came to a wide plain, one half of which
+was green and fruitful, while the other half was barren and dry. On
+this plain cattle were feeding, and those on the arid part were fat
+and well-conditioned, while the others were mean and shrivelled to a
+degree. Yvon learned from his companion that the fat cattle
+represented those who were contented with their meagre lot, while the
+lean animals were those who, with a plentiful supply of worldly goods,
+were yet miserable and discontented.
+
+Many other strange things they saw as they went, but that which seemed
+strangest of all to Yvon was the sight of two trees lashing each other
+angrily with their branches, as though each would beat the other to
+the ground.
+
+Laying his hands on them, he forbade them to fight, and lo! in a
+moment they became two human beings, a man and wife, who thanked Yvon
+for releasing them from an enchantment under which they had been laid
+as a punishment for their perpetual bickering.
+
+Anon they reached a great cavern from which weird noises proceeded,
+and Yvon would fain have advanced farther; but his companion forbade
+him, reminding him that in disenchanting the trees he had failed to
+observe the one essential condition, and must return to the palace
+where his sister dwelt.
+
+There Yvon remained for a few days longer, after which his
+brother-in-law directed him by a speedy route to his home.
+
+"Go," said the prince, "but ere long you will return, and then it will
+be to remain with us for ever."
+
+On reaching his native village Yvon found all trace of his dwelling
+gone. Greatly bewildered, he inquired for his father by name. An old
+greybeard replied.
+
+"I have heard of him," he said. "He lived in the days when my
+grandfather's grandfather was but a boy, and now he sleeps in the
+churchyard yonder."
+
+Only then did Yvon realize that his visit to his sister had been one,
+not of days, but of generations!
+
+
+_The Seigneur with the Horse's Head_
+
+Famous among all peoples is the tale of the husband surrounded by
+mystery--bespelled in animal form, like the Prince in the story of
+Beauty and the Beast, nameless, as in that of Lohengrin, or unbeheld
+of his spouse, as in the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Among uncivilized
+peoples it is frequently forbidden to the wife to see her husband's
+face until some time after marriage, and the belief that ill-luck will
+befall one or both should this law be disregarded runs through
+primitive story, being perhaps reminiscent of a time when the man of
+an alien or unfriendly tribe crept to his wife's lodge or hut under
+cover of darkness and returned ere yet the first glimmer of dawn might
+betray him to the men of her people. The story which follows, however,
+deals with the theme of the enchanted husband whose wife must not
+speak to anyone until her first child receives the sacrament of
+baptism, and is, perhaps, unique of its kind.
+
+There lived at one time in the old château of Kerouez, in the commune
+of Loguivy-Plougras, a rich and powerful seigneur, whose only sorrow
+was the dreadful deformity of his son, who had come into the world
+with a horse's head. He was naturally kept out of sight as much as
+possible, but when he had attained the age of eighteen years he told
+his mother one day that he desired to marry, and requested her to
+interview a farmer in the vicinity who had three pretty young
+daughters, in order that she might arrange a match with one of them.
+
+The good lady did as she was requested, not without much embarrassment
+and many qualms of conscience, and after conversing upon every
+imaginable subject, at length gently broke the object of her visit to
+the astonished farmer. The poor man was at first horrified, but little
+by little the lady worked him into a good humour, so that at last he
+consented to ask his daughters if any one of them would agree to marry
+the afflicted young lord. The two elder girls indignantly refused the
+offer, but when it was made plain to them that she who espoused the
+seigneur would one day be châtelaine of the castle and become a fine
+lady, the eldest daughter somewhat reluctantly consented and the match
+was agreed upon.
+
+Some days afterward the bride-to-be happened to pass the castle and
+saw the servants washing the linen, when one cried to her:
+
+"How in the world can a fine girl like you be such a fool as to throw
+herself away on a man with a horse's head?"
+
+"Bah!" she replied, "he is rich, and, let me tell you, we won't be
+married for long, for on the bridal night I shall cut his throat."
+
+Just at that moment a gay cavalier passed and smiled at the farmer's
+daughter.
+
+"You are having a strange conversation, mademoiselle," he said. She
+coloured and looked somewhat confused.
+
+"Well, sir," she replied, "it is hateful to be mocked by these wenches
+because I have the bad luck to be espoused to a seigneur with a
+horse's head, and I assure you I feel so angry that I shall certainly
+carry out my threat."
+
+The unknown laughed shortly and went his way. In time the night of the
+nuptials arrived. A grand _fête_ was held at the château, and, the
+ceremony over, the bridesmaids conducted the young wife to her
+chamber. The bridegroom shortly followed, and to the surprise of his
+wife, no sooner had the hour of sunset come than his horse's head
+disappeared and he became exactly as other men. Approaching the bed
+where his bride lay, he suddenly seized her, and before she could cry
+out or make the least clamour he killed her in the manner in which she
+had threatened to kill him.
+
+In the morning his mother came to the chamber, and was horrified at
+the spectacle she saw.
+
+"Gracious heavens! my son, what have you done?" she cried.
+
+"I have done that, my mother," replied her son, "which was about to be
+done to me."
+
+Three months afterward the young seigneur asked his mother to repair
+once more to the farmer with the request that another of his daughters
+might be given him in marriage. The second daughter, ignorant of the
+manner of her sister's death, and mindful of the splendid wedding
+festivities, embraced the proposal with alacrity. Like her sister, she
+chanced to be passing the washing-green of the castle one day, and the
+laundresses, knowing of her espousal, taunted her upon it, so that at
+last she grew very angry and cried:
+
+"I won't be troubled long with the animal, I can assure you, for on
+the very night that I wed him I shall kill him like a pig!"
+
+At that very moment the same unknown gentleman who had overheard the
+fatal words of her sister passed, and said:
+
+"How now, young women, that's very strange talk of yours!"
+
+"Well, monseigneur," stammered the betrothed girl, "they are twitting
+me upon marrying a man with a horse's head; but I will cut his throat
+on the night of our wedding with as little conscience as I would cut
+the throat of a pig." The unknown gentleman laughed as he had done
+before and passed upon his way.
+
+As on the previous occasion, the wedding was celebrated with all the
+pomp and circumstance which usually attends a Breton ceremony of the
+kind, and in due time the bride was conducted to her chamber, only to
+be found in the morning weltering in her blood.
+
+At the end of another three months the seigneur dispatched his mother
+for the third time to the farmer, with the request that his younger
+daughter might be given him in marriage, but on this occasion her
+parents were by no means enraptured with the proposal. When the great
+lady, however, promised them that if they consented to the match they
+would be given the farm to have and to hold as their own property,
+they found the argument irresistible and reluctantly agreed. Strange
+to say, the girl herself was perfectly composed about the matter, and
+gave it as her opinion that if her sisters had met with a violent
+death they were entirely to blame themselves, for some reason which
+she could not explain, and she added that she thought that their loose
+and undisciplined way of talking had had much to do with their
+untimely fate. Just as her sisters had been, she too was taunted by
+the laundresses regarding her choice of a husband, but her answer to
+them was very different.
+
+"If they met with their deaths," she said, "it was because of their
+wicked utterances. I do not in the least fear that I shall have the
+same fate."
+
+As before the unknown seigneur passed, but this time, without saying
+anything, he hurried on his way and was soon lost to view.
+
+The wedding of the youngest sister was even more splendid than that of
+the two previous brides. On the following morning the young seigneur's
+mother hastened with fear and trembling to the marriage chamber, and
+to her intense relief found that her daughter-in-law was alive. For
+some months the bride lived happily with her husband, who every night
+at set of sun regained his natural appearance as a young and handsome
+man. In due time a son was born to them, who had not the least sign of
+his semi-equine parentage, and when they were about to have the infant
+baptized the father said to the young mother:
+
+"Hearken to what I have to say. I was condemned to suffer the horrible
+enchantment you know of until such time as a child should be born to
+me, and I shall be immediately delivered from the curse whenever this
+infant is baptized. But take care that you do not speak a word until
+the baptismal bells cease to sound, for if you utter a syllable, even
+to your mother, I shall disappear on the instant and you will never
+see me more."
+
+Full of the resolve not to utter a single sound, the young mother, who
+lay in bed, kept silent, until at last she heard the sound of bells,
+when, in her joy, forgetting the warning, she turned to her mother,
+who sat near, with words of congratulation on her lips. A few moments
+afterward her husband rushed into the room, the horse's head still
+upon his shoulders. He was covered with sweat, and panted fiercely.
+
+"Ah, miserable woman," he cried, "what have you done? I must leave
+you, and you shall never see me more!" and he made as if to quit the
+room. His wife rose from her bed, and strove to detain him, but he
+struck at her with his fist. The blood trickled out and made three
+spots on his shirt.
+
+"Behold these spots," cried the young wife; "they shall never
+disappear until I find you."
+
+"And I swear to you," cried her husband, "that you will never find me
+until you have worn out three pairs of iron shoes in doing so."
+
+With these words he ran off at such speed that the poor wife could not
+follow him, and, fainting, she sank to the ground.
+
+Some time after her husband had left her the young wife had three
+pairs of iron shoes made and went in search of him. After she had
+travelled about the world for nearly ten years the last pair of shoes
+began to show signs of wear, when she found herself one day at a
+castle where the servants were hanging out the clothes to dry, and she
+heard one of the laundresses say:
+
+"Do you see this shirt? I declare it is enchanted, for although I have
+washed it again and again I cannot rub out these three spots of blood
+which you see upon it."
+
+When the wanderer heard this she approached the laundress and said to
+her: "Let me try, I pray you. I think I can wash the shirt clean."
+
+They gave her the shirt, she washed it, and the spots disappeared. So
+grateful was the laundress that she bade the stranger go to the castle
+and ask for a meal and a bed. These were willingly granted her, and at
+night she was placed in a small apartment next to that occupied by the
+lord of the castle. From what she had seen she was sure that her
+husband was the lord himself, so when she heard the master of the
+house enter the room next door she knocked upon the boards which
+separated it from her own. Her husband, for he it was, replied from
+the other side; then, entering her room, he recognized his wife, and
+they were happily united after the years of painful separation. To the
+wife's great joy her husband was now completely restored to his proper
+form, and nothing occurred to mar their happiness for the rest of
+their lives.
+
+
+_The Bride of Satan_
+
+Weird and terrible as are many of the darksome legends of Brittany, it
+may be doubted if any are more awe-inspiring than that which we are
+now about to relate. "Those who are affianced three times without
+marrying shall burn in hell," says an old Breton proverb, and it is
+probably this aphorism which has given the Bretons such a strong
+belief in the sacred nature of a betrothal. The fantastic ballad from
+which this story is taken is written in the dialect of Léon, and the
+words are put into the mouth of a maiden of that country. Twice had
+she been betrothed. On the last occasion she had worn a robe of the
+finest stuff, embroidered with twelve brilliant stars and having the
+figures of the sun and moon painted upon it, like the lady in Madame
+d'Aulnoy's story of _Finette Cendron_ (_Cinderella_). On the occasion
+when she went to meet her third _fiancé_ in church she almost fainted
+as she turned with her maidens into the little road leading up to the
+building, for there before her was a great lord clad in steel
+_cap-à-pie_, wearing on his head a casque of gold, his shoulders
+covered by a blood-coloured mantle. Strange lights flashed from his
+eyes, which glittered under his casque like meteors. By his side stood
+a huge black steed, which ever and again struck the ground impatiently
+with his hoofs, throwing up sparks of fire.
+
+The priest was waiting in the church, the bridegroom arrived, but the
+bride did not come. Where had she gone? She had stepped on board a
+barque with the dark steel-clad lord, and the ship passed silently
+over the waters until it vanished among the shadows of night. Then the
+lady turned to her husband.
+
+"What gloomy waters are these through which we sail, my lord?" she
+asked.
+
+"This is the Lake of Anguish," he replied in hollow tones. "We sail to
+the Place of Skulls, at the mouth of Hell."
+
+At this the wretched bride wept bitterly. "Take back your wedding-ring!"
+she cried. "Take back your dowry and your bridal gifts!"
+
+But he answered not. Down they descended into horrid darkness, and as
+the unhappy maiden fell there rang in her ears the cries of the
+damned.
+
+[Illustration: THE BRIDE OF SATAN]
+
+This tale is common to many countries. The fickle maiden is everywhere
+regarded among primitive peoples with dislike and distrust. But
+perhaps the folk-ballad which most nearly resembles that just related
+is the Scottish ballad of _The Demon Lover_, which inspired the late
+Hamish MacCunn, the gifted Scottish composer, in the composition of
+his weird and striking orchestral piece, _The Ship o' the Fiend_.
+
+
+_The Baron of Jauioz_
+
+Another tradition which tells of the fate of an unhappy maiden is
+enshrined in the ballad of _The Baron of Jauioz_. Louis, Baron of
+Jauioz, in Languedoc, was a French warrior of considerable renown who
+flourished in the fourteenth century, and who took part in many of the
+principal events of that stirring epoch, fighting against the English
+in France and Flanders under the Duke of Berry, his overlord. Some
+years later he embarked for the Holy Land, but, if we may believe
+Breton tradition, he returned, and while passing through the duchy
+fell in love with and actually bought for a sum of money a young
+Breton girl, whom he carried away with him to France. The unfortunate
+maiden, so far from being attracted by the more splendid environment
+of his castle, languished and died.
+
+"I hear the note of the death-bird," the ballad begins sadly; "is it
+true, my mother, that I am sold to the Baron of Jauioz?"
+
+"Ask your father, little Tina, ask your father," is the callous reply,
+and the question is then put to her father, who requests the
+unfortunate damsel to ask her brother, a harsh rustic who does not
+scruple to tell her the brutal truth, and adds that she must depart
+immediately. The girl asks what dress she must wear, her red gown, or
+her gown of white delaine.
+
+"It matters little, my daughter," says the heartless mother. "Your
+lover waits at the door mounted on a great black horse. Go to him on
+the instant."
+
+As she leaves her native village the clocks are striking, and she
+weeps bitterly.
+
+"Adieu, Saint Anne!" she says. "Adieu, bells of my native land!"
+
+Passing the Lake of Anguish she sees a band of the dead, white and
+shadowy, crossing the watery expanse in their little boats. As she
+passes them she can hear their teeth chatter. At the Valley of Blood
+she espies other unfortunates. Their hearts are sunken in them and all
+memory has left them.
+
+After this terrible ride the Baron and Tina reach the castle of
+Jauioz. The old man seats himself near the fire. He is black and
+ill-favoured as a carrion crow. His beard and his hair are white, and
+his eyes are like firebrands.
+
+"Come hither to me, my child," says he, "come with me from chamber to
+chamber that I may show you my treasures."
+
+"Ah, seigneur," she replies, the tears falling fast, "I had rather be
+at home with my mother counting the chips which fall from the fire."
+
+"Let us descend, then, to the cellar, where I will show you the rich
+wines in the great bins."
+
+"Ah, sir, I would rather quaff the water of the fields that my
+father's horses drink."
+
+"Come with me, then, to the shops, and I will buy you a sumptuous
+gown."
+
+"Better that I were wearing the working dress that my mother made
+me."
+
+The seigneur turns from her in anger. She lingers at the window and
+watches the birds, begging them to take a message from her to her
+friends.
+
+At night a gentle voice whispers: "My father, my mother, for the love
+of God, pray for me!" Then all is silence.
+
+In this striking ballad we find strong traces of the Breton love of
+country and other national traits. The death-bird alluded to is a grey
+bird which sings during the winter in the Landes country in a voice
+soft and sad. It is probably a bird of the osprey species. It is
+thought that the girl who hears it sing is doomed to misfortune. The
+strange and ghostly journey of the unhappy Tina recalls the _mise en
+scène_ of such ballads as _The Bride of Satan_, and it would seem that
+she passes through the Celtic Tartarus. It is plain that the Seigneur
+of Jauioz by his purchase of their countrywoman became so unpopular
+among the freedom-loving Bretons that at length they magnified him
+into a species of demon--a traditionary fate which he thoroughly
+deserved, if the heartrending tale concerning his victim has any
+foundation in fact.
+
+
+_The Man of Honour_
+
+The tale of the man who is helped by the grateful dead is by no means
+confined to Brittany. Indeed, in folk-tale the dead are often jealous
+of the living and act toward them with fiendish malice. But in the
+following we have a story in which a dead man shows his gratitude to
+the living for receiving the boon of Christian burial at his hands.
+
+There was once a merchant-prince who had gained a great fortune by
+trading on land and sea. Many ships were his, and with these he traded
+to far countries, reaping a rich harvest. He had a son named Iouenn,
+and he was desirous that he too should embrace the career of a
+merchant and become rich. When, therefore, Iouenn declared his
+willingness to trade in distant lands his father was delighted and
+gave him a ship full of Breton merchandise, with instructions to sell
+it to the best advantage in a foreign country and return home with the
+gold thus gained.
+
+After a successful voyage the vessel arrived at a foreign port, and
+Iouenn presented his father's letters to the merchants there, and
+disposed of his cargo so well that he found himself in possession of a
+large sum of money. One day as he was walking on the outskirts of the
+city he saw a large number of dogs gathered round some object, barking
+at it and worrying it. Approaching them, he discovered that that which
+they were worrying was nothing less than the corpse of a man. Making
+inquiries, he found that the unfortunate wretch had died deeply in
+debt, and that his body had been thrown into the roadway to be eaten
+by the dogs. Iouenn was shocked to see such an indignity offered to
+the dead, and out of the kindness of his heart chased the dogs away,
+paid the debts of the deceased, and granted his body the last rites of
+sepulture.
+
+A few days afterward he left the port where these things had happened
+and set out on his homeward voyage. He had not sailed far when one of
+the mariners drew his attention to a strange ship a little distance
+away, which appeared to be draped entirely in black.
+
+"That is indeed a curious vessel," said Iouenn. "Wherefore is it
+draped in black? and for what reason do those on board bewail so
+loudly?"
+
+While he spoke the ship drew nearer, and Iouenn called to the people
+who thronged its decks, asking why they made such loud laments.
+
+"Alas! good sir," replied the captain of the strange ship, "not far
+from here is an island inhabited by an enormous serpent, which for
+seven years has demanded an annual tribute of a royal princess, and we
+are now bearing another victim to her doom."
+
+Iouenn laughed. "Where is the Princess?" he asked. At that moment the
+Princess came on deck, weeping and wringing her hands. Iouenn was so
+struck by her beauty that he there and then declared in the most
+emphatic manner that she should never become the prey of the serpent.
+On learning from the captain that he would hand over the maiden if a
+sufficient bribe were forthcoming, he paid over to him the last of the
+money he had gained from his trading, and taking the Princess on his
+own vessel sailed homeward.
+
+In due time Iouenn arrived home and was welcomed with delight by his
+father; but when the old man learned the story of what had been done
+with his money he was furious; nor would he believe for a moment that
+the lady his son had rescued was a veritable princess, but chased
+Iouenn from his presence with hard and bitter words. Nevertheless
+Iouenn married the royal lady he had rescued, and they started
+housekeeping in a tiny dwelling. Time went on, and the Princess
+presented her husband with a little son, but by this time fortune had
+smiled upon Iouenn, for an uncle of his, who was also a merchant, had
+entrusted him with a fine vessel to trade in Eastern lands; so, taking
+with him the portraits of his wife and child, he set out on his
+voyage. With a fresh wind and favourable conditions generally he was
+not long in coming to the city where his wife's father reigned. Now,
+some mariners of the port, having entered the ship out of curiosity,
+observed the portrait of the Princess, and informed the King of the
+circumstance. The King himself came to the ship and demanded to know
+what had become of his daughter. Iouenn did not, of course, realize
+that the monarch was his father-in-law, and assured him that he knew
+nothing of his daughter, whereupon the King, growing very angry, had
+him cast into prison and ordered his ship to be broken to pieces and
+burned. In prison Iouenn made friends with his gaoler, to whom he
+related his history, which the gaoler in turn told the King, with the
+result that the prisoner was brought before the monarch, who desired
+him to set out at once to bring his daughter back, and for this
+purpose fitted him out with a new vessel. But the old monarch took the
+precaution of sending two of his ministers along with the Breton
+sailor in case he should not return. The party soon came to Brittany,
+and found the Princess and her infant safe.
+
+Now one of the King's ministers had loved the Princess for a long
+time, and consequently did not regard her husband with any great
+degree of favour; so when they re-embarked on the return journey to
+her father's kingdom her suspicions were aroused, and, fully aware of
+the minister's crafty nature, she begged her husband to remain with
+her as much as possible. But Iouenn liked to be on the bridge, whence
+he could direct the operations of his mariners, and laughed at his
+wife's fears. One night as he leaned over the side of the vessel,
+gazing upon the calm of the star-strewn sea, his enemy approached very
+stealthily and, seizing him by the legs, cast him headlong into the
+waters. After this he waited for a few moments, and, hearing no
+sound, cried out that the captain had fallen overboard. A search was
+made, but with no avail. The Princess was distraught, and in the
+belief that her husband had perished remained in her cabin lamenting.
+But Iouenn was a capital swimmer and struck out lustily. He swam
+around for a long time, without, however, encountering any object upon
+which he could lay hold to support himself. Meanwhile the ship sailed
+on her course, and in due time arrived at the kingdom of the
+Princess's father, by whom she was received with every demonstration
+of joy. Great festivities were announced, and so pleased was the old
+King at his daughter's return that he willingly consented to her
+marriage with the treacherous minister, whom he regarded as the
+instrument of her deliverance. But the Princess put off the
+wedding-day by every possible artifice, for she felt in her heart that
+her husband was not really lost to her.
+
+Let us return now to Iouenn. After swimming for some time he came upon
+a barren rock in the middle of the ocean, and here, though beaten upon
+by tempests and without any manner of shelter save that afforded by a
+cleft in the rock, he succeeded in living for three years upon the
+shell-fish which he gathered on the shores of his little domain. In
+that time he had grown almost like a savage. His clothes had fallen
+off him and he was thickly covered with matted hair. The only mark of
+civilization he bore was a chain of gold encircling his neck, the gift
+of his wife. One night he was sitting in his small dwelling munching
+his wretched supper of shell-fish when an eerie sound broke the
+stillness. He started violently. Surely these were human accents that
+he heard--yet not altogether human, for their weird cadence held
+something of the supernatural, and cold as he was he felt himself
+grow still more chilly.
+
+"Cold, cold," cried the voice, and a dreadful chattering of teeth
+ended in a long-drawn wail of "Hou, hou, hou!"
+
+The sound died away and once more he was left amid the great silence
+of the sea.
+
+The next evening brought the same experience, but although Iouenn was
+brave he dared not question his midnight visitor. On the third
+occasion, however, he demanded: "Who is there?"
+
+Out of the darkness there crawled a man completely naked, his body
+covered with blood and horrible wounds, the eyes fixed and glassy.
+
+Iouenn trembled with horror. "In the name of God, who are you?" he
+cried.
+
+"Ha, so you do not remember me, Iouenn?" asked the phantom. "I am that
+unfortunate man whose body you gave decent burial, and now I have come
+to help you in turn. Without doubt you wish to leave this desert rock
+on which you have suffered so long."
+
+"I do, most devoutly," replied Iouenn.
+
+"Well, you will have to make haste," said the dead man, "for
+to-morrow your wife is going to be married to the minister of your
+father-in-law, the wretch who cast you into the sea. Now if you will
+promise to give me a share of all that belongs to yourself and your
+wife within a year and a day, I will carry you at once to the palace
+of your father-in-law."
+
+Iouenn promised to do as the phantom requested, and the dread being
+then asked him to mount upon his back. Iouenn did so, and the corpse
+then plunged into the sea, and, swimming swiftly, soon brought him to
+the port where his father-in-law reigned. When it had set him safely
+on shore it turned and with a wave of its gaunt white arm cried, "In a
+year and a day," then plunged back into the sea.
+
+When the door-keeper of the palace opened the gate in the morning he
+was astounded to see what appeared to be an animal crouching on the
+ground outside and crying for help. It was Iouenn. The palace lackeys
+crowded round him and threw him morsels of bread, which he devoured
+with avidity. One of the waiting-women told the Princess of the
+strange being who crouched outside. She descended in order to view
+him, and at once observed the golden chain she had given to her
+husband round his neck. Iouenn immediately rushed to embrace her. She
+took him to her chamber and clothed him suitably. By this time the
+bridal preparations had been completed, and, like the Princess in the
+story of the Miller of Léguer, the bride asked the advice of the
+company as to whether it were better to search for an old key that
+fitted a coffer in her possession or make use of a new key which did
+not fit; the coffer, of course, being her heart and the respective
+keys her husband and the minister. All the company advised searching
+for the old key, when she produced Iouenn and explained what she had
+meant. The crafty minister grew pale as death at sight of Iouenn, and
+the King stormed furiously.
+
+"Ho, there!" he cried, "build a great fire, varlets, and cast this
+slave into it." All the company thought at first that his words were
+intended to apply to Iouenn, but when they saw him point at the
+minister whose guilt the Princess had made plain, they applauded and
+the wretch was hurried away to his doom.
+
+Iouenn and the Princess lived happily at the Court, and in time a
+second little son was born to them. Their first child had died, and
+they were much rejoiced at its place being filled. Iouenn had entirely
+forgotten his indebtedness to the dead man, but one day in the month
+of November, when his wife was sitting quietly by the fire nursing her
+infant, with her husband opposite her, three loud knocks resounded
+upon the door, which flew open and revealed the horrible form of the
+corpse to which Iouenn owed his freedom. The Princess shrieked at
+sight of the phantom, which said in deep tones: "Iouenn, remember thy
+bargain."
+
+Trembling, Iouenn turned to his wife and asked her for the keys of
+their treasure-house, that he might give their terrible visitor a
+portion of their wealth, but with a disdainful wave of its arm the
+apparition bade him cease. "It is not your wealth I require, Iouenn,"
+it said in hollow tones. "Behold that which I desire," and it pointed
+to the infant slumbering in its mother's arms.
+
+Once more the Princess cried aloud, and clasped her little one to her
+bosom.
+
+"My infant!" cried Iouenn in despair. "Never!"
+
+"If you are a man of honour," said the corpse, "think of your promise
+made on the barren rock."
+
+"It is true," said Iouenn, wringing his hands, "but oh, remember how I
+saved your body from the dogs."
+
+"I only ask what is my due," said the ghost. "Besides, I do not desire
+all your infant, but a share of it only."
+
+"Wretch!" cried Iouenn, "are you without a heart? Have then your wish,
+for honour with me is above all." The infant was then undressed and
+laid between the two upon a table.
+
+"Take your sword," said the phantom, "and cut off a portion for me."
+
+"Ah, I would that I were on that desert rock in the middle of the
+ocean!" cried the unhappy father. He raised his weapon and was about
+to strike, when the phantom called upon him to hold.
+
+"Harm not your infant, Iouenn," it cried. "I see clearly that you are
+a man of honour and that you have not forgotten the service I rendered
+you; nor do I fail to remember what you did for me, and how it is
+through you that I am able to dwell in Paradise, which I would not
+have been permitted to enter had my debts not been paid and my body
+given burial. Farewell, until we meet above." And with these words the
+apparition vanished.
+
+Iouenn and the Princess lived long, respected by all, and when the old
+King died Iouenn, the man of his word, was made King in his place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI: BRETON FOLK-TALES
+
+
+The stories told here under the title of 'folk-tales' are such as do
+not partake so much of the universal element which enters so largely
+into Breton romance, but those which have a more national or even
+local tinge and are yet not legendary. The homely flavour attached to
+many stories of this kind is very apparent, and it is evident that
+they have been put together in oral form by unknown 'makers,' some of
+whom had either a natural or artistic aptitude for story-telling. In
+the first of the following tales it is curious to note how the ancient
+Breton theme has been put by its peasant narrator into almost a modern
+dress.
+
+
+_The Magic Rose_
+
+An aged Breton couple had two sons, the elder of whom went to Paris to
+seek his fortune, while the younger one was timid by nature and would
+not leave the paternal roof. His mother, who felt the burden of her
+age, wished the stay-at-home to marry. At first he would not hear of
+the idea, but at last, persuaded by her, he took a wife. He had only
+been married a few weeks, however, when his young bride sickened and
+died. La Rose, for such was his name, was inconsolable. Every evening
+he went to the cemetery where his wife was buried, and wept over her
+tomb.
+
+One night he was about to enter the graveyard on his sad errand when
+he beheld a terrible phantom standing before him, which asked him in
+awful tones what he did there.
+
+"I am going to pray at the tomb of my wife," replied the terrified La
+Rose.
+
+"Do you wish that she were alive again?" asked the spirit.
+
+"Ah, yes!" cried the sorrowing husband. "There is nothing that I would
+not do in order that she might be restored to me."
+
+"Hearken, then," said the phantom. "Return to this place to-morrow
+night at the same hour. Provide yourself with a pick and you will see
+what comes to pass."
+
+On the following night the young widower was punctually at the
+rendezvous. The phantom presented itself before him and said:
+
+"Go to the tomb of your wife and strike it with your pick; the earth
+will turn aside and you will behold her lying in her shroud. Take this
+little silver box, which contains a rose; open it and pass it before
+her nostrils three times, when she will awake as if from a deep
+sleep."
+
+La Rose hastened to the tomb of his wife, and everything happened as
+the phantom had predicted. He placed the box containing the rose to
+his wife's nostrils and she awoke with a sigh, saying: "Ah, I have
+been asleep for a long time." Her husband provided her with clothes
+which he had brought with him, and they returned to their house, much
+to the joy of his parents.
+
+Some time afterward La Rose's father died at a great age, and the
+grief-stricken mother was not long in following him to the grave. La
+Rose wrote to his brother in Paris to return to Brittany in order to
+receive his portion of the paternal inheritance, but he was unable to
+leave the capital, so La Rose had perforce to journey to Paris. He
+promised his wife before leaving that he would write to her every
+day, but on his arrival in the city he found his brother very ill, and
+in the anxiety of nursing him back to health he quite forgot to send
+his wife news of how he fared.
+
+The weeks passed and La Rose's wife, without word of her husband,
+began to dread that something untoward had happened to him. Day by day
+she sat at her window weeping and watching for the courier who brought
+letters from Paris. A regiment of dragoons chanced to be billeted in
+the town, and the captain, who lodged at the inn directly opposite La
+Rose's house, was greatly attracted by the young wife. He inquired of
+the landlady who was the beautiful dame who sat constantly weeping at
+her window, and learned the details of her history. He wrote a letter
+to her purporting to come from La Rose's brother in Paris, telling her
+that her husband had died in the capital, and some time after paid his
+addresses to the supposed widow, who accepted him. They were married,
+and when the regiment left the town the newly wedded pair accompanied
+it.
+
+Meanwhile La Rose's brother recovered from his illness, and the eager
+husband hastened back to Brittany. But when he arrived at his home he
+was surprised to find the doors closed, and was speedily informed of
+what had occurred during his absence. For a while he was too
+grief-stricken to act, but, recovering himself somewhat, he resolved
+to enlist in the regiment of dragoons in which the false captain held
+his commission. The beauty of his handwriting procured him the post of
+secretary to one of the lieutenants, but although he frequently
+attempted to gain sight of his wife he never succeeded in doing so.
+One day the captain entered the lieutenant's office, observed the
+writing of La Rose, and asked his brother officer if he would kindly
+lend him his secretary for a few days to assist him with some
+correspondence. While helping the captain La Rose beheld his wife, who
+did not, however, recognize him. Greatly pleased with his work, the
+captain invited him to dinner. During the repast a servant, who had
+stolen a silver dish, fearing that it was about to be missed, slid it
+into La Rose's pocket, and when it could not be found, accused the
+secretary of the theft. La Rose was brought before a court-martial,
+which condemned him to be shot.
+
+While in prison awaiting his execution La Rose struck up an
+acquaintance with an old veteran named Père La Chique, who brought him
+his meals and seemed kindly disposed to him.
+
+"Père La Chique," said La Rose one day, "I have two thousand francs;
+if you will do as I ask you they shall be yours."
+
+The veteran promised instantly, and La Rose requested that after he
+was shot La Chique should go to the cemetery where he was buried and
+resuscitate him with the magic rose, which he had carefully preserved.
+On the appointed day La Rose was duly executed, but Père La Chique,
+with his pockets full of money, went from inn to inn, drinking and
+making merry. Whenever the thought of La Rose crossed his mind, he
+muttered to himself in bibulous accents: "Poor fellow, poor fellow, he
+is better dead. This is a weary world; why should I bring him back to
+it?"
+
+When Père La Chique had caroused with his comrades for some days the
+two thousand francs had almost disappeared. Then remorse assailed him
+and he made up his mind to do as La Rose had wished. Taking a pick
+and an axe he went to the graveyard, but when he struck the grave with
+his tools and the earth rolled back, disclosing the body of La Rose,
+the old fellow was so terrified that he ran helter-skelter from the
+spot. A draught of good wine brought back his failing courage,
+however, and he returned and passed the rose three times under the
+nostrils of his late acquaintance. Instantly La Rose sat up.
+
+"By my faith, I've had a good sleep!" he said, rubbing his eyes.
+"Where are my clothes?"
+
+Père La Chique handed him his garments, and after he had donned them
+they quitted the graveyard with all haste.
+
+La Rose now found it necessary to cast about for a living. One day he
+heard the sound of a drum in the street, and, following it, found that
+it was beaten by a crier who promised in the King's name a large
+reward to those who would enlist as sentinels to guard a chapel where
+the King's daughter, who had been changed into a monster, was
+imprisoned. La Rose accepted the offer, and then learned to his dismay
+that the sentinel who guarded the place between the hours of eleven
+and midnight was never seen again. On the very first night that he
+took up his duties this perilous watch fell to his lot. He felt his
+courage deserting him, and he was about to fly when he heard a voice
+say: "La Rose, where are you?"
+
+La Rose trembled. "What do you wish with me?" he asked.
+
+"Hearken to me, and no evil will befall you," replied the voice. "Soon
+a great and grisly beast will appear. Leave your musket by the side of
+the sentry-box, climb on the top, and the beast will not touch you."
+
+As eleven o'clock struck La Rose heard a noise and hastened to climb
+on the top of the sentry-box. Soon a hideous monster came out of the
+chapel, breathing flames and crying: "Sentinel of my father, where art
+thou, that I may devour thee?" As it uttered these words, it fell
+against the musket, which it seized between its teeth. Then the
+creature disappeared into the chapel and La Rose descended from his
+perch. He found the musket broken into a thousand pieces.
+
+The old King was delighted to learn that his sentinel had not been
+devoured, for in order that his daughter should be delivered from her
+enchantment as a beast it was necessary that the same sentinel should
+mount guard for three consecutive nights between the hours of eleven
+and midnight.
+
+On the following night La Rose was pacing up and down on guard, when
+the same voice addressed him, telling him on this occasion to place
+his musket before the door of the chapel. The beast issued as before,
+seized the musket, broke it into small pieces, and returned to the
+chapel. On the third night the voice advised him to throw open the
+door of the chapel, and when the beast came out to run into the
+building himself, where he would see a leaden shrine, behind which he
+could take refuge, and where he would find a small bottle, with the
+contents of which he was to sprinkle the beast's head. With its usual
+dreadful roar the monster issued from the chapel. La Rose leapt past
+it and ran for the leaden shrine. It followed him with hideous howls,
+and he only reached the protective sanctuary in time. Seizing the
+little bottle which lay there, he fearlessly fronted the beast and
+sprinkled its contents over its head. Instantly it changed into a
+beautiful princess, whom La Rose escorted to her delighted parents. La
+Rose and the princess were betrothed and duly married, and shortly
+afterward the King gave up his throne to his son-in-law.
+
+One day the new King was inspecting the regiment of dragoons to which
+he had once belonged.
+
+"Colonel," he said, "I miss a man from your regiment."
+
+"It is true, sire," replied the Colonel. "It is an old fellow called
+Père La Chique, whom we have left at the barracks playing his violin,
+the old good-for-nothing!"
+
+"I wish to see him," said the King.
+
+Père La Chique was brought forward trembling, and the King, tearing
+the epaulettes from the shoulders of the captain who had stolen his
+wife, placed them on those of Père La Chique. He then gave orders for
+a great fire to be lit, in which were burned the wicked captain and
+the wife who had so soon forgotten her husband.
+
+La Rose and his Queen lived happily ever afterward--which is rather
+odd, is it not, when one thinks of the treatment meted out to his
+resuscitated spouse? But if the lights in folk-tale are bright, the
+shadows are correspondingly heavy, and rarely does justice go hand in
+hand with mercy in legend!
+
+
+_Norouas, the North-west Wind_
+
+Brittany has an entire cycle of folk-tales dealing with the subject of
+the winds--which, indeed, play an extraordinary part in Breton
+folk-lore. The fishermen of the north coast frequently address the
+winds as if they were living beings, hurling opprobrious epithets at
+them if the direction in which they blow does not suit their purpose,
+shaking their fists at them in a most menacing manner the while. The
+following story, the only wind-tale it is possible to give here, well
+illustrates this personalization of the winds by the Breton folk.
+
+There was once a goodman and his wife who had a little field on which
+they grew flax. One season their patch yielded a particularly fine
+crop, and after it had been cut they laid it out to dry. But Norouas,
+the North-west Wind, came along and with one sweep of his mighty wings
+tossed it as high as the tree-tops, so that it fell into the sea and
+was lost.
+
+When the goodman saw what had happened he began to swear at the Wind,
+and, taking his stick, he set out to follow and slay Norouas, who had
+spoiled his flax. So hasty had he been in setting forth that he had
+taken no food or money with him, and when evening came he arrived at
+an inn hungry and penniless. He explained his plight to the hostess,
+who gave him a morsel of bread and permitted him to sleep in a corner
+of the stable. In the morning he asked the dame the way to the abode
+of Norouas, and she conducted him to the foot of a mountain, where she
+said the Winds dwelt.
+
+The goodman climbed the mountain, and at the top met with Surouas, the
+South-west Wind.
+
+"Are you he whom they call Norouas?" he asked.
+
+"No, I am Surouas," said the South-west Wind.
+
+"Where then is that villain Norouas?" cried the goodman.
+
+"Hush!" said Surouas, "do not speak so loud, goodman, for if he hears
+you he will toss you into the air like a straw."
+
+At that moment Norouas arrived, whistling wildly and vigorously.
+
+"Ah, thief of a Norouas," cried the goodman, "it was you who stole my
+beautiful crop of flax!" But the Wind took no notice of him.
+Nevertheless he did not cease to cry: "Norouas, Norouas, give me back
+my flax!"
+
+"Hush, hush!" cried Norouas. "Here is a napkin that will perhaps make
+you keep quiet."
+
+"With my crop of flax," howled the goodman, "I could have made a
+hundred napkins such as this. Norouas, give me back my flax!"
+
+"Be silent, fellow," said Norouas. "This is no common napkin which I
+give you. You have only to say, 'Napkin, unfold thyself,' to have the
+best spread table in the world standing before you."
+
+The goodman took the napkin with a grumble, descended the mountain,
+and there, only half believing what Norouas had said, placed the
+napkin before him, saying, "Napkin, unfold thyself." Immediately a
+table appeared spread with a princely repast. The odour of cunningly
+cooked dishes arose, and rare wines sparkled in glittering vessels.
+After he had feasted the table vanished, and the goodman folded up his
+napkin and went back to the inn where he had slept the night before.
+
+"Well, did you get any satisfaction out of Norouas?" asked the
+hostess.
+
+"Indeed I did," replied the goodman, producing the napkin. "Behold
+this: Napkin, unfold thyself!" and as he spoke the magic table appeared
+before their eyes. The hostess, struck dumb with astonishment, at
+once became covetous and resolved to have the napkin for herself. So
+that night she placed the goodman in a handsome apartment where
+there was a beautiful bed with a soft feather mattress, on which he
+slept more soundly than ever he had done in his life. When he was fast
+asleep the cunning hostess entered the room and stole the napkin,
+leaving one of similar appearance in its place.
+
+In the morning the goodman set his face homeward, and duly arrived
+at his little farm. His wife eagerly asked him if Norouas had made
+good the damage done to the flax, to which her husband replied
+affirmatively and drew the substituted napkin from his pocket.
+
+"Why," quoth the dame, "we could have made two hundred napkins like
+this out of the flax that was destroyed."
+
+"Ah, but," said the goodman, "this napkin is not the same as others. I
+have only to say, 'Napkin, unfold thyself,' and a table covered with a
+most splendid feast appears. Napkin, unfold thyself--unfold thyself,
+dost thou hear?"
+
+"You are an old fool, goodman," said his wife when nothing happened.
+Her husband's jaw dropped and he seized his stick.
+
+"I have been sold by that rascal Norouas," he cried. "Well, I shall
+not spare him this time," and without more ado he rushed out of the
+house and took the road to the home of the Winds.
+
+He slept as before at the inn, and next morning climbed the mountain.
+He began at once to call loudly upon Norouas, who was whistling up
+aloft, demanding that he should return him his crop of flax.
+
+"Be quiet, down there!" cried Norouas.
+
+"I shall not be quiet!" screamed the goodman, brandishing his
+bludgeon. "You have made matters worse by cheating me with that napkin
+of yours!"
+
+"Well, well, then," replied Norouas, "here is an ass; you have only to
+say 'Ass, make me some gold,' and it will fall from his tail."
+
+The goodman, eager to test the value of the new gift, at once led the
+ass to the foot of the mountain and said: "Ass, make me some gold."
+The ass shook his tail, and a _rouleau_ of gold pieces fell to the
+ground. The goodman hastened to the inn, where, as before, he
+displayed the phenomenon to the hostess, who that night went into the
+stable and exchanged for the magical animal another similar in
+appearance to it. On the evening of the following day the goodman
+returned home and acquainted his wife with his good luck, but when he
+charged the ass to make gold and nothing happened, she railed at him
+once more for a fool, and in a towering passion he again set out to
+slay Norouas. Arrived at the mountain for the third time, he called
+loudly on the North-west Wind, and when he came heaped insults and
+reproaches upon him.
+
+"Softly," replied Norouas; "I am not to blame for your misfortune. You
+must know that it is the hostess at the inn where you slept who is the
+guilty party, for she stole your napkin and your ass. Take this
+cudgel. When you say to it, 'Strike, cudgel,' it will at once attack
+your enemies, and when you want it to stop you have only to cry, '_Ora
+pro nobis_.'"
+
+The goodman, eager to test the efficacy of the cudgel, at once said to
+it, "Strike, cudgel," whereupon it commenced to belabour him so
+soundly that he yelled, "_Ora pro nobis!_" when it ceased.
+
+Returning to the inn in a very stormy mood, he loudly demanded the
+return of his napkin and his ass, whereupon the hostess threatened to
+fetch the gendarmes.
+
+"Strike, cudgel!" cried the goodman, and the stick immediately set
+about the hostess in such vigorous style that she cried to the goodman
+to call it off and she would at once return his ass and his napkin.
+
+When his property had been returned to him the goodman lost no time in
+making his way homeward, where he rejoiced his wife by the sight of
+the treasures he brought with him. He rapidly grew rich, and his
+neighbours, becoming suspicious at the sight of so much wealth, had
+him arrested and brought before a magistrate on a charge of wholesale
+murder and robbery. He was sentenced to death, and on the day of his
+execution he was about to mount the scaffold, when he begged as a last
+request that his old cudgel might be brought him. The boon was
+granted, and no sooner had the stick been given into his hands than he
+cried, "Strike, cudgel!"
+
+And the cudgel _did_ strike. It belaboured judge, gendarmes, and
+spectators in such a manner that they fled howling from the scene. It
+demolished the scaffold and cracked the hangman's crown. A great cry
+for mercy arose. The goodman was instantly pardoned, and was never
+further molested in the enjoyment of the treasures the North-west Wind
+had given him as compensation for his crop of flax.
+
+
+_The Foster-Brother_
+
+The weird tale which follows has many parallels in world folk-lore, but
+is localized at Tréguier, an old cathedral town in the Côtes-du-Nord at
+the junction of the Jaudy and the Guindy, famous for the beautiful
+windows of its celebrated church, founded by St Tugdual.
+
+Gwennolaïk was the most noble and beautiful maiden in Tréguier, but,
+alas! she was almost friendless, for at an early age she had lost her
+father, her mother, and her two sisters, and her sole remaining
+relative was her stepmother. Pitiful it was to see her standing at the
+door of her manor, weeping as if her heart would break. But although
+she had none of her own blood to cherish she still nursed the hope
+that her foster-brother, who had journeyed abroad for some years,
+might one day return, and often would she stand gazing fixedly over
+the sea as if in search of the vessel that would bring him home. They
+had been playmates, and although six years had passed since he had
+left the country, the time had gone quickly, and when Gwennolaïk
+thought of the young man it was as the boy who had shared the games
+and little amusements of her childhood. From these day-dreams she
+would be rudely awakened by the harsh voice of her stepmother calling
+to her: "Come here, my girl, and attend to the animals. I don't feed
+you for loafing and doing nothing."
+
+Poor Gwennolaïk had a sad life with her stepmother. Noble as she was
+she was yet forced by the vindictive old woman to rise in the early
+hours of the morning, even two or three hours before daylight in
+winter, to light the fire and sweep the house and perform other menial
+work. One evening as she was breaking the ice in the well in order to
+draw water for the household she was interrupted by a cavalier
+returning to Nantes.
+
+"Good e'en to you, maiden. Are you affianced to anyone?"
+
+The girl did not reply, but hung her head.
+
+"Come, don't be afraid," said the handsome horseman, "but answer my
+question."
+
+She looked at him almost fearfully. "Saving your grace, I have never
+been affianced to anyone."
+
+"Good," replied the cavalier. "Take this gold ring and say to your
+stepmother that you are now affianced to a cavalier of Nantes who
+has been in a great battle and who has lost his squire in the
+combat; and you may also add that he has been wounded in the side
+by a sword-stroke. In three weeks and three days, when my wound is
+healed, I will return and will take you to my manor with joy and
+festival."
+
+The maiden returned to the house and looked at the ring. It was the
+same as her foster-brother used to wear on his left hand!
+
+Three weeks ran by, but the cavalier did not return. Then the
+stepmother said one morning: "It is time, daughter, that you should
+marry, and I may tell you that I have found you a husband after my own
+heart."
+
+"Saving your grace, good stepmother, I do not wish to marry anyone
+except my foster-brother, who has returned. He has given me a golden
+wedding-ring, and has promised to come for me within a few days."
+
+"A fig for your gold ring," cried the malignant hag. "_Bon gré, mal
+gré_, you shall marry Job the Witless, the stable boy."
+
+"Marry Job! Oh, horror! I should die of grief! Alas, my mother, were
+you but here now to protect me!"
+
+"If you must howl, pray do so in the courtyard. You may make as many
+grimaces as you please, but in three days you shall be married for all
+that."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The old gravedigger slowly patrolled the road, his bell in his hand,
+carrying the news of those who had died from village to village. In
+his doleful whine he cried: "Pray for the soul of a noble cavalier, a
+worthy gentleman of a good heart, who was mortally wounded in the side
+by the stroke of a sword in the battle near Nantes. He is to be buried
+to-day in the White Church."
+
+At the marriage feast the bride was all in tears. All the guests,
+young and old, wept with her, all except her stepmother. She was
+conducted to the place of honour at supper-time, but she only drank a
+sip of water and ate a morsel of bread. By and by the dancing
+commenced, but when it was proposed that the bride should join in the
+revels she was not to be found; she had, indeed, escaped from the
+house, her hair flying in disorder, and where she had gone no one
+knew.
+
+All the lights were out at the manor, every one slept profoundly. The
+poor young woman alone lay concealed in the garden in the throes of a
+fever. She heard a footstep close by. "Who is there?" she asked
+fearfully.
+
+"It is I, Nola, your foster-brother."
+
+"Ah, is it you? You are truly welcome, my dear brother," cried
+Gwennolaïk, rising in rapture.
+
+"Come with me," he whispered, and swinging her on to the crupper of
+his white horse he plunged madly into the night.
+
+"We fly fast," she cried. "We must have ridden a hundred leagues, I
+think. Ah, but I am happy with thee! I will never leave thee more."
+
+The owl hooted and night noises came to her ears.
+
+"Ah, but thy horse is swift," said she, "and thine armour, how
+brilliant it is! How happy I am to have found thee, my foster-brother!
+But are we near thy manor?"
+
+[Illustration: GWENNOLAÏK AND NOLA]
+
+"We shall arrive there in good time, my sister," he replied.
+
+"Thy heart is cold, thy hair is wet! Ah, how chill are thy hands!"
+
+"Listen, my sister; do you not hear the noise of the gay musicians who
+shall play at our wedding?" He had not finished speaking when his
+horse threw itself back on its haunches all at once, trembling and
+whinnying loudly.
+
+Gwennolaïk looked around, and found herself on an island where a crowd
+of people were dancing. Lads and lasses, they danced most bravely
+beneath the green trees heavy with apples, and the music to which they
+tripped was as that of heaven.
+
+Suddenly the sun rose above the eastern mountains and flooded this
+strange new world with rich light, and there Gwennolaïk found her
+mother and her two sisters, and there was nothing in her heart but
+beauty and joy.
+
+On the following morning, as the sun rose, the young women carried the
+body of Gwennolaïk and laid it in the tomb of her foster-brother in
+the White Church.
+
+In this ballad--for the original from which we take the tale is cast
+in ballad form--we are once more in touch with the Celtic Otherworld.
+It is a thousand pities that this interesting piece breaks off where
+it does, thus failing to provide us with a fuller account of that most
+elusive realm. The short glimpse we do get of it, however, reminds us
+very much of the descriptions of it we possess in Irish lore. We have
+also once more the phenomenon of the dead lover who comes to claim the
+living bride, the midnight gallop, and other circumstances
+characteristic of ballad literature. There was a tradition in Lower
+Brittany, however, that no soul might be admitted to the other world
+which had not first received burial, but here, of course, we must look
+for Christian influence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII: POPULAR LEGENDS OF BRITTANY
+
+
+"The legend," says Gomme, in a passage most memorable for students of
+folk-lore as containing his acute and precise definition of the
+several classes of tradition, "belongs to an historical personage,
+locality, or event,"[40] and it is in this general sense that the term
+is employed in regard to the contents of this chapter, unless where
+mythic or folk-lore matter is introduced for the sake of analogy or
+illustration. There is, however, a broad, popular reading of the term
+as indicating the fanciful-historical. When we read of the King of Ys,
+or Arthur, for example, we are not aware whether they ever existed or
+not, but they are alluded to by tradition as ancient rulers of
+Brittany and Britain, just as Cymbeline and Cole are spoken of as
+British monarchs of the distant past. They linger as personal figures
+in the folk-memory, but they scarcely seem as the personages of
+folk-tale. Let us say, then, for the purposes of our classification of
+Breton tradition, that we include in the term 'legend' all tales of
+great personal figures who are historical or over whom folk-tale has
+cast an historical _vraisemblance_, remembering at the same time that
+in the case of personages whose existence is doubtful we may be
+dealing with a folk-tale disguised or even a distorted myth.
+
+
+_The Dark Story of Gilles de Retz_
+
+Of the dark and terrible legends to which Brittany has given birth,
+one of the most gloomy and romantic is the story of Gilles de Retz,
+alchemist, magician, and arch-criminal. But the story is not
+altogether legendary, although it has undoubtedly been added to from
+the great stores of tradition. Gilles is none other than the Bluebeard
+of the nursery tale, for he appears to have actually worn a beard
+bluish-black in hue, and it is probable that his personality became
+mingled with that of the hero of the old Oriental story.
+
+Gilles de Laval, Lord of Retz and Marshal of France, was connected
+with some of the noblest families in Brittany, those of Montmorency,
+Rocey, and Craon, and at his father's death, about 1424, he found
+himself lord of many princely domains, and what, for those times, was
+almost unlimited power and wealth. He was a handsome youth, lithe and
+of fascinating address, courageous, and learned as any clerk. A
+splendid career lay before him, but from the first that distorted idea
+of the romantic which is typical of certain minds had seized upon him,
+and despite his rank and position he much preferred the dark courses
+which finally ended in his disgrace and ruin to the dignities of his
+seigneury.
+
+Gilles took his principal title from the barony of Retz or Rais, south
+of the Loire, on the marches of Brittany. As a youth he did nothing to
+justify an evil augury of his future, for he served with zeal and
+gallantry in the wars of Charles VI against the English and fought
+under Jeanne Darc at the siege of Orléans. In virtue of these
+services, and because of his shrewdness and skill in affairs, the King
+created him Marshal of France. But from that time onward the man who
+had been the able lieutenant of Jeanne Darc and had fought by her side
+at Jargeau and Patay began to deteriorate. Some years before he had
+married Catherine de Thouars, and with her had received a large dowry;
+but he had expended immense sums in the national cause, and his
+private life was as extravagant as that of a prince in a fairy tale.
+At his castle of Champtocé he dwelt in almost royal state; indeed, his
+train when he went hawking or hunting exceeded in magnificence that of
+the King himself. His retainers were tricked out in the most gorgeous
+liveries, and his table was spread with ruinous abundance. Oxen,
+sheep, and pigs were roasted whole, and viands were provided daily for
+five hundred persons. He had an insane love of pomp and display, and
+his private devotions were ministered to by a large body of
+ecclesiastics. His chapel was a marvel of splendour, and was furnished
+with gold and silver plate in the most lavish manner. His love of
+colour and movement made him fond of theatrical displays, and it is
+even said that the play or mystery of Orléans, dealing with the story
+of Jeanne Darc, was written with his own hand. He was munificent in
+his patronage of the arts, and was himself a skilled illuminator and
+bookbinder. In short, he was obviously one of those persons of
+abnormal character in whom genius is allied to madness and who can
+attempt and execute nothing except in a spirit of the wildest excess.
+
+The reduction of his fortune merely served his peculiar and abnormal
+personality with a new excuse for extravagance. At this time the art
+of alchemy flourished exceedingly and the works of Nicolas Flamel, the
+Arabian Geber, and Pierre d'Estaing enjoyed a great vogue. On an evil
+day it occurred to Gilles to turn alchemist, and thus repair his
+broken fortunes. In the first quarter of the fifteenth century alchemy
+stood for scientific achievement, and many persons in our own
+enlightened age still study its maxims. A society exists to-day the
+object of which is to further the knowledge of alchemical science. A
+common misapprehension is current to the effect that the object of the
+alchemists was the transmutation of the baser metals into gold, but in
+reality they were divided into two groups, those who sought eagerly
+the secret of manufacturing the precious metals, and those who dreamed
+of a higher aim, the transmutation of the gross, terrestrial nature of
+man into the pure gold of the spirit.
+
+The latter of these aims was beyond the fevered imagination of such a
+wild and disorderly mind as that of Gilles de Retz. He sent emissaries
+into Italy, Spain, and Germany to invite adepts in the science to his
+castle at Champtocé. From among these he selected two men to assist
+him in his plan--Prelati, an alchemist of Padua, and a certain
+physician of Poitou, whose name is not recorded. At their instigation
+he built a magnificent laboratory, and when it was completed commenced
+to experiment. A year passed, during which the necessities of the
+'science' gradually emptied many bags of gold, but none returned to
+the Marshal's coffers. The alchemists slept soft and fed sumptuously,
+and were quite content to pursue their labours so long as the Seigneur
+of Retz had occasion for their services. But as the time passed that
+august person became greatly impatient, and so irritable did he grow
+because of the lack of results that at length his assistants, in
+imminent fear of dismissal, communicated to him a dark and dreadful
+secret of their art, which, they assured him, would assist them at
+arriving speedily at the desired end.
+
+The nature of the experiment they proposed was so grotesque that its
+acceptance by Gilles proves that he was either insane or a victim of
+the superstition of his time. His wretched accomplices told him that
+the Evil One alone was capable of revealing the secret of the
+transmutation of the baser metals into gold, and they offered to
+summon him to their master's aid. They assured Gilles that Satan would
+require a recompense for his services, and the Marshal retorted that
+so long as he saved his soul intact he was quite willing to conclude
+any bargain that the Father of Evil might propose.
+
+It was arranged that the ceremony should take place within a gloomy
+wood in the neighbourhood. The nameless physician conducted the Lord
+of Retz to a small clearing in this plantation, where the magic circle
+was drawn and the usual conjurations made. For half an hour they
+waited in silence, and then a great trembling fell upon the physician.
+A deadly pallor overspread his countenance. His knees shook, he
+muttered wildly, and at last he sank to the ground. Gilles stood by
+unmoved. The insanity of egotism is of course productive of great if
+not lofty courage, and he feared neither man nor fiend. Suddenly the
+alchemist regained consciousness and told his master that the Devil
+had appeared to him in the shape of a leopard and had growled at him
+horribly. He ascribed Gilles' lack of supernatural vision to want of
+faith. He then declared that the Evil One had told him where certain
+herbs grew in Spain and Africa, the juices of which possessed the
+power to effect the transmutation, and these he obligingly offered to
+search for, provided the Lord of Retz furnished the means for his
+travels. This Gilles gladly did, and of course never beheld the
+Poitevin knave again.
+
+Days and months passed and the physician did not return. Gilles grew
+uneasy. It was imperative that gold should be forthcoming immediately,
+for not only was he being pressed on every side, but he was unable to
+support his usual magnificence. In this dilemma he turned to Prelati,
+his remaining alchemical assistant. This man appears to have believed
+in his art or he would not have made the terrible suggestion he did,
+which was that the Lord of Retz should sign with his own blood a
+compact with the Devil, and should offer up a young child in sacrifice
+to him. To this proposal the unhappy Gilles consented. On the
+following night Prelati quitted the castle, and returned shortly
+afterward with the story that the fiend had appeared to him in the
+likeness of a young man who desired to be called Barron, and had
+pointed out to him the resting-place of a hoard of ingots of pure
+gold, buried under an oak in the neighbouring wood. Certain
+conditions, however, must be observed before the treasure was dug up,
+the chief of which was that it must not be searched for until a period
+of seven times seven weeks had elapsed, or it would turn into slates.
+With these conditions de Retz would not comply, and, alarmed at his
+annoyance, the obliging Prelati curtailed the time of waiting to seven
+times seven days. At the end of that period the alchemist and his dupe
+repaired to the wood to dig up the treasure. They worked hard for some
+time, and at length came upon a load of slates, inscribed with magical
+characters. Prelati pretended great wrath, and upbraided the Evil One
+for his deceit, in which denunciation he was heartily joined by de
+Retz. But so credulous was the Seigneur that he allowed himself to be
+persuaded to afford Satan another trial, which meant, of course, that
+Prelati led him on from day to day with specious promises and
+ambiguous hints, until he had drained him of nearly all his remaining
+substance. He was then preparing to decamp with his plunder when a
+dramatic incident detained him.
+
+[Illustration: THE DEVIL IN THE FORM OF A LEOPARD APPEARS BEFORE THE
+ALCHEMIST]
+
+For some time a rumour had been circulating in the country-side that
+numerous children were missing and that they had been spirited away.
+Popular clamour ran high, and suspicion was directed toward the castle
+of Champtocé. So circumstantial was the evidence against de Retz that
+at length the Duke of Brittany ordered both the Seigneur and his
+accomplice to be arrested. Their trial took place before a commission
+which de Retz denounced, declaring that he would rather be hanged like
+a dog, without trial, than plead before its members. But the evidence
+against him was overwhelming. It was told how the wretched madman, in
+his insane quest for gold, had sacrificed his innocent victims on the
+altar of Satan, and how he had gloated over their sufferings. Finally
+he confessed his enormities and told how nearly a hundred children had
+been cruelly murdered by him and his relentless accomplice. Both he
+and Prelati were doomed to be burned alive, but in consideration of
+his rank he was strangled before being cast into the flames. Before
+the execution he expressed to Prelati a hope that they would meet in
+Paradise, and, it is said, met his end very devoutly.
+
+The castle of Champtocé still stands in its beautiful valley, and
+many romantic legends cluster about its grey old walls. "The
+hideous, half-burnt body of the monster himself," says Trollope,
+"circled with flames--pale, indeed, and faint in colour, but more
+lasting than those the hangman kindled around his mortal form in
+the meadow under the walls of Nantes--is seen, on bright moonlight
+nights, standing now on one topmost point of craggy wall, and now
+on another, and is heard mingling his moan with the sough of the
+night-wind. Pale, bloodless forms, too, of youthful growth and
+mien, the restless, unsepulchred ghosts of the unfortunates who
+perished in these dungeons unassoiled ... may at similar times be
+seen flitting backward and forward, in numerous groups, across the
+space enclosed by the ruined wall, with more than mortal speed, or
+glancing hurriedly from window to window of the fabric, as still
+seeking to escape from its hateful confinement."[41]
+
+
+_Comorre the Cursed_
+
+As has been said, the story of Gilles de Retz is connected by
+tradition with that of Bluebeard, but it is probable that this
+traditional connexion arises simply from the association of two famous
+tales. The other legend in question is that of Comorre the Cursed,
+whose story is told in the frescoes which cover the wall of the church
+of St Nicolas de Bieuzy, dedicated to St Triphyne, in which the tale
+of Bluebeard is depicted as the story of the saint, who in history was
+the wife of Comorre. Comorre was a chief who ruled at Carhaix, in
+Finistère, and his tale, which owes its modern dress to Émile
+Souvestre, himself a Breton, and author of _Derniers Bretons_ and the
+brilliant sketch _Un Philosophe sous les Toits_. The tale, translated,
+runs as follows:
+
+Guerech, Count of Vannes, 'the Country of White Corn,' had a daughter,
+Triphyna, whom he tenderly loved. One day ambassadors arrived from
+Comorre, a prince of Cornouaille, 'the Country of Black Corn,'
+demanding her in marriage. Now this caused great distress, for
+Comorre was a giant, and one of the wickedest of men, held in awe by
+every one for his cruelty. As a boy, when he went out, his mother used
+to ring a bell to warn people of his approach; and when unsuccessful
+in the chase he would set his dogs on the peasants to tear them to
+pieces. But most horrible of all, he had had four wives, who had all
+died one after the other, it was suspected either by the knife, fire,
+water, or poison. The Count of Vannes, therefore, dismissed the
+ambassadors, and advanced to meet Comorre, who was approaching with a
+powerful army; but St Gildas went into Triphyna's oratory and begged
+her to save bloodshed and consent to the marriage. He gave her a
+silver ring, which would warn her of any intended evil by turning as
+black as a crow's wing at the approach of danger.
+
+The marriage took place with great rejoicings. The first day six
+thousand guests were invited; on the next day as many poor were fed,
+the bride and the bridegroom themselves serving at the tables. For
+some time all went well. Comorre's nature seemed altered; his prisons
+were empty, his gibbets untenanted. But Triphyna felt no confidence,
+and every day went to pray at the tombs of his four wives. At this
+time there was an assembly of the Breton princes at Rennes, which
+Comorre was obliged to attend. Before his departure he gave Triphyna
+his keys, desiring her to amuse herself in his absence. After five
+months he unexpectedly returned, and found her occupied trimming an
+infant's cap with gold lace. On seeing the cap Comorre turned pale;
+and when Triphyna joyfully announced to him that soon he would be a
+father he drew back in a rage and rushed out of the apartment.
+Triphyna saw that her ring had turned black, which betokened danger,
+she knew not why. She descended into the chapel to pray. When she rose
+to depart the hour of midnight struck, and suddenly a sound of
+movement in the silent chapel chilled her at the heart; shrinking into
+a recess, she saw the four tombs of Comorre's wives open slowly, and
+the women all issued forth in their winding-sheets.
+
+Faint with terror, Triphyna tried to escape; but the spectres cried:
+"Take care, poor lost one! Comorre seeks to kill you."
+
+"Me," said the Countess. "What evil have I done?"
+
+"You have told him that you will soon become a mother; and, through
+the Spirit of Evil, he knows that his child will slay him. He murdered
+us when we told him what he has just learned from you."
+
+"What hope, then, of refuge remains for me?" cried Triphyna.
+
+"Go back to your father," answered the phantoms.
+
+"But how escape when Comorre's dog guards the court?"
+
+"Give him this poison which killed me," said the first wife.
+
+"But how can I descend yon high wall?"
+
+"By means of this cord which strangled me," answered the second wife.
+
+"But who will guide me through the dark?"
+
+"The fire that burnt me," replied the third wife.
+
+"And how can I make so long a journey?" returned Triphyna.
+
+"Take this stick which broke my skull," rejoined the fourth spectre.
+
+Armed with the poison, the rope, and the stick, Triphyna set out,
+silenced the dog, scaled the wall, and, miraculously guided on her
+way through the darkness by a glowing light, proceeded on her road to
+Vannes. On awaking next morning Comorre found that his wife had fled,
+and pursued her on horseback. The poor fugitive, seeing her ring turn
+black, turned off the road and hid herself till night in the cabin of
+a shepherd, where there was only an old magpie in a cage at the door,
+and here her baby was born. Comorre, who had given up the pursuit, was
+returning home by that road, when he heard the magpie trying to
+imitate her complaints and calling out "Poor Triphyna!" Guessing that
+his wife had passed that way, he set his dog on the track.
+
+Meanwhile Triphyna felt she could proceed no farther, and lay down on
+the ground with her baby boy. As she clasped the child in her arms she
+saw over her head a falcon with a golden collar, which she recognized
+as her father's. The bird came at her call, and giving it the warning
+ring of St Gildas she told it to fly with it to her father. The bird
+obeyed, and flew like lightning to Vannes; but almost at the same
+instant Comorre arrived. Having parted with her warning ring,
+Triphyna, who had no notice of his approach, had only time to conceal
+her babe in the cavity of a tree when Comorre threw himself upon her,
+and with one blow from his sword severed her head from her body.
+
+When the falcon arrived at Vannes he found the Count at dinner with St
+Gildas. He let the ring fall into the silver cup of his master, who,
+recognizing it, exclaimed:
+
+"My daughter is in danger! Saddle the horses, and let Saint Gildas
+accompany us." Following the falcon, they soon reached the spot where
+Triphyna lay dead. After they had all knelt in prayer, St Gildas said
+to the corpse: "Arise, take thy head and thy child, and follow us."
+The dead body obeyed, the bewildered troop followed; but, gallop as
+fast as they could, the headless body was always in front, carrying
+the babe in her left hand, and her pale head in the right. In this
+manner they reached the castle of Comorre.
+
+"Count," called St Gildas before the gates, "I bring back thy wife
+such as thy wickedness has made her, and thy child such as heaven has
+given it thee. Wilt thou receive them under thy roof?"
+
+Comorre was silent. The Saint three times repeated the question, but
+no voice returned an answer. Then St Gildas took the new-born infant
+from its mother and placed it on the ground. The child marched alone
+to the edge of the moat, picked up a handful of earth, and, throwing
+it against the castle, exclaimed: "Let the Trinity execute judgment."
+At the same instant the towers shook and fell with a crash, the walls
+yawned open, and the castle sunk, burying Comorre and all his partners
+in crime. St Gildas then replaced Triphyna's head upon her shoulders,
+laid his hands upon her, and restored her to life, to the great joy of
+her father. Such is the history of Triphyna and Comorre.
+
+
+_The Legend of Ys_
+
+The legend of the submerged city of Ys, or Is, is perhaps the most
+romantic and imaginative effort of Breton popular legend. Who has not
+heard of the submerged bells of Ys, and who has not heard them ring in
+the echoes of his own imagination?
+
+This picturesque legend[42] tells us that in the early days of the
+Christian epoch the city of Ys, or Ker-is, was ruled by a prince
+called Gradlon, surnamed Meur, which in Celtic means 'the Great.'
+Gradlon was a saintly and pious man, and acted as patron to Gwénnolé,
+founder and first abbé of the first monastery built in Armorica. But,
+besides being a religious man, Gradlon was a prudent prince, and
+defended his capital of Ys from the invasions of the sea by
+constructing an immense basin to receive the overflow of the water at
+high tide. This basin had a secret gate, of which the King alone
+possessed the key, and which he opened and closed at the necessary
+times.
+
+Gradlon, as is so often the case with pious men, had a wayward child,
+the princess Dahut, who on one occasion while her father was sleeping
+gave a secret banquet to her lover, in which the pair, excited with
+wine, committed folly after folly, until at last it occurred to the
+frivolous girl to open the sluice-gate. Stealing noiselessly into her
+sleeping father's chamber she detached from his girdle the key he
+guarded so jealously and opened the gate. The water immediately rushed
+in and submerged the entire city.
+
+But, as usual, there is more than one version of this interesting
+legend. The city of Ys, says another account, was a place rich in
+commerce and the arts, but so given over to luxury as to arouse the
+ire of St Gwénnolé, who, in the manner of Jeremiah, foretold its ruin.
+It was situated where now a piece of water, the Étang de Laval, washes
+the desolate shores of the Bay of Trépassés--though another version of
+the tale has it that it stood in the vast basin which now forms the
+Bay of Douarnenez. A strong dike protected it from the ocean, the
+sluices only admitting sufficient water for the needs of the town.
+Gradlon constantly bore round his neck a silver key which opened at
+the same time the vast sluices and the city gates. He lived in great
+state in a palace of marble, cedar, and gold, and his only grief was
+the conduct of his daughter Dahut, who, it is said, "had made a crown
+of her vices and taken for her pages the seven capital sins." But
+retribution was at hand, and the wicked city met with sudden
+destruction, for one night Dahut stole the silver key for the purpose
+of opening the city gates to admit her lover, and in the darkness by
+mistake opened the sluices. King Gradlon was awakened by St Gwénnolé,
+who commanded him to flee, as the torrent was reaching the palace. He
+mounted his horse, and, taking his worthless daughter behind him, set
+off at a gallop, the incoming flood seething and boiling at his
+steed's fetlocks. The torrent was about to overtake and submerge him
+when a voice from behind called out: "Throw the demon thou carriest
+into the sea, if thou dost not desire to perish." Dahut at that moment
+fell from the horse's back into the water, and the torrent immediately
+stopped its course. Gradlon reached Quimper safe and sound, but
+nothing is said as to his subsequent career.
+
+[Illustration: THE ESCAPE OF KING GRADLON FROM THE FLOODED CITY OF YS]
+
+An ancient ballad on the subject, which, however, bears marks of
+having been tampered with, states, on the other hand, that Gradlon led
+his people into extravagances of every kind, and that Dahut received
+the key from him, the misuse of which precipitated the catastrophe.
+Dahut, the ballad continues, became a mermaid and haunted the waters
+which roll over the site of the city where she loved and feasted.
+"Fisherman," ends the ballad, "have you seen the daughter of the sea
+combing her golden hair in the midday sun at the fringes of the
+beach?" "Yes," replies the fisherman, "I have seen the white daughter
+of the sea, and I have heard her sing, and her songs were plaintive as
+the sound of the waves."
+
+The legend of Ys, of the town swallowed up by the sea, is common to
+the several branches of the Celtic race. In Wales the site of the
+submerged city is in Cardigan Bay, and in Ireland it is Lough Neagh,
+as Tom Moore says:
+
+  On Lough Neagh's bank as the fisherman strays,
+    When the clear, cold eve's declining,
+  He sees the round towers of other days
+    In the wave beneath him shining.
+
+This legend had its rise in an extraordinary story which was given
+currency to by Giraldus Cambrensis in his _Topography of Ireland_, to
+the effect that a certain extremely wicked tribe were punished for
+their sins by the inundation of their territory.
+
+"Now there was a common proverb," says Gerald, "in the mouths of the
+tribe, that whenever the well-spring of that country was left
+uncovered (for out of reverence shown to it, from a barbarous
+superstition, the spring was kept covered and sealed), it would
+immediately overflow and inundate the whole province, drowning and
+destroying the whole population. It happened, however, on some
+occasion that a young woman, who had come to the spring to draw water,
+after filling her pitcher, but before she had closed the well, ran in
+great haste to her little boy, whom she had heard crying at a spot not
+far from the spring where she had left him. But the voice of the
+people is the voice of God; and on her way back she met such a flood
+of water from the spring that it swept off her and the boy, and the
+inundation was so violent that they both, and the whole tribe, with
+their cattle, were drowned in an hour in this partial and local
+deluge. The waters, having covered the whole surface of that fertile
+district, were converted into a permanent lake. A not improbable
+confirmation of this occurrence is found in the fact that the
+fishermen in that lake see distinctly under the water, in calm
+weather, ecclesiastical towers, which, according to the custom of the
+country, are slender and lofty, and moreover round; and they
+frequently point them out to strangers travelling through these parts,
+who wonder what could have caused such a catastrophe."
+
+In the Welsh version of this fascinating legend it is the bard
+Gwyddno, of the twelfth century, who tells of the downfall of the
+submerged city, and two of the strophes which occur in his poem are
+also found in the Breton poem. The Welsh bard may have received the
+story from Breton sources, or the converse may be the case.
+
+The legend that Cardigan Bay contains a submerged territory is widely
+known, and strangely enough seems to be corroborated by the shape of
+the coast-line, the contour of which suggests the subsidence of a
+large body of land. Like their brothers of Ireland, the fishermen of
+Wales assert that at low tide they can see the ruins of ancient
+edifices far down beneath the clear waters of the bay.[43]
+
+Before the days of the French Revolution there was still to be seen at
+Quimper, between the two towers of the cathedral, a figure of King
+Gradlon mounted on his faithful courser, but in the stormy year of
+1793 the name of king was in bad odour and the ignorant populace
+deprived the statue of its head. However, in 1859 it was restored.
+Legend attributes the introduction of the vine into Brittany to King
+Gradlon, and on St Cecilia's Day a regular ritual was gone through in
+Quimper in connexion with his counterfeit presentment. A company of
+singers mounted on a platform. While they sang a hymn in praise of
+King Gradlon, one of the choristers, provided with a flagon of wine, a
+napkin, and a golden hanap (or cup), mounted on the crupper of the
+King's horse, poured out a cup of wine, which he offered ceremoniously
+to the lips of the statue and then drank himself, carefully wiped with
+his napkin the moustache of the King, placed a branch of laurel in his
+hand, and then threw down the hanap in the midst of the crowd below,
+in honour of the first planter of the grape in Brittany. To whoever
+caught the cup before it fell, and presented it uninjured to the
+Chapter, was adjudged a prize of two hundred crowns.
+
+There is a distinct savour of myth about all this. Can it be that
+Gradlon was a Breton Bacchus? There are notices of Celtic goddesses in
+whose honour Bacchic rites were held, and the place of these was
+sometimes taken by a corn god. Later the festival in its memorial
+aspect appears to have been associated with different kings[44] in the
+various parts of the Celtic world, and it seems likely that Gradlon
+was such a monarch who had taken the place of a vanished deity. It
+must be left to Celtic scholars to determine whether the name Gradlon
+possesses any deific significance hidden in its etymology.
+
+
+_The Clerk of Rohan_
+
+Jeanne de Rohan, daughter of Alain, fifth of the name, Viscount of
+Rohan, married in the year 1236 Matthew, Seigneur of Beauvau, son of
+René, Constable of Naples. Breton popular poetry has in many ballads
+recounted the adventures of Jeanne and her husband, one of which is as
+follows[45]:
+
+At the age of thirteen Jeanne consented to be married, but she desired
+that she herself should be allowed to choose her husband. Accordingly
+the cavaliers and barons of the district were invited to pay their
+court to her, and she fixed her affections upon the Seigneur of
+Beauvau, a valiant noble with large possessions in Italy. He was loyal
+and courteous, and when the pair were wedded their happiness seemed
+perfect.
+
+At this period the war in Palestine against the infidels was agitating
+the whole of Europe. The Seigneur of Beauvau desired to join the
+Crusaders, but his wife was by no means anxious that he should leave
+his home. But his principle was _noblesse oblige_. "I am of the most
+noble blood," he said; "therefore it behoves me to be the first to
+lead the way."
+
+He confided the care of his estates and his affairs in general to his
+wife's cousin, who was known as the Clerk of Rohan, and begged him to
+look well after Jeanne and his little son. Then, having bid farewell
+to them all, he mounted his horse and rode away to the wars.
+
+Jeanne was inconsolable. For days she wandered about the château
+carrying her baby boy in her arms and sobbing. All the domestic circle
+seemed disturbed at the Seigneur's departure except the Clerk of
+Rohan, to whom Count Matthew had so trustingly confided the charge of
+his affairs.
+
+The Seigneur had declared that he would return within a year's time. A
+year passed, however, and no news of him had been received. Now the
+Clerk was a perfidious and wicked schemer, and one morning as he and
+Jeanne were in conversation he hinted that the year within which the
+Seigneur had promised to return was now gone by and that the war in
+which he had been engaged had come to an end. He made no secret of his
+passion for the lady, but she on her part turned upon him angrily,
+saying: "Is it the fashion nowadays for women to consider themselves
+widows, knowing well that their husbands are alive? Go to, miserable
+Clerk, thy heart is full of wickedness. If my husband were here he
+would break thee in little pieces!"
+
+When the Clerk heard this he went secretly to the kennels, and there
+he slew the Seigneur's favourite greyhound. Taking some of its blood,
+he wrote with it a letter to Count Matthew telling him that his wife
+was most unhappy because of an accident which had occurred; that she
+had been hunting the deer, and that in the chase his favourite
+greyhound had died from over-exertion. The Seigneur duly received the
+letter, and in his reply told the Clerk to comfort the lady, as he was
+quite able to replace the hound. At the same time he desired that
+hunting should cease for the present, as the huntsmen seemed unskilful
+in their conduct of the chase.
+
+The wicked Clerk once more sought the lady.
+
+"Alas!" said he, "you are losing your beauty by weeping night and
+day."
+
+"I will know how to recover my beauty when my husband returns," she
+replied coldly.
+
+"Do not cheat yourself," he said. "Surely you can see by this time
+that he is either dead or has taken another wife. In the East there
+are many beautiful girls who are far wealthier than you."
+
+"If he has taken another wife," said the lady, "I shall die; and if he
+be dead I ask for naught but death. Leave me, miserable wretch. Thy
+tongue is poisoned with deceit."
+
+When the Clerk had sufficiently recovered from this second rebuff, he
+betook himself to the stables, where the Seigneur's horse, the most
+beautiful in the country, stood champing in its stall. The wretch,
+drawing his poignard, thrust it into the noble steed's entrails, and,
+as he had done in the case of the greyhound, took some of the blood
+and wrote once more to the Count.
+
+"Another accident has occurred at the château," he said, "but, my dear
+Seigneur, pray do not trouble yourself on account of it. When your
+wife was returning from a feast in the night your favourite horse fell
+and broke two of his legs, and had to be destroyed."
+
+The Seigneur replied that he was grieved to hear of the circumstance,
+and that in order to avoid further mischances of the sort it would be
+better that his wife should frequent no more feasts.
+
+A third time the perfidious Clerk sought the lady. On this occasion he
+threatened her with death if she would not be his, but she replied in
+the most spirited manner that she loved death a thousand times better
+than him. At these words he could not contain his rage, and, drawing
+his dagger, thrust fiercely at her head. But the lady's guardian angel
+turned the stroke and the weapon struck harmlessly against the wall.
+She fled from the room, closing the door behind her as she went;
+whereupon the Clerk rushed downstairs to the nursery where her child
+was quietly sleeping in its cradle, and, seeing no one beside it,
+stabbed the slumbering infant to the heart.
+
+Then he wrote to the Seigneur: "Hasten your return, I beg of you, for
+it is necessary that you should be here to establish order. Your dog
+and your white courser have perished, but that is not the worst. Your
+little son, alas! is also dead. The great sow devoured him when your
+wife was at a ball with the miller for a gallant."
+
+When the Seigneur received this letter he returned at once from the
+wars, his anger rising higher and higher with every homeward league.
+When he arrived at the château he struck three times upon the door
+with his hand, and his summons was answered by the Clerk.
+
+"How now, evil Clerk," shouted the infuriated Count, "did I not leave
+my wife in your care?" and with these words he thrust his lance into
+the Clerk's open mouth, so that the point stood out at the nape of his
+neck. Then, mounting the stairs, he entered his wife's chamber, and
+without speaking a word stabbed her with his sword.
+
+The ballad then goes on to speak of the burial of the victims of the
+wicked Clerk. The lady, dressed all in white, was laid in her tomb by
+the light of the moon and the stars. On her breast lay her little son,
+on her right the favourite greyhound, and on her left the white
+courser, and it is said that in her grave she first caresses one and
+then the other, and the infant, as if jealous, nestles closer to his
+mother's heart.
+
+
+_The Lady of La Garaye_
+
+The château of La Garaye, near Dinan, is rendered famous by the
+virtues and boundless charity of its Count, Claude Toussaint Marot de
+La Garaye, and his wife. Their interesting story is told in the
+charming poem of Mrs Norton, _The Lady of La Garaye_:
+
+  Listen to the tale I tell,
+  Grave the story is--not sad;
+  And the peasant plodding by
+  Greets the place with kindly eye,
+  For the inmates that it had.
+
+Count Claude de La Garaye and his wife were young, beautiful, and
+endowed with friends, riches, and all that could make life bright and
+happy. They entertained generously and enjoyed the pleasures and
+amusements of the world. But one day misfortune overtook them, for the
+Countess was thrown from her horse, and she was left a cripple for
+life, while all expectations of an heir vanished. Both were
+inconsolable at their disappointment. One day a monk came to visit
+them, and tried to comfort them, seeking by his conversation to turn
+their thoughts from earthly afflictions to heavenly consolation.
+
+"Ah, my father," said the lady, "how happy are you, to love nothing on
+earth!"
+
+"You are mistaken," answered the monk; "I love all those who are in
+sorrow or suffering. But I submit myself to the will of the Almighty,
+and bend myself with resignation to every blow He strikes."
+
+He proceeded to show them that there was still a great deal of
+happiness in store for them in ministering to the needs of others.
+Following his counsel, they went to Paris, where for three years the
+Count studied medicine and surgery, and his wife became a skilful
+oculist. On their return to La Garaye they gave up all the amusements
+of society and devoted themselves to relieving the sufferings of their
+fellow-creatures. Their house was converted into a hospital for the
+sick and afflicted, under the ministering care of the Count and his
+benevolent wife:
+
+  Her home is made their home; her wealth their dole;
+  Her busy courtyard hears no more the roll
+  Of gilded vehicles, or pawing steeds,
+  But feeble steps of those whose bitter needs
+  Are their sole passport. Through that gateway press
+  All varying forms of sickness and distress,
+  And many a poor, worn face that hath not smiled
+  For years, and many a feeble crippled child,
+  Blesses the tall white portal where they stand,
+  And the dear Lady of the liberal hand.
+
+Nor was their philanthropy confined to their own province. In 1729
+they offered themselves to M. de Belsunce--"Marseilles' good
+bishop"--to assist him during the visitation of the plague. The fame
+of their virtues reached even the French Court, and Louis XV sent
+Count de La Garaye the Order of St Lazarus, with a donation of 50,000
+livres and a promise of 25,000 more. They both died at an advanced
+age, within two years of each other, and were buried among their poor
+at Taden. Their marble mausoleum in the church was destroyed during
+the French Revolution. The Count left a large sum to be distributed
+among the prisoners, principally English, pent up in the crowded gaols
+of Rennes and Dinan. He had attended the English prisoners at Dinan
+during a contagious fever called the 'peste blanche,' and in
+acknowledgment of his humanity Queen Caroline sent him two dogs with
+silver collars round their necks, and an English nobleman made him a
+present of six more.
+
+The ruined château is approached by an ivy-covered gateway, through an
+avenue of beeches. As Mrs Norton renders it:
+
+  And like a mourner's mantle, with sad grace,
+  Waves the dark ivy, hiding half the door
+  And threshold, where the weary traveller's foot
+  Shall never find a courteous welcome more.
+
+The ruin is fast falling to pieces. The principal part remaining is an
+octagonal turret of three stories, with elegant Renaissance decoration
+round the windows.
+
+
+_The Falcon_
+
+An interesting and picturesque ballad sung in the Black Mountains is
+that of _The Falcon_. Geoffrey, first Duke of Brittany, was departing
+for Rome in the year 1008, leaving the government of the country in
+the hands of his wife Ethwije, sister of Richard of Normandy. As he
+was about to set out on his pilgrimage the falcon which he carried on
+his wrist after the manner of the nobles of the period, swooped down
+on and killed the hen of a poor peasant woman. The woman in a rage
+seized a large stone and cast it at the bird with such violence that
+it slew not only the falcon but the Duke himself. The death of the
+Duke was followed by a most desperate insurrection among the people.
+History does not enlighten us as to the cause of this rising, but
+tradition attributes it to the invasion of Brittany by the Normans
+(whom the widow of Geoffrey at once brought into the country on the
+demise of her husband) and the exactions which were wrung from the
+peasants by these haughty aliens.
+
+[Illustration: A PEASANT INSURRECTION]
+
+The ballad, which was used as a war-song by the Bretons at a later
+day, begins in true ballad style: "The falcon has strangled the fowl,
+the peasant woman has slain the Count who oppressed the people, the
+poor people, like a brute-beast."
+
+The hate of the stranger so characteristic of the old Bretons then
+flashes forth. "The country has been polluted by the foreigner, by the
+men of the Gallic land, and because of the death of a hen and a falcon
+Brittany is on fire, blood flows, and there is great dole among the
+people."
+
+On the summit of the Black Mountain thirty stout peasants had gathered
+to celebrate the ancient feast of the good St John. Among them was
+Kado the Striver, who stood there gravely leaning on his iron
+pitchfork. For a while he looked upon his comrades; then he opened his
+lips:
+
+"What say you, fellow-peasants? Do you intend to pay this tax? As for
+me, I shall certainly not pay it. I had much rather be hanged.
+Nevermore shall I pay this unjust tax. My sons go naked because of it,
+my flocks grow less and less. No more shall I pay. I swear it by the
+red brands of this fire, by Saint Kado my patron, and by Saint John."
+
+"My fortunes are broken, I am completely ruined," growled one of his
+companions. "Before the year is out I shall be compelled to beg my
+bread."
+
+Then all rose at once as if by a common impulse.
+
+"None of us will pay this tax! We swear it by the Sun and by the Moon,
+and by the great sea which encircles this land of Brittany!"
+
+Kado, stepping out from the circle, seized a firebrand, and holding it
+aloft cried: "Let us march, comrades, and strike a blow for freedom!"
+
+The enthusiasm of his companions burst out afresh. Falling into loose
+ranks they followed him. His wife marched by his side in the first
+rank, carrying a reaping-hook on her shoulder and singing as she
+marched.
+
+"Quickly, quickly, my children! We go to strike a blow for liberty!
+Have I brought thirty sons into the world to beg their bread, to carry
+firewood or to break stones, or bear burdens like beasts? Are they to
+till the green land and the grey land with bare feet while the rich
+feed their horses, their hunting-dogs, and their falcons better than
+they are fed? No! It is to slay the oppressors that I have borne so
+many sons!"
+
+Quickly they descended the mountains, gathering numbers as they went.
+Now they were three thousand strong, five thousand strong, and when
+they arrived at Langoad nine thousand strong. When they came to
+Guérande they were thirty thousand strong. The houses of those who had
+ground them down were wrapped in flames, fiercely ends the old ballad,
+"and the bones of those who had oppressed them cracked, like those of
+the damned in Tartarus."
+
+History tells us nothing concerning Kado the Striver, but it is most
+unlikely that he is a mere figment of popular imagination. What
+history does record, however, is that the wicked Duchess and her host
+of mercenary Normans were forced to flee, and that her place was taken
+by a more just and righteous ruler.
+
+
+_The Marquis of Guérande_
+
+Breton tradition speaks of a wild young nobleman, Louis-François de
+Guérande, Seigneur of Locmaria, who flourished in the early part of
+the seventeenth century. He was wealthy, and lived a life of reckless
+abandon; indeed, he was the terror of the parish and the despair of
+his pious mother, who, whenever he sallied forth upon adventure bent,
+rang the bell of the château, to give the alarm to the surrounding
+peasantry. The ballad which tells of the infamous deeds of this titled
+ruffian, and which was composed by one Tugdual Salaün, a peasant of
+Plouber,[46] opens upon a scene of touching domestic happiness. The
+Clerk of Garlon was on a visit to the family of his betrothed.
+
+"Tell me, good mother," he asked, "where is Annaïk? I am anxious that
+she should come with me to dance on the green."
+
+"She is upstairs asleep, my son. Take care," added the old woman
+roguishly, "that you do not waken her."
+
+The Clerk of Garlon ran lightly up the staircase and knocked at
+Annaïk's door.
+
+"Come, Annaïk," he cried; "why are you asleep when all the others go
+to dance upon the village green?"
+
+"I do not wish to go to the dance, for I fear the Marquis of
+Guérande," replied the girl.
+
+The Clerk of Garlon laughed. "The Marquis of Guérande cannot harm you
+so long as I am with you," he said lightly. "Come, Annaïk; were there
+a hundred such as he I should protect you from them."
+
+Reassured by her lover's brave words, the girl rose and put on her
+dress of white delaine. They were a joyous and beautiful pair. The
+Clerk was gaily dressed, with a peacock's feather in his hat and a
+chain on his breast, while his betrothed wore a velvet corsage
+embroidered with silver.
+
+On that evening the Marquis of Guérande leaped on his great red steed
+and sallied forth from his château. Galloping along the road, he
+overtook the Clerk of Garlon and his betrothed on their way to the
+dance.
+
+"Ha!" he cried, "you go to the dance, I see. It is customary to
+wrestle there, is it not?"
+
+"It is, Seigneur," replied the Clerk, doffing his hat.
+
+"Then throw off your doublet and let us try a fall or two," said
+Guérande, with a wicked look at Annaïk which was not lost upon her
+lover.
+
+"Saving your grace, I may not wrestle with you," said the Clerk, "for
+you are a gentleman and I am nobody. You are the son of a lord and I
+am the son of a peasant."
+
+"Ha! what! The son of a peasant, say you, and you take your choice of
+the pretty girls of the village?"
+
+"Seigneur, pardon me. I did not choose this maiden; God gave her to
+me."
+
+During this parley Annaïk stood by, trembling violently. She had heard
+of the Marquis of Guérande, and was only too well aware of the evil
+and reckless character he bore. The Clerk tried to calm her fears by
+whispered words and pressures of the hand, but the wicked Marquis,
+observing the state of terror she was in, exulted in the alarm he was
+causing her.
+
+"Well, fellow," said he, "since you cannot wrestle with me perhaps you
+will try a bout of sword-play."
+
+At these words Annaïk's rosy cheeks became deathly white; but the
+Clerk of Garlon spoke up like a man.
+
+"My lord," he said, "I do not wear a sword. The club is my only
+weapon. Should you use your sword against me it would but stain it."
+
+The wicked Marquis uttered a fiendish laugh. "If I stain my sword, by
+the Saints, I shall wash it in your blood," he cried, and as he spoke
+he passed his rapier through the defenceless Clerk's body.
+
+At the sight of her slain lover the gentle heart of Annaïk broke, and
+a great madness came upon her. Like a tigress she leapt upon the
+Marquis and tore his sword from his hand. Without his rapier he was as
+a child in the grasp of the powerful Breton peasant woman. Exerting
+all her strength, in a frenzy of grief she dragged the wretch to the
+green where the dance was in progress, haling him round and round it
+until exhausted. At last she dropped his senseless body on the green
+turf and hastened homeward.
+
+And once again we encounter the haunting refrain: "My good mother, if
+you love me make my bed, for I am sick unto death."
+
+"Why, daughter, you have danced too much; it is that which has made
+you sick."
+
+"I have not danced at all, mother; but the wicked Marquis has slain my
+poor Clerk. Say to the sexton who buries him: 'Do not throw in much
+earth, for in a little while you will have to place my daughter beside
+him in this grave.' Since we may not share the same marriage-bed we
+shall at least sleep in the same tomb, and if we have not been married
+in this world we shall at least be joined in heaven."
+
+The reader will be relieved to learn that the hero of this ballad,
+the Clerk of Garlon, was not killed after all, and that for once fact
+is enabled to step in to correct the sadness of fiction; for, when one
+comes to think of it, there are few sadder things in the world than
+the genuine folk-ballad, which, although at the time it may arouse
+æsthetic emotions, may yet afterward give rise to haunting pain. We
+are glad to be able to chronicle, then, that the worthy Clerk did not
+die of his wound as stated by Tugdual Salaün of the parish of Plouber,
+author of the ballad, and that the wicked Marquis escaped the halter,
+which, according to Breton custom, he would not otherwise have done
+had the Clerk died. His good mother took upon herself the burden of an
+annual pension to the Clerk's aged parents, and adopted the second
+child of Annaïk, who had duly married her sweetheart, and this little
+one she educated, furthering its interests in every possible manner.
+As for the Marquis, he actually settled down, and one cannot help
+feeling chagrined that such a promising rogue should have turned
+talents so eminently suitable for the manufacture of legendary
+material into more humdrum courses. Conscious of the gravity of his
+early misdemeanours, he founded a hospital for the poor of the parish,
+and each evening in one of the windows of this place the peasants
+could see a light which burned steadily far into the night. If any
+asked the reason for this illumination he was told: "It is the Marquis
+of Guérande, who lies awake praying God to pardon his youth."
+
+
+_The Châteaux of Brittany_
+
+The châteaux of Brittany may truly be called the historical and
+legendary shrines of the province, for within their halls, keeps, and
+donjons Breton tradition and history were made. It is doubtful,
+indeed, if the castellated mansions of any other country, save,
+perhaps, those of the Rhine, harbour so many legends, arising either
+from the actual historical happenings connected with them or from
+those more picturesque yet terrible associations which they are
+popularly supposed to have with the powers of evil. The general
+appearance of such a building as the Breton château admirably lends
+itself to sombre tradition. The massy walls seem thick enough to
+retain all secrets, and the cry for vengeance for blood spilt within
+them cannot pass to the outer world through the narrow _meurtrières_
+or arrow-slits of the _avant-corps_. The broad yet lofty towers which
+flank the front rise into a _toiture_ or _coiffe_ like an enchanter's
+conical cap. The _lucarnes_, or attic casements, are guarded on either
+side by gargoyles grim of aspect, or perhaps by griffins holding the
+shield-borne arms of dead and gone seigneurs. Seek where you will,
+among the wizard-houses of old Prague, the witch-dens of ancient
+Edinburgh, the bat-haunted castles of Drachenfels or Rheinstein, you
+will come at nothing built of man more informed with the soul of the
+Middle Ages, more drenched with their peculiar savour of mystery, than
+these stark keeps whose crests and _girouettes_ rise above encircling
+woods or frown upon mirroring rivers over the length and breadth of
+the Breton land.
+
+
+_La Roche-Jagu_
+
+One of the most typical of the châteaux of Brittany is that of La
+Roche-Jagu, at one time the guardian of the mouth of the river Trieux.
+It is built on the top of a hill which overhangs the Trieux, and from
+one of its battlemented galleries a splendid view of the windings of
+the river can be obtained. The wall on this side of the fortress is so
+thick as to allow of a chapel being hewn out of its solidity. A most
+distinctive architectural note is struck by the fourteen wonderful
+chimney-shafts of cut stone ornamented with iron spikes.
+
+
+_Tonquédec_
+
+Some miles farther down the river, but on its opposite side, is the
+imposing castle of Tonquédec, perhaps the finest remnant of the
+medieval military architecture of Brittany. It has always remained in
+the family of the Viscounts of Coêtman, who ranked among the foremost
+of the Breton nobility, though one of them espoused the cause of the
+Constable Clisson against Duke John IV, and had the anguish of seeing
+his ancestral fortress razed to the ground. Under Henry IV, however,
+the castle was restored, only to be again demolished by order of
+Cardinal Richelieu, who strongly and forcibly disapproved of such
+powerful fortalices.
+
+It had an outer enclosure, and had to be entered by a drawbridge, and
+it was strengthened in every way conceivable to the military art of
+the times. It was surrounded by dwellings for the convenience of the
+seigneur's retainers, a fine _salle d'armes_ still remaining. To the
+keep, four stories high, a flying bridge led, in order to facilitate
+the withdrawal of the garrison in case of siege. Behind walls ten feet
+thick, so long as food and ammunition lasted, the inmates could hold
+the enemy in scorn.
+
+
+_Clisson_
+
+The château of Clisson, once the property of the great Constable
+Oliver de Clisson, whom the Viscount of Coêtman and the Bretons of
+Penthièvre had championed, is now only a grand old ruin, a touching
+monument of the architectural splendours of former days. By
+moonlight it makes a scene not easily forgotten, gaunt and still
+and ruggedly imposing, the silent reminder of events and people
+tales of whom will not readily die, the treasurer of secrets it
+will probably never yield. Its antithesis is the castle of Nantes,
+with the stamp of the Renaissance upon its delicately sculptured
+balconies and window-frames. It is now an arsenal, a fact which
+robs it of some of the romantic interest of Clisson, or, indeed, of
+ruins in general, yet within its walls are the prison chambers in
+which Gilles de Laval, the ambitious Finance Minister Fouquet, the
+Cardinal de Retz, and the Duchess of Berry once languished. For many
+years it served as one of the political prisons of France, though
+it is also associated with brighter and happier times; for here, on
+pleasure bent, lingered many of the Kings of France from Louis XI
+onward, and here in 1675 Madame de Sévigné sojourned, a circumstance
+which casts about it a literary as well as a romantic glamour. The
+great well in the courtyard, with its ornamental railing of wrought
+iron, is quite equal to the famous well of Quentin Matsys at Antwerp.
+
+
+_Josselin_
+
+The castle of Josselin, also associated with the history of the great
+Constable Clisson and his allies, as well as with the notorious League
+whose followers wrought such intolerable misery in Brittany, is built
+on a rocky foundation near the river Oust. With its imposing front and
+conically roofed towers it is one of the best examples of a
+twelfth-century fortress-château. Very different in tone is the
+architecture of the interior court, being that of the period when the
+lighter traceries and more imaginative lines of the Renaissance were
+in favour. The window-openings of the two first stories are beautiful
+enough to rival those of Chambord and equal those of Blois. Above the
+windows an open gallery runs, and in the space between each the device
+of the Rohans is carved, with their motto, _A Plus_, this celebrated
+family having built this part of the château. About the year 1400
+Clisson added a keep, walls, and parapets, but in 1629, when the
+fortress was no longer a stronghold of the League, these were
+permitted to fall into ruin. Through the courtesy of the family now in
+residence this wonderfully preserved castle may be visited, a
+circumstance for which the tourist in Brittany should indeed be
+grateful. Interest within these massy walls clings around the well,
+with its ornamental railings, the noble and lofty hall, the library,
+with its magnificent chimney-piece, repeating again, in stone, the
+Rohan motto, _A Plus_, and the equestrian statue of Clisson, by
+Frémiet, in the dining-room.
+
+
+_Hennebont and Largoet_
+
+Of the old château of Hennebont, where John of Montfort breathed his
+last after escaping from the Louvre of his day, only a heap of stones
+remains. The old fortress of Largoet is in much the same condition,
+nothing of the ancient structure having been conserved save the famous
+Tour d'Elven, considered to be the most beautiful castle keep in all
+Brittany, which has also a literary distinction as being the scene of
+some of the most touching episodes in Octave Feuillet's _Roman d'un
+jeune Homme pauvre_.
+
+
+_Châteaubriant_
+
+At Châteaubriant, which owes its name to the compounding of the
+word 'château' with that of 'Briant,' the family style of its
+original lord, the old feudal fortress is now a ruin, but the
+castle, built by Jean de Laval, Governor of Brittany under Francis
+I, is in good repair. An inscription giving the date of the completion
+of the new château as 1538 is above the portal of the colonnade.
+There is a gruesome legend associated with the old château, in which
+for some time dwelt the unfortunate Françoise de Foix, Countess of
+Châteaubriant and beloved of Francis I. Tiring or becoming suspicious
+of her royal lover, she decided to return to her husband, the old
+Count of Laval. The reunion, however, was not productive of
+happiness, owing to the fever of jealousy in which her elderly
+husband lived because of the love affair with the King. This
+jealousy eventually flared into mania when he heard that she had
+actually visited her former lover in prison after he had been
+captured at Pavia. Instantly he "shut his young wife up in a
+darkened and padded cell, and finally had her cut into pieces by two
+surgeons," so the story goes. Terrified at what he had done and of
+the consequences which were sure to follow when the King heard of
+his savagery, the Count fled the country immediately afterward.
+
+The château of Brodineuf (dating from the twelfth century) and that of
+Caradeuc are in good repair, but the latter is ancient only in parts.
+It shelters two Murillos within its walls. The picturesque château of
+Combourg was in early times a feudal fortress, and in it René
+Châteaubriand's infancy was passed. This place may be visited by
+interested sightseers, and there they may view the writing-table of
+the author of _Le Génie du Christianisme_, and, in the bedroom he
+occupied at Combourg, the bed on which he died in Paris. The château
+of Vitré is also in a state of preservation, and is considered one of
+the best specimens of military architecture in the province.
+Comparatively near is the château of Rochers, once the home of Mme de
+Sévigné, and in consequence one of the famous sights of the country.
+The many letters she dated from this castle paint a vivid and detailed
+picture of social life in the seventeenth century, and fortunately the
+atmosphere of the time has been happily retained in the building
+itself.
+
+Another twelfth-century structure is that of the château of Rustefan,
+near Quimperlé. It was built by Stephen, Count of Penthièvre, and
+belonged in the next century to Blanche of Castile, the mother of St
+Louis. The ruins now in existence are those of the château built in
+the fifteenth century, and its cylindrical tower, pinnacled doorway,
+and the stone mullions of the windows still remain fairly intact. The
+château of Kerjolet, in Concarneau, is one which has been saved from
+decay, restored as it was by Countess Chaveau-Narishkine and presented
+by her to the department. It contains a museum in which are specimens
+of all the costumes and _coiffes_ of Lower Brittany, and antiquities
+of prehistoric and medieval times, which all students of Breton and
+Celtic lore should see.
+
+
+_Palaces of the Past_
+
+The château of Tourlaville is situated among very beautiful
+surroundings, and is built in the classic style of the Renaissance,
+with an angular tower. On chimney-piece and fireplace throughout the
+castle there are numerous sentimental devices in which Cupids and
+flaming hearts and torches figure largely, with the occasional
+accompaniment of verses and mottoes of an equally amatory nature.
+These are all seventeenth-century examples and may be taken as
+expressions of the time. In a boudoir called the Blue Chamber, because
+of the colour of its draperies and decorations, many coats-of-arms are
+emblazoned; but all the greatness to which these testify has become a
+thing of the past, for the château has now been turned into a
+farmhouse.
+
+The château of Dinan may also be classed among the palaces of the
+past, for now, despite the fact that it was built by the Dukes of
+Brittany, it has become a prison. From the tourist as well as the
+romantic point of view this is somewhat of a tragedy. The Tower of
+Coëtquen, one of the ancient towers of the city wall, is practically
+part of the castle, and the keep, or Queen Anne's Tower, is the most
+distinctive feature remaining. This keep is of four stories, and is
+over a hundred feet high, the last story being reached by a spiral
+staircase. What was once the oratory of the Duchess Anne is now the
+guard-room. There are still several dungeons whose original
+gruesomeness has been left untouched, and whose use in bygone days can
+well be imagined.
+
+
+_Suscino_
+
+The château of Suscino is one of the chief sights of the neighbourhood
+of Vannes, because it is the ruin of what was once a marvellous
+structure of the thirteenth century, and follows the finest Gothic
+traditions of the time. All the roofing of the building has quite
+disappeared, but its battlemented towers and walls remain to give a
+good idea of the architectural perfection that must have belonged to
+it. At one time it fell into the hands of Charles of Blois, only to be
+retaken by his rival, Montfort, in 1364, and in 1373 it was occupied
+by an English garrison. Eventually it was bestowed upon John of
+Châlons, Prince of Orange, by Anne of Brittany, but in time Francis I
+relieved him of it in order to present it to Françoise de Foix, the
+celebrated Lady of Châteaubriant. The irregular pentagon formed by the
+château is possibly somewhat modified from the original plan of 1320,
+and of the seven towers which flanked its gates and walls in the
+beginning six have weathered the storms of the times through which
+they have passed. Its orchid-shaped machicolations have also survived,
+and even to-day they are noticeably beautiful. The new tower is a fine
+cylindrical keep, dating from the fourteenth century, and over the
+entrance this legend still remains:
+
+       Ici Est Né
+    Le Duc Arthur III
+    le 24 Août, 1393.
+
+We have already dealt with many of the stories connected with the
+ancient castles of Brittany, and these will be found in nearly
+every chapter of this book, so varied are they. But no tale, however
+vivid, can hope to capture and retain all the wonder and mystery of
+these grand old strongholds, which must be seen in order to leave
+upon the imagination and memory the full impress of their weird and
+extraordinary fascination.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [40] _Folk-lore as an Historical Science_, p. 129.
+
+  [41] _Western France_, vol. ii.
+
+  [42] See Le Braz, _La Légende de la Mort_, t. i, p. 39, t. ii, pp. 37
+       ff.; Albert Le Grand, _Vies des Saints de la Bretagne_, p. 63;
+       Villemarqué, _Chants populaires_, pp. 38 ff.
+
+  [43] See MacCulloch, _Religion of the Ancient Celts_, p. 372 and
+       notes.
+
+  [44] MacCulloch, _op. cit._, p. 274.
+
+  [45] Villemarqué avouches that this version was taken down by his
+       mother from the lips of an old peasant woman of the parish of
+       Névez. It bears the stamp of ballad poetry, and as it has
+       parallels in the folk-verse of other countries I see no reason
+       to question its genuineness.
+
+  [46] See "Maro Markiz Gwerrand," in the _Bulletin de la Société
+       Académique de Brest_, 1865.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII: HERO-TALES OF BRITTANY
+
+
+Soon after the Vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué published his
+_Barzaz-Breiz_, a collection of popular ballads from the Breton,
+critics who possessed a knowledge of the language and were acquainted
+with its literature exposed the true nature of the work, acting,
+indeed, as did British critics when Macpherson published his
+fragments of Ossian. Villemarqué was, in fact, a Breton Macpherson. He
+would hear a Breton ballad sung or recited, and would then either
+enlarge upon it and torture it out of all resemblance to its original
+shape, or he would instigate a literary friend to do so. We must
+remember that such a proceeding was fashionable at the time, as no
+less a personage than Sir Walter Scott had led the way, and he had
+been preceded by Burns in the practice. But whereas Burns made no
+secret of what he did and greatly enhanced the poetical value of the
+songs and ballads he altered, Scott and his friends, Kirkpatrick
+Sharpe, Leyden, and others, indulged in what they described as the
+"mystification" of their acquaintances by these semi-forgeries.
+Like theirs, Villemarqué's work had usually an historical or
+legendary basis, but it is impossible to say how much of it is
+original matter of folk-song and how much his own invention,
+unless we compare his versions with those furnished by M. Luzel in
+his _Guerziou Breiz-Izel_ (1868), which, however, only contains a few
+of the originals of the tales given in the _Barzaz-Breiz_, and those
+not the most interesting.
+
+I have cast the following tales into narrative form from the ballads
+published in the _Barzaz-Breiz_, where they obviously appear as
+traditional tales in a polished, modern dress.[47] They may be
+regarded, largely, as efforts of the modern imagination regarding the
+Breton past. In any case the author of a book on Breton romances would
+not be justified in omitting all mention of Villemarqué and refraining
+from affording the reader a specimen of his work, any more than he
+would be in founding solely upon the labours of the Vicomte.
+
+
+_Lez-Breiz, the Prop of Brittany_
+
+Morvan, chief of Léon, so celebrated in the history of the ninth
+century as one of the upholders of Breton independence, and known to
+tradition as 'the Prop of Brittany,' is the subject of a remarkable
+series of ballads or hero-tales in the _Barzaz-Breiz_ which together
+constitute what is almost an epic. These tell of his life, death,
+adventures, travels, and the marvellous feats of derring-do he
+accomplished. In some measure he is to Breton legend what Arthur is to
+British or Holger to that of Denmark. That he is familiar to Breton
+tradition there can be no question, and whether Villemarqué himself
+wove the following adventures around him or not they are certainly
+typical of the age in which the hero flourished.
+
+
+_Morvan's First Adventure_
+
+One day the child Morvan was sitting at the edge of the forest when a
+cavalier issued from its depths armed at all points and riding a
+great charger. The boy, excited by his martial appearance, ran from
+him in terror, calling out that here indeed was St Michael; but the
+cavalier rode so swiftly that he soon came up with the lad, who
+devoutly threw himself on his knees and made the sign of the Cross,
+calling out:
+
+"Seigneur Saint Michael, in the name of God I pray thee do me no
+harm!"
+
+The knight laughed loudly. "Why, lad," he said, "I am no more Saint
+Michael than I am a thief, but merely a belted knight, such as one may
+meet with by the score in this land of chivalry."
+
+"I have never seen a knight," replied Morvan; "and what may that be
+which you carry?"
+
+"That is called a lance, my boy."
+
+"And what are these that you wear on your head and breast?"
+
+"The one is a casque and the other a breast-plate. They are intended
+to protect me from the stroke of sword and spear. But tell me, lad,
+have you seen any one pass this way?"
+
+"Yes, Seigneur, a man went by this very road not half an hour agone."
+
+"Thank you, boy," replied the knight. "If you are asked who spoke to
+you, say the Count of Quimper," and with these words he spurred his
+horse and set off down the road in the direction which the little
+Morvan had indicated.
+
+Morvan returned to his mother, who had been sitting some distance
+away, and began to tell her of his meeting. He was so full of the
+gallantry of the knight he had met, his grace and martial bearing,
+that the good dame could not stem the torrent of words which flowed
+from him.
+
+"Oh, mother," he babbled on, "you never saw anyone so splendid as him
+whom I have seen to-day, a man more beautiful than the Lord Michael
+the Archangel, whose image is in our church."
+
+His mother smiled and patted him fondly on the cheek.
+
+"Come, my son," she said, "there is no man so beautiful as the
+Archangel Michael."
+
+But little Morvan shook his head.
+
+"Saving your grace, there are, my mother," he said gravely. "There are
+many men more splendid than Saint Michael, and they are called
+knights. How I wish that I might grow up and become a knight too!"
+
+At these words the poor lady, who had lost her husband in battle and
+who dreaded that her only son might be taken from her, was seized with
+such dismay that she sank to the ground unconscious. The little
+Morvan, without turning his head, entered the stables and led out a
+fresh horse. Jumping lightly on the steed's back, he turned its head
+in the direction in which the splendid cavalier had gone and rode
+hastily after him.
+
+
+_The Return of Morvan_
+
+Ten years passed--years full of martial achievement and adventure for
+young Morvan. Then a desire to return to the ancestral mansion seized
+upon the youth, and he made his way homeward. But great was his dismay
+when he entered the courtyard of the manor and looked about him, for
+the blackberry bushes and the nettles were growing round the threshold
+of the house and the walls were half ruined and covered with ivy. As
+he was about to enter he observed a poor old blind woman standing in
+the entrance.
+
+[Illustration: MORVAN RETURNS TO HIS RUINED HOME]
+
+"Pardon me, dame, but perhaps you can give me hospitality for the
+night," he said.
+
+"Alas! sir, we have but little," she replied. "This house has been
+allowed to go to ruin since its son and heir quitted it."
+
+As she ceased speaking a young damsel descended the broken stone
+steps, and after regarding Morvan for a moment burst into tears.
+
+"How now, maiden," said Morvan, "wherefore do you weep?"
+
+"Alas, Seigneur," replied the maiden, "I have a brother who left us
+ten years ago to lead the life of a warrior, and every time that I see
+a youth about his age I feel myself compelled to weep."
+
+"Tell me, my child," said Morvan, "have you no other brother?"
+
+"None in the world, Sir Knight."
+
+"And your mother, what of her?"
+
+"Alas! sir, she too is gone. There is no one but myself and my old
+nurse in the house. My poor mother died of grief when my brother rode
+off to become a knight."
+
+On hearing these words Morvan was deeply affected.
+
+"Alas!" he cried, "wretch that I am, I have slain her who gave me
+birth!"
+
+When he spoke thus the damsel turned deadly pale.
+
+"In the name of heaven, sir, who are you?" she cried. "How are you
+named?"
+
+"I am Morvan, son of Conan, and Lez-Breiz is my surname, my sister."
+
+The young girl stared for a moment, sighed, and then fell into his
+arms; but soon she opened her eyes and praised God that she had found
+her long-lost brother.
+
+
+_The King's Cavalier_
+
+But Lez-Breiz could not remain long at home. The tented field was his
+fireside, the battle his sport. Adventure followed adventure in his
+full and stirring life. One day he said to his young squire:
+
+"Arouse you, my squire, and furnish my sword, my casque, and my
+shield, that I may redden them in the blood of the Franks, for with
+the help of God and this right arm I shall carry slaughter into their
+ranks this day."
+
+"Tell me, my lord," asked the squire, "shall I not fight along with
+you to-day?"
+
+Morvan smiled at the lad's eagerness, perhaps because he remembered
+his own on the day he met the Count of Quimper, then a grave shadow
+crossed his face.
+
+"Think of your mother, lad," said he. "What if you never return to
+her? Think of her grief should you die this day."
+
+"Ah, Seigneur," entreated the stripling, "if you love me, grant my
+prayer; let me fight along with you."
+
+When Morvan rode out to battle an hour later his squire rode beside
+him, knee to knee. Passing near the church of St Anne of Armor they
+entered.
+
+"O Saint Anne, most holy dame," prayed Morvan, "I am not yet twenty
+years old and I have been in twenty battles. All those I have gained
+by your aid, and if I return again to this land I shall make you a
+rich gift. I shall give you enough candles to go three times round the
+walls of your church, and thrice round your churchyard--aye, thrice
+round your lands, when I come home again; and further I shall give you
+a banner of white satin with an ivory staff. Also shall I give you
+seven silver bells which will ring gaily night and day above your
+head. And three times on my knees will I draw water for your use."
+
+The enemy saw Morvan coming from afar. He was mounted on a small white
+ass with a halter of hemp, to signify his contempt for them. Lorgnez,
+his chief foe, came against him with a troop of warriors, while Morvan
+had only his little squire behind him. The foemen came on, ten by ten,
+until they reached the Wood of Chestnuts. For a moment the little
+squire was dismayed, but a word from his master rallied him, and,
+drawing his sword, he spurred forward. Soon they came front to front
+with Lorgnez and hailed him in knightly fashion.
+
+"Ho! Seigneur Lorgnez, good day to you."
+
+"Good morrow, Seigneur Morvan. Will you engage in single combat?"
+
+"No; I despise your offer. Go back to your King and tell him that I
+mock him; and as for yourself, I laugh at you and those with you.
+Return to Paris, stay among your women, take off your mail and put on
+the silken armour of fops."
+
+Lorgnez's face flamed with anger.
+
+"By heaven!" he cried, "the lowest varlet in my company shall hew your
+casque from your head for this!"
+
+At these words Morvan drew his great sword.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The old hermit of the wood heard some one knocking on the door of his
+cell. He opened it quickly and saw the young squire standing before
+him. He started back at the sight of the youth's blood-stained armour
+and death-pale countenance.
+
+"Ha, my son," he cried, "you are sorely hurt. Come and wash your
+wounds at the fountain and repose for a little."
+
+"I may not rest here, good father," replied the squire, shaking his
+head. "I have come to find water to take to my young master, who has
+fallen in the fight. Thirty warriors lie slain by his hand. Of these
+the Chevalier Lorgnez was the first."
+
+"Brave youth!" said the hermit. "Alas that he has fallen!"
+
+"Do not grieve, father. It is true that he has fallen, but it is only
+from fatigue. He is unwounded and will soon recover himself."
+
+When he was recovered Morvan betook him to the chapel of St Anne and
+rendered the gifts he had promised her.
+
+"Praise be to Saint Anne," cried he, "for she it is who has gained
+this victory."
+
+
+_The King's Blackamoor_
+
+One day the King of the Franks was sitting among his courtiers.
+
+"Would that some one would rid me of this pestilent Morvan, who
+constantly afflicts the Frankish land and slays my doughtiest
+warriors," he said, on hearing of a fresh exploit on the part of the
+Breton chief.
+
+Then the King's blackamoor, who heard these words, arose and stood
+before his master. He was tall and great of thew and sinew--a giant
+among men, towering head and shoulders even above the tall Frankish
+warriors.
+
+"Allow me to fulfil your wishes, sire," he said. "Sir Morvan has sent
+me his glove, and if to-morrow I do not bring you his head I will
+willingly part with my own."
+
+On the next morning Morvan's squire came to his master trembling
+violently.
+
+"Seigneur," he said, with ashy countenance, "the King's Moor is here
+and bids you defiance."
+
+Morvan rose and took his sword.
+
+"Alas! my dear master," said the squire, "take heed what you do, I
+pray you, for I assure you that this Moor is nothing but a demon who
+practises the most horrible enchantments."
+
+Morvan laughed. "Well, we shall see whether this demon can withstand
+cold steel or not," he said. "Go and saddle my black horse."
+
+"Saving your grace," said the page, "if you will hearken to my words
+you will not fight on the black charger. He has been bewitched.
+Moreover, you will notice that when you enter the lists to fight the
+Moor he will cast his mantle to the ground. But do not follow his
+example, for should your mantle fall beneath his the strength of the
+black giant will be doubled. When the Moor advances to the attack make
+the sign of the Cross with the shaft of your lance, and when he rushes
+upon you in his battle-fury receive him with the steel. If you do this
+you may be sure that your lance will not break."
+
+The heroes met within the lists. The King of France and his nobles had
+followed the giant Moor in order to witness the combat, and when all
+had been seated the trumpets sounded and the two champions rushed
+together with the utmost fury. They circled round one another like
+eagles seeking an opening to strike. Now one struck, then the other,
+and the blood flowed down their bright armour. The Frankish King in
+high excitement called out:
+
+"Ho! black crow of the sea, pierce me now this merle."
+
+At these words the giant assailed Morvan most furiously, as a great
+tempest assails a ship. The lances crossed, but that of the Moor broke
+like matchwood. Both leaped to earth, sword in hand, and rushed at
+each other like lions. Many lusty strokes were given and taken, and
+from their armour flew sparks like those from a smith's anvil. Then
+the Moor, grasping his sword with both hands, made ready to strike a
+mighty blow, when swift and trenchantly Morvan thrust his blade far
+into the arm-pit and the heart and the giant tumbled to the earth like
+a falling tree. Morvan placed his foot on the dead man's breast,
+withdrew his sword, and cut off the Moor's head. Then, attaching the
+bleeding trophy to the pommel of his saddle, he rode home with it and
+affixed it to the gate of his castle. All men praised him for his
+doughty deed, but he gave the grace of his victory entirely to St
+Anne, and declared that he would build a house of prayer in her honour
+on the heights between Léguer and the Guindy.
+
+
+_Morvan Fights the King_
+
+One day Morvan sallied forth to encounter the King of the Franks
+himself. The King brought no fewer than five thousand mounted
+men-at-arms. As this host was about to set out, a great clap of
+thunder resounded in the vault of heaven, and the King's nobles
+perforce regarded it as a bad omen.
+
+"For heaven's sake, sire, go not hence," said one of them, "since the
+day has begun with such an evil token."
+
+"Impossible," was the royal reply. "I have given the order; we must
+march."
+
+That morning, on the other hand, the sister of Morvan said to her
+brother: "My dear brother, if you love me seek not this combat, for if
+you do you will certainly go to your death, and what will become of me
+afterward? I see on the shore the white sea-horse, the symbol of
+Brittany. A monstrous serpent entwines him, seizing him round the hind
+legs and the body with his enormous coils. The sea-steed turns his
+head to seize the reptile. The combat is unequal. You are alone; the
+Franks are legion!"
+
+But Morvan was already beyond ear-shot.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As the hermit of the wood of Helléan[48] slept three knocks sounded on
+his door.
+
+"Good hermit," said some one, "open the door. I seek an asylum and
+help from you."
+
+The wind blew coldly from the country of the Franks. It was the hour
+when savage beasts wander here and there in search of their prey. The
+hermit did not rise with alacrity.
+
+"Who are you who knock at my door at this hour of night demanding an
+entrance?" he asked sulkily; "and by what sign shall I know whether
+you are a true man or otherwise?"
+
+"Priest, I am well known in this land. I am Morvan Lez-Breiz, the
+Hatchet of Brittany."
+
+"I will not open my door to you," said the hermit hastily. "You are a
+rebel; you are the enemy of the good King of the Franks."
+
+"How, priest!" cried Morvan angrily, "I am a Breton and no traitor or
+rebel. It is the King of the Franks who has been a traitor to this
+land."
+
+"Silence, recreant!" replied the hermit. "Rail not against the King of
+the Franks, for he is a man of God."
+
+"Of God, say you? Nay, rather of the devil! Has he not ravaged and
+wasted the Breton land? The gold that he wrings from the Breton folk
+is expended for the good of Satan. Open, hermit, open!"
+
+"Not so, my son, for should I do so the Franks would surely fix a
+quarrel upon me."
+
+"You refuse?" shouted Morvan in a voice of thunder. "Good; then I
+shall burst into your cell," and with these words he threw himself
+against the door, which creaked ominously.
+
+"Hold, my son, hold!" cried the old hermit in tremulous tones.
+"Forbear and I will open to you"; and seizing a torch he lit it at the
+remains of his fire and went to open the door.
+
+
+_The Severed Head_
+
+He unlocked it and drew it back, but as he did so he recoiled
+violently, for he saw advancing upon him a terrible spectre, holding
+its head in its two hands. Its eyes seemed full of blood and fire, and
+rolled round and round in a most horrible manner. The hermit was about
+to shriek in terror when the head of the apparition, after laughing
+grimly, addressed him:
+
+"Come now, old Christian, do not be afraid. God permits this thing to
+be. He has allowed the Franks to decapitate me, but for a time only,
+and as you see me now I am only a phantom. But He will permit you
+yourself to replace my head on my shoulders if you will."
+
+The hermit stammered and drew back. This was not his first encounter
+with the supernatural, which he had good reason to dread, but like all
+Bretons he had come under the magnetism of Morvan, even although he
+believed that the King of the Franks was his rightful overlord; so,
+steeling himself against his natural timidity, he said:
+
+"If God permits this thing I shall be very willing to replace your
+head on your shoulders."
+
+"Take it, then," said the decapitated Morvan, and with trembling hands
+the priest took the gory trophy and replaced it on the Breton chief's
+shoulders, saying at the same time: "I replace your head, my son, in
+the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit."
+
+And by virtue of this benediction the phantom once more became a man.
+
+"Morvan," said the hermit, "you must do penance, heavy penance, with
+me. You must carry about with you for seven years a robe of lead,
+padlocked to your neck, and each day at the hour of twelve you must go
+to fetch water from the well at the summit of the mountain yonder."
+
+"I will do as you desire," said Morvan; "I will follow your saintly
+wish."
+
+When the seven years of the penance had passed the robe had flayed
+Morvan's skin severely, and his beard, which had become grey, and the
+hair of his head, fell almost to his waist. Those who saw him did not
+recognize him; but a lady dressed in white, who passed through the
+greenwood, stopped and gazed earnestly at him and her eyes filled with
+tears.
+
+"Morvan, my dear son, it is indeed you," she said. "Come here, my
+beloved child, that I may free you of your burden," and she cut the
+chain which bound the shirt of lead to the shoulders of the penitent
+with a pair of golden scissors, saying:
+
+"I am your patron, Saint Anne of Armor."
+
+Now for seven years had the squire of Morvan sought his master, and
+one day he was riding through the greenwood of Helléan.
+
+"Alas!" he said, "what profits it that I have slain his murderer when
+I have lost my dear lord?"
+
+Then he heard at the other end of the wood the plaintive whinnying of
+a horse. His own steed sniffed the air and replied, and then he saw
+between the parted branches a great black charger, which he recognized
+as that of Lez-Breiz. Once more the beast whinnied mournfully. It
+almost seemed as if he wept. He was standing upon his master's grave!
+
+But, like Arthur and Barbarossa, Morvan Lez-Breiz will yet return.
+Yes, one day he will return to fight the Franks and drive them from
+the Breton land!
+
+We have sundry intimations here of the sources from which Villemarqué
+drew a part at least of his matter. There are resemblances to
+Arthurian and kindred romances. For example, the incident which
+describes the flight of young Morvan is identical with that in the
+Arthurian saga of _Percival le Gallois_, where the child Percival
+quits his mother's care in precisely the same fashion. The Frankish
+monarch and his Court, too, are distinctly drawn in the style of the
+_chansons de gestes_, which celebrated the deeds of Charlemagne and
+his peers. There are also hints that the paganism against which
+Charlemagne fought, that of the Moors of Spain, had attracted the
+attention of the author, and this is especially seen in his
+introduction of the Moorish giant, so common a figure in the
+Carlovingian stories.
+
+
+_The Ballad of Bran_
+
+A sorrowful and touching ballad, claimed by Villemarqué as being sung
+in the Breton dialect of Léon, tells of the warrior Bran, who was
+wounded in the great fight of Kerlouan, a village situated on the
+coast of Léon, in the tenth century. The coast was raided by the
+Norsemen, and the Bretons, led by their chief, Even the Great, marched
+against them and succeeded in repelling them. The Norsemen, however,
+carried off several prisoners, among them a warrior called Bran.
+Indeed, a village called Kervran, or 'the village of Bran,' still
+exists near the seashore, and here it was, tradition relates, that the
+warrior was wounded and taken by the Scandinavian pirates. In the
+church of Goulven is to be seen an ancient tablet representing the
+Norse vessels which raided the coast.
+
+The ballad recounts how Bran, on finding himself on the enemy's ship,
+wept bitterly. On arriving in the land of the Norsemen he was
+imprisoned in a tower, where he begged his gaolers to allow him to
+send a letter to his mother. Permission to do so was granted, and a
+messenger was found. The prisoner advised this man, for his better
+safety, to disguise himself in the habit of a beggar, and gave him his
+gold ring in order that his mother might know that the message came
+from her son in very truth. He added: "When you arrive in my country
+proceed at once to my mother, and if she is willing to ransom me show
+a white sail on your return, but if she refuses, hoist a black sail."
+
+When the messenger arrived at the warrior's home in the country of
+Léon the lady was at supper with her family and the bards were present
+playing on their harps.
+
+"Greeting, lady," said the messenger. "Behold the ring of your son,
+Bran, and here is news from him contained in this letter, which I pray
+you read quickly."
+
+The lady took the missive, and, turning to the harpers, told them to
+cease playing. Having perused the letter she became extremely
+agitated, and, rising with tears in her eyes, gave orders that a
+vessel should be equipped immediately so that she might sail to seek
+her son on the morrow.
+
+One morning Bran, the prisoner, called from his tower: "Sentinel,
+Sentinel, tell me, do you see a sail on the sea?"
+
+"No," replied the sentinel, "I see nothing but the sea and the sky."
+
+At midday Bran repeated the question, but was told that nothing but
+the birds and the billows were in sight. When the shadows of evening
+gathered he asked once more, and the perfidious sentinel replied with
+a lie:
+
+"Yes, lord, there is a ship close at hand, beaten by wind and sea."
+
+"And what colour of a sail does she show?" asked Bran. "Is it black or
+white?"
+
+"It is black, lord," replied the sentinel, in a spirit of petty
+spite.
+
+When the unhappy warrior heard these words he never spoke more.
+
+That night his mother arrived at the town where he had been
+imprisoned. She asked of the people: "Why do the bells sound?"
+
+"Alas! lady," said an ancient man, "a noble prisoner who lay in yonder
+tower died this night."
+
+With bent head the lady walked to the tower, her white hair falling
+upon her folded arms. When she arrived at its foot she said to the
+guard: "Open the door quickly; I have come to see my son."
+
+And when the great door was opened she threw herself upon the corpse
+of Bran and breathed her last.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the battlefield of Kerlouan there is an oak which overshadows the
+shore and which marks the place where the Norsemen fled before the
+face of Even the Great. On this oak, whose leaves shine in the moon,
+the birds gather each night, the birds of the sea and the land, both
+of white and black feather. Among them is an old grey rook and a young
+crow. The birds sing such a beautiful song that the great sea keeps
+silence to hear it. All of them sing except the rook and the crow. Now
+the crow says: "Sing, little birds, sing; sing, little birds of the
+land, for when you die you will at least end your days in Brittany."
+
+The crow is of course Bran in disguise, for the name Bran means 'crow'
+in the Breton tongue, and the rook is possibly his mother. In the most
+ancient Breton traditions the dead are represented as returning to
+earth in the form of birds. A number of the incidents in this piece
+are paralleled in the poem of _Sir Tristrem_, which also introduces a
+messenger who disguises himself for the purpose of travelling more
+safely in a foreign country, a ring of gold, which is used to show the
+messenger's _bona-fides_, a perfidious gaoler, and the idea of the
+black or white sail. The original poem of _Sir Tristrem_ was probably
+composed about the twelfth or thirteenth century, and it would seem
+that the above incidents at least have a Breton source behind them. A
+mother, however, has been substituted for a lover, and the ancient
+Breton dame takes the place of Ysonde. There is, indeed, little
+difference between the passage which relates the arrival of the mother
+in the Norsemen's country and that of Ysonde in Brittany when she
+sails on her last voyage with the intention of succouring Tristrem.
+Ysonde also asks the people of the place why the bells are ringing,
+one of the ancient inhabitants tells her of the death of her lover,
+and, like the Breton mother, she casts herself on the body of him she
+has lost.
+
+"This passage," says Villemarqué, with wonderful _sang-froid_, "duly
+attests the prior claim of the Armorican piece!" But even if he had
+been serious, he wrote without the possession of data for the precise
+fixing of the period in which the Breton ballad was composed; and in
+any case his contention cannot assist the Breton argument for
+Armorican priority in Arthurian literature, as borrowing in ballad and
+folk-tale is much more flagrant than he, writing as he did in 1867,
+could ever have guessed--more flagrant even than any adaptation he
+himself ever perpetrated!
+
+He adds, however, an antiquarian note to the poem which is of far
+greater interest and probably of more value than his supposition. He
+alludes to the passage contained in the ballad regarding the harpers
+who are represented as playing in the hall of Bran's mother while
+she sits at supper. The harp, he states, is no longer popular in
+Brittany, and he asks if this was always the case. There can be very
+little doubt that in Brittany, as in other Celtic countries--for
+example, Wales, Ireland and Scotland--the harp was in ancient times
+one of the national instruments. It is strange that it should have
+been replaced in that country by the _biniou_, or bagpipe, just as
+the _clairschach_, or Highland harp, was replaced by the same
+instrument in the Highlands of Scotland.
+
+
+_Fontenelle_
+
+Guy Eder de Fontenelle, a son of the house of Beaumanoir, was one of
+the most famous partisans of the Catholic League, and, according to
+one who saw him in 1587, had then begun to show tendencies to the wild
+life he was afterward to lead. He was sent as a scholar to Paris to
+the College of Boncotest, but in 1589, when about sixteen years of
+age, he became impatient of scholastic confinement, sold his books and
+his robe, and bought a sword and poignard. Leaving the college, he
+took the road to Orléans, with the object of attaching himself to the
+army of the Duke of Mayenne, chief of the Catholic party in France,
+but, returning to his native Brittany, he placed himself at the head
+of the populace, which had risen in arms on behalf of the Leaguers. As
+he was of good family and a Breton and displayed an active spirit,
+they obeyed him very willingly. Soon he translated his intentions into
+action, and commenced to pillage the smaller towns and to make captive
+those who differed from him politically. He threatened Guingamp, which
+was held for the King, and made a sally into Léon, carrying away the
+daughter of the Lady of Coadelan, a wealthy heiress, who was only
+about eight or nine years of age. This occurrence Villemarqué has
+related for us in Breton verse, assuring us that it was 'recovered' by
+the Comte de Kergariou, a friend of his. Fontenelle is supposed to
+have encountered the little heiress plucking flowers in a wayside
+ditch.
+
+"Tell me, little one," said he, "for whom do you pluck these
+flowers?"
+
+"For my foster-brother, whom I love. But I am afraid, for I know that
+Fontenelle is near."
+
+"Ha, then, so you know this terrible Fontenelle, my child?"
+
+"No, sir, I do not know him, but I have heard tell of him. I have
+heard folk say that he is a very wicked man and that he carries away
+young ladies."
+
+"Yes," replied Fontenelle, with a laugh, "and, above all, heiresses."
+
+He took the child in his arms and swung her on to the crupper of his
+saddle. Then, dashing the spurs into his charger's flanks, he set off
+at a gallop for Saint-Malo, where he placed the little heiress in a
+convent, with the object of marrying her when she had arrived at the
+age of fourteen.
+
+Years afterward Fontenelle and the heiress, who was now his wife, went
+to live at their manor of Coadelan. They had a little child beautiful
+as the day, who greatly resembled his father. One day a letter arrived
+for the Seigneur, calling upon him to betake himself to Paris at once.
+His wife was inconsolable.
+
+"Do not set forth alone for Paris, I pray you," she said, "for if you
+do I shall instantly follow you. Remain at home, I beg of you, and I
+will send a messenger in your stead. In the name of God, do not go,
+husband, for if you do you will never return."
+
+But Fontenelle disregarded his wife's entreaties, and, begging her to
+take good care of their son during his absence, set forth on his
+journey to the capital. In due time he arrived in Paris and stood
+before the King and Queen. He greeted them courteously, but they
+looked coldly on him, and the King told him bluntly that he should not
+return to Coadelan, adding: "There are sufficient chains in my palace
+to restrain you."
+
+On hearing this Fontenelle called his little page and begged him to
+return at once to his mistress and tell her to discard her finery,
+because she would soon be a widow, and to bring him back a coarse
+shirt and a white sheet, and, moreover, to bring a gold plate on which
+his enemies might expose his head after his death.
+
+"And, little page," he added, "take a lock of my hair and place it on
+the door of Coadelan, so that all men as they go to Mass may say, 'God
+have mercy on the soul of Fontenelle.'"
+
+The page did as he was bidden, but as for the plate of gold it was
+useless, for Fontenelle's head was thrown on the pavement to serve as
+a ball for the children of the gutter.
+
+All Paris was surprised when one day a lady from a distant country
+arrived and made great stir in its narrow streets. Every one asked his
+neighbour who this dame might be. It was the heiress of Coadelan,
+dressed in a flowing robe of green. "Alas!" said the pitiful
+burgesses, "if she knew what we know she would be dressed in black."
+Shortly she stood before the King. "Sire," said she, "give me back my
+husband, I beg of you."
+
+"Alas! madam," replied the King, with feigned sorrow, "what you ask is
+impossible, for but three days ago he was broken on the wheel."
+
+"Whoso goes to Coadelan to-day will turn away from it with grief, for
+the ashes are black upon the hearth and the nettles crowd around the
+doorway--and still," the ballad ends naïvely, "still the wicked world
+goes round and the poor folk weep with anguish, and say, 'Alas that
+she is dead, the mother of the poor.'"
+
+
+_The Return from England_
+
+There is a good deal of evidence to show that a considerable body of
+Bretons accompanied the invading army of William the Conqueror when he
+set forth with the idea of gaining the English crown. They were
+attached to his second battle corps, and many of them received land in
+England. A ballad which, says Villemarqué, bears every sign of
+antiquity deals with the fortunes of a young Breton, Silvestik, who
+followed in the train of the Conqueror. The piece is put into the
+mouth of the mother of Silvestik, who mourns her son's absence, and
+its tone is a tender and touching one.
+
+"One night as I lay on my bed," says the anxious mother, "I could not
+sleep. I heard the girls at Kerlaz singing the song of my son. O God,
+Silvestik, where are you now? Perhaps you are more than three hundred
+leagues from here, cast on the great sea, and the fishes feed upon
+your fair body. Perhaps you may be married now to some Saxon damsel.
+You were to have been wed to a lovely daughter of this land, Mannaïk
+de Pouldergat, and you might have been among us surrounded by
+beautiful children, dwelling happily in your own home.
+
+[Illustration: THE FINDING OF SILVESTIK]
+
+"I have taken to my door a little white dove which sits in a small
+hollow of the stone. I have tied to his neck a letter with the ribbon
+of my wedding-dress and have sent it to my son. Arise, my little dove,
+arise on your two wings, fly far, very far across the great sea, and
+discover if my son is still alive and well."
+
+Silvestik rested in the shade of an English wood, and as he did so a
+familiar note fell upon his ear.
+
+"That sound resembles the voice of my mother's little white dove," he
+said. The sound grew louder; it seemed to say, "Good luck to you,
+Silvestik, good luck to you. I have here a letter for you."
+
+Silvestik in high happiness read the letter, and resolved to return
+home to his sorrowing parent.
+
+Two years passed, three years passed, and the dove did not return to
+delight the heart of the longing mother, who day by day walked the
+dismal seashore waiting for the vessel that never came. One day of
+storm she was wandering on the beach as usual when she saw a vessel
+being driven with great force upon the iron coast. Even as she watched
+it it dashed upon the rocks. Soon there were cast upon the shore the
+forms of many dead, and when the gale abated and the heart-sick mother
+was able to search among them she found Silvestik!
+
+Several competent judges are of opinion that this ballad is
+contemporary with the events which it relates. Many of the Breton
+lords who sailed with William the Conqueror did not return for several
+years after the expedition had accomplished its object, and some not
+at all. Nothing is known regarding the hero. The bird is frequently
+the messenger between lovers in ballad literature, but it is seldom
+that it is found carrying letters between a mother and her
+son--indeed, this is perhaps the only instance known.
+
+
+_The Marriage-Girdle_
+
+This ballad has reference to the Breton expedition which sailed for
+Wales in 1405 to assist the Welsh under Owen Glendower to free their
+principality from the English yoke. The Bretons rendered material
+assistance to their Welsh brothers, and had the satisfaction on their
+return of knowing that they had accomplished that which no French king
+had ever been able to achieve--the invasion of English territory. The
+expedition was commanded by Jean de Rieux, Marshal of France, and
+numbered ten thousand men.
+
+The ballad tells how a young man on the morning after his betrothal
+received orders to join the standard of de Rieux "to help the Bretons
+oversea." It was with bitterness in his heart, says the lover, that he
+entered the house of his betrothed with the object of bidding her
+farewell. He told her that duty called him, and that he must go to
+serve in England. At this her tears gushed forth, and she begged him
+not to go, reminding him how changeful was the wind and how perfidious
+the sea.
+
+"Alas!" said she, "if you die what shall I do? In my impatience to
+have news of you my heart will break. I shall wander by the seashore,
+from one cottage to another, asking the sailors if they have heard
+tell of you."
+
+"Be comforted, Aloïda," said her lover, "and do not weep on my
+account. I will send you a girdle from over the sea, a girdle of
+purple set with rubies."
+
+They parted at daybreak, he to embark on the sea, she to weep, and as
+he sought his ship he could hear the magpies cackle: "If the sea is
+changeable women are even more so."
+
+When the autumn had arrived the young girl said: "I have looked far
+over the sea from the heights of the mountains of Arez. I have seen
+upon the waters a ship in danger, and I feel that upon it was him whom
+I love. He held a sword in his hand, he was engaged in a terrible
+combat, he was wounded to death and his garments were covered with
+blood. I am certain that he is dead."
+
+And before many weeks had passed she was affianced to another.
+
+Then good news arrived in the land. The war was finished and the
+cavalier returned to his home with a gay heart. No sooner had he
+refreshed himself than he went to seek his beloved. As he approached
+her dwelling he heard the sound of music, and observed that every
+window in the house was illuminated as if for a festival. He asked
+some revellers whom he met outside the cause of this merrymaking, and
+was told that a wedding was proceeding.
+
+It is the custom in Brittany to invite beggars to a wedding, and when
+these were now admitted one of them asked hospitality for the night.
+This was at once granted him, but he sat apart, sad and silent. The
+bride, observing this, approached him and asked him why he did not
+join in the feasting. He replied that he was weary with travel and
+that his heart was heavy with sorrow. Desirous that the marriage
+festivities should not flag, the bride asked him to join her in the
+dance, and he accepted the invitation, saying, however, that it was an
+honour he did not merit.
+
+Now while they danced he came close to her and murmured in her ear:
+
+"What have you done with the golden ring that you received from me at
+the door of this very house?"
+
+The bride stared at him in wild dismay. "Oh, heaven," she cried,
+"behold, I have now two husbands! I who thought I was a widow!"
+
+"You think wrongly, _ma belle_," hissed the beggar; "you will have no
+husband this side of the grave," and drawing a dagger from under his
+cloak he struck the lady to the heart.
+
+In the abbey of Daoulas there is a statue of the Virgin decorated with
+a splendid girdle of purple sparkling with rubies, which came from
+across the sea. If you desire to know who gave it to her, ask of a
+repentant monk who lies prostrate on the grass before the figure of
+the Mother of God.
+
+It is strange that the faithless damsel should have alleged that she
+saw her lover perish in a naval combat when in the very year to which
+the circumstances of the ballad refer (1405) a Breton fleet
+encountered and defeated an English flotilla several leagues from
+Brest. "The combat was terrible," says a historian of the Dukes of
+Burgundy, "and was animated by the ancient hate between the English
+and the Bretons." Perhaps it was in this sea-fight that the lady
+beheld her lover; and if, as she thought, he was slain, she scarcely
+deserves the odium which the balladeer has cast upon her memory.
+
+
+_The Combat of Saint-Cast_
+
+This ballad somewhat belies its name, for it has some relation to an
+extraordinary incident which was the means rather of preventing
+than precipitating a battle. In 1758 a British army was landed upon
+the shores of Brittany with the object of securing for British
+merchant ships safety in the navigation of the Channel and of creating
+a diversion in favour of the German forces, then our allies. A
+company of men from Lower Brittany, from the towns of Tréguier and
+Saint-Pol-de-Léon, says Villemarqué, were marching against a
+detachment of Scottish Highlanders. When at a distance of about a
+mile the Bretons could hear their enemies singing a national song. At
+once they halted stupefied, for the air was one well known to them,
+which they were accustomed to hear almost every day of their lives.
+Electrified by the music, which spoke to their hearts, they arose
+in their enthusiasm and themselves sang the patriotic refrain. It
+was the Highlanders' turn to be silent. All this time the two
+companies were nearing one another, and when at a suitable distance
+their respective officers commanded them to fire; but the orders
+were given, says the tradition, "in the same language," and the
+soldiers on both sides stood stock-still. Their inaction, however,
+lasted but a moment, for emotion carried away all discipline, the
+arms fell from their hands, and the descendants of the ancient Celts
+renewed on the field of battle those ties of brotherhood which had
+once united their fathers.
+
+However unlikely this incident may seem, it appears to be confirmed by
+tradition, if not by history. The air which the rival Celts sang is,
+says Villemarqué,[49] common to both Brittany and "the Highlands of
+Scotland." With the music before me, it seems to bear a marked
+resemblance to The _Garb of Old Gaul_, composed by General Reid
+(1721-1807). Perhaps Reid, who was a Highlander, based his stirring
+march on an older Celtic theme common to both lands.
+
+
+_The Song of the Pilot_
+
+One of the most famous of Breton nautical traditions tells of the
+chivalry displayed by a Breton crew toward the men of a British
+warship. During the American War of Independence much enthusiasm was
+excited in France in connexion with the valiant struggle for liberty
+in which the American colonies were engaged. A number of Breton ships
+received letters of marque enabling them to fight on the American side
+against Great Britain, and these attempted to blockade British
+commerce. The _Surveillante_, a Breton vessel commanded by Couédic de
+Kergoaler, encountered the British ship _Quebec_, commanded by Captain
+Farmer. In the course of the action the _Surveillante_ was nearly sunk
+by the British cannonade and the _Quebec_ went on fire. But Breton and
+Briton, laying aside their swords, worked together with such goodwill
+that most of the British crew were rescued and the _Surveillante_ was
+saved, although the _Quebec_ was lost, and this notwithstanding that
+nearly every man of both crews had been wounded in the fighting.
+
+I have here attempted a very free translation of the stirring ballad
+which relates this noteworthy incident, which cannot but be of
+interest at such a time as the present.
+
+
+THE SONG OF THE PILOT
+
+  Yo ho, ye men of Sulniac!
+  We ship to-day at Vannes,
+  We sail upon a glorious track
+  To seek an Englishman.
+  Our saucy sloop the _Surveillante_
+  Must keep the seaways clear
+  From Ushant in the north to Nantes:
+  Aboard her, timoneer!
+
+  See, yonder is the British craft
+  That seeks to break blockade;
+  St George's banner floats abaft
+  Her lowering carronade.
+  A flash! and lo, her thunder speaks,
+  Her iron tempest flies
+  Beneath her bows, and seaward breaks,
+  And hissing sinks and dies.
+
+  Thunder replied to thunder; then
+  The ships rasped side by side,
+  The battle-hungry Breton men
+  A boarding sally tried,
+  But the stern steel of Britain flashed,
+  And spite of Breton vaunt
+  The lads of Morbihan were dashed
+  Back on the _Surveillante_.
+
+  Then was a grim encounter seen
+  Upon the seas that day.
+  Who yields when there is strife between
+  Britain and Brittany?
+  Shall Lesser Britain rule the waves
+  And check Britannia's pride?
+  Not while her frigate's oaken staves
+  Still cleave unto her side!
+
+  But hold! hold! see, devouring fire
+  Has seized the stout _Quebec_.
+  The seething sea runs high and higher,
+  The _Surveillante's_ a wreck.
+  Their cannon-shot has breached our side,
+  Our bolts have fired the foe.
+  Quick, to the pumps! No longer bide!
+  Below, my lads! below!
+
+  The yawning leak is filled, the sea
+  Is cheated of its prey.
+  Now Bretons, let the Britons see
+  The heart of Brittany!
+  Brothers, we come to save, our swords
+  Are sheathed, our hands are free.
+  There is a fiercer fight toward,
+  A fiercer foe than we!
+
+  A long sea-day, till sank the sun,
+  Briton and Breton wrought,
+  And Great and Little Britain won
+  The noblest fight ere fought.
+  It was a sailors' victory
+  O'er pride and sordid gain.
+  God grant for ever peace at sea
+  Between the Britains twain!
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [47] For the criticism on Villemarqué's work see H. Gaidoz and P.
+       Sébillot, "Bibliographie des Traditions et de la Littérature
+       populaire de la Bretagne" (in the _Revue Celtique_, t. v, pp.
+       277 ff.). The title _Barzaz-Breiz_ means "The Breton Bards,"
+       the author being under the delusion that the early forms of the
+       ballads he collected and altered had been composed by the
+       ancient bards of Brittany.
+
+  [48] Once a part of the forest of Broceliande. It has now
+       disappeared.
+
+  [49] _Barzaz-Breiz_, p. 335. Sébillot (_Traditions de la
+       Haute-Bretagne_, t. i, p. 346) says that he could gain nothing
+       regarding this incident at the village of Saint-Cast but "vague
+       details."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX: THE BLACK ART AND ITS MINISTERS
+
+
+Sorcery is a very present power in most isolated communities, and in
+the civilized portions of Brittany it is but a thing of yesterday,
+while in the more secluded departments it is very much a thing of
+to-day. The old folk can recall the time when the farm, the dairy, and
+the field were ever in peril of the spell, the enchantment, the
+noxious beam of the evil eye, and tales of many a "devilish cantrip
+sleight," as Burns happily characterized the activity of the witch and
+the wizard, were told in hushed voices at the Breton fireside when the
+winter wind blew cold from the cruel sea and the heaped faggots sent
+the red glow of fire-warmth athwart the thick shadows of the great
+farm kitchen, and old and young from grandsire to herd-boy made a
+great circle to hearken to the creepy tales so dear to the Breton
+heart.
+
+As in the East, where to refuse baksheesh is to lay oneself open to
+the curse of the evil eye, the beggar was regarded as the chief
+possessor of this bespelling member. The guild of tattered wanderers
+naturally nourished this superstition, and to permit one of its
+members to hobble off muttering threats or curses was looked upon as
+suicidal. Indeed, the mendicants were wont to boast of their feats of
+sorcery to the terrified peasants, who hastened to placate them by all
+the means in their power.
+
+Certain villages, too, appear to have possessed an evil reputation
+among the country-folk as the dwelling-places of magicians, centres of
+sorcery, which it was advisable to shun. Thus we read in Breton
+proverb of the sorcerers of Fougères, of Trèves, of Concoret, of
+Lézat.
+
+The strangest circumstances were connected with the phenomena of
+sorcery by the credulous Bretons. Thus, did a peasant join a dance of
+witches, the sabots he had on would be worn out in the course of the
+merrymaking. A churn of turned butter, a sour pail of milk, were
+certain to be accounted for by sorcery. In a certain village of
+Moncontour the cows, the dog, even the harmless, necessary cat, died
+off, and the farmer hastened to consult a diviner, who advised him to
+throw milk in the fire and recite certain prayers. The farmer obeyed
+and the spell was broken!
+
+In the town of Rennes about fifty years ago dwelt a knowing fellow
+called Robert, a very 'witch-doctor,' who investigated cases of
+sorcery and undertook the dissipation of enchantments. On a certain
+large farm the milk would yield no butter. An agricultural expert
+might have hinted at poor pasturage, but the farmer and his wife had
+other views as to the cause of the 'insufficiency of fats,' as an
+analyst would say, in the lacteal output of the establishment.
+Straightway they betook themselves to the mysterious Robert, who on
+arriving to investigate the affair was attired in a skin dyed in two
+colours. He held in leash a large black dog, evidently his familiar.
+He exorcized the dairy, and went through a number of strange
+ceremonies. Then, turning to the awestruck farm hands, he said:
+
+"You may now proceed with your work. The spell is raised. It has been
+a slow business. I must go now, but don't be afraid if you see
+anything odd."
+
+With these words he whistled, and a great black horse at once
+appeared as if from nowhere. Placing his hand on its crupper, he
+vaulted into the saddle, bade good-bye to the astonished rustics, and
+while they gazed at him open-mouthed, vanished 'like a flash.'
+
+Many kinds of amulets or talismans were used by the Breton peasantry
+to neutralize the power of sorcerers. Thus, if a person carried a
+snake with him the enchanters would be unable to harm his sight, and
+all objects would appear to him under their natural forms. Salt placed
+in various parts of a house guarded it against the entrance of wizards
+and rendered their spells void.
+
+But many consulted the witch and the sorcerer for their personal
+advantage, in affairs of the heart, to obtain a number in the casting
+of lots for conscription which would free them from military service,
+and so forth; and, as in other countries, there grew up a class of
+middlemen between the human and the supernatural who posed as
+fortune-tellers, astrologers, and quack mediciners.
+
+It was said that sorcerers were wont to meet at the many Roches aux
+Fées in Brittany at fixed periods in order to deliberate as to their
+actions and settle their affairs. If anyone, it was declared, wandered
+into their circle or was caught by them listening to their secret
+conclave he seldom lived long. Others, terrified at the sight
+presented by the gleaming eyes of the cat-sorcerers, blazing like live
+coals, fled incontinently from their presence, and found that in the
+morning the hair of their heads had turned white with the dread
+experience. Long afterward they would sit by the fireside trembling
+visibly at nothing, and when interrogated regarding their very evident
+fears would only groan and bury their faces in their hands.
+
+A story is told of one, Jean Foucault, who one moonlight night had,
+like Tam o' Shanter, sat overlong
+
+  Fast by an ingle bleezin' finely,
+  Wi' reaming swats that drank divinely,
+
+where the cider was as good as the company, and, issuing at midnight's
+weary hour from his favourite inn, was not in a mood to run away from
+anything, however fearsome. Walking, or rather rolling, across the
+moor singing the burden of the last catch he had trolled with his
+fellows at the ale-house, all on a sudden he stumbled into a circle of
+sorcerer-cats squatting around a cross of stone. They were of immense
+size and of all colours, black, grey, white, tortoise-shell, and when
+he beheld them seated round the crucifix, their eyes darting fire and
+the hair bristling on their backs, his song died upon his lips and all
+his bellicose feelings, like those of Bob Acres, leaked out at his
+finger-tips. On catching sight of him the animals set up a horrible
+caterwauling that made the blood freeze in his veins. For an awful
+moment the angry cats glared at him with death in their looks, and
+seemed as if about to spring upon him. Giving himself up for lost, he
+closed his eyes. But about his feet he could hear a strange purring,
+and, glancing downward, he beheld his own domestic puss fawning upon
+him with every sign of affection.
+
+"Pass my master, Jean Foucault," said the animal.
+
+"It is well," replied a great grey tom, whom Jean took to be the
+leader; "pass on, Jean Foucault."
+
+And Jean, the cider fumes in his head quite dissipated, staggered
+away, more dead than alive.
+
+
+_Druidic Magic_
+
+The more ancient sorcerers of Brittany deserve a word of notice. Magic
+among the Celtic peoples in olden times was so clearly identified with
+Druidism that its origin may be said to have been Druidic. Whether
+Druidism was of Celtic origin, however, is a question upon which much
+discussion has taken place, some authorities, among them Rhys,
+believing it to have been of non-Celtic and even non-Aryan origin, and
+holding that the earliest non-Aryan or so-called Iberian people of
+Britain introduced the Druidic religion to the immigrant Celts. An
+argument advanced in favour of this theory is that the Continental
+Celts sent their neophyte Druid priests to Britain to undergo a
+special training at the hands of the British Druids, and that this
+island seems to have been regarded as the headquarters of the cult.
+The people of Cisalpine Gaul, for instance, had no Druidic priesthood.
+Cæsar has told us that in Gaul Druidic seminaries were very numerous,
+and that within their walls severe study and discipline were entailed
+upon the neophytes, whose principal business was to commit to memory
+countless verses enshrining Druidic knowledge and tradition. That this
+instruction was astrological and magical we have the fullest
+proof.[50]
+
+The Druids were magi as they were priests in the same sense that the
+American Indian shaman is both magus and priest. That is, they were
+medicine-men on a higher scale, and had reached a loftier stage of
+transcendental knowledge than the priest-magicians of more barbarous
+races. Thus they may be said to be a link between the barbarian
+shaman and the magus of medieval times. Many of their practices were
+purely shamanistic, while others more closely resembled medieval
+magical rite. But they were not the only magicians of the Celts, for
+frequently among that people we find magic power the possession of
+women and of the poetic craft. The magic of Druidism had many points
+of comparison with most magical systems, and perhaps approximated more
+to that black magic which desires power for the sake of power alone
+than to any transcendental type. Thus it included the power to render
+the magician invisible, to change his bodily shape, to produce an
+enchanted sleep, to induce lunacy, and to inflict death from afar.
+
+The arts of rain-making, bringing down fire from heaven, and causing
+mists, snow-storms, and floods were also claimed for the Druids.
+Many of the spells probably in use among them survived until a
+comparatively late period, and are still employed in some remote
+Celtic localities, the names of saints being substituted for those
+of Celtic deities. Certain primitive ritual, too, is still carried
+out in the vicinity of some megalithic structures in Celtic areas,
+as at Dungiven, in Ireland, where pilgrims wash before a great stone
+in the river Roe and then walk round it, and in many parts of
+Brittany.[51]
+
+In pronouncing incantations the usual method employed was to stand
+upon one leg and to point with the forefinger to the person or object
+on which the spell was to be laid, at the same time closing one eye,
+as if to concentrate the force of the entire personality upon that
+which was to be placed under ban. A manuscript possessed by the
+monastery of St Gall, and dating from the eighth or ninth century,
+includes magical formulæ for the preservation of butter and the
+healing of certain diseases in the name of the Irish god Diancecht.
+These and others bear a close resemblance to Babylonian and Etruscan
+spells, and thus go to strengthen the hypothesis often put forward
+with more or less plausibility that Druidism had an Eastern origin. At
+all magical rites spells were uttered. Druids often accompanied an
+army, to assist by their magical arts in confounding the enemy.[52]
+
+There is some proof that in Celtic areas survivals of a Druidic
+priesthood have descended to our own time in a more or less debased
+condition. Thus the existence of guardians and keepers of wells said
+to possess magical properties, and the fact that in certain families
+magical spells and formulæ are handed down from one generation to
+another, are so many proofs of the survival of Druidic tradition,
+however feeble. Females are generally the conservators of these
+mysteries, and that there were Druid priestesses is fairly certain.
+
+The sea-snake's egg, or adder's stone, which is so frequently alluded
+to in Druidic magical tales, otherwise called _Glain Neidr_, was said
+to have been formed, about midsummer, by an assemblage of snakes. A
+bubble formed on the head of one of them was blown by others down the
+whole length of its back, and then, hardening, became a crystal ring.
+It was used as one of the insignia of the Archdruid, and was supposed
+to assist in augury.
+
+The _herbe d'or_, or 'golden herb,' was a medicinal plant much in
+favour among the Breton peasantry. It is the _selago_ of Pliny, which
+in Druidical times was gathered with the utmost veneration by a hand
+enveloped with a garment once worn by a sacred person. The owner of
+the hand was arrayed in white, with bare feet, washed in pure water.
+In after times the plant was thought to shine from a distance like
+gold, and to give to those who trod on it the power of understanding
+the language of dogs, wolves, and birds.
+
+These, with the mistletoe, the favourite Druidical plant, the sorcerer
+is entreated, in an old balled, to lay aside, to seek no more for vain
+enchantments, but to remember that he is a Christian.
+
+
+_Abélard and Héloïse_
+
+The touching story of the love of Abélard and Héloïse has found its
+way into Breton legend as a tale of sorcery. Abélard was a Breton. The
+Duke of Brittany, whose subject he was born, jealous of the glory of
+France, which then engrossed all the most famous scholars of Europe,
+and being, besides, acquainted with the persecution Abélard had
+suffered from his enemies, had nominated him to the Abbey of St
+Gildas, and, by this benefaction and mark of his esteem, engaged him
+to pass the rest of his days in his dominions. Abélard received this
+favour with great joy, imagining that by leaving France he would
+quench his passion for Héloïse and gain a new peace of mind upon
+entering into his new dignity.
+
+The Abbey of St Gildas de Rhuys was founded on the inaccessible coast
+near Vannes by St Gildas, a British saint, the schoolfellow and friend
+of St Samson of Dol and St Pol of Léon, and counted among its monks
+the Saxon St Dunstan, who, carried by pirates from his native isle,
+settled on the desolate shores of Brittany and became, under the name
+of St Goustan, the patron of mariners.
+
+St Gildas built his abbey on the edge of a high, rocky promontory,
+the site of an ancient Roman encampment, called Grand Mont, facing
+the shore, where the sea has formed numerous caverns in the rocks.
+The rocks are composed chiefly of quartz, and are covered to a
+considerable height with small mussels. Abélard, on his appointment
+to the Abbey of St Gildas, made over to Héloïse the celebrated
+abbey he had founded at Nogent, near Troyes, which he called the
+Paraclete, or Comforter, because he there found comfort and
+refreshment after his troubles. With Nogent he was to leave his
+peace. His gentle nature was unable to contend against the coarse
+and unruly Breton monks. As he writes in his well-known letter to
+Héloïse, setting forth his griefs: "I inhabit a barbarous country
+where the language is unknown to me. I have no dealings with the
+ferocious inhabitants. I walk the inaccessible borders of the
+stormy sea, and my monks have no other rule than their own. I wish
+that you could see my dwelling. You would not believe it an abbey. The
+doors are ornamented only with the feet of deer, of wolves and bears,
+boars, and the hideous skins of owls. I find each day new perils.
+I expect at every moment to see a sword suspended over my head."
+
+It is scarcely necessary to outline the history of Abélard. Suffice
+it to say that he was one of the most brilliant scholars and
+dialecticians of all time, possessing a European reputation in his
+day. Falling in love with Héloïse, niece of Fulbert, a canon of
+Paris, he awoke in her a similar absorbing passion, which resulted in
+their mutual disgrace and Abélard's mutilation by the incensed
+uncle. He and his Héloïse were buried in one tomb at the Paraclete.
+The story of their love has been immortalized by the world's great
+poets and painters.
+
+An ancient Breton ballad on the subject has been spoken of as a "naïf
+and horrible" production, in which one will find "a bizarre mixture of
+Druidic practice and Christian superstition." It describes Héloïse as
+a sorceress of ferocious and sanguinary temper. Thus can legend
+magnify and distort human failing! As its presentation is important in
+the study of Breton folk-lore, I give a very free translation of this
+ballad, in which, at the same time, I have endeavoured to preserve the
+atmosphere of the original.
+
+
+THE HYMN OF HÉLOÏSE
+
+  O Abélard, my Abélard,
+  Twelve summers have passed since first we kissed.
+  There is no love like that of a bard:
+  Who loves him lives in a golden mist!
+
+  Nor word of French nor Roman tongue,
+  But only Brezonek could I speak,
+  When round my lover's neck I hung
+  And heard the harmony of the Greek,
+
+  The march of Latin, the joy of French,
+  The valiance of the Hebrew speech,
+  The while its thirst my soul did quench
+  In the love-lore that he did teach.
+
+  The bossed and bound Evangel's tome
+  Is open to me as mine own soul,
+  But all the watered wine of Rome
+  Is weak beside the magic bowl.
+
+[Illustration: HÉLOÏSE AS SORCERESS]
+
+  The Mass I chant like any priest,
+  Can shrive the dying or bury the dead,
+  But dearer to me to raise the Beast
+  Or watch the gold in the furnace red.
+
+  The wolf, the serpent, the crow, the owl,
+  The demons of sea, of field, of flood,
+  I can run or fly in their forms so foul,
+  They come at my call from wave or wood.
+
+  I know a song that can raise the sea,
+  Can rouse the winds or shudder the earth,
+  Can darken the heavens terribly,
+  Can wake portents at a prince's birth.
+
+  The first dark drug that ever we sipped
+  Was brewed from toad and the eye of crow,
+  Slain in a mead when the moon had slipped
+  From heav'n to the fetid fogs below.
+
+  I know a well as deep as death,
+  A gloom where I cull the frondent fern,
+  Whose seed with that of the golden heath
+  I mingle when mystic lore I'd learn.
+
+  I gathered in dusk nine measures of rye,
+  Nine measures again, and brewed the twain
+  In a silver pot, while fitfully
+  The starlight struggled through the rain.
+
+  I sought the serpent's egg of power
+  In a dell hid low from the night and day:
+  It was shown to me in an awful hour
+  When the children of hell came out to play.
+
+  I have three spirits--seeming snakes;
+  The youngest is six score years young,
+  The second rose from the nether lakes,
+  And the third was once Duke Satan's tongue.
+
+  The wild bird's flesh is not their food,
+  No common umbles are their dole;
+  I nourish them well with infants' blood,
+  Those precious vipers of my soul.
+
+
+  O Satan! grant me three years still,
+  But three short years, my love and I,
+  To work thy fierce, mysterious will,
+  Then gladly shall we yield and die.
+
+  Héloïse, wicked heart, beware!
+  Think on the dreadful day of wrath,
+  Think on thy soul; forbear, forbear!
+  The way thou tak'st is that of death!
+
+  Thou craven priest, go, get thee hence!
+  No fear have I of fate so fell.
+  Go, suck the milk of innocence,
+  Leave me to quaff the wine of hell!
+
+It is difficult to over-estimate the folk-lore value of such a ballad
+as this. Its historical value is clearly _nil_. We have no proof that
+Héloïse was a Breton; but fantastic errors of this description are so
+well known to the student of ballad literature that he is able to
+discount them easily in gauging the value of a piece.
+
+In this weird composition the wretched abbess is described as an
+alchemist as well as a sorceress, and she descends to the depths of
+the lowest and most revolting witchcraft. She practises shape-shifting
+and similar arts. She has power over natural forces, and knows the
+past, the present, and the things to be. She possesses sufficient
+Druidic knowledge to permit her to gather the greatly prized serpent's
+egg, to acquire which was the grand aim of the Celtic magician. The
+circumstances of the ballad strongly recall those of the poem in which
+the Welsh bard Taliesin recounts his magical experiences, his
+metamorphoses, his knowledge of the darker mysteries of nature.
+
+
+_Nantes of the Magicians_
+
+The poet is in accord with probability in making the magical exploits
+of Abélard and Héloïse take place at Nantes--a circumstance not
+indicated in the translation owing to metrical exigencies. Nantes was,
+indeed, a classic neighbourhood of sorcery. An ancient college of
+Druidic priestesses was situated on one of the islands at the mouth of
+the Loire, and the traditions of its denizens had evidently been
+cherished by the inhabitants of the city even as late as the middle of
+the fourteenth century, for we find a bishop of the diocese at that
+period obtaining a bull of excommunication against the local
+sorcerers, and condemning them to the eternal fires with bell, book,
+and candle.[53]
+
+The poet, it is plain, has confounded poor Héloïse with the dark
+sisterhood of the island of the Loire. The learning she received from
+her gifted lover had been her undoing in Breton eyes, for the simple
+folk of the duchy at the period the ballad gained currency could
+scarcely be expected to discriminate between a training in rhetoric
+and philosophy and a schooling in the _grimoires_ and other
+accomplishments of the pit.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [50] Rice Holmes, _Cæsar's Conquest_, pp. 532-536.
+
+  [51] See Rolleston, _Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race_, p. 66.
+
+  [52] See Gomme, _Ethnology in Folk-lore_, p. 94.
+
+  [53] It is of interest to recall the fact that Abélard was born near
+       Nantes, in 1079.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X: ARTHURIAN ROMANCE IN BRITTANY
+
+
+Fierce and prolonged has been the debate as to the original birthplace
+of Arthurian legend, authorities of the first rank, the 'Senior
+Wranglers' of the study, as Nutt has called them, hotly advancing the
+several claims of Wales, England, Scotland, and Brittany. In this
+place it would be neither fitting nor necessary to traverse the whole
+ground of argument, and we must content ourselves with the examination
+of Brittany's claim to the invention of Arthurian story--and this we
+will do briefly, passing on to some of the tales which relate the
+deeds of the King or his knights on Breton soil.
+
+Confining ourselves, then, to the proof of the existence of a body of
+Arthurian legend in Brittany, we are, perhaps, a little alarmed at the
+outset to find that our manuscript sources are scanty. "It had to be
+acknowledged," says Professor Saintsbury, "that Brittany could supply
+_no ancient texts whatever_, and hardly any ancient traditions."[54]
+But are either of these conditions essential to a belief in the Breton
+origin of Arthurian romance?
+
+The two great hypotheses regarding Arthurian origins have been dubbed
+the 'Continental' and the 'Insular' theories. The first has as its
+leading protagonist Professor Wendelin Förster of Bonn, who believes
+that the immigrant Britons brought the Arthur legend with them to
+Brittany and that the Normans of Normandy received it from their
+descendants and gave it wider territorial scope. The second school,
+headed by the brilliant M. Gaston Paris, believes that it originated
+in Wales.
+
+If we consider the first theory, then, we can readily see that ancient
+_texts_ are not essential to its acceptance. In any case the entire
+body of Arthurian texts prior to the twelfth century is so small as to
+be almost negligible. The statement that "hardly any ancient
+traditions" of the Arthurian legend exist in Brittany is an
+extraordinary one. In view of the circumstances that in extended
+passages of Arthurian story the scene is laid in Brittany (as in the
+Merlin and Vivien incident and the episode of Yseult of the White Hand
+in the story of Tristrem), that Geoffrey of Monmouth speaks of "the
+Breton book" from which he took his matter, and that Marie de France
+states that her tales are drawn from old Breton sources, not to admit
+the possible existence of a body of Arthurian tradition in Brittany
+appears capricious. Thomas's _Sir Tristrem_ is professedly based on
+the poem of the Breton Bréri, and there is no reason why Brittany,
+drawing sap and fibre as it did from Britain, should not have produced
+Arthurian stories of its own.
+
+On the whole, however, that seems to represent the sum of its
+pretensions as a main source of Arthurian romance. The Arthurian story
+seems to be indigenous to British soil, and if we trace the origin of
+certain episodes to Brittany we may safely connect these with the
+early British immigrants to the peninsula. This is not to say,
+however, that Brittany did not influence Norman appreciation of the
+Arthurian saga. But that it did so more than did Wales is unlikely, in
+view of documentary evidence. Both Wales and Brittany, then, supplied
+matter which the Norman and French poets shaped into verse, and if
+Brittany was not the birthplace of the legend it was, in truth, one of
+its cradle-domains.
+
+
+_The Sword of Arthur_
+
+Let us collect, then, Arthurian incidents which take place in
+Brittany. First, Arthur's finding of the marvellous sword Excalibur
+would seem to happen there, as Vivien, or Nimue, the Lady of the Lake,
+was undoubtedly a fairy of Breton origin who does not appear in
+British myth.
+
+For the manner in which Arthur acquired the renowned Excalibur, or
+Caliburn, the _Morte d'Arthur_ is the authority. The King had broken
+his sword in two pieces in a combat with Sir Pellinore of Wales, and
+had been saved by Merlin, who threw Sir Pellinore into an enchanted
+sleep.
+
+"And so Merlin and Arthur departed, and as they rode along King Arthur
+said, 'I have no sword.' 'No force,'[55] said Merlin; 'here is a sword
+that shall be yours, an I may.' So they rode till they came to a lake,
+which was a fair water and a broad; and in the midst of the lake King
+Arthur was aware of an arm clothed in white samite, that held a fair
+sword in the hand. 'Lo,' said Merlin unto the King, 'yonder is the
+sword that I spoke of.' With that they saw a damsel going upon the
+lake. 'What damsel is that?' said the King. 'That is the Lady of the
+Lake,' said Merlin; 'and within that lake is a rock, and therein is as
+fair a place as any on earth, and richly beseen; and this damsel will
+come to you anon, and then speak fair to her that she will give you
+that sword.' Therewith came the damsel to King Arthur and saluted him,
+and he her again. 'Damsel,' said the King, 'what sword is that which
+the arm holdeth yonder above the water? I would it were mine, for I
+have no sword.' 'Sir King,' said the damsel of the lake, 'that sword
+is mine, and if ye will give me a gift when I ask it you, ye shall
+have it.' 'By my faith,' said King Arthur, 'I will give you any gift
+that you will ask or desire.' 'Well,' said the damsel, 'go into yonder
+barge, and row yourself unto the sword, and take it and the scabbard
+with you; and I will ask my gift when I see my time.' So King Arthur
+and Merlin alighted, tied their horses to two trees, and so they went
+into the barge. And when they came to the sword that the hand held,
+King Arthur took it up by the handles, and took it with him, and the
+arm and the hand went under the water; and so came to the land and
+rode forth. King Arthur looked upon the sword, and liked it passing
+well. 'Whether liketh you better,' said Merlin, 'the sword or the
+scabbard?' 'Me liketh better the sword,' said King Arthur. 'Ye are
+more unwise,' said Merlin, 'for the scabbard is worth ten of the
+sword; for while ye have the scabbard upon you, ye shall lose no
+blood, be ye never so sore wounded; therefore keep well the scabbard
+alway with you.'"
+
+[Illustration: KING ARTHUR AND MERLIN AT THE LAKE]
+
+Sir Lancelot du Lac, son of King Ban of Benwik, was stolen and brought
+up by the Lady of the Lake, from whose enchanted realm he took his
+name. But he does not appear at all in true Celtic legend, and is a
+mere Norman new-comer.
+
+
+_Tristrem and Ysonde_
+
+Following the Arthurian 'chronology' as set forth in the _Morte
+d'Arthur_, we reach the great episode of Sir Tristrem of Lyonesse, a
+legendary country off the coast of Cornwall. This most romantic yet
+most human tale must be accounted one of the world's supreme love
+stories. It has inspired some of our greatest poets, and moved Richard
+Wagner to the composition of a splendid opera.
+
+One of the first to bring this literary treasure to public notice was
+Sir Walter Scott, who felt a strong chord vibrate in his romantic soul
+when perusing that version of the tale of which Thomas of Ercildoune
+is the reputed author. Taking this as the best and most ancient
+version of _Tristrem_, we may detail its circumstances as follows:
+
+The Duke Morgan and Roland Rise, Lord of Ermonie, two Cymric
+chieftains, had long been at feud, and at length the smouldering
+embers of enmity burst into open flame. In the contest that ensued the
+doughty Roland prevailed, but he was a generous foe, and granted a
+seven years' truce to his defeated adversary. Some time after this
+event Roland journeyed into Cornwall to the Court of Mark, where he
+carried off the honours in a tourney. But he was to win a more
+precious prize in the love of the fair Princess Blancheflour, sister
+of King Mark, who grew to adore him passionately.
+
+Meanwhile Duke Morgan took foul advantage of the absence of Roland,
+and invaded his land. Rohand, a trusty vassal of Roland, repaired to
+Cornwall, where he sought out his master and told him of Morgan's
+broken faith. Then Roland told Blancheflour of his plight, how that he
+must return to his own realm, and she, fearing her brother Mark,
+because she had given her love to Roland without the King's knowledge,
+resolved to fly with her lover. The pair left Cornwall hurriedly, and,
+reaching one of Roland's castles, were wed there. Roland, however, had
+soon to don his armour, for news was brought to him that Duke Morgan
+was coming against him with a great army. A fierce battle ensued, in
+which Roland at first had the advantage, but the Duke, being
+reinforced, pressed him hotly, and in the end Roland was defeated and
+slain. Blancheflour received news of her lord's death immediately
+before the birth of her son, and, sore stricken by the woeful news,
+she named him Tristrem, or 'Child of Sorrow.' Then, recommending him
+to the care of Rohand, to whom she gave a ring which had belonged to
+King Mark, her brother, to prove Tristrem's relationship to that
+prince, she expired, to the intense grief of all her attendants. To
+secure the safety of his ward, Rohand passed him off as his own child,
+inverting the form of his name to 'Tremtris.' Duke Morgan now ruled
+over the land of Ermonie, and Rohand had perforce to pay him a
+constrained homage.
+
+When he arrived at a fitting age Tristrem was duly instructed in all
+knightly games and exercises by his foster-father, and grew apace in
+strength and skill. Once a Norwegian vessel arrived upon the coast of
+Ermonie laden with a freight of hawks and treasure (hawks at that
+period were often worth their weight in gold). The captain challenged
+anyone to a game of chess with him for a stake of twenty shillings,
+and Rohand and his sons, with Tristrem, went on board to play with
+him. Tristrem moved so skilfully that he overcame the captain, and won
+from him, in many games, six hawks and the sum of a hundred pounds.
+While the games were proceeding Rohand went on shore, leaving Tristrem
+in the care of his preceptor, and the false captain, to avoid paying
+what he had lost, forced the preceptor to go on shore alone and put to
+sea with the young noble.
+
+The ship had no sooner sailed away than a furious gale arose, and as
+it continued for some days the mariners became convinced that the
+tempest was due to the injustice of their captain, and being in sore
+dread, they paid Tristrem his winnings and set him ashore. Dressed in
+a robe of 'blihand brown' (blue-brown), Tristrem found himself alone
+on a rocky beach. First he knelt and requested Divine protection,
+after which he ate some food which had been left him by the
+Norwegians, and started to journey through a forest, in which he
+encountered two palmers, who told him that he was in Cornwall. He
+offered these men gold to guide him to the Court of the king of the
+country, which they willingly undertook to do. On their way the
+travellers fell in with a hunting party of nobles, and Tristrem was
+shocked to see the awkward manner in which the huntsmen cut up some
+stags they had slain. He could not restrain his feeling, and disputed
+with the nobles upon the laws of venerie. Then he proceeded to skin a
+buck for their instruction, like a right good forester, and ended by
+blowing the _mort_ or death-token on a horn.
+
+
+_Tristrem as Forester_
+
+The nobles who beheld his skill were amazed, and speedily carried the
+news to King Mark, who was highly interested. Tristrem was brought to
+his presence and told his story, but Mark did not recognize that he
+was speaking to his own nephew. The King's favourable impression was
+confirmed by Tristrem's skill in playing the harp, and soon the youth
+had endeared himself to the heart of the King, and was firmly settled
+at the Court.
+
+Meanwhile Rohand, distracted by the loss of his foster-son, searched
+for him from one land to another without even renewing his tattered
+garments. At last he encountered one of the palmers who had guided
+Tristrem to the Court of King Mark, and learned of the great honour
+accorded to his ward. At Rohand's request the palmer took him to
+Mark's hall; but when Rohand arrived thither his tattered and forlorn
+appearance aroused the contempt of the porter and usher and they
+refused him entrance. Upon bestowing liberal largess, however, he was
+at length brought to Tristrem, who presented him to King Mark as his
+father, acquainting him at the same time with the cause of their
+separation. When Rohand had been refreshed by a bath, and richly
+attired by order of King Mark, the whole Court marvelled at his
+majestic appearance.
+
+Rohand, seated by King Mark's side at the banquet, imparted to him the
+secret of Tristrem's birth, and in proof showed him the ring given him
+by Blancheflour, whereupon Mark at once joyfully recognized Tristrem
+as his nephew. Rohand further told of the tragic fate of Tristrem's
+parents through the treachery of Duke Morgan, and Tristrem, fired by
+the tale of wrong, vowed to return at once to Ermonie to avenge his
+father's death.
+
+
+_Tristrem Returns to Ermonie_
+
+Although applauding his pious intention, Mark attempted to dissuade
+his nephew from such an enterprise of peril, until, seeing that
+Tristrem would not be gainsaid, the King conferred upon him the honour
+of knighthood, and furnished him with a thousand men-at-arms. Thus
+equipped, Tristrem set sail for Ermonie, and, safely arrived in that
+kingdom, he garrisoned Rohand's castle with his Cornish forces.
+
+He had no intention of remaining inactive, however, and once his men
+were cared for, he repaired to the Court of the usurper, Duke Morgan,
+accompanied by fifteen knights, each bearing a boar's head as a gift.
+But Rohand, apprehending rashness on the part of his foster-son, took
+the precaution of following with the Cornish men-at-arms and his own
+vassals.
+
+When Tristrem arrived the Duke was at the feast-board, and he demanded
+Tristrem's name and business. Tristrem boldly declared himself, and at
+the end of an angry parley the Duke struck him a sore blow. A moment
+later swords were flashing, and it might have gone ill with Tristrem
+had not Rohand with his men come up in the nick of time. In the end
+Duke Morgan was slain and his followers routed. Having now recovered
+his paternal domains Sir Tristrem conferred them upon Rohand, to be
+held of himself as liege lord, and having done so he took leave of his
+foster-father and returned to Cornwall.
+
+
+_The Combat with Moraunt_
+
+On arriving at the palace of Mark, Tristrem found the Court in dismay,
+because of a demand for tribute made by the King of England. Moraunt,
+the Irish ambassador to England, was charged with the duty of claiming
+the tribute, which was no less than three hundred pounds of gold, as
+many of coined silver, as many of tin, and a levy every fourth year of
+three hundred Cornish children. Mark protested bitterly, and Tristrem
+urged him to bid defiance to the English, swearing that he would
+himself defend the freedom of Cornwall. His aid was reluctantly
+accepted by the Grand Council, and he delivered to Moraunt a
+declaration that no tribute was due. Moraunt retorted by giving
+Tristrem the lie, and the champions exchanged defiance. They sailed in
+separate boats to a small island to decide the issue in single combat,
+and when they had landed Tristrem turned his boat adrift, saying
+sternly that one vessel would suffice to take back the victor. The
+champions mounted their steeds at the outset, but after the first
+encounter Tristrem, leaping lightly from the saddle, engaged his
+adversary on foot. The Knight of Ermonie was desperately wounded in
+the thigh, but, rallying all his strength, he cleft Moraunt to the
+chine, and, his sword splintering, a piece of the blade remained in
+the wound.
+
+Tristrem now returned to the mainland, where so great was the joy over
+his return that he was appointed heir to Cornwall and successor to
+Mark the Good. But his wound, having been inflicted by a poisoned
+blade, grew more grievous day by day. No leech might cure it, and the
+evil odour arising from the gangrene drove every one from his presence
+save his faithful servitor Gouvernayl.
+
+
+_Fytte the Second_
+
+Fytte (or Part) the Second commences by telling how Tristrem, forsaken
+by all, begged King Mark for a ship that he might leave the land of
+Cornwall. Mark reluctantly granted his request, and the luckless
+Tristrem embarked with Gouvernayl, his one attendant, and his harp as
+his only solace. He steered for Caerleon, and remained nine weeks at
+sea, but meeting contrary winds he was driven out of his course, and
+at length came to the Irish coast, where he sought the haven of
+Dublin. On arriving there he feigned that he had been wounded by
+pirates, and learning that he was in Ireland, and recollecting that
+Moraunt, whom he had slain, was the brother to the Queen of that land,
+he thought it wise to assume once more the name of Tremtris.
+
+Soon his fame as a minstrel reached the ears of the Queen of Ireland,
+a lady deeply versed in the art of healing. She was, indeed, "the best
+Couthe of Medicine"[56] Tristrem had seen, and in order to heal his
+wound she applied to it "a plaster kene." Later she invited him to the
+Court, where his skill in chess and games astonished every one. So
+interested in him did the royal lady become at last that she undertook
+to cure him, and effected her object by means of a medicated bath and
+other medieval remedies. Then, on account of his fame as a minstrel,
+he was given the task of instructing the Princess Ysonde--as the name
+'Yseult' is written in this particular version.
+
+This princess was much attached to minstrelsy and poetry, and under
+the tuition of Tristrem she rapidly advanced in these arts, until at
+length she had no equal in Ireland save her preceptor. And now
+Tristrem, his health restored, and having completed Ysonde's
+instruction, felt a strong desire to return to the Court of King Mark.
+His request to be allowed to depart was most unwillingly granted by
+the Queen, who at the leave-taking loaded him with gifts. With the
+faithful Gouvernayl he arrived safely in Cornwall, where Mark received
+him joyfully. When the King inquired curiously how his wound had been
+cured, Tristrem told him of the great kindness of the Irish Queen, and
+praised Ysonde so highly that the ardour of his uncle was aroused and
+he requested Tristrem to procure him the hand of the damsel in
+marriage. He assured Tristrem that no marriage he, the King, might
+contract would annul the arrangement whereby Tristrem was to succeed
+to the throne of Cornwall. The nobles were opposed to the King's
+desires, which but strengthened Tristrem in his resolve to undertake
+the embassage, for he thought that otherwise it might appear that he
+desired the King to remain unmarried.
+
+
+_The Marriage Embassy_
+
+With a retinue of fifteen knights Tristrem sailed to Dublin in a ship
+richly laden with gifts. Arrived at the Irish capital, he sent
+magnificent presents to the King, Queen, and Princess, but did not
+announce the nature of his errand. Hardly had his messengers departed
+than he was informed that the people of Dublin were panic-stricken at
+the approach of a terrible dragon. This monster had so affrighted the
+neighbourhood that the hand of the Princess had been offered to anyone
+who would slay it. Tristrem dared his knights to attack the dragon,
+but one and all declined, so he himself rode out to give it battle. At
+the first shock his lance broke on the monster's impenetrable hide,
+his horse was slain, and he was forced to continue the fight on foot.
+At length, despite its fiery breath, he succeeded in slaying the
+dragon, and cut out its tongue as a trophy. But this exuded a subtle
+poison which deprived him of his senses.
+
+Thus overcome, Tristrem was discovered by the King's steward, who cut
+off the dragon's head and returned with it to Court to demand the hand
+of Ysonde. But the Queen and her daughter were dubious of the man's
+story, and upon visiting the place where the dragon had been slain,
+they came upon Tristrem himself. Their ministrations revived him, and
+he showed them the dragon's tongue as proof that he had slain the
+dread beast. He described himself as a merchant, and Ysonde, who did
+not at first recognize him, expressed her regret that he was not a
+knight. The Queen now caused him to be conveyed to the palace, where
+he was refreshed by a bath, and the false steward was cast into
+prison.
+
+Meanwhile the suspicions of the Princess had been aroused, and the
+belief grew that this 'merchant' who had slain the dragon was none
+other than Tremtris, her old instructor. In searching for evidence to
+confirm this conjecture she examined his sword, from which, she found,
+a piece had been broken. Now, she possessed a fragment of a
+sword-blade which had been taken out of the skull of Moraunt, her
+uncle, and she discovered that this fragment fitted into the broken
+place in Tristrem's sword, wherefore she concluded that the weapon
+must have been that which slew the Irish ambassador. She reproached
+Tristrem, and in her passion rushed upon him with his own sword. At
+this instant her mother returned, and upon learning the identity of
+Tristrem she was about to assist Ysonde to slay him in his bath when
+the King arrived and saved him from the infuriated women. Tristrem
+defended himself as having killed Moraunt in fair fight, and, smiling
+upon Ysonde, he told her that she had had many opportunities of
+slaying him while he was her preceptor Tremtris. He then proceeded to
+make known the object of his embassy. He engaged that his uncle, King
+Mark, should marry Ysonde, and it was agreed that she should be sent
+under his escort to Cornwall.
+
+It is clear that the Queen's knowledge of medicine was accompanied by
+an acquaintance with the black art, for on the eve of her daughter's
+departure she entrusted to Brengwain, a lady of Ysonde's suite, a
+powerful philtre or love potion, with directions that Mark and his
+bride should partake of it on the night of their marriage. While at
+sea the party met with contrary winds, and the mariners were forced to
+take to their oars. Tristrem exerted himself in rowing, and Ysonde,
+remarking that he seemed much fatigued, called for drink to refresh
+him. Brengwain, by a fateful error, presented the cup which held the
+love potion. Both Tristrem and Ysonde unwittingly partook of this, and
+a favourite dog, Hodain,
+
+  That many a forest day of fiery mirth
+  Had plied his craft before them,[57]
+
+licked the cup. The consequence of this mistake was, of course, the
+awakening of a consuming passion each for the other in Tristrem and
+Ysonde. A fortnight later the ship arrived at Cornwall. Ysonde was
+duly wed to King Mark, but her passion for Tristrem moved her to
+induce her attendant Brengwain to take her place on the first night of
+her nuptials.
+
+Afterward, terrified lest Brengwain should disclose the secret in her
+possession, Ysonde hired two ruffians to dispatch her. But the
+damsel's entreaties softened the hearts of the assassins and they
+spared her life. Subsequently Ysonde repented of her action and
+Brengwain was reinstated in full favour.
+
+
+_The Minstrel's Boon_
+
+An Irish earl, a former admirer of Ysonde, arrived one day at the
+Court of Cornwall disguised as a minstrel and bearing a harp of
+curious workmanship, the appearance of which excited the curiosity of
+King Mark, who requested him to perform upon it. The visitor demanded
+that the King should first promise to grant him a boon, and the King
+having pledged his royal word, the minstrel sang to the harp a lay in
+which he claimed Ysonde as the promised gift.[58] Mark, having pledged
+his honour, had no alternative but to become forsworn or to deliver
+his wife to the harper, and he reluctantly complied with the
+minstrel's demand. Tristrem, who had been away hunting, returned
+immediately after the adventurous earl had departed with his fair
+prize. He upbraided the King for his extravagant sense of honour, and,
+snatching up his rote, or harp, hastened to the seashore, where Ysonde
+had already embarked. There he sat down and played, and the sound so
+deeply affected Ysonde that she became seriously ill, so that the earl
+was induced to return with her to land. Ysonde pretended that
+Tristrem's music was necessary to her recovery, and the earl, to whom
+Tristrem was unknown, offered to take him in his train to Ireland. The
+earl had dismounted from the horse he was riding and was preparing to
+return on board, when Tristrem sprang into the saddle, and, seizing
+Ysonde's horse by the bridle, plunged into the forest. Here the lovers
+remained for a week, after which Tristrem restored Ysonde to her
+husband.
+
+[Illustration: TRISTREM AND YSONDE]
+
+Not unnaturally suspicion was aroused regarding the relations between
+Tristrem and Ysonde. Meriadok, a knight of Cornwall, and an intimate
+friend of Tristrem, was perhaps the most suspicious of all, and one
+snowy evening he traced his friend to Ysonde's bower, to which
+Tristrem gained entrance by a sliding panel. In this a piece of
+Tristrem's green kirtle was left, and Meriadok bore the fragment to
+the King, to whom he unfolded his suspicions. To test the truth of
+these Mark pretended that he was going on a pilgrimage to the Holy
+Land, and asked his wife to whose care she would wish to be committed.
+Ysonde at first named Tristrem, but on the advice of Brengwain resumed
+the subject later and feigned a mortal hatred for her lover, which she
+ascribed to the scandal she had suffered on his account. The fears of
+the simple Mark were thus lulled to sleep; but those of Meriadok were
+by no means laid at rest. On his advice Mark definitely separated the
+lovers, confining Ysonde to a bower and sending Tristrem to a
+neighbouring city. But Tristrem succeeded in communicating with Ysonde
+by means of leafy twigs thrown into the river which ran through her
+garden, and they continued to meet.
+
+Their interviews were, however, discovered by the aid of a dwarf who
+concealed himself in a tree. One night Mark took the dwarf's place,
+but the lovers were made aware of his presence by his shadow and
+pretended to be quarrelling, Tristrem saying that Ysonde had
+supplanted him in the King's affections. Mark's suspicions were thus
+soothed for the time being. On another occasion Tristrem was not so
+fortunate, and, being discovered, was forced to flee the country.
+
+
+_The Ordeal by Fire_
+
+Mark now resolved to test his wife's innocence by the dread ordeal by
+fire, and he journeyed with his Court to Westminster, where the trial
+was to take place. Tristrem, disguised as a peasant, joined the
+retinue, and when the party arrived in the Thames he carried Ysonde
+from the ship to the shore. When the moment for the ordeal came the
+Queen protested her innocence, saying that no man had ever laid hands
+upon her save the King and the peasant who had carried her from the
+ship. Mark, satisfied by her evident sincerity, refused to proceed
+further with the trial, and Ysonde thus escaped the awful test.
+
+Tristrem then betook him to Wales, and the fame of his prowess in that
+land came at length to Cornwall, so that at last his uncle grew heavy
+at heart for his absence and desired sight of him. Once more he
+returned, but his fatal passion for Ysonde was not abated, and became
+at length so grievous to the good King that he banished both of the
+lovers from his sight. The two fled to a forest, and there dwelt in a
+cavern, subsisting upon venison, the spoil of Tristrem's bow. One day,
+weary with the chase, Tristrem lay down to rest by the side of the
+sleeping Ysonde, placing his drawn sword between them. Mark, passing
+that way, espied them, and from the naked sword inferring their
+innocence, became reconciled to them once more. But again suspicion
+fell upon them, and again Tristrem was forced to flee.
+
+
+_Tristrem in Brittany_
+
+After many adventures in Spain Tristrem arrived in Brittany, where he
+aided the Duke of that country with his sword. The Duke's daughter,
+known as Ysonde of the White Hand, hearing him sing one night a song
+of the beauty of Ysonde, thought that Tristrem was in love with her.
+The Duke therefore offered Tristrem his daughter's hand, and, in
+despair of seeing Ysonde of Ireland again, he accepted the honour. But
+on the wedding-day the first Ysonde's ring dropped from his finger as
+if reproaching him with infidelity, and in deep remorse he vowed that
+Ysonde of Brittany should be his wife in name only.
+
+Now the Duke of Brittany bestowed on Tristrem a fair demesne divided
+by an arm of the sea from the land of a powerful and savage giant
+named Beliagog, and he warned his son-in-law not to incur the
+resentment of this dangerous neighbour. But one day Tristrem's hounds
+strayed into the forest land of Beliagog, and their master, following
+them, was confronted by the wrathful owner. A long and cruel combat
+ensued, and at last Tristrem lopped off one of the giant's feet.
+Thereupon the monster craved mercy, which was granted on the condition
+that he should build a hall in honour of Ysonde of Ireland and her
+maiden, Brengwain. This hall was duly raised, and upon its walls was
+portrayed to the life the whole history of Tristrem, with pictures of
+Ysonde of Ireland, Brengwain, Mark, and other characters in the tale.
+Tristrem, the Duke, Ysonde of Brittany, and Ganhardin, her brother,
+were riding to see this marvel when Ysonde confessed to Ganhardin that
+Tristrem did not regard her as his wife. Ganhardin, angered,
+questioned Tristrem, who concealed nothing from him and recounted to
+him the story of his love for the Queen of Cornwall. Ganhardin was
+deeply interested, and on beholding the picture of Brengwain in the
+newly erected hall he fell violently in love with her.
+
+
+_The Forest Lovers_
+
+Tristrem now returned to Cornwall with Ganhardin, and encountered
+Ysonde the Queen and the fair Brengwain. But one Canados, the King's
+Constable, discovered them and carried the ladies back to Court.
+Ganhardin made the best of his way home to Brittany, but Tristrem
+remained in Cornwall, disguised as a beggar.
+
+Our story now tells of a great tournament at the Cornish Court, and
+how Ganhardin hied him from Brittany and rejoined Tristrem. The two
+entered the lists and took up the challenge of Meriadok and Canados.
+Tristrem, tilting at his old enemy, wounded him desperately. The issue
+of the combat between Canados and Ganhardin hung in the balance when
+Tristrem, charging at the Constable, overthrew and slew him. Then,
+fired with the lust of conquest, Tristrem bore down upon his foes and
+exacted a heavy toll of lives. So great was the scathe done that day
+that Tristrem and Ganhardin were forced once more to fly to Brittany,
+where in an adventure Tristrem received an arrow in his old wound.
+
+
+_The French Manuscript_
+
+At this point the Auchinleck MS., from which this account is taken,
+breaks off, and the story is concluded, in language similar to that of
+the original, by Sir Walter Scott, who got his materials from an old
+French version of the tale.
+
+We read that Tristrem suffered sorely from his wound, in which, as
+before, gangrene set in. Aware that none but Ysonde of Ireland could
+cure him, the stricken knight called Ganhardin to his side and urged
+him to go with all speed to Cornwall and tell the Queen of his mortal
+extremity. He entrusted him with his ring, and finally requested the
+Breton knight to take with him two sails, one white and the other
+black, the first to be hoisted upon his return should Ysonde accompany
+him back to Brittany, the sable sail to be raised should his embassy
+fail of success. Now Ysonde of Brittany overheard all that was said,
+her jealous fears were confirmed, and she resolved to be revenged upon
+her husband.
+
+Ganhardin voyaged quickly to Cornwall, and arrived at the Court of
+King Mark disguised as a merchant. In order to speed his mission he
+presented rich gifts to the King, and also a cup to Ysonde, into which
+he dropped Tristrem's ring. This token procured him a private audience
+with the Queen, and when she learned the deadly peril of her lover,
+Ysonde hastily disguised herself and fled to the ship with Ganhardin.
+In due course the vessel arrived off the coast of Brittany, carrying
+the white sail which was to signify to Tristrem that Ysonde was
+hastening to his aid. But Ysonde of Brittany was watching, and
+perceiving from the signal that her rival was on board she hurried to
+her husband's couch. Tristrem begged her to tell him the colour of the
+sail, and in the madness of jealousy Ysonde said that it was black,
+upon which, believing himself forsaken by his old love, the knight
+sank back and expired.
+
+Tristrem had scarce breathed his last when Ysonde entered the castle.
+At the gate an old man was mourning Tristrem's death, and hearing the
+ominous words which he uttered she hastened to the chamber where the
+corpse of him she had loved so well was lying. With a moan she cast
+herself upon the body, covering the dead face with kisses and pleading
+upon the silent lips to speak. Realizing at last that the spirit had
+indeed quitted its mortal tenement, she raised herself to her feet and
+stood for a moment gazing wildly into the fixed and glassy eyes; then
+with a great cry she fell forward upon the breast of her lover and was
+united with him in death.
+
+Other versions of the story, with all the wealth of circumstance dear
+to the writer of romance, tell of the grievous mourning made at the
+death of the lovers, whom no fault of their own had doomed to the
+tyranny of a mutual passion, and it is recounted that even King Mark,
+wronged and shamed as he was, was unable to repress his grief at their
+pitiful end.
+
+Despite the clumsiness of much of its machinery, despite its tiresome
+repetitions and its minor blemishes, this tale of a grand passion must
+ever remain one of the world's priceless literary possessions. "Dull
+must he be of soul" who, even in these days when folk no longer expire
+from an excess of the tender passion, can fail to be moved by the sad
+fate of the fair Queen and of her gallant minstrel-knight.
+
+  Swiche lovers als thei
+  Never schal be moe.
+
+And so they take their place with Hero and Leander, with Abélard and
+Héloïse, with Romeo and Juliet.
+
+It would be unfitting here to tell how mythology has claimed the story
+of Tristrem and Ysonde and has attempted to show in what manner the
+circumstances of their lives and adventures have been adapted to the
+old world-wide myth of the progress of the sun from dawn to
+darkness.[59] The evidence seems very complete, and the theory is
+probably well founded. The circumstances of the great epic of the
+sun-god fits most hero-tales. And it is well to recollect that even if
+romance-makers seized upon the plot of the old myth they did so
+unconscious of its mythic significance, and probably because it may
+have been employed in the heroic literature of "Rome la grant."
+
+
+_The Giant of Mont-Saint-Michel_
+
+It was when he arrived in Brittany to ward off the projected invasion
+of England by the Roman Emperor Lucius that King Arthur encountered
+and slew a giant of "marvellous bigness" at St Michael's Mount, near
+Pontorson. This monster, who had come from Spain, had made his lair on
+the summit of the rocky island, whither he had carried off the Lady
+Helena, niece of Duke Hoel of Brittany. Many were the knights who
+surrounded the giant's fastness, but none might come at him, for when
+they attacked him he would sink their ships by hurling mighty boulders
+upon them, while those who succeeded in swimming to the island were
+slain by him ere they could get a proper footing. But Arthur,
+undismayed by what he had heard, waited until nightfall; then, when
+all were asleep, with Kay the seneschal and Bedivere the butler, he
+started on his way to the Mount.
+
+As the three approached the rugged height they beheld a fire blazing
+brightly on its summit, and saw also that upon a lesser eminence in
+the sea some distance away a smaller fire was burning. Bedivere was
+dispatched in a boat to discover who had lit the fire on the smaller
+island. Having landed there, he found an old woman lamenting loudly.
+
+"Good mother," said he, "wherefore do you mourn? What has befallen you
+in this place that you weep so sorely?"
+
+"Ah, young sir," replied the dame, drying her tears, "get thee back
+from this place, I beseech thee, for as thou livest the monster who
+inhabits yonder mount will rend thee limb from limb and sup on thy
+flesh. But yesterday I was the nurse of the fair Helena, niece to Duke
+Hoel, who lies buried here by me."
+
+"Alas! then, the lady is no more?" cried Bedivere, in distress.
+
+"So it is," replied the old woman, weeping more bitterly than ever,
+"for when that accursed giant did seize upon her terror did so
+overcome her that her spirit took flight. But tarry not on this dread
+spot, noble youth, for if her fierce slayer should encounter thee he
+will put thee to a shameful death, and afterward devour thee as is his
+wont with all those whom he kills."
+
+Bedivere comforted the old woman as best he might, and, returning to
+Arthur, told him what he had heard. Now on hearing of the damsel's
+death great anger took hold upon the King, so that he resolved to
+search out the giant forthwith and slay or be slain by him. Desiring
+Kay and Bedivere to follow, he dismounted and commenced to climb St
+Michael's Mount, closely attended by his companions.
+
+[Illustration: KING ARTHUR AND THE GIANT OF MONT-SAINT-MICHEL]
+
+On reaching the summit a gruesome spectacle awaited them. The great
+fire that they had seen in the distance was blazing fiercely, and
+bending over it was the giant, his cruel and contorted features
+besmeared with the blood of swine, portions of which he was toasting
+on spits. Startled at the sight of the knights, the monster rushed to
+where his club lay. This purpose Arthur deemed he might prevent, and,
+covering himself with his shield, he ran at him while yet he fumbled
+for the weapon. But with all his agility he was too late, for the
+giant seized the mighty sapling and, whirling it in the air, brought
+it down on the King's shield with such force that the sound of the
+stroke echoed afar. Nothing daunted, Arthur dealt a trenchant stroke
+with Excalibur, and gave the giant a cut on the forehead which made
+the blood gush forth over his eyes so as nearly to blind him. But
+shrewd as was the blow, the giant had warded his forehead with his
+club in such wise that he had not received a deadly wound, and,
+watching his chance with great cunning, he rushed in within the sweep
+of Arthur's sword, gripped him round the middle, and forced him to the
+ground.
+
+Iron indeed would have been the grasp which could have held a knight
+so doughty as Arthur. Slipping from the monster's clutches, the King
+hacked at his adversary now in one place, now in another, till at
+length he smote the giant so mightily that Excalibur was buried deep
+in his brain-pan. The giant fell like an oak torn up by the roots in
+the fury of the winds. Rushing up as he crashed to the earth, Sir
+Bedivere struck off the hideous head, grinning in death, to be a show
+to those in the tents below.
+
+"But let them behold it in silence and without laughter," the King
+charged Sir Bedivere, "for never since I slew the giant Ritho upon
+Mount Eryri have I encountered so mighty an adversary."
+
+And so they returned to their tents with daybreak.
+
+
+_A Doubting Thomas_
+
+It is strange to think that Brittany, one of the cradles of Arthurian
+legend, could have produced a disbeliever in that legend so early as
+the year of grace 1113. It is on record that some monks from Brittany
+journeyed to England in that year, and were shown by the men of Devon
+"the chair and the oven of that King Arthur renowned in the stories of
+the Britons." They passed on to Cornwall, and when, in the church at
+Bodmin, one of their servants dared to question the statement of a
+certain Cornishman that Arthur still lived, he received such a buffet
+for his temerity that a small riot ensued.[60] Does not this seem to
+be evidence that the legend was more whole-heartedly believed in in
+the Celtic parts of England, and was therefore more exclusively native
+to those parts than to Continental Brittany? The Cornish allegiance to
+the memory of Arthur seems to have left little to be desired.
+
+
+_Arthur and the Dragon_
+
+The manner in which Arthur slew a dragon at the Lieue de Grève, and at
+the same time made the acquaintance of St Efflam of Ireland, is told
+by Albert le Grand, monk of Morlaix. Arthur had been sojourning at the
+Court of Hoel, Duke of Armorica, and, having freed his own land of
+dragons and other monsters, was engaged in hunting down the great
+beasts with which Armorica abounded. But the monster which infested
+the Lieue de Grève was no ordinary dragon. Indeed, he was the most
+cunning saurian in Europe, and was wont to retire backward into the
+great cavern in which he lived so that when traced to it those who
+tracked him would believe that he had just quitted it.
+
+In this manner he succeeded in deceiving Arthur and his knights, who
+for days lingered in the vicinity of his cave in the hope of
+encountering him. One day as they stood on the seashore waiting for
+the dragon a sail hove in sight, and soon a large coracle made of
+wicker-work covered with skins appeared. The vessel grounded and its
+occupants leapt ashore, headed by a young man of princely mien, who
+advanced toward Arthur and saluted him courteously.
+
+"Fair sir," he said, "to what shore have I come? I am Efflam, the
+King's son, of Ireland. The winds have driven us out of our course,
+and full long have we laboured in the sea."
+
+Now when Arthur heard the young man's name he embraced him heartily.
+
+"Welcome, cousin," he said. "You are in the land of Brittany. I am
+Arthur of Britain, and I rejoice at this meeting, since it may chance
+from it that I can serve you."
+
+Then Efflam told Arthur the reason of his voyaging. He had been wed to
+the Princess Enora, daughter of a petty king of Britain, but on his
+wedding night a strong impulse had come upon him to leave all and make
+his penitence within some lonely wood, where he could be at peace from
+the world. Rising from beside his sleeping wife, he stole away, and
+rousing several trusty servitors he set sail from his native shores.
+Soon his frail craft was caught in a tempest, and after many days
+driven ashore as had been seen.
+
+Arthur marvelled at the impulse which had prompted Efflam to seek
+retirement, and was about to express his surprise when the youth
+startled him by telling him that as his vessel had approached the
+shore he and his men had caught sight of the dragon entering his
+cave.
+
+At these words Arthur armed himself without delay with his sword
+Excalibur and his lance Ron, and, followed by his knights and by
+Efflam, drew near the cavern. As he came before the entrance the
+dragon issued forth, roaring in so terrible a manner that all but the
+King were daunted and drew back. The creature's appearance was
+fearsome in the extreme. He had one red eye in the centre of his
+forehead, his shoulders were covered with green scales like plates of
+mail, his long, powerful tail was black and twisted, and his vast
+mouth was furnished with tusks like those of a wild boar.
+
+Grim and great was the combat. For three days did it rage, man and
+beast struggling through the long hours for the mastery which neither
+seemed able to obtain. At the end of that time the dragon retired for
+a space into his lair, and Arthur, worn out and well-nigh broken by
+the long-drawn strife, threw himself down beside Efflam in a state of
+exhaustion.
+
+"A draught of water, fair cousin," he cried in a choking voice. "I
+perish with thirst."
+
+But no water was to be found in that place save that of the salt sea
+which lapped the sands of Grève. Efflam, however, was possessed of a
+faith that could overcome all difficulties. Kneeling, he engaged in
+earnest prayer, and, arising, struck the hard rock three times with
+his rod. "Our blessed Lord will send us water," he exclaimed, and no
+sooner had he spoken than from the stone a fountain of pure crystal
+water gushed and bubbled.
+
+With a cry of ecstasy Arthur placed his lips to the stream and quaffed
+the much-needed refreshment. His vigour restored, he was about to
+return to the dragon's cavern to renew the combat when he was
+restrained by Efflam.
+
+"Cousin," said he of Ireland, "you have tried what can be done by
+force; now let us see what can be achieved by prayer."
+
+Arthur, marvelling and humbled, sat near the young man as he prayed.
+All night he was busied in devotions, and at sunrise he arose and
+walked boldly to the mouth of the cavern.
+
+"Thou spawn of Satan," he cried, "in the name of God I charge thee to
+come forth!"
+
+A noise as of a thousand serpents hissing in unison followed this
+challenge, and from out his lair trailed the great length of the
+dragon, howling and vomiting fire and blood. Mounting to the summit of
+a neighbouring rock, he vented a final bellow and then cast himself
+into the sea. The blue water was disturbed as by a maelstrom; then all
+was peace again.
+
+So perished the dragon of the Lieue de Grève, and so was proved the
+superiority of prayer over human strength and valour. St Efflam and
+his men settled on the spot as hermits, and were miraculously fed by
+angels. Efflam's wife, Enora, was borne to him by angels in that
+place, only to die when she had joined him. And when they came to tell
+Efflam that his new-found lady was no more and was lying cold in the
+cell he had provided for her, their news fell on deaf ears, for he too
+had passed away. He is buried in Plestin Church, and his effigy,
+standing triumphant above an open-mouthed dragon, graces one of its
+many niches.
+
+
+_The Isle of Avalon_
+
+The Bretons believe that an island off Trégastel, on the coast of the
+department of Côtes-du-Nord, is the fabled Isle of Avalon to which
+King Arthur, sore wounded after his last battle, was borne to be
+healed of his hurts. With straining eyes the fisherman watches the
+mist-wrapped islet, and, peering through the evening haze, cheats
+himself into the belief that giant forms are moving upon its shores
+and that spectral shapes flit across its sands--that the dark hours
+bring back the activities of the attendant knights and enchantresses
+of the mighty hero of Celtdom, who, refreshed by his long repose, will
+one day return to the world of men and right the great wrongs which
+afflict humanity.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [54] _The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory_, p. 135.
+
+  [55] No matter.
+
+  [56] _I.e._ had the best knowledge of medicine. _Couthe_, from A.S.
+       _cunnan_ to know.
+
+  [57] Swinburne, _Tristram of Lyonesse_.
+
+  [58] This incident is common in Celtic romance, and seems to have been
+       widely used in nearly all medieval literatures.
+
+  [59] See Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, _Introduction to Mythology_, p. 326 ff.
+
+  [60] See Zimmer, _Zeitschrift für Französische Sprache und Literatur_,
+       xii, pp. 106 ff.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI: THE BRETON LAYS OF MARIE DE FRANCE
+
+
+The wonderful _Lais_ of Marie de France must ever hold a deep interest
+for all students of Breton lore, for though cast in the literary mould
+of Norman-French and breathing the spirit of Norman chivalry those of
+them which deal with Brittany (as do most of them) exhibit such
+evident marks of having been drawn from native Breton sources that we
+may regard them as among the most valuable documents extant for the
+study and consideration of Armorican story.
+
+Of the personal history of Marie de France very little is known. The
+date and place of her birth are still matters for conjecture, and
+until comparatively recent times literary antiquaries were doubtful
+even as to which century she flourished in. In the epilogue to her
+_Fables_ she states that she is a native of the Ile-de-France, but
+despite this she is believed to have been of Norman origin, and also
+to have lived the greater part of her life in England. Her work, which
+holds few suggestions of Anglo-Norman forms of thought or expression,
+was written in a literary dialect that in all likelihood was widely
+estranged from the common Norman tongue, and from this (though the
+manuscripts in which they are preserved are dated later) we may judge
+her poems to have been composed in the second half of the twelfth
+century. The prologue of her _Lais_ contains a dedication to some
+unnamed king, and her _Fables_ are inscribed to a certain Count
+William, circumstances which are held by some to prove that she was of
+noble origin and not merely a _trouvère_ from necessity.
+
+Until M. Gaston Paris decided that this mysterious king was Henry II
+of England, and that the 'Count William' was Longsword, Earl of
+Salisbury, Henry's natural son by the 'Fair Rosamond,' the mysterious
+monarch was believed to be Henry III. It is highly probable that the
+_Lais_ were actually written at the Court of Henry II, though the
+'King' of the flowery prologue is hardly reconcilable with the stern
+ruler and law-maker of history. Be that as it may, Marie's poems
+achieved instant success. "Her rhyme is loved everywhere," says Denis
+Pyramus, the author of a life of St Edmund the King; "for counts,
+barons, and knights greatly admire it and hold it dear. And they love
+her writing so much, and take such pleasure in it, that they have it
+read, and often copied. These Lays are wont to please ladies, who
+listen to them with delight, for they are after their own hearts."
+This fame and its attendant adulation were very sweet to Marie, and
+she was justly proud of her work, which, inspired, as she herself
+distinctly states, by the lays she had heard Breton minstrels sing,
+has, because of its vivid colouring and human appeal, survived the
+passing of seven hundred years. The scenes of the tales are laid in
+Brittany, and we are probably correct in regarding them as culled from
+original traditional material. As we proceed with the telling of these
+ancient stories we shall endeavour to point out the essentially Breton
+elements they have retained.
+
+
+_The Lay of the Were-Wolf_
+
+In the long ago there dwelt in Brittany a worshipful baron, for whom
+the king of that land had a warm affection, and who was happy in the
+esteem of his peers and the love of his beautiful wife.
+
+One only grief had his wife in her married life, and that was the
+mysterious absence of her husband for three days in every week. Where
+he disappeared to neither she nor any member of her household knew.
+These excursions preyed upon her mind, so that at last she resolved to
+challenge him regarding them.
+
+"Husband," she said to him pleadingly one day after he had just
+returned from one of these absences, "I have something to ask of you,
+but I fear that my request may vex you, and for this reason I hesitate
+to make it."
+
+The baron took her in his arms and, kissing her tenderly, bade her
+state her request, which he assured her would by no means vex him.
+
+"It is this," she said, "that you will trust me sufficiently to tell
+me where you spend those days when you are absent from me. So fearful
+have I become regarding these withdrawals and all the mystery that
+enshrouds them that I know neither rest nor comfort; indeed, so
+distraught am I at times that I feel I shall die for very anxiety. Oh,
+husband, tell me where you go and why you tarry so long!"
+
+In great agitation the husband put his wife away from him, not daring
+to meet the glance of her imploring, anxious eyes.
+
+"For the mercy of God, do not ask this of me," he besought her. "No
+good could come of your knowing, only great and terrible evil.
+Knowledge would mean the death of your love for me, and my everlasting
+desolation."
+
+"You are jesting with me, husband," she replied; "but it is a cruel
+jest. I am all seriousness, I do assure you. Peace of mind can never
+be mine until my question is fully answered."
+
+But the baron, still greatly perturbed, remained firm. He could not
+tell her, and she must rest content with that. The lady, however,
+continued to plead, sometimes with tenderness, more often with tears
+and heart-piercing reproaches, until at length the baron, trusting to
+her love, decided to tell her his secret.
+
+"I have to leave you because periodically I become a bisclaveret," he
+said. ('Bisclaveret' is the Breton name for were-wolf.) "I hide myself
+in the depths of the forest, live on wild animals and roots, and go
+unclad as any beast of the field."
+
+When the lady had recovered from the horror of this disclosure and had
+rallied her senses to her aid, she turned to him again, determined at
+any cost to learn all the circumstances connected with this terrible
+transformation.
+
+"You know that I love you better than all the world, my husband," she
+began; "that never in our life together have I done aught to forfeit
+your love or your trust. So do, I beseech you, tell me all--tell me
+where you hide your clothing before you become a were-wolf?"
+
+"That I dare not do, dear wife," he replied, "for if I should lose my
+raiment or even be seen quitting it I must remain a were-wolf so long
+as I live. Never again could I become a man unless my garments were
+restored to me."
+
+"Then you no longer trust me, no longer love me?" she cried. "Alas,
+alas that I have forfeited your confidence! Oh that I should live to
+see such a day!"
+
+Her weeping broke out afresh, this time more piteously than before.
+The baron, deeply touched, and willing by any means to alleviate her
+distress, at last divulged the vital secret which he had held from her
+so long.
+
+But from that hour his wife cast about for ways and means to rid
+herself of her strange husband, of whom she now went in exceeding
+fear. In course of time she remembered a knight of that country who
+had long sought her love, but whom she had repulsed. To him she
+appealed, and right gladly and willingly he pledged himself to aid
+her. She showed him where her lord concealed his clothing, and begged
+him to spoil the were-wolf of his vesture on the next occasion on
+which he set out to assume his transformation. The fatal period soon
+returned. The baron disappeared as usual, but this time he did not
+return to his home. For days friends, neighbours, and menials sought
+him diligently, but no trace of him was to be found, and when a year
+had elapsed the search was at length abandoned, and the lady was
+wedded to her knight.
+
+Some months later the King was hunting in the great forest near the
+missing baron's castle. The hounds, unleashed, came upon the scent of
+a wolf, and pressed the animal hard. For many hours they pursued him,
+and when about to seize him, Bisclaveret--for it was he--turned with
+such a human gesture of despair to the King, who had ridden hard upon
+his track, that the royal huntsman was moved to pity. To the King's
+surprise the were-wolf placed its paws together as if in supplication,
+and its great jaws moved as if in speech.
+
+"Call off the hounds," cried the monarch to his attendants. "This
+quarry we will take alive to our palace. It is too marvellous a thing
+to be killed."
+
+Accordingly they returned to the Court, where the were-wolf became an
+object of the greatest curiosity to all. So frolicsome yet so gentle
+was he that he became a universal favourite. At night he slept in the
+King's room, and by day he followed him with all the dumb faithfulness
+of a dog. The King was extremely attached to him, and never permitted
+his shaggy favourite to be absent from his side for a moment.
+
+One day the monarch held a high Court, to which his great vassals and
+barons and all the lords of his broad demesnes were bidden. Among them
+came the knight who had wed the wife of Bisclaveret. Immediately upon
+sight of him the were-wolf flew at him with a savage joy that
+astonished those accustomed to his usual gentleness and docility. So
+fierce was the attack that the knight would have been killed had not
+the King intervened to save him. Later, in the royal hunting-lodge she
+who had been the wife of Bisclaveret came to offer the King a rich
+present. When he saw her the animal's rage knew no bounds, and despite
+all restraint he succeeded in mutilating her fair face in the most
+frightful manner. But for a certain wise counsellor this act would
+have cost Bisclaveret his life. This sagacious person, who knew of the
+animal's customary docility, insisted that some evil must have been
+done him.
+
+"There must be some reason why this beast holds these twain in such
+mortal hate," he said. "Let this woman and her husband be brought
+hither so that they may be straitly questioned. She was once the wife
+of one who was near to your heart, and many marvellous happenings have
+ere this come out of Brittany."
+
+[Illustration: THE WERE-WOLF]
+
+The King hearkened to this sage counsel, for he loved the were-wolf,
+and was loath to have him slain. Under pressure of examination
+Bisclaveret's treacherous wife confessed all that she had done, adding
+that in her heart she believed the King's favourite animal to be no
+other than her former husband.
+
+Instantly on learning this the King demanded the were-wolf's vesture
+from the treacherous knight her lover, and when this was brought to
+him he caused it to be spread before the wolf. But the animal behaved
+as though he did not see the garments.
+
+Then the wise counsellor again came to his aid.
+
+"You must take the beast to your own secret chamber, sire," he told
+the King; "for not without great shame and tribulation can he become a
+man once more, and this he dare not suffer in the sight of all."
+
+This advice the King promptly followed, and when after some little
+time he, with two lords of his fellowship in attendance, re-entered
+the secret chamber, he found the wolf gone, and the baron so well
+beloved asleep in his bed.
+
+With great joy and affection the King aroused his friend, and when the
+baron's feelings permitted him he related his adventures. As soon as
+his master had heard him out he not only restored to him all that had
+been taken from him, but added gifts the number and richness of which
+rendered him more wealthy and important than ever, while in just anger
+he banished from his realm the wife who had betrayed her lord,
+together with her lover.
+
+
+_The Were-Wolf Superstition_
+
+The were-wolf superstition is, or was, as prevalent in Brittany as in
+other parts of France and Europe. The term 'were-wolf' literally means
+'man-wolf,' and was applied to a man supposed to be temporarily or
+permanently transformed into a wolf. In its origins the belief may
+have been a phase of lycanthropy, a disease in which the sufferer
+imagines himself to have been transformed into an animal, and in
+ancient and medieval times of very frequent occurrence. It may, on the
+other hand, be a relic of early cannibalism. Communities of
+semi-civilized people would begin to shun those who devoured human
+flesh, and they would in time be ostracized and classed with wild
+beasts, the idea that they had something in common with these would
+grow, and the belief that they were able to transform themselves into
+veritable animals would be likely to arise therefrom.
+
+There were two kinds of were-wolf, voluntary and involuntary. The
+voluntary included those persons who because of their taste for human
+flesh had withdrawn from intercourse with their fellows, and who
+appeared to possess a certain amount of magical power, or at least
+sufficient to permit them to transform themselves into animal shape at
+will. This they effected by merely disrobing, by taking off a girdle
+made of human skin, or putting on a similar belt of wolf-skin
+(obviously a later substitute for an entire wolf-skin; in some cases
+we hear of their donning the skin entire). In other instances the body
+was rubbed with magic ointment, or rain-water was drunk out of a
+wolf's footprint. The brains of the animal were also eaten. Olaus
+Magnus says that the were-wolves of Livonia drained a cup of beer on
+initiation, and repeated certain magical words. In order to throw off
+the wolf-shape the animal girdle was removed, or else the magician
+merely muttered certain formulæ. In some instances the transformation
+was supposed to be the work of Satan.
+
+The superstition regarding were-wolves seems to have been exceedingly
+prevalent in France during the sixteenth century, and there is
+evidence of numerous trials of persons accused of were-wolfism, in
+some of which it was clearly shown that murder and cannibalism had
+taken place. Self-hallucination was accountable for many of the cases,
+the supposed were-wolves declaring that they had transformed
+themselves and had slain many people. But about the beginning of the
+seventeenth century native common sense came to the rescue, and such
+confessions were not credited. In Teutonic and Slavonic countries it
+was complained by men of learning that the were-wolves did more damage
+than real wild animals, and the existence of a regular 'college' or
+institution for the practice of the art of animal transformation among
+were-wolves was affirmed.
+
+Involuntary were-wolves, of which class Bisclaveret was evidently a
+member, were often persons transformed into animal shape because of
+the commission of sin, and condemned to pass a certain number of years
+in that form. Thus certain saints metamorphosed sinners into wolves.
+In Armenia it was thought that a sinful woman was condemned to pass
+seven years in the form of a wolf. To such a woman a demon appeared,
+bringing a wolf-skin. He commanded her to don it, and from that moment
+she became a wolf, with all the nature of the wild beast, devouring
+her own children and those of strangers, and wandering forth at night,
+undeterred by locks, bolts, or bars, returning only with the morning
+to resume her human form.
+
+In was, of course, in Europe, where the wolf was one of the largest
+carnivorous animals, that the were-wolf superstition chiefly gained
+currency. In Eastern countries, where similar beliefs prevailed,
+bears, tigers, and other beasts of prey were substituted for the
+lupine form of colder climes.
+
+
+_The Lay of Gugemar_
+
+Oridial was one of the chief barons of King Arthur, and dwelt in
+Brittany, where he held lands in fief of that monarch. So deeply was
+he attached to his liege lord that when his son Gugemar was yet a
+child he sent him to Arthur's Court to be trained as a page. In due
+time Arthur dubbed Gugemar knight and armed him in rich harness, and
+the youth, hearing of war in Flanders, set out for that realm in the
+hope of gaining distinction and knightly honour.
+
+After achieving many valorous deeds in Flanders Gugemar felt a strong
+desire to behold his parents once more, so, setting his face homeward,
+he journeyed back to Brittany and dwelt with them for some time,
+resting after his battles and telling his father, mother, and sister
+Nogent of the many enterprises in which he had been engaged. But he
+shortly grew weary of this inactive existence, and in order to break
+the monotony of it he planned a great hunt in the neighbouring
+forest.
+
+Early one morning he set out, and soon a tall stag was roused from its
+bed among the ferns by the noise of the hunters' horns. The hounds
+were unleashed and the entire hunt followed in pursuit, Gugemar the
+foremost of all. But, closely as he pursued, the quarry eluded the
+knight, and to his chagrin he was left alone in the forest spaces with
+nothing to show for his long chase. He was about to ride back in
+search of his companions when on a sudden he noticed a doe hiding in a
+thicket with her fawn. She was white from ear to hoof, without a
+spot. Gugemar's hounds, rushing at her, held her at bay, and their
+master, fitting an arrow to his bow, loosed the shaft at her so that
+she was wounded above the hoof and brought to earth. But the
+treacherous arrow, glancing, returned to Gugemar and wounded him
+grievously in the thigh.
+
+As he lay on the earth faint and with his senses almost deserting him,
+Gugemar heard the doe speak to him in human accents:
+
+"Wretch who hast slain me," said she, "think not to escape my
+vengeance. Never shall leech nor herb nor balm cure the wound which
+fate hath so justly inflicted upon thee. Only canst thou be healed by
+a woman who loves thee, and who for that love shall have to suffer
+such woe and sorrow as never woman had to endure before. Thou too
+shalt suffer equally with her, and the sorrows of ye twain shall be
+the wonder of lovers for all time. Leave me now to die in peace."
+
+Gugemar was in sore dismay at hearing these words, for never had he
+sought lady's love nor had he cared for the converse of women. Winding
+his horn, he succeeded in attracting one of his followers to the spot,
+and sent him in search of his companions. When he had gone Gugemar
+tore his linen shirt in pieces and bound up his wound as well as he
+might. Then, dragging himself most painfully into the saddle, he rode
+from the scene of his misadventure at as great a pace as his injury
+would permit of, for he had conceived a plan which he did not desire
+should be interfered with.
+
+Riding at a hand-gallop, he soon came in sight of tall cliffs which
+overlooked the sea, and which formed a natural harbour, wherein lay a
+vessel richly beseen. Its sails were of spun silk, and each plank and
+mast was fashioned of ebony. Dismounting, Gugemar made his way to the
+shore, and with much labour climbed upon the ship. Neither mariner nor
+merchant was therein. A large pavilion of silk covered part of the
+deck, and within this was a rich bed, the work of the cunning
+artificers of the days of King Solomon. It was fashioned of cypress
+wood and ivory, and much gold and many gems went to the making of it.
+The clothes with which it was provided were fair and white as snow,
+and so soft the pillow that he who laid his head upon it, sad as he
+might be, could not resist sleep. The pavilion was lit by two large
+waxen candles, set in candlesticks of gold.
+
+As the knight sat gazing at this splendid couch fit for a king he
+suddenly became aware that the ship was moving seaward. Already,
+indeed, he was far from land, and at the sight he grew more sorrowful
+than before, for his hurt made him helpless and he could not hope
+either to guide the vessel or manage her so that he might return to
+shore. Resigning himself to circumstances, he lay down upon the ornate
+bed and sank into a deep and dreamless slumber.
+
+[Illustration: GUGEMAR COMES UPON THE MAGIC SHIP]
+
+When he awoke he found to his intense surprise that the ship had come
+to the port of an ancient city. Now the king of this realm was an aged
+man who was wedded to a young, fair lady, of whom he was, after the
+manner of old men, intensely jealous. The castle of this monarch
+frowned upon a fair garden enclosed from the sea by a high wall of
+green marble, so that if one desired to come to the castle he must do
+so from the water. The place was straitly watched by vigilant
+warders, and within the wall so carefully defended lay the Queen's
+bower, a fairer chamber than any beneath the sun, and decorated with
+the most marvellous paintings. Here dwelt the young Queen with one of
+her ladies, her own sister's child, who was devoted to her service and
+who never quitted her side. The key of this bower was in the hands of
+an aged priest, who was also the Queen's servitor.
+
+One day on awaking from sleep the Queen walked in the garden and
+espied a ship drawing near the land. Suddenly, she knew not why, she
+grew very fearful, and would have fled at the sight, but her maiden
+encouraged her to remain. The vessel came to shore, and the Queen's
+maiden entered it. No one could she see on board except a knight
+sleeping soundly within the pavilion, and he was so pale that she
+thought he was dead. Returning to her mistress, she told her what she
+had seen, and together they entered the vessel.
+
+No sooner did the Queen behold Gugemar than she was deeply smitten
+with love for him. In a transport of fear lest he were dead she placed
+her hand upon his bosom, and was overjoyed to feel the warmth of life
+within him and that his heart beat strongly. At her touch he awoke and
+courteously saluted her. She asked him whence he came and to what
+nation he belonged.
+
+"Lady," he replied, "I am a knight of Brittany. But yesterday, or so
+it seems to me, for I may have slumbered more than a day, I wounded a
+deer in the forest, but the arrow with which I slew her rebounded and
+struck me sorely. Then the beast, being, I trow, a fairy deer, spake,
+saying that never would this wound be healed save by one damsel in the
+whole world, and her I know not where to find. Riding seaward, I came
+to where this ship lay moored, and, entering it, the vessel drifted
+oceanward. I know not to what land I have come, nor what name this
+city bears. I pray you, fair lady, give me your best counsel."
+
+The Queen listened to his tale with the deepest interest, and when
+Gugemar made his appeal for aid and counsel she replied: "Truly, fair
+sir, I shall counsel you as best I may. This city to which you have
+come belongs to my husband, who is its King. Of much worship is he,
+but stricken in years, and because of the jealousy he bears me he has
+shut me up between these high walls. If it please you you may tarry
+here awhile and we will tend your wound until it be healed."
+
+Gugemar, wearied and bewildered at the strange things which had
+happened to him in the space of a day, thanked the Queen, and accepted
+her kind offer of entertainment with alacrity. Between them the Queen
+and her lady assisted him to leave the ship and bore him to a chamber,
+where he was laid in a fair bed and had his wound carefully dressed.
+When the ladies had withdrawn and the knight was left to himself he
+knew that he loved the Queen. All memory of his home and even of his
+tormenting wound disappeared, and he could brood only upon the fair
+face of the royal lady who had so charmingly ministered to him.
+
+Meanwhile the Queen was in little better case. All night she could not
+sleep for pondering upon the handsome youth who had come so
+mysteriously into her life, and her maiden, seeing this, and marking
+how she suffered, went to Gugemar's chamber and told him in a frank
+and almost childlike manner how deeply her mistress had been smitten
+with love for him.
+
+"You are young," she said, "so is my lady. Her lord is old and their
+union is unseemly. Heaven intended you for one another and has brought
+you together in its own good time."
+
+Shortly, after she had heard Mass, the Queen summoned Gugemar into her
+presence. At first both were dumb with confusion. At last his passion
+urged Gugemar to speak, and his love-words came thick and fast. The
+Queen hearkened to them, and, feeling that they rang true, admitted
+that she loved him in return.
+
+For a year and a half Gugemar dwelt in the Queen's bower. Then the
+lovers met with misfortune.
+
+For some days before the blow fell the Queen had experienced a feeling
+of coming evil. So powerfully did this affect her that she begged
+Gugemar for a garment of his. The knight marvelled at the request, and
+asked her playfully for what reason she desired such a keepsake as a
+linen shift.
+
+"Friend," she replied, "if it chance that you leave me or that we are
+separated I shall fear that some other damsel may win your love. In
+this shift which you give me I shall make a knot, and shall ask you to
+vow that never will you give your love to dame or damsel who cannot
+untie this knot."
+
+The knight complied with her request, and she made such a cunning knot
+in the garment as only she could unravel. For his part Gugemar gave
+the Queen a wonderfully fashioned girdle which only he could unclasp,
+and he begged her that she would never grant her love to any man who
+could not free her from it. Each promised the other solemnly to
+respect the vows they had made.
+
+That same day their hidden love was discovered. A chamberlain of the
+King's observed them through a window of the Queen's bower, and,
+hastening to his master, told him what he had seen. In terrible wrath
+the King called for his guards, and, coming upon the lovers unaware,
+commanded them to slay Gugemar at once. But the knight seized upon a
+stout rod of fir-wood on which linen was wont to be dried, and faced
+those who would slay him so boldly that they fell back in dismay.
+
+The King questioned him as to his name and lineage, and Gugemar
+fearlessly related his story. The King was incredulous at first, but
+said that could the ship be found in which Gugemar had arrived he
+would place him upon it and send him once more out to sea. After
+search had been made the vessel was found, and Gugemar was placed on
+it, the ship began to move, and soon the knight was well at sea.
+
+Ere long the ship came to that harbour whence she had first sailed,
+and as Gugemar landed he saw to his surprise one of his own vassals
+holding a charger and accompanied by a knight. Mounting the steed,
+Gugemar swiftly rode home, where he was received with every
+demonstration of joy. But though his parents and friends did
+everything possible to make him happy, the memory of the fair Queen
+who had loved him was ever with him night and day, so that he might
+not be solaced by game or tilting, the chase or the dance. In vain
+those who wished him well urged him to take a wife. At first he
+roundly refused to consider such a step, but when eagerly pressed by
+his friends he announced that no wife should he wed who could not
+first unloose the knot within his shift. So sought after was Gugemar
+that all the damsels in Brittany essayed the feat, but none of them
+succeeded and each retired sorrowfully from the ordeal.
+
+Meanwhile the aged King had set his wife in a tower of grey marble,
+where she suffered agonies because of the absence of her lover. Ever
+she wondered what had happened to him, if he had regained his native
+shore or whether he had been swallowed up by the angry sea. Frequently
+she made loud moan, but there were none to hear her cries save
+stony-hearted gaolers, who were as dumb as the grey walls that
+enclosed her.
+
+One day she chanced in her dolour to lean heavily upon the door of her
+prison. To her amazement it opened, and she found herself in the
+corridor without. Hastening on impulse, and as if by instinct, to the
+harbour, she found there her lover's ship. Quickly she climbed upon
+its deck, and scarcely had she done so than the vessel began to move
+seaward. In great fear she sat still, and in time was wafted to a part
+of Brittany governed by one named Meriadus, who was on the point of
+going to war with a neighbouring chieftain.
+
+From his window Meriadus had seen the approach of the strange vessel,
+and, making his way to the seashore, entered the ship. Struck with the
+beauty of the Queen, he brought her to his castle, where he placed her
+in his sister's chamber. He strove in every way to dispel the sadness
+which seemed to envelop her like a mantle, but despite his efforts to
+please her she remained in sorrowful and doleful mood and would not be
+comforted. Sorely did Meriadus press her to wed him, but she would
+have none of him, and for answer showed him the girdle round her
+waist, saying that never would she give her love to any man who could
+not unloose its buckle. As she said this Meriadus seemed struck by her
+words.
+
+"Strange," he said, "a right worthy knight dwells in this land who
+will take no woman to his wife save she who can first untie a certain
+crafty knot in his shift. Well would I wager that it was you who tied
+this knot."
+
+When the Queen heard these words she well-nigh fainted. Meriadus
+rushed to succour her, and gradually she revived. Some days later
+Meriadus held a high tournament, at which all the knights who were to
+aid him in the war were to be present, among them Gugemar. A festival
+was held on the night preceding the tournament, at which Meriadus
+requested his sister and the stranger dame to be present. As the Queen
+entered the hall Gugemar rose from his place and stared at her as at a
+vision of the dead. In great doubt was he whether this lady was in
+truth his beloved.
+
+"Come, Gugemar," rallied Meriadus, "let this damsel try to unravel the
+knot in your shift which has puzzled so many fair dames."
+
+Gugemar called to his squire and bade him fetch the shift, and when it
+was brought the lady, without seeming effort, unravelled the knot. But
+even yet Gugemar remained uncertain.
+
+"Lady," he said, "tell me, I pray you, whether or not you wear a
+girdle with which I girt you in a realm across the sea," and placing
+his hands around her slender waist, he found there the secret belt.
+
+All his doubts dispelled, Gugemar asked his loved one how she had come
+to the tower of Meriadus. When he had heard, he then and there
+requested his ally to yield him the lady, but the chieftain roundly
+refused. Then the knight in great anger cast down his glove and took
+his departure, and, to the discomfiture of Meriadus, all those knights
+who had gathered for the tournament and had offered to assist Meriadus
+accompanied Gugemar.
+
+[Illustration: GUGEMAR'S ASSAULT ON THE CASTLE OF MERIADUS]
+
+In a body they rode to the castle of the prince who was at war with
+Meriadus, and next day they marched against the discourteous
+chieftain. Long did they besiege his castle, but at last when the
+defenders were weak with hunger Gugemar and his men assailed the place
+and took it, slaying Meriadus within the ruins of his own hall.
+Gugemar, rushing to that place where he knew his lady to be, called
+her forth, and in peace brought her back with him to his own demesne,
+where they were wed and dwelt long and happily.
+
+There are several circumstances connected with this beautiful old tale
+which deeply impress us with a belief in its antiquity. The incident
+of the killing of the deer and the incurable nature of Gugemar's wound
+are undoubtedly legacies from very ancient times, when it was believed
+to be unlucky under certain circumstances to kill a beast of the
+chase. Some savage races, such as the North American Indians, consider
+it to be most unlucky to slay a deer without first propitiating the
+great Deer God, the chief of the Deer Folk, and in fact they attribute
+most of the ills to which flesh is heir to the likelihood that they
+have omitted some of the very involved ritual of the chase. It will be
+remembered that Tristrem of Lyonesse also had an incurable wound, and
+there are other like instances in romance and myth.
+
+The vessel which carries Gugemar over the sea is undoubtedly of the
+same class as those magic self-propelled craft which we meet with very
+frequently in Celtic lore, and the introduction of this feature in
+itself is sufficient to convince us of the Celtic or Breton origin of
+Marie's tale. We have such a craft in the Grail legend in the _Morte
+d'Arthur_, in which Galahad finds precisely such a bed. The vessel in
+the Grail legend is described as "King Solomon's Ship," and it is
+obvious that Marie or her Breton original must have borrowed the idea
+from a Grail source.
+
+Lastly, the means adopted by the lovers to ensure one another's
+constancy seem very like the methods of taboo. The knot that may not
+or cannot be untied has many counterparts in ancient lore, and the
+girdle that no man but the accepted lover may loose is reminiscent of
+the days when a man placed such a girdle around his wife or sweetheart
+to signify his sole possession of her. If a man could succeed in
+purloining a mermaid's girdle she was completely in his power. So is
+it with fairies in an Algonquin Indian tale. Even so late as Crusading
+times many knights departing to fight in the Holy Land bound a girdle
+round their ladies' waists in the hope that the gift would ensure
+their faithfulness.
+
+
+_The Lay of Laustic_
+
+The Lay of Laustic, or the Nightingale, is purely of Breton origin,
+and indeed is proved to be so by its title. "Laustic, I deem, men name
+it in that country" (Brittany), says Marie in her preface to the lay,
+"which being interpreted means _rossignol_ in French and 'nightingale'
+in good plain English." She adds that the Breton harper has already
+made a lay concerning it--added evidence that the tale is of Celtic
+and not of French origin.
+
+In the ancient town of Saint-Malo, in Brittany, dwelt two knights
+whose valour and prowess brought much fame to the community. Their
+houses were close to one another, and one of them was married to a
+lady of surpassing loveliness, while the other was a bachelor. By
+insensible degrees the bachelor knight came to love his neighbour's
+wife, and so handsome and gallant was he that in time she returned his
+passion. He made every possible excuse for seeking her society, and on
+one pretext or another was constantly by her side. But he was
+exceedingly careful of her fair fame, and acted in such a way that not
+the slightest breath of scandal could touch her.
+
+Their houses were separated by an ancient stone wall of considerable
+height, but the lovers could speak together by leaning from their
+casements, and if this was impossible they could communicate by
+sending written messages. When the lady's husband was at home she was
+guarded carefully, as was the custom of the time, but nevertheless she
+contrived to greet her lover from the window as frequently as she
+desired.
+
+In due course the wondrous time of spring came round, with white drift
+of blossom and stir of life newly awakened. The short night hours grew
+warm, and often did the lady arise from bed to have speech with her
+lover at the casement. Her husband grew displeased by her frequent
+absences, which disturbed his rest, and wrathfully inquired the reason
+why she quitted his side so often.
+
+"Oh, husband," she replied, "I cannot rest because of the sweet song
+of the nightingale, whose music has cast a spell upon my heart. No
+tune of harp or viol can compare with it, and I may not close my eyes
+so long as his song continues in the night."
+
+Now the lady's husband, although a bold and hardy knight, was
+malicious and ungenerous, and, disliking to have his rest disturbed,
+resolved to deal summarily with the nightingale. So he gave orders to
+his servants to set traps in the garden and to smear every bough and
+branch with birdlime in order that the bird might speedily be taken.
+His orders were at once carried out, and the garden was filled with
+nets, while the cruel lime glittered upon every tree. So complete were
+the preparations of the serving-men that an unfortunate nightingale
+which had made the garden its haunt and had filled it with music for
+many a night while the lovers talked was taken and brought to the
+knight.
+
+Swiftly he bore the hapless bird to his wife's chamber, his eyes
+sparkling with malicious glee.
+
+"Here is your precious songster," he said, with bitter irony. "You
+will be happy to learn that you and I may now spend our sleeping hours
+in peace since he is taken."
+
+"Ah, slay him not, my lord!" she cried in anguish, for she had grown
+to associate the bird's sweet song with the sweeter converse of her
+lover--to regard it as in a measure an accompaniment to his
+love-words. For answer her husband seized the unhappy bird by the neck
+and wrung its head off. Then he cast the little body into the lap of
+the dame, soiling her with its blood, and departed in high anger.
+
+The lady pitifully raised what was left of the dead songster and
+bitterly lamented over it.
+
+"Woe is me!" she cried. "Never again can I meet with my lover at the
+casement, and he will believe that I am faithless to him. But I shall
+devise some means to let him know that this is not so."
+
+Having considered as to what she should do, the lady took a fine piece
+of white samite, broidered with gold, and worked upon it as on a
+tapestry the whole story of the nightingale, so that her knight might
+not be ignorant of the nature of the barrier that had arisen between
+them.
+
+In this silken shroud she wrapped the small, sad body of the slain
+bird and gave it in charge of a trusty servant to bear to her lover.
+The messenger told the knight what had occurred. The news was heavy to
+him, but now, having insight to the vengeful nature of her husband, he
+feared to jeopardize the lady's safety, so he remained silent. But he
+caused a rich coffer to be made in fine gold, set with precious
+stones, in which he laid the body of the nightingale, and this small
+funeral urn he carried about with him on all occasions, nor could any
+circumstance hinder him from keeping it constantly beside him.
+
+  Wrap me love's ashes in a golden cloth
+  To carry next my heart. Love's fire is out,
+  And these poor embers grey, but I am loath
+  To quench remembrance also: I shall put
+  His relics over that they did consume.
+  Ah, 'tis too bitter cold these cinders to relume!
+
+  Place me love's ashes in a golden cup,
+  To mingle with my wine. Ah, do not fear
+  The old flame in my soul shall flicker up
+  At the harsh taste of what was once so dear.
+  I quaff no fire: there is no fire to meet
+  This bitterness of death and turn it into sweet.
+
+
+_The Lay of Eliduc_
+
+In the tale of Eliduc we have in all probability a genuine product of
+native Breton romance. So at least avers Marie, who assures us that it
+is "a very ancient Breton lay," and we have no reason to doubt her
+word, seeing that, had she been prone to literary dishonesty, it would
+have been much easier for her to have passed off the tale as her own
+original conception. There is, of course, the probability that it was
+so widely known in its Breton version that to have done so would have
+been to have openly courted the charge of plagiarism--an impeachment
+which it is not possible to bring against this most charming and
+delightful poetess.
+
+Eliduc, a knight of Brittany, was happy in the confidence of his King,
+who, when affairs of State caused his absence from the realm, left his
+trusted adherent behind him as viceroy and regent. Such a man, staunch
+and loyal, could scarcely be without enemies, and the harmless
+pleasure he took in the chase during the King's absence was construed
+by evil counsellors on the monarch's return as an unwarranted licence
+with the royal rights of venery. The enemies of Eliduc so harped upon
+the knight's supposed lack of reverence for the royal authority that
+at length the King's patience gave way and in an outburst of wrath he
+gave orders for Eliduc's banishment, without vouchsafing his former
+friend and confidant the least explanation of this petulant action.
+
+Dismayed by the sudden change in his fortunes, Eliduc returned to his
+house, and there acquainted his friends and vassals with the King's
+unjust decree. He told them that it was his intention to cross the sea
+to the kingdom of Logres, to sojourn there for a space. He placed his
+estates in the hands of his wife and begged of his vassals that they
+would serve her loyally. Then, having settled his affairs, he took ten
+knights of his household and started upon his journey. His wife,
+Guildeluec, accompanied him for several miles, and on parting they
+pledged good faith to one another.
+
+In due time the cavalcade came to the seashore and took ship for the
+realm of Logres. Near Exeter, in this land, dwelt an aged king who
+had for his heir a daughter called Guillardun. This damsel had been
+asked in marriage by a neighbouring prince, and as her father had
+refused to listen to his proposals the disappointed suitor made war
+upon him, spoiling and wasting his land. The old King, fearful for his
+child's safety, had shut her up in a strong castle for her better
+security and his own peace of mind.
+
+Now Eliduc, coming to that land, heard the tale of the quarrel between
+the King and his neighbour, and considered as to which side he should
+take. After due deliberation he arranged to fight on the side of the
+King, with whom he offered to take service. His offer was gratefully
+accepted, and he had not been long in the royal host when he had an
+opportunity of distinguishing himself. The town wherein he was lodged
+with his knights was attacked by the enemy. He set his men in ambush
+in a forest track by which it was known the enemy would approach the
+town, and succeeded in routing them and in taking large numbers of
+prisoners and much booty. This feat of arms raised him high in the
+estimation of the King, who showed him much favour, and the Princess,
+hearing of his fame, became very desirous of beholding him. She sent
+her chamberlain to Eliduc saying that she wished to hear the story of
+his deeds, and he, quite as anxious to see the imprisoned Princess of
+whom he had heard so much, set out at once. On beholding each other
+they experienced deep agitation. Eliduc thought that never had he seen
+so beautiful and graceful a maiden, and Guillardun that this was the
+most handsome and comely knight she had ever met.
+
+For a long time they spoke together, and then Eliduc took his leave
+and departed. He counted all the time lost that he had remained in the
+kingdom without knowing this lady, but he promised himself that now he
+would frequently seek her society. Then, with a pang of remorse, he
+thought of his good and faithful wife and the sacred promise he had
+made her.
+
+Guillardun, on her part, was none the less ill at ease. She passed a
+restless night, and in the morning confided her case to her aged
+chamberlain, who was almost a second father to her, and he, all
+unwitting that Eliduc was already bound in wedlock to another,
+suggested that the Princess should send the knight a love-token to
+discover by the manner in which he received it whether or not her love
+was returned. Guillardun took this advice, and sent her lover a girdle
+and a ring by the hands of the chamberlain. On receiving the token
+Eliduc showed the greatest joy, girded the belt about his middle, and
+placed the ring on his finger. The chamberlain returned to the
+Princess and told her with what evident satisfaction Eliduc had
+received the gifts. But the Princess in her eagerness showered
+questions upon him, until at last the old man grew impatient.
+
+"Lady," he said, somewhat testily, "I have told you the knight's
+words; I cannot tell you his thoughts, for he is a prudent gentleman
+who knows well what to hide in his heart."
+
+Although he rejoiced at the gifts Eliduc had but little peace of mind.
+He could think of nothing save the vow he had made to his wife before
+he left her. But thoughts of the Princess would intrude themselves
+upon him. Often he saw Guillardun, and although he saluted her with a
+kiss, as was the custom of the time, he never spoke a single word of
+love to her, being fearful on the one hand of breaking his conjugal
+vow and on the other of offending the King.
+
+One evening when Eliduc was announced the King was in his daughter's
+chamber, playing at chess with a stranger lord. He welcomed the knight
+heartily, and much to the embarrassment of the lovers begged his
+daughter to cherish a closer friendship for Eliduc, whom he brought to
+her notice as a right worthy knight. The pair withdrew somewhat from
+the others, as if for the purpose of furthering the friendship which
+the old King so ardently seemed to desire, and Eliduc thanked the
+Princess for the gifts she had sent him by the chamberlain. Then the
+Princess, taking advantage of her rank, told Eliduc that she desired
+him for her husband, and that, did he refuse her, she would die
+unwed.
+
+"Lady," replied the knight, "I have great joy in your love, but have
+you thought that I may not always tarry in this land? I am your
+father's man until this war hath an end. Then shall I return unto mine
+own country." But Guillardun, in a transport of love, told him she
+would trust him entirely with her heart, and passing great was the
+affection that grew between them.
+
+Eliduc, in spite of his love for the Princess, had by no means
+permitted his conduct of the war to flag. Indeed, if anything, he
+redoubled his efforts, and pressed the foe so fiercely that at length
+he was forced to submit. And now news came to him that his old master,
+the King who had banished him from Brittany, was sore bestead by an
+enemy and was searching for his former vice-regent on every hand, who
+was so mighty a knight in the field and so sage at the council-board.
+Turning upon the false lords who had spoken evil of his favourite, he
+outlawed them from the land for ever. He sent messengers east and
+west and across the seas in search of Eliduc, who when he heard the
+news was much dismayed, so greatly did he love Guillardun. These twain
+had loved with a pure and tender passion, and never by word or deed
+had they sullied the affection they bore one another. Dearly did the
+Princess hope that Eliduc might remain in her land and become her
+lord, and little did she dream that he was wedded to a wife across the
+seas. For his part Eliduc took close counsel with himself. He knew by
+reason of the fealty he owed to his King that he must return to
+Brittany, but he was equally aware that if he parted from Guillardun
+one or other of them must die.
+
+Deep was the chagrin of the King of Logres when he learned that Eliduc
+must depart from his realm, but deeper far was his daughter's grief
+when the knight came to bid her farewell. In moving words she urged
+him to remain, and when she found that his loyalty was proof even
+against his love, she begged of him to take her with him to Brittany.
+But this request he turned aside, on the plea that as he had served
+her father he could not so offend him as by the theft of his daughter.
+He promised, however, by all he held most dear that he would return
+one day, and with much sorrow the two parted, exchanging rings for
+remembrance.
+
+Eliduc took ship and swiftly crossed the sea. He met with a joyous
+reception from his King, and none was so glad at his return as his
+wife. But gradually his lady began to see that he had turned cold to
+her. She charged him with it, and he replied that he had pledged his
+faith to the foreign lord whom he had served abroad.
+
+Very soon through his conduct the war was brought to a victorious
+close, and almost immediately thereafter Eliduc repaired across the
+sea to Logres, taking with him two of his nephews as his squires. On
+reaching Logres he at once went to visit Guillardun, who received him
+with great gladness. She returned with him to his ship, which
+commenced the return voyage at once, but when they neared the
+dangerous coast of Brittany a sudden tempest arose, and waxed so
+fierce that the mariners lost all hope of safety. One of them cried
+out that the presence of Guillardun on board the ship endangered all
+their lives and that the conduct of Eliduc, who had already a faithful
+wife, in seeking to wed this foreign woman had brought about their
+present dangerous position. Eliduc grew very wroth, and when
+Guillardun heard that her knight was already wedded she swooned and
+all regarded her as dead. In despair Eliduc fell upon his betrayer,
+slew him, and cast his body into the sea. Then, guiding the ship with
+a seaman's skill, he brought her into harbour.
+
+When they were safely anchored, Eliduc conceived the idea of taking
+Guillardun, whom he regarded as dead, to a certain chapel in a great
+forest quite near his own home. Setting her body before him on his
+palfrey, he soon came to the little shrine, and making a bier of the
+altar laid Guillardun upon it. He then betook him to his own house,
+but the next morning returned to the chapel in the forest. Mourning
+over the body of his lady-love, he was surprised to observe that the
+colour still remained in her cheeks and lips. Again and again he
+visited the chapel, and his wife, marvelling whither he went, bribed a
+varlet to discover the object of his repeated absences. The man
+watched Eliduc and saw him enter the chapel and mourn over the body
+of Guillardun, and, returning, acquainted his lady with what he had
+seen.
+
+Guildeluec--for such, we will remember, was the name of Eliduc's
+wife--set out for the shrine, and with astonishment beheld the
+lifelike form of Guillardun laid on the altar. So pitiful was the
+sight that she herself could not refrain from the deepest sorrow. As
+she sat weeping a weasel came from under the altar and ran across
+Guillardun's body, and the varlet who attended Guildeluec struck at it
+with his staff and killed it. Another weasel issued, and, beholding
+its dead comrade, went forth from the chapel and hastened to the wood,
+whence it returned, bearing in its mouth a red flower, which it placed
+on the mouth of its dead companion. The weasel which Guildeluec had
+believed to be dead at once stood up. Beholding this, the varlet cast
+his staff at the animals and they sped away, leaving the red flower
+behind them.
+
+[Illustration: ELIDUC CARRIES GUILLARDUN TO THE FOREST CHAPEL]
+
+Guildeluec immediately picked the flower up, and returning with it to
+the altar where Guillardun lay, placed it on the maiden's mouth. In a
+few moments she heard a sigh, and Guillardun sat up, and inquired if
+she had slept long. Guildeluec asked her name and degree, and
+Guillardun in reply acquainted her with her history and lineage,
+speaking very bitterly of Eliduc, who, she said, had betrayed her in a
+strange land. Guildeluec declared herself the wife of Eliduc, told
+Guillardun how deeply the knight had grieved for her, and declared her
+intention of taking the veil and releasing Eliduc from his marriage
+vow. She conducted Guillardun to her home, where they met Eliduc, who
+rejoiced greatly at the restoration of his lady-love. His wife
+founded a convent with the rich portion he bestowed upon her, and
+Eliduc, in thankfulness for Guillardun's recovery, built a fair church
+close by his castle and endowed it bountifully, and close beside it
+erected a great monastery. Later Guillardun entered the convent of
+which Guildeluec was the abbess, and Eliduc, himself feeling the call
+of the holy life, devoted himself to the service of God in the
+monastery. Messages passed between convent and monastery in which
+Eliduc and the holy women encouraged each other in the pious life
+which they had chosen, and by degrees the three who had suffered so
+greatly came to regard their seclusion as far preferable to the world
+and all its vanities.
+
+
+_The Lay of Equitan_
+
+The Lay of Equitan is one of Marie's most famous tales. Equitan was
+King of Nantes, in Brittany, and led the life of a pleasure-seeker. To
+win approval from the eyes of fair ladies was more to him than
+knightly fame or honour.
+
+Equitan had as seneschal a trusty and faithful knight, who was to the
+pleasure-loving seigneur as his right hand. This faithful servant was
+also captain of Equitan's army, and sat as a judge in his courts. To
+his undoing he had a wife, as fair a dame as any in the duchy of
+Brittany. "Her eyes," says the old lay, "were blue, her face was warm
+in colour, her mouth fragrant and her nose dainty." She was ever
+tastefully dressed and courtly in demeanour, and soon attracted the
+attention of such an admirer of the fair sex as Equitan, who desired
+to speak with her more intimately. He therefore, as a subterfuge,
+announced that a great hunt would take place in that part of his
+domains in which his seneschal's castle was situated, and this gave
+him the opportunity of sojourning at the castle and holding converse
+with the lady, with whom he became so charmed that in a few days he
+fell deeply in love with her. On the night of the day when he first
+became aware that he loved her Equitan lay tossing on his bed, in a
+torment of fiery emotion. He debated with himself in what manner he
+should convey to his seneschal's wife the fact that he loved her, and
+at length prepared a plot which he thought would be likely to
+succeed.
+
+Next day he rose as usual and made all arrangements to proceed with
+the chase. But shortly after setting out he returned, pleading that he
+had fallen sick, and took to his bed. The faithful seneschal could not
+divine what had occurred to render his lord so seriously indisposed as
+he appeared to be, and requested his wife to go to him to see if she
+could minister to him and cheer his drooping spirits.
+
+The lady went to Equitan, who received her dolefully enough. He told
+her without reserve that the malady from which he suffered was none
+other than love for herself, and that did she not consent to love him
+in return he would surely die. The dame at first dissented, but,
+carried away by the fiery eloquence of his words, she at last assured
+him of her love, and they exchanged rings as a token of troth and
+trust.
+
+The love of Equitan and the seneschal's wife was discovered by none,
+and when they desired to meet he arranged to go hunting in the
+neighbourhood of the seneschal's castle. Shortly after they had
+plighted their troth the great barons of the realm approached the
+King with a proposal that he should marry, but Equitan would have none
+of this, nor would he listen to even his most trusted advisers with
+regard to such a subject. The nobles were angered at his curt and even
+savage refusal to hearken to them, and the commons were also greatly
+disturbed because of the lack of a successor. The echoes of the
+disagreement reached the ears of the seneschal's wife, who was much
+perturbed thereby, being aware that the King had come to this decision
+for love of her.
+
+At their next meeting she broached the subject to her royal lover,
+lamenting that they had ever met.
+
+"Now are my good days gone," she said, weeping, "for you will wed some
+king's daughter as all men say, and I shall certainly die if I lose
+you thus."
+
+"Nay, that will not be," replied Equitan. "Never shall I wed except
+your husband die."
+
+The lady felt that he spoke truly, but in an evil moment she came to
+attach a sinister meaning to the words Equitan had employed regarding
+her husband. Day and night she brooded on them, for well she knew that
+did her husband die Equitan would surely wed her. By insensible
+degrees she came to regard her husband's death as a good rather than
+an evil thing, and little by little Equitan, who at first looked upon
+the idea with horror, became converted to her opinion. Between them
+they hatched a plot for the undoing of the seneschal. It was arranged
+that the King should go hunting as usual in the neighbourhood of his
+faithful servant's castle. While lodging in the castle, the King and
+the seneschal would be bled in the old surgical manner for their
+health's sake, and three days after would bathe before leaving the
+chamber they occupied, and the heartless wife suggested that she
+should make her husband's bath so fiercely hot that he would not
+survive after entering it. One would think that the seneschal would
+easily have been able to escape such a simple trap, but we must
+remember that the baths of Norman times were not shaped like our own,
+but were exceedingly deep, and indeed some of them were in form almost
+like those immense upright jars such as the forty thieves were
+concealed in in the story of Ali Baba, so that in many cases it was
+not easy for the bather to tell whether the water into which he was
+stepping was hot or otherwise.
+
+The plot was carried out as the lady had directed, but not without
+much misgiving on the part of Equitan. The King duly arrived at the
+castle, and announced his intention to be bled, requesting that the
+seneschal should undergo the same operation at the same time, and
+occupy the same chamber by way of companionship. Then after the leech
+had bled them the King asked that he might have a bath before leaving
+his apartment, and the seneschal requested that his too should be made
+ready. Accordingly on the third day the baths were brought to the
+chamber, and the lady occupied herself with filling them. While she
+was doing so her lord left the chamber for a space, and during his
+absence the King and the lady were clasped in each other's arms. So
+rapt were the pair in their amorous dalliance that they failed to
+notice the return of the seneschal, who, when he saw them thus
+engaged, uttered an exclamation of surprise and wrath. Equitan,
+turning quickly, saw him, and with a cry of despair leapt into the
+bath that the lady had prepared for the seneschal, and there perished
+miserably, while the enraged husband, seizing his faithless wife,
+thrust her headlong into the boiling water beside her lover, where she
+too was scalded to death.
+
+
+_The Lay of the Ash-Tree_
+
+In olden times there dwelt in Brittany two knights who were neighbours
+and close friends. Both were married, and one was the father of twin
+sons, one of whom he christened by the name of his friend. Now this
+friend had a wife who was envious of heart and rancorous of tongue,
+and on hearing that two sons had been born to her neighbour she spoke
+slightingly and cruelly about her, saying that to bear twins was ever
+a disgrace. Her evil words were spread abroad, and at last as a result
+of her malicious speech the good lady's husband himself began to doubt
+and suspect the wife who had never for a moment given him the least
+occasion to do so.
+
+Strangely enough, within the year two daughters were born to the lady
+of the slanderous tongue, who now deeply lamented the wrong she had
+done, but all to no purpose. Fearful of the gossip which she thought
+the event would occasion, she gave one of the children to a faithful
+handmaiden, with directions that it should be laid on the steps of a
+church, where it might be picked up as a foundling and nourished by
+some stranger. The babe was wrapped in a linen cloth, which again was
+covered with a beautiful piece of red silk that the lady's husband had
+purchased in the East, and a handsome ring engraved with the family
+insignia and set with garnets was bound to the infant's arm with
+silken lace. When the child had thus been attired the damsel took it
+and carried it for many miles into the country, until at last she came
+to a city where there was a large and fair abbey. Breathing a prayer
+that the child might have proper guardianship, the girl placed it on
+the abbey steps as her mistress had ordered her to do, but, afraid
+that it might catch cold on such a chilly bed, she looked around and
+saw an ash-tree, thick and leafy, with four strong branches, among the
+foliage of which she deposited the little one, commending it to the
+care of God, after which she returned to her mistress and acquainted
+her with what had passed.
+
+In the morning the abbey porter opened the great doors of the house of
+God so that the people might enter for early Mass. As he was thus
+engaged his eye caught the gleam of red silk among the leaves of the
+ash-tree, and going to it he discovered the deserted infant. Taking
+the babe from its resting-place, he returned with it to his house,
+and, awaking his daughter, who was a widow with a baby yet in the
+cradle, he asked her to cherish it and care for it. Both father and
+daughter could see from the crimson silk and the great signet ring
+that the child was of noble birth. The porter told the abbess of his
+discovery, and she requested him to bring the child to her, dressed
+precisely as it had been found. On beholding the infant a great
+compassion was aroused in the breast of the holy woman, who resolved
+to bring up the child herself, calling her her niece, and since she
+was taken from the ash giving her the name of Frêne.
+
+Frêne grew up one of the fairest damsels in Brittany. She was frank in
+manner, yet modest and discreet in bearing and speech. At Dol,
+where, as we have read, there is a great menhir and other prehistoric
+monuments, there lived a lord called Buron, who, hearing reports of
+Frêne's beauty and sweetness, greatly desired to behold her.
+Riding home from a tournament, he passed near the convent, and,
+alighting there, paid his respects to the abbess, and begged that he
+might see her niece. Buron at once fell in love with the maiden, and
+in order to gain favour with the abbess bestowed great riches upon the
+establishment over which she presided, requesting in return that he
+might be permitted to occupy a small apartment in the abbey should he
+chance to be in the neighbourhood.
+
+In this way he frequently saw and spoke with Frêne, who in turn fell
+in love with him. He persuaded her to fly with him to his castle,
+taking with her the silken cloth and ring with which she had been
+found.
+
+But the lord's tenants were desirous that he should marry, and had set
+their hearts upon his union with a rich lady named Coudre, daughter of
+a neighbouring baron. The marriage was arranged, greatly to the grief
+of Frêne, and duly took place. Going to Buron's bridal chamber, she
+considered it too mean, blinded with love as she was, for such as he,
+and placed the wondrous piece of crimson silk in which she had been
+wrapped as an infant over the coverlet. Presently the bride's mother
+entered the bridal chamber in order to see that all was fitting for
+her daughter's reception there. Gazing at the crimson coverlet, she
+recognized it as that in which she had wrapped her infant daughter.
+She anxiously inquired to whom it belonged, and was told that it was
+Frêne's. Going to the damsel, she questioned her as to where she had
+obtained the silk, and was told by Frêne that the abbess had given it
+to her along with a ring which had been found upon her when, as an
+infant, she had been discovered within the branches of the ash-tree.
+
+The mother asked anxiously to see the ring, and on beholding it told
+Frêne of their relationship, which at the same time she confessed to
+her husband, the baron. The father was overjoyed to meet with a
+daughter he had never known, and hastened to the bridegroom to
+acquaint him with Frêne's story. Great joy had Buron, and the
+archbishop who had joined him to Coudre gave counsel that they should
+be parted according to the rites of the Church and that Buron should
+marry Frêne. This was accordingly done, and when Frêne's parents
+returned to their own domain they found another husband for Coudre.
+
+
+_The Lay of Graelent_
+
+Graelent was a Breton knight dwelling at the Court of the King of
+Brittany, a very pillar to him in war, bearing himself valiantly in
+tourney and joust. So handsome and brave was he that the Queen fell
+madly in love with him, and asked her chamberlain to bring the knight
+into her presence. When he came she praised him greatly to his face,
+not only for his gallantry in battle, but also for his comeliness; but
+at her honeyed words the youth, quite abashed, sat silent, saying
+nothing. The Queen at last questioned him if his heart was set on any
+maid or dame, to which he replied that it was not, that love was a
+serious business and not to be taken in jest.
+
+"Many speak glibly of love," he said, "of whom not one can spell the
+first letter of its name. Love should be quiet and discreet or it is
+nothing worth, and without accord between the lovers love is but a
+bond and a constraint. Love is too high a matter for me to meddle
+with."
+
+The Queen listened greedily to Graelent's words, and when he had
+finished speaking she discovered her love for him; but he turned from
+her courteously but firmly.
+
+"Lady," he said, "I beg your forgiveness, but this may not be. I am
+the King's man, and to him I have pledged my faith and loyalty. Never
+shall he know shame through any conduct of mine."
+
+With these words he took his leave of the Queen. But his protestations
+had altered her mind not at all. She sent him messages daily, and
+costly gifts, but these he refused and returned, till at last the
+royal dame, stung to anger by his repulses, conceived a violent hatred
+for him, and resolved to be revenged upon him for the manner in which
+he had scorned her love.
+
+The King of Brittany went to war with a neighbouring monarch, and
+Graelent bore himself manfully in the conflict, leading his troops
+again and again to victory. Hearing of his repeated successes, the
+Queen was exceedingly mortified, and made up her mind to destroy his
+popularity with the troops. With this end in view she prevailed upon
+the King to withhold the soldiers' pay, which Graelent had to advance
+them out of his own means. In the end the unfortunate knight was
+reduced almost to beggary by this mean stratagem.
+
+One morning he was riding through the town where he was lodged, clad
+in garments so shabby that the wealthy burgesses in their fur-lined
+cloaks and rich apparel gibed and jeered at him, but Graelent, sure of
+his own worth, deigned not to take notice of such ill-breeding, and
+for his solace quitted the crowded streets of the place and took his
+way toward the great forest which skirted it. He rode into its gloom
+deep in thought, listening to the murmur of the river which flowed
+through the leafy ways.
+
+He had not gone far when he espied a white hart within a thicket. She
+fled before him into the thickest part of the forest, but the silvern
+glimmer of her body showed the track she had taken. On a sudden deer
+and horseman dashed into a clearing among the trees where there was a
+grassy lawn, in the midst of which sprang a fountain of clear water.
+In this fountain a lady was bathing, and two attendant maidens stood
+near. Now Graelent believed that the lady must be a fairy, and knowing
+well that the only way to capture such a being was to seize her
+garments, he looked around for these, and seeing them lying upon a
+bush he laid hands upon them.
+
+The attendant women at this set up a loud outcry, and the lady herself
+turned to where he sat his horse and called him by name.
+
+"Graelent, what do you hope to gain by the theft of my raiment?" she
+asked. "Have you, a knight, sunk so low as to behave like a common
+pilferer? Take my mantle if you must, but pray spare me my gown."
+
+Graelent laughed at the lady's angry words, and told her that he was
+no huckster. He then begged her to don her garments, as he desired to
+have speech with her. After her women had attired her, Graelent took
+her by the hand and, leading her a little space away from her
+attendants, told her that he had fallen deeply in love with her. But
+the lady frowned and seemed at first offended.
+
+"You do not know to whom you proffer your love," she said. "Are you
+aware that my birth and lineage render it an impertinence for a mere
+knight to seek to ally himself with me?"
+
+But Graelent had a most persuasive tongue, and the deep love he had
+conceived for the lady rendered him doubly eloquent on this occasion.
+At last the fairy-woman, for such she was, was quite carried away by
+his words, and granted him the boon he craved.
+
+"There is, however, one promise I must exact from you," she said, "and
+that is that never shall you mention me to mortal man. I on my part
+shall assist you in every possible manner. You shall never be without
+gold in your purse nor costly apparel to wear. Day and night shall I
+remain with you, and in war and in the chase will ride by your side,
+visible to you alone, unseen by your companions. For a year must you
+remain in this country. Now noon has passed and you must go. A
+messenger shall shortly come to you to tell you of my wishes."
+
+Graelent took leave of the lady and kissed her farewell. Returning to
+his lodgings in the town, he was leaning from the casement considering
+his strange adventure when he saw a varlet issuing from the forest
+riding upon a palfrey. The man rode up the cobbled street straight to
+Graelent's lodgings, where he dismounted and, entering, told the
+knight that his lady had sent him with the palfrey as a present, and
+begged that he would accept the services of her messenger to take
+charge of his lodgings and manage his affairs.
+
+The serving-man quickly altered the rather poor appearance of
+Graelent's apartment. He spread a rich coverlet upon his couch and
+produced a well-filled purse and rich apparel. Graelent at once sought
+out all the poor knights of the town and feasted them to their hearts'
+content. From this moment he fared sumptuously every day. His lady
+appeared whenever he desired her to, and great was the love between
+them. Nothing more had he to wish for in this life.
+
+A year passed in perfect happiness for the knight, and at its
+termination the King held a great feast on the occasion of Pentecost.
+To this feast Sir Graelent was bidden. All day the knights and barons
+and their ladies feasted, and the King, having drunk much wine, grew
+boastful. Requesting the Queen to stand forth on the daïs, he asked
+the assembled nobles if they had ever beheld so fair a dame as she.
+The lords were loud in their praise of the Queen, save Graelent only.
+He sat with bent head, smiling strangely, for he knew of a lady fairer
+by far than any lady in that Court. The Queen was quick to notice this
+seeming discourtesy, and pointed it out to the King, who summoned
+Graelent to the steps of the throne.
+
+"How now, Sir Knight," said the King; "wherefore did you sneer when
+all other men praised the Queen's beauty?"
+
+"Sire," replied Graelent, "you do yourself much dishonour by such a
+deed. You make your wife a show upon a stage and force your nobles to
+praise her with lies when in truth a fairer dame than she could very
+easily be found."
+
+Now when she heard this the Queen was greatly angered and prayed her
+husband to compel Graelent to bring to the Court her of whom he
+boasted so proudly.
+
+"Set us side by side," cried the infuriated Queen, "and if she be
+fairer than I before men's eyes, Graelent may go in peace, but if not
+let justice be done upon him."
+
+The King, stirred to anger at these words, ordered his guards to seize
+Graelent, swearing that he should never issue from prison till the
+lady of whom he had boasted should come to Court and pit herself
+against the Queen. Graelent was then cast into a dungeon, but he
+thought little of this indignity, fearing much more that his rashness
+had broken the bond betwixt him and his fairy bride. After a while he
+was set at liberty, on pledging his word that he would return bringing
+with him the lady whom he claimed as fairer than the Queen.
+
+Leaving the Court, he betook himself to his lodging, and called upon
+his lady, but received no answer. Again he called, but without result,
+and believing that his fairy bride had utterly abandoned him he gave
+way to despair. In a year's time Graelent returned to the Court and
+admitted his failure.
+
+"Sir Graelent," said the King, "wherefore should you not be punished?
+You have slandered the Queen in the most unknightly manner, and given
+the lie to those nobles who must now give judgment against you."
+
+The nobles retired to consider their judgment upon Graelent. For a
+long time they debated, for most of them were friendly to him and
+he had been extremely popular at Court. In the midst of their
+deliberations a page entered and prayed them to postpone judgment,
+as two damsels had arrived at the palace and were having speech with
+the King concerning Graelent. The damsels told the King that their
+mistress was at hand, and begged him to wait for her arrival, as she
+had come to uphold Graelent's challenge. Hearing this, the Queen
+quitted the hall, and shortly after she had gone a second pair of
+damsels appeared bearing a similar message for the King. Lastly
+Graelent's young bride herself entered the hall.
+
+At sight of her a cry of admiration arose from the assembled nobles,
+and all admitted that their eyes had never beheld a fairer lady. When
+she reached the King's side she dismounted from her palfrey.
+
+"Sire," she said, addressing the King, "hasty and foolish was
+Graelent's tongue when he spoke as he did, but at least he told the
+truth when he said that there is no lady so fair but a fairer may be
+found. Look upon me and judge in this quarrel between the Queen and
+me."
+
+When she had spoken every lord and noble with one voice agreed that
+she was fairer than her royal rival. Even the King himself admitted
+that it was so, and Sir Graelent was declared a free man.
+
+Turning round to seek his lady, the knight observed that she was
+already some distance away, so, mounting upon his white steed, he
+followed hotly after her. All day he followed, and all night, calling
+after her and pleading for pity and pardon, but neither she nor her
+attendant damsels paid the slightest attention to his cries. Day after
+day he followed her, but to no purpose.
+
+At last the lady and her maidens entered the forest and rode to the
+bank of a broad stream. They set their horses to the river, but when
+the lady saw that Graelent was about to follow them she turned and
+begged him to desist, telling him that it was death for him to cross
+that stream. Graelent did not heed her, but plunged into the torrent.
+The stream was deep and rapid, and presently he was torn from his
+saddle. Seeing this, the lady's attendants begged her to save him.
+Turning back, the lady clutched her lover by the belt and dragged him
+to the shore. He was well-nigh drowned, but under her care he speedily
+recovered, and, say the Breton folk, entered with her that realm of
+Fairyland into which penetrated Thomas the Rhymer, Ogier the Dane, and
+other heroes. His white steed when it escaped from the river grieved
+greatly for its master, rushing up and down the bank, neighing loudly,
+and pawing with its hoofs upon the ground. Many men coveted so noble
+a charger, and tried to capture him, but all in vain, so each year,
+"in its season," as the old romance says, the forest is filled with
+the sorrowful neighing of the good steed which may not find its
+master.
+
+The story of Graelent is one of those which deal with what is known to
+folk-lorists as the 'fairy-wife' subject. A taboo is always placed
+upon the mortal bridegroom. Sometimes he must not utter the name of
+his wife; in other tales, as in that of Melusine, he must not seek her
+on a certain day of the week. The essence of the story is, of course,
+that the taboo is broken, and in most cases the mortal husband loses
+his supernatural mate.
+
+Another incident in the general _motif_ is the stealing of the
+fairy-woman's clothes. The idea is the same as that found in stories
+where the fisherman steals the sea-woman's skin canoe as a prelude to
+making her his wife, or the feather cloak of the swan-maiden is seized
+by the hunter when he finds her asleep, thus placing the supernatural
+maiden in his power. Among savages it is quite a common and usual
+circumstance for the spouses not to mention each other's names for
+months after marriage, nor even to see one another's faces. In the
+story under consideration the taboo consists in the mortal bridegroom
+being forbidden to allude in any circumstances to his supernatural
+wife, who is undoubtedly the same type of being encountered by Thomas
+the Rhymer and Bonny Kilmeny in the ballads related of them. They are
+denizens of a country, a fairy realm, which figures partly as an abode
+of the dead, and which we are certainly justified in identifying with
+the Celtic Otherworld. The river which the fairy-woman crosses bears a
+certain resemblance to the Styx, or she tells Graelent plainly that
+should he reach its opposite bank he is as good as dead. Fairyland in
+early Celtic lore may be a place of delight, but it is none the less
+one of death and remoteness.
+
+
+_The Lay of the Dolorous Knight_
+
+Once more the scene is laid in Nantes, and "some harpers," says Marie,
+"call it the Lay of the Four Sorrows." In this city of Brittany dwelt
+a lady on whom four barons of great worship had set their love. They
+were not singular in this respect, as the damsel's bright eyes had set
+fire to the hearts of all the youths of the ancient town. She smiled
+upon them all, but favoured no one more than another. Out of this
+great company, however, the four noblemen in question had constituted
+themselves her particular squires. They vied with one another in the
+most earnest manner to gain her esteem; but she was equally gracious
+to all and it was impossible to say that she favoured any.
+
+It was not surprising, then, that each one of the four nobles believed
+that the lady preferred him to the others. Each of them had received
+gifts from her, and each cried her name at tournaments. On the
+occasion of a great jousting, held without the walls of Nantes, the
+four lovers held the lists, and from all the surrounding realms and
+duchies came hardy knights to break a spear for the sake of chivalry.
+
+From matins to vespers the friendly strife raged fiercely, and against
+the four champions of Nantes four foreign knights especially pitted
+themselves. Two of these were of Hainault, and the other two were
+Flemings. The two companies charged each other so desperately that the
+horses of all eight men were overthrown. The four knights of Nantes
+rose lightly from the ground, but the four stranger knights lay still.
+Their friends, however, rushed to their rescue, and soon the
+challengers were lost in a sea of steel.
+
+Now the lady in whose honour the lists were defended by these four
+brave brethren in arms sat beholding their prowess in the keenest
+anxiety. Soon the knights of Nantes were reinforced by their friends,
+and the strife waxed furiously, sword to sword and lance to lance.
+First one company and then the other gained the advantage, but, urged
+on by rashness, the four challenging champions charged boldly in front
+of their comrades and became separated from them, with the dire result
+that three of them were killed and the fourth was so grievously
+wounded that he was borne from the press in a condition hovering
+between life and death. So furious were the stranger knights because
+of the resistance that had been made by the four champions that they
+cast their opponents' shields outside the lists. But the knights of
+Nantes won the day, and, raising their three slain comrades and him
+who was wounded, carried all four to the house of their lady-love.
+
+When the sad procession reached her doors the lady was greatly grieved
+and cast down. To her three dead lovers she gave sumptuous burial in a
+fair abbey. As for the fourth, she tended him with such skill that ere
+long his wounds were healed and he was quite recovered. One summer day
+the knight and the lady sat together after meat, and a great sadness
+fell upon her because of the knights who had been slain in her cause.
+Her head sank upon her breast and she seemed lost in a reverie of
+sorrow. The knight, perceiving her distress, could not well understand
+what had wounded her so deeply.
+
+"Lady," said he, "a great sorrow seems to be yours. Reveal your grief
+to me, and perchance I can find you comfort."
+
+"Friend," replied the lady, "I grieve for your companions who are
+gone. Never was lady or damsel served by four such valiant knights,
+three of whom were slain in one single day. Pardon me if I call them
+to mind at this time, but it is my intention to make a lay in order
+that these champions and yourself may not be forgotten, and I will
+call it 'The Lay of the Four Sorrows.'"
+
+"Nay, lady," said the knight, "call it not 'The Lay of the Four
+Sorrows,' but rather 'The Lay of the Dolorous Knight.' My three
+comrades are dead. They have gone to their place; no more hope have
+they of life; all their sorrows are ended and their love for you is as
+dead as they. I alone am here in life, but what have I to hope for? I
+find my life more bitter than they could find the grave. I see you in
+your comings and goings, I may speak with you, but I may not have your
+love. For this reason I am full of sorrow and cast down, and thus I
+beg that you give your lay my name and call it 'The Lay of the
+Dolorous Knight.'"
+
+The lady looked earnestly upon him. "By my faith," she said, "you
+speak truly. The lay shall be known by the title you wish it to be."
+
+So the lay was written and entitled as the knight desired it should
+be. "I heard no more," says Marie, "and nothing more I know. Perforce
+I must bring my story to a close."
+
+The end of this lay is quite in the medieval manner, and fitly
+concludes this chapter. We are left absolutely in the dark as to
+whether the knight and the lady came together at last. I for one do
+not blame Marie for this, as with the subtle sense of the fitness of
+things that belongs to all great artists she saw how much more
+effective it would be to leave matters as they were between the
+lovers. There are those who will blame her for her inconclusiveness;
+but let them bear in mind that just because of what they consider her
+failing in this respect they will not be likely to forget her tale,
+whereas had it ended with wedding-bells they would probably have
+stored it away in some mental attic with a thousand other dusty
+memories.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII: THE SAINTS OF BRITTANY
+
+
+An important department in Breton folk-lore is the hagiology of the
+province--the legendary lore of its saints. This, indeed, holds almost
+as much of the marvellous as its folk-tales, ballads, and historical
+legends, and in perusing the tales of Brittany's saintly heroes we
+have an opportunity of observing how the _motifs_ of popular fiction
+and even of pagan belief reflect upon religious romance.
+
+Just as some mythology is not in itself religious, but very often mere
+fiction fortuitously connected with the names of the gods, so
+hagiology is not of sacerdotal but popular origin. For the most part
+it describes the origin of its heroes and accounts for their miracles
+and marvellous deeds by various means, just as mythology does. It must
+be remembered that the primitive saint was in close touch with
+paganism, that, indeed, he had frequently to fight the Druid and the
+magician with his own weapons, and therefore we must not be surprised
+if in some of these tales we find him somewhat of a magician himself.
+But he is invariably on the side of light, and the things of darkness
+and evil shrink from contact with him.
+
+
+_St Barbe_
+
+Overlooking the valley of the Ellé, near the beautiful and historic
+village of Le Faouet, is a ledge of rock, approached by an almost
+inaccessible pathway. On this ledge stands the chapel of St Barbe,
+one of the strangest and most 'pagan' of the Breton saints. She
+protects those who seek her aid from sudden death, especially death
+by lightning. Of recent years popular belief has extended her sphere
+of influence to cover those who travel by automobile! She is also
+regarded as the patroness of firemen, at whose annual dinner her
+statue, surrounded by flowers, presides. She is extremely popular in
+Brittany, and once a year, on the last Sunday of June, pilgrims arrive
+at Le Faouet to celebrate her festival. Each, as he passes the
+belfry which stands beside the path, pulls the bell-rope, and the
+young men make the tour of a small neighbouring chapel, dedicated to
+St Michel, Lord of Heights. Then they drink of a little fountain
+near at hand and purchase amulets, which are supposed to be a
+preservative against sudden death and which are known as 'Couronnes
+de Ste Barbe.' St Barbe is said to have been the daughter of a pagan
+father, and to have been so beautiful that he shut her up in a tower
+and permitted no one to go near her. She succeeded, however, in
+communicating with the outer world, and sent a letter to Origen of
+Alexandria, entreating him to instruct her in the Christian faith, as
+she had ceased to believe in the gods of her fathers. Origen
+dispatched one of his monks to her, and under his guidance she
+became a Christian. She was called upon to suffer for her faith, for
+she was brought before the Gallo-Roman proconsul, and, since she
+refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods, was savagely maltreated, and
+sentenced to be beaten as she walked naked through the streets;
+but she raised her eyes to heaven and a cloud descended and hid her
+from the gaze of the impious mortals who would otherwise have
+witnessed her martyrdom. Subsequently she was spirited away to the
+top of a mountain, where, however, her presence was betrayed by a
+shepherd. Her pagan father, learning of her hiding-place, quickly
+ascended the height and beheaded her with his own hand. The legends
+of St Barbe abound in strange details, which are more intelligible
+if we regard the Saint as being the survival of some elemental
+goddess connected with fire. The vengeance of heaven descended upon
+her enemies, for both her father and the shepherd who betrayed her
+were destroyed, the former being struck by lightning on his
+descent from the mountain, and the latter being turned into marble.
+
+The legend of the foundation of the chapel at Le Faouet is illustrative
+of the strange powers of this saint. A Lord of Toulboudou, near
+Guémené, was overtaken by a severe thunderstorm while hunting. No
+shelter was available, and as the storm increased in fury the huntsmen
+trembled for their lives, and doubtless repeated with much fervour
+the old Breton charm:
+
+  Sainte Barbe et sainte Claire,
+  Preservez-moi du tonnerre,
+    Si le tonnerre tombe
+  Qu'il ne tombe pas sur moi!
+
+which may be roughly translated:
+
+  Saint Barbe the great and sainted Clair,
+  Preserve me from the lightning's glare.
+  When thunderbolts are flashing red
+  Let them not burst upon my head.
+
+The Lord of Toulboudou, however, was not content with praying to the
+Saint. He vowed that if by her intercession he was preserved from
+death he would raise a chapel to her honour on the narrow ledge of
+rock above. No sooner had he made this vow than the storm subsided,
+and safety was once more assured. In the ancient archives of Le
+Faouet we read that on the 6th of July, 1489, John of Toulboudou
+bought of John of Bouteville, Lord of Faouet, a piece of ground on the
+flank of the Roche-Marche-Bran, twenty-five feet by sixteen feet, on
+which to build a chapel to the honour of St Barbe, and there the
+chapel stands to this day.
+
+
+_How St Convoyon Stole the Relics_
+
+St Convoyon, first Abbot of Redon (or Rodon) and Bishop of Quimper,
+was of noble birth. He was born near Saint-Malo and educated at Vannes
+under Bishop Reginald, who ordained him as deacon and afterward as
+priest. Five clerks attached themselves to him, and the company went
+to dwell together in a forest near the river Vilaine, finally
+establishing themselves at Redon. The lord of that district was very
+favourably inclined toward the monastery and sent his son to be
+educated there, and when he himself fell sick and believed his last
+hours to be nigh he caused himself to be carried to this religious
+house, where his hair was shaven to the monastic pattern. Contrary to
+expectation, he recovered, and after settling his affairs at his
+castle he returned to Redon, where he died at a later date. St
+Convoyon had some difficulty in obtaining confirmation of the grants
+given to him by this seigneur. He set out with a disciple named
+Gwindeluc to seek the consent of Louis the Pious, taking with him a
+quantity of wax from his bees at Redon, intending to present it to the
+King, but he was refused admission to the royal presence. But Nomenoë,
+Governor of Brittany, visited Redon, and encouraged the Saint to
+endeavour once more to obtain the King's sanction, and this time Louis
+confirmed the grants.
+
+So the monastery of Redon was built and its church erected, but, as
+the chroniclers tell us, "there was no saintly corpse under its altar
+to act as palladium to the monastery and work miracles to attract
+pilgrims." Convoyon therefore set out for Angers, accompanied by two
+of his monks, and found lodging there with a pious man named Hildwall.
+The latter inquired as to the object of their visit to Angers, and
+with considerable hesitation, and only after extracting a promise of
+secrecy, Convoyon confessed that they had come on a body-snatching
+expedition. He asked his friend's advice as to what relics they should
+endeavour to secure. Hildwall told him that interred in the cathedral
+were the bones of St Apothemius, a bishop, of whom nothing was known
+save that he was a saint. His bones lay in a stone coffin which had a
+heavy lid. Hildwall added that several monks had attempted to steal
+the relics, but in vain. Convoyon and his monks bided their time for
+three days, and then on a dark night, armed with crowbars, they set
+out on their gruesome mission.
+
+They reached the cathedral, entered, and, after singing praises and
+hymns, raised the coffin lid. Securing the bones, they made off with
+them as quickly as possible, and in due course reached Redon with them
+in safety. The reception of the relics was celebrated by the monks
+with great pomp and ceremony. Miracles were at once performed, and the
+popularity of St Apothemius was firmly established.
+
+[Illustration: CONVOYON AND HIS MONKS CARRY OFF THE RELICS OF ST
+APOTHEMIUS]
+
+When the Bishop of Vannes died, in 837, the see was filled by
+Susannus, who obtained it by bribery. Convoyon, grieved and indignant
+at the prevalence of corruption in the Church, urged Nomenoë to summon
+a council of bishops and abbots and endeavour to put a stop to these
+deplorable practices. At this council the canons against simony were
+read; but the bishops retorted that they did not sell Holy Orders, and
+expected no fees--though they took presents! Susannus was, naturally
+enough, most emphatic about this. At length it was decided that a
+deputation should be sent to Rome to obtain an authoritative statement
+on the point, and that it should consist of Susannus of Vannes, Félix
+of Quimper, and Convoyon, who was to carry "gold crowns inlaid with
+jewels" as a gift from Nomenoë to the Pope. The decision given by Pope
+Leo on the matter is far from clear. The Nantes chronicle asserts that
+Leo made Convoyon a duke, and gave him permission to wear a gold
+coronet. He also presented him with a valuable gift--the bones of St
+Marcellinus, Bishop of Rome and martyr, which Convoyon took back with
+him to Redon and deposited in his church there.
+
+On a later day Nomenoë raised the standard of revolt against Charles
+the Bald of France--a circumstance alluded to in our historical
+sketch. He ravaged Poitou with sword and flame, but respected the
+abbey of Saint-Florent, though, to insult Charles, he forced the monks
+to place a statue of himself on their tower, with the face turned
+defiantly toward France. During Nomenoë's absence the monks sent news
+of his action to the hairless monarch, who tore down the statue and
+erected a white stone figure "of ludicrous appearance," its mocking
+face turned toward Brittany. In revenge Nomenoë burned Saint-Florent
+to the ground and carried off the spoils to enrich the abbey of Redon.
+The success of the Breton chief forced Charles to come to terms.
+Nomenoë and his son, it was agreed, should assume the insignia of
+royalty and hold Rennes, Nantes, and all Brittany.
+
+Convoyon, as we have seen, benefited by the spoils won by the Breton
+champion. Later, as his abbey at Redon was situated by a tidal river,
+and was thus exposed to the ravages of the Normans, he and his monks
+moved farther inland to Plélan. There he died and was buried, about
+A.D. 868, but his body was afterward removed to Redon, where he had
+lived and laboured so long. His relics were dispersed during the
+troublous times of the Revolution.
+
+
+_Tivisiau, the Shepherd Saint_
+
+St Tivisiau, or, more correctly, Turiau, has a large parish, as,
+although he was Bishop of Dol, we find him venerated as patron saint
+as far west as Landivisiau. He belongs to the earlier half of the
+seventh century, and, unlike most other Armorican ascetics, was of
+Breton origin, his father, Lelian, and his mother, Mageen, being
+graziers on the borders of the romantic and beautiful forest of
+Broceliande. The young Tivisiau was set to watch the sheep, and as he
+did so he steeped his soul in the beauty of the wonderful forest land
+about him, and his thoughts formed themselves into lays, which he sang
+as he tended his flock, for, like that other shepherd of old, King
+David, his exquisite voice could clothe his beautiful thoughts. The
+monastery of Balon stood near the lad's home, and often he would leave
+his sheep in the wilderness and steal away to listen to the monks
+chanting. Sometimes he joined in the service, and one day the Bishop
+of Dol, paying a visit to this outlying portion of his diocese, heard
+the sweet, clear notes of the boy's voice soaring above the lower
+tones of the monks. Enthralled by its beauty, the Bishop made
+inquiries as to who the singer was, and Tivisiau being brought
+forward, the prelate asked him to sing to him.
+
+[Illustration: ST TIVISIAU, THE SHEPHERD SAINT]
+
+Again and again did he sing, till at last the Bishop, who had lingered
+as long as he might in the little out-of-the-world monastery to listen
+to the young songster, was obliged to take his departure. The boy's
+personality had, however, so won his affection that he arranged with
+the monks of Balon that he should take him to Dol, and so it came
+about that Tivisiau was educated at that ancient religious centre,
+where his voice was carefully trained. The Bishop made him his
+suffragan, and, later Abbot of Dol, and when at length he came to
+relinquish the burden of his office he named Tivisiau as his
+successor.
+
+The story provides a noteworthy example of the power exercised in
+early times by a beautiful voice. But this love of music and the
+susceptibility to the emotion it calls forth are not peculiar to any
+century of Celtdom. Love of music, and the temperament that can hear
+the voice of the world's beauty, in music, in poetry, in the wild sea
+that breaks on desolate shores, or in the hushed wonder of hills and
+valleys, is as much a part of the Celt as are the thews and the sinews
+that have helped to carry him through the hard days of toil and
+poverty that have been the lot of so many of his race in their
+struggle for existence--whether in the far-off Outer Isles of the
+mist-wreathed and mystic west coast of Scotland, or among the Welsh
+mountains, or in picturesque Brittany, or in the distressful,
+beautiful, sorrow-haunted Green Isle.
+
+At Landivisiau one finds much exquisite carving in the south porch,
+which is all that remains of the early building to show how beautiful
+must have been the church to which it belonged. There is also a very
+ancient and picturesque fountain, known to tradition as that of St
+Tivisiau.
+
+
+_St Nennocha_
+
+The legend of Nennocha is held to be pure fable, but is interesting
+nevertheless. It tells how a king in Wales, called Breochan, had
+fourteen sons, who all deserted him to preach the Gospel. Breochan
+then made a vow that if God would grant him another child he would
+give to the Church a tithe of all his gold and his lands, and later on
+his wife, Moneduc, bore him a daughter, whom they baptized Nennocha.
+Nennocha was sent away to a foster father and mother, returning home
+at the age of fourteen. A prince of Ireland sought her hand in
+marriage, but St Germain, who was then at her father's palace,
+persuaded her to embrace the religious life, and the disappointed King
+sadly gave his consent. A great multitude assembled to accompany the
+maiden in her renunciation of the world, "numbering in its midst four
+bishops and many priests and virgins." We are told how they all took
+ship together and sailed to Brittany. The Breton king gave the
+princess land at Ploermel, and there she founded a great monastery,
+where she lived till death claimed her.
+
+
+_St Enora_
+
+Several old Breton songs tell us the story of St Enora (or Honora),
+the wife of Efflam (already alluded to in the chapter on Arthurian
+legend), but these accounts vary very considerably in their
+details. One account giving us "stern facts" relates how St Efflam
+was betrothed for political reasons to Enora, a Saxon princess, and
+speaks of how impossible it was to expect that such a union could
+prove anything but disastrous when it was not a love match. So,
+whether partly to escape from a married life which jarred his
+susceptibilities, or entirely on account of his religious asceticism,
+Efflam left his wife and crossed to Brittany to lead the life of a
+religious hermit. One of the Breton songs gives the beginning of
+the story in a much more picturesque way. It relates how Enora,
+"beautiful as an angel," had many suitors, but would give her hand to
+none save the Prince Efflam, "son of a stranger King." But Efflam,
+torn by the desire to lead the religious life, far away from the
+world, rose "in the midst of the night, his wedding night," and
+crept softly away, no one seeing him save his faithful dog, which
+he loved. So he came to the seashore and crossed to Brittany. The
+story of his landing and his meeting with Arthur has already been
+told, and we have seen how his fate was once more, by divine
+agency, linked with that of Enora. The song tells us how the angels
+carried the princess over the sea and set her on the door-sill of
+her husband's cell. Presently she awoke, and, finding herself there,
+she knocked three times and cried out to her husband that she was
+"his sweetheart, his wife," whom God had sent. St Efflam, knowing her
+voice, came out, and "with many godly words he took her hand in
+his." One account says that he sent her to the south of Brittany to
+found a convent for nuns, as he wished to devote his life entirely to
+the service of God and the contemplation of nature. All versions
+agree on the point that he built a hut for her beside his own, and
+one story relates how he made her wear a veil over her face and
+only spoke to her through the door! But one Breton song with more of
+the matter of poetry in it than the rest tells how the little hut
+he built for her was shaded by green bushes and sheltered by a
+rock, and that there they lived, side by side, for a long and happy
+time, while the fame of the miracles they wrought spread through
+the land. Then one night some sailors on the sea "saw the sky open
+and heard a burst of heavenly music," and next day when a poor woman
+took her sick child to Enora to beg for her aid she could get no
+response, and looking in she beheld the royal lady lying dead. The
+humble place was alight with her radiance, and near her a little boy
+in white was kneeling. The woman then ran to tell St Efflam of her
+discovery, only to find that he too was lying dead in his cell.
+
+
+_Corseul the Accursed_
+
+The town of Corseul has sunk into insignificance, and its failure to
+achieve prosperity is said to be due to its covert hostility to St
+Malo--or, as he is more correctly called, Machutes. Coming to Brittany
+on missionary enterprise, the Saint found that Christianity had not
+penetrated to the district of Corseul, where the old pagan worship
+still obtained. He therefore decided that his work must lie chiefly
+among the Curiosolites of that land, and determined that his first
+celebration of Easter Mass there should take place in the very centre
+of the pagan worship, the temple of Haute-Bécherel. The people of the
+district received him coldly, but without open hostility, and he and
+his monks prepared for the Christian festival in the pagan shrine, to
+find to their dismay that they had omitted to bring either chalice or
+wine for the Eucharist. Several of the monks were sent into the town
+to buy these, but in all Corseul they could find no one willing to
+sell either cup or wine, because of the hostility of the idolatrous
+folk of the place. At last the Saint performed a miracle to provide
+these necessaries, but he never forgave the insult to his religion,
+and while he founded monasteries broadcast over his diocese he avoided
+Corseul, and as Christianity became more and more universal the pagan
+town gradually paid the penalty of its enmity to the cause of Christ.
+
+
+_St Keenan_
+
+St Keenan (sixth century) was surnamed Colodoc, or "He who loves to
+lose himself," a beautiful epitome of his character. As in so many
+instances in the chronicles of Breton hagiology, confusion regarding
+St Keenan has arisen among a multiplicity of chronicles. He seems to
+have been a native of Connaught, whence he crossed into Wales and
+became a disciple of Gildas.
+
+He was told to "go forward" carrying a little bell, until he reached a
+place called Ros-ynys, where the bell would ring of itself, and there
+he would find rest. He asked Gildas to provide him with a bell, but
+the abbot could only supply him with a small piece of metal. Keenan,
+however, blessed this, and it grew until it was large enough for a
+good bell to be cast from it. Thus equipped, the Saint set out, and
+journeyed until he reached an arm of the sea, where he sat down on the
+grass to rest. While lying at his ease he heard a herdsman call to his
+fellow: "Brother, have you seen my cows anywhere?" "Yes," replied the
+other, "I saw them at Ros-ynys." Rejoicing greatly at finding himself
+in the vicinity of the place he sought, Keenan descended to the shore,
+which has since been called by his name. Greatly athirst, he struck a
+rock with his staff, and water gushed forth in answer to the stroke.
+Taking ship, he crossed the firth and entered a little wood. All at
+once, to his extreme joy, the bell he carried commenced to tinkle, and
+he knew he had reached the end of his journey--the valley of Ros-ynys,
+afterward St David's.
+
+Later, deciding to cross to Brittany with his disciples, Keenan
+dispatched some of his company to beg for corn for their journey from
+a merchant at Landegu. They met with a gruff refusal, but the merchant
+mockingly informed them they could have the corn if they carried off
+the whole of his barge-load. When the Saint embarked the barge broke
+its moorings and floated after him all the way! He landed at Cléder,
+where he built a monastery, which he enriched with a copy of the
+Gospels transcribed by his own hand.
+
+The fatal contest between King Arthur and Modred, his nephew, caused
+Keenan to return to Britain, and he is said to have been present at
+the battle of Camelot and to have comforted Guinevere after the death
+of her royal husband, exhorting her to enter a convent. He afterward
+returned to Cléder, where he died. The monastery fell into ruin, and
+the place of his burial was forgotten, till one night an angel
+appeared in a vision to one of the inhabitants of Cléder and bade him
+exhume the bones of the Saint, which he would find at a certain spot.
+This the man did, and the relics were recovered. A fragment of them is
+preserved in the cathedral of Saint-Brieuc. St Keenan is popularly
+known in Brittany as St Ké, or St Quay.
+
+
+_St Nicholas_
+
+One very interesting and curious saint is St Nicholas, whose cult
+cannot be traced to any Christian source, and who is most probably the
+survival of some pagan divinity. He is specially the saint of
+seafaring men, and is believed to bring them good luck, asking nothing
+in return save that they shall visit his shrine whenever they happen
+to pass. This is a somewhat dilapidated chapel at Landévennec, of
+which the seamen seem to show their appreciation, if one may judge
+from the fact that the little path leading up to it is exceedingly
+well worn.
+
+
+_St Bieuzy_
+
+St Bieuzy was a friend and disciple of St Gildas. Flying from England
+at the coming of the Saxons, they crossed to Brittany and settled
+there, one of their favourite retreats being the exquisite La
+Roche-sur-Blavet, where they took up their abode in the shadow of the
+great rock and built a rough wooden shelter. The chapel there shows
+the 'bell' of St Gildas, and by the river is a great boulder hollowed
+like a chair, where Bieuzy was wont to sit and fish. St Bieuzy,
+however, possessed thaumaturgical resources of his own, having the
+gift of curing hydrophobia, and the hermitage of La Roche-sur-Blavet
+became so thronged by those seeking his aid that only by making a
+private way to the top of the great rock could he obtain respite to
+say his prayers. This gift of his was the cause of his tragic death.
+One day as he was celebrating Mass the servant of a pagan chief ran
+into the chapel, crying out that his master's dogs had gone mad, and
+demanding that Bieuzy should come immediately and cure them. Bieuzy
+was unwilling to interrupt the sacred service and displeased at the
+irreverence of the demand, and the servant returned to his master, who
+rushed into the chapel and in his savage frenzy struck the Saint such
+a blow with his sword that he cleft his head in twain. The heroic
+Saint completed the celebration of Mass--the sword still in the
+wound--and then, followed by the whole congregation, he walked to the
+monastery of Rhuys, where he received the blessing of his beloved St
+Gildas, and fell dead at his feet. He was buried in the church, and a
+fountain at Rhuys was dedicated to him. It is satisfactory to note
+that the entire establishment of the murderer of the Saint is said to
+have perished of hydrophobia!
+
+
+_St Leonorius_
+
+St Leonorius, or Léonore (sixth century), was a disciple of St Iltud,
+of Wales, and was ordained by St Dubricus; he crossed to Brittany in
+early life. The legend that most closely attaches to his name is one
+of the most beautiful of all the Breton beliefs, and is full of the
+poetry and romance that exist for the Celt in all the living things
+around him. The Saint and his monks had worked hard to till their
+ground--for the labours of holy men included many duties in addition
+to religious ministrations--but when they came to sow the seed they
+found that they had omitted to provide themselves with wheat! All
+their labour seemed in vain, and they were greatly distressed as to
+what they would do for food if they had no harvest to look forward to,
+when suddenly they saw, perched on a little wayside cross, a tiny
+robin redbreast holding in its beak an ear of wheat! The monks
+joyfully took the grain, and, sowing it, reaped an abundant harvest!
+Accounts vary somewhat in the details of this story. Some say that the
+bird led the monks to a store of grain, and others question the fact
+that the bird was a robin, but the popular idea is that the robin
+proffered the grain, and so universal and so strong is this belief
+that "Robin Redbreast's corn" is a byword in Brittany for "small
+beginnings that prosper."
+
+The Saint is said to have possessed the most marvellous attainments.
+We are told that he learnt the alphabet in one day, the "art of
+spelling" the following day, and calligraphy the next! He is also
+said to have been a bishop at the age of fifteen. Tradition avers
+that he ploughed the land with stags, and that an altar was
+brought to him from the depth of the sea by two wild pigeons to serve
+for his ministrations. The circumstance that animals or birds were
+employed--predominantly the latter--as the divine means of rendering
+aid to the Saint is common to many of these legends. We thus have
+saintly romance linked with the 'friendly animals' formula of
+folk-lore.
+
+
+_St Patern_
+
+Many quaint and pretty stories are told of the childhood and youth of
+St Patern, the patron saint of Vannes. His intense religious fervour
+was probably inherited from his father, Petranus, who, we are told,
+left his wife and infant son and crossed to Ireland to embrace the
+life religious. One day as his mother sat by the open window making a
+dress for her baby she was called away, and left the little garment
+lying on the sill. A bird flew past, and, attracted by the soft
+woollen stuff, carried it off to line its nest. A year later when the
+nest was destroyed the dress was discovered as fresh and clean as when
+it was stolen--a piece of symbolism foretelling the purity and
+holiness of the future saint.
+
+As soon as the child could speak his mother sent him to school. She
+hoped great things from the quiet, earnest boy, in whom she had
+observed signs of fervent piety. One day he came home and asked his
+mother where his father was. "All the other boys have fathers," he
+said; "where is mine?" His mother sadly told him that his father,
+wishing to serve God more perfectly than it was possible for him to do
+at home, had gone to Ireland to become a monk. "Thither shall I go
+too, when I'm a man," said Patern, and he made a resolve that when he
+grew up he would also enter a monastery. Accordingly, having finished
+his studies in the monastery of Rhuys, he set out for Britain, where
+he founded two religious houses, and then crossed to Ireland, where he
+met his father. Eventually he returned to Vannes, as one of the nine
+bishops of Brittany, but he did not agree with his brethren regarding
+certain ecclesiastical laws, and at last, not wishing to "lose his
+patience," he abandoned his diocese and went to France, where he ended
+his days as a simple monk.
+
+There is an interesting legend to account for the foundation of the
+church of St Patern at Vannes. We are told how for three years after
+Patern left Vannes the people were afflicted by a dreadful famine. No
+rain fell, and the distress was great. At length it was remembered
+that Patern had departed without giving the people his blessing, and
+at once "a pilgrimage set forth to bring back his sacred body, that it
+might rest in his own episcopal town." But the body of the blessed
+Patern "refused to be removed," until one of the pilgrims, who had
+before denied the bishop a certain piece of ground, promised to gift
+it to his memory and to build a church on it to the Saint's honour,
+whereupon the body became light enough to be lifted from the grave and
+conveyed to Vannes. No sooner had the sacred corpse entered Vannes
+than rain fell in torrents. Hagiology abounds in instances of this
+description, which in many respects bring it into line with
+mythology.
+
+
+_St Samson_
+
+We have already related the story of Samson's birth. Another legend
+regarding him tells how one day when the youths attached to the
+monastery where he dwelt were out winnowing corn one of the monks was
+bitten by an adder and fainted with fright. Samson ran to St Iltud to
+tell the news, with tears in his eyes, and begged to be allowed to
+attempt the cure of the monk. Iltud gave him permission, and Samson,
+full of faith and enthusiasm, rubbed the bite with oil, and by degrees
+the monk recovered. After this Samson's fame grew apace. Indeed, we
+are told that the monks grew jealous of him and attempted to poison
+him. He was ordained a bishop at York, and lived a most austere life,
+though his humanity was very apparent in his love for animals.
+
+He was made abbot of a monastery, and endeavoured to instil
+temperance into the monks, but at length gave up the attempt in
+despair and settled in a cave at the mouth of the Severn. Then one
+night "a tall man" appeared to him in a vision, and bade him go to
+Armorica, saying to him--so the legend goes: "Thou goest by the sea,
+and where thou wilt disembark thou shalt find a well. Over this
+thou wilt build a church, and around it will group the houses forming
+the city of which thou wilt be a bishop." All of which came to
+pass, and for ages the town has been known as the episcopal city
+of Dol. Accompanied by forty monks, Samson crossed the Channel and
+landed in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc. One version of the story tells
+us that the Saint and numerous other monks fled from Britain to
+escape the Saxon tyranny, and that Samson and six of his suffragans
+who crossed the sea with him were known as the 'Seven Saints of
+Brittany.'
+
+
+_Brittany's Lawyer Saint_
+
+Few prosperous and wealthy countries produce saints in any great
+number, and in proof of the converse of this we find much hagiology in
+Brittany and Ireland. Let lawyers take note that while many saints
+spring from among the _bourgeoisie_ they include few legal men. An
+outstanding exception to this rule is St Yves (or Yvo), probably the
+best known, and almost certainly the most beloved, saint in Brittany.
+St Yves is the only regularly canonized Breton saint. He was born at
+Kermartin, near Tréguier, in 1253, his father being lord of that
+place. The house where he first saw the light was pulled down in 1834,
+but the bed in which he was born is still preserved and shown. His
+name is borne by the majority of the inhabitants of the districts of
+Tréguier and Saint-Brieuc, and one authority tells us how "in the
+Breton tongue his praises are sung as follows:
+
+  N'hen eus ket en Breiz, n'hen eus ket unan,
+  N'hen eus ket uer Zant evel Sant Erwan.
+
+This, in French, runs:
+
+  Il n'y a pas en Bretagne, il n'y en a pas un,
+  Il n'y a pas un saint comme saint Yves."
+
+He began his legal education when he was fourteen, and studied law in
+the schools of Paris, becoming an ecclesiastical judge, and later
+(1285) an ordained priest and incumbent of Tredrig. Subsequently he
+was made incumbent of Lohanec, which post he held till his death. As a
+judge he possessed a quality rare in those days--he was inaccessible
+to bribery! That this was appreciated we find in the following _bon
+mot_:
+
+  Saint Yves était Breton,
+  Avocat et pas larron:
+  Chose rare, se dit-on.
+
+He invariably endeavoured to induce disputants to settle their
+quarrels 'out of court' if possible, and applied his talents to
+defending the cause of the poor and oppressed, without fee. He was
+known as 'the poor man's advocate,' and to-day in the department of
+the Côtes-du-Nord, when a debtor repudiates his debt, the creditor
+will pay for a Mass to St Yves, in the hope that he will cause the
+defaulter to die within the year! St Yves de Vérité is the special
+patron of lawyers, and is represented in the _mortier_, or lawyer's
+cap, and robe.
+
+St Yves spent most of his income in charity, turning his house into an
+orphanage, and many are the stories told of his humanity and
+generosity. The depth of his sympathy, and its practical result, are
+shown in an incident told us of how one morning he found a poor,
+half-naked man lying on his doorstep shivering with cold, having spent
+the night there. Yves gave up his bed to the beggar the next night,
+and himself slept on the doorstep, desiring to learn by personal
+experience the sufferings of the poor. On another occasion, while
+being fitted with a new coat, he caught sight of a miserable man on
+the pavement outside who was clad in rags and tatters that showed his
+skin through many rents. Yves tore off the new coat and, rushing out,
+gave it to the beggar, saying to the astonished and horrified tailor:
+"There is plenty of wear still in my old coats. I will content myself
+with them." His pity and generosity led him to still further kindness
+when he was visiting a hospital and saw how ill-clad some of the
+patients were, for he actually gave them the clothes he was wearing at
+the time, wrapping himself in a coverlet till he had other garments
+sent to him from home. He was wont to walk beside the ploughmen in the
+fields and teach them prayers. He would sit on the moors beside the
+shepherd-boys and instruct them in the use of the rosary; and often he
+would stop little children in the street, and gain their interest and
+affection by his gentleness.
+
+[Illustration: ST YVES INSTRUCTING SHEPHERD-BOYS IN THE USE OF THE ROSARY]
+
+His shrewd legal mind was of service to the poor in other ways than in
+the giving of advice. A story is told of how two rogues brought a
+heavy chest to a widow, declaring it to contain twelve hundred pieces
+of gold and asking her to take charge of it. Some weeks later one of
+them returned, claimed the box, and removed it. A few days later the
+second of the men arrived and asked for the box, and when the poor
+woman could not produce it he took her to court and sued her for the
+gold it had contained. Yves, on hearing that the case was going
+against the woman, offered to defend her, and pleaded that his client
+was ready to restore the gold, but only to both the men who had
+committed it to her charge, and that therefore both must appear to
+claim it. This was a blow to the rogues, who attempted to escape, and,
+failing to do so, at length confessed that they had plotted to extort
+money from the widow, the chest containing nothing but pieces of old
+iron.
+
+Yves was so eloquent and earnest a preacher that he was continually
+receiving requests to attend other churches, which he never refused.
+On the Good Friday before his death he preached in seven different
+parishes. He died at the age of fifty, and was buried at Tréguier.
+Duke John V, who founded the Chapelle du Duc, had a special regard for
+Yves, and erected a magnificent tomb to his memory, which was for
+three centuries the object of veneration in Brittany.
+
+During the French Revolution the reliquary of St Yves was destroyed,
+but his bones were preserved and have been re-enshrined at Tréguier.
+His last will and testament--leaving all his goods to the poor--is
+preserved, together with his breviary, in the sacristy of the church
+at Minihy.
+
+The Saint is generally represented with a cat as his symbol--typifying
+the lawyer's watchful character--but this hardly seems a fitting
+emblem for such a beautiful character as St Yves.
+
+
+_St Budoc of Dol_
+
+The legend of St Budoc of Dol presents several peculiar features. It
+was first recited by professional minstrels, then "passed into the
+sanctuary, and was read in prose in cathedral and church choirs as a
+narrative of facts," although it seems curious that it could have been
+held to be other than fiction.
+
+A Count of Goelc, in Brittany, sought in marriage Azénor, "tall as a
+palm, bright as a star," but they had not been wedded a year when
+Azénor's father married again, and his new wife, jealous of her
+stepdaughter, hated her and determined to ruin her. Accordingly she
+set to work to implant suspicion as to Azénor's purity in the minds of
+her father and husband, and the Count shut his wife up in a tower and
+forbade her to speak to anyone. Here all the poor Countess could do
+was to pray to her patron saint, the Holy Bridget of Ireland.
+
+Her stepmother, however, was not content with the evil she had already
+wrought, and would not rest until she had brought about Azénor's
+death. She continued her calumnies, and at length the Count assembled
+all his barons and his court to judge his wife. The unfortunate and
+innocent Countess was brought into the hall for trial, and, seated on
+a little stool in the midst of the floor, the charges were read to her
+and she was called upon to give her reply. With tears she protested
+her innocence, but in spite of the fact that no proof could be brought
+against her she was sent in disgrace to her father in Brest. He in
+turn sat in judgment upon her, and condemned her to death, the
+sentence being that she should be placed in a barrel and cast into the
+sea, "to be carried where the winds and tides listed." We are told
+that the barrel floated five months, "tossing up and down"--during
+which time Azénor was supplied with food by an angel, who passed it to
+her through the bung-hole.
+
+During these five months, the legend continues, the poor Countess
+became a mother, the angel and St Bridget watching over her. As soon
+as the child was born his mother made the sign of the Cross upon him,
+made him kiss a crucifix, and patiently waited the coming of an
+opportunity to have him baptized. The child began to speak while in
+the cask. At last the barrel rolled ashore at Youghal Harbour, in the
+county of Cork. An Irish peasant, thinking he had found a barrel of
+wine, was proceeding to tap it with a gimlet when he heard a voice
+from within say: "Do not injure the cask." Greatly astonished, the man
+demanded who was inside, and the voice replied: "I am a child desiring
+baptism. Go at once to the abbot of the monastery to which this land
+belongs, and bid him come and baptize me." The Irishman ran to the
+abbot with the message, but he not unnaturally declined to believe the
+story, till, with a true Hibernian touch, the peasant asked him if it
+were likely that he would have told 'his reverence' anything about his
+find had there been "anything better than a baby" in the barrel!
+Accordingly the abbot hastened to the shore, opened the cask, and
+freed the long-suffering Countess of Goelc and her son, the latter of
+whom he christened by the name of Budoc, and took under his care.
+
+Meantime, the "wicked stepmother," falling ill and being at the point
+of death, became frightened when she thought of her sin against
+Azénor, and confessed the lies by which she had wrought the ruin of
+the Countess. The Count, overcome by remorse and grief, set out in
+quest of his wife. Good luck led him to Ireland, where he disembarked
+at Youghal and found his lost ones. With great rejoicing he had a
+stately ship made ready, and prepared to set out for Brittany with
+Azénor and Budoc, but died before he could embark. Azénor remained in
+Ireland and devoted herself to good works and to the training of her
+son, who from an early age resolved to embrace the religious life,
+and was in due course made a monk by the Abbot of Youghal. His mother
+died, and on the death of the Abbot of Youghal he was elected to rule
+the monastery. Later, upon the death of the King of Ireland, the
+natives raised Budoc to the temporal and spiritual thrones, making him
+King of Ireland and Bishop of Armagh.
+
+After two years he wished to retire from these honours, but the
+people were "wild with despair" at the tidings, and surrounded the
+palace lest he should escape. One night, while praying in his
+metropolitan church, an angel appeared to him, bidding him betake
+himself to Brittany. Going down to the seashore, it was indicated to
+him that he must make the voyage in a stone trough. On entering this
+it began to move, and he was borne across to Brittany, landing at
+Porspoder, in the diocese of Léon. The people of that district drew
+the stone coffer out of the water, and built a hermitage and a
+chapel for the Saint's convenience. Budoc dwelt for one year at
+Porspoder, but, "disliking the roar of the waves," he had his stone
+trough mounted on a cart, and yoking two oxen to it he set forth,
+resolved to follow them wherever they might go and establish
+himself at whatever place they might halt. The cart broke down at
+Plourin, and there Budoc settled for a short time; but trouble with
+disorderly nobles forced him to depart, and this time he went to
+Dol, where he was well received by St Malglorious, then its bishop,
+who soon after resigned his see to Budoc. The Saint ruled at Dol
+for twenty years, and died early in the seventh century.
+
+Another Celtic myth of the same type is to be found on the shores of
+the Firth of Forth. The story in question deals with the birth of St
+Mungo, or St Kentigern, the patron saint of Glasgow. His mother was
+Thenaw, the Christian daughter of the pagan King Lot of Lothian,
+brother-in-law of King Arthur, from his marriage with Arthur's sister
+Margawse. Thus the famous Gawaine would be Thenaw's brother. Thenaw
+met Ewen, the son of Eufuerien, King of Cumbria, and fell deeply in
+love with him, but her father discovered her disgrace and ordered her
+to be cast headlong from the summit of Traprain Law, once known as
+Dunpender, a mountain in East Lothian. A kindly fate watched over the
+princess, however, and she fell so softly from the eminence that she
+was uninjured. Such Christian subjects as Lot possessed begged her
+life. But if her father might have relented his Druids were
+inexorable. They branded her as a sorceress, and she was doomed to
+death by drowning. She was accordingly rowed out from Aberlady Bay to
+the vicinity of the Isle of May, where, seated in a skin boat, she was
+left to the mercy of the waves. In this terrible situation she cast
+herself upon the grace of Heaven, and her frail craft was wafted up
+the Forth, where it drifted ashore near Culross. At this spot
+Kentigern was born, and the mother and child were shortly afterward
+discovered by some shepherds, who placed them under the care of St
+Serf, Abbot of Culross. To these events the date A.D. 516 is
+assigned.
+
+
+_'Fatal Children' Legends_
+
+This legend is, of course, closely allied with those which recount the
+fate and adventures of the 'fatal children.' Like OEdipus, Romulus,
+Perseus, and others, Budoc and Kentigern are obviously 'fatal
+children,' as is evidenced by the circumstances of their birth. We
+are not told that King Lot or Azénor's father had been warned that if
+their daughters had a son they would be slain by that child, but it is
+probably only the saintly nature of the subject of the stories which
+caused this circumstance to be omitted. Danaë, the mother of Perseus,
+we remember, was, when disgraced, shut up in a chest with her child,
+and committed to the waves, which carried her to the island of
+Seriphos, where she was duly rescued. Romulus and his brother Remus
+were thrown into the Tiber, and escaped a similar fate. The Princess
+Desonelle and her twin sons, in the old English metrical romance of
+_Sir Torrent of Portugal_, are also cast into the sea, but succeed in
+making the shore of a far country. All these children grow up endowed
+with marvellous beauty and strength, but their doom is upon them, and
+after numerous adventures they slay their fathers or some other
+unfortunate relative. But the most characteristic part of what seems
+an almost universal legend is that these children are born in the most
+obscure circumstances, afterward rising to a height of splendour which
+makes up for all they previously suffered. It is not necessary to
+explain nowadays that this is characteristic of nearly all sun-myths.
+The sun is born in obscurity, and rises to a height of splendour at
+midday.
+
+Thus in the majority of these legends we find the sun personified. It
+is not sufficient to object that such an elucidation smacks too much
+of the tactics of Max Müller to be accepted by modern students of
+folk-lore. The student of comparative myth who does not make use of
+the best in all systems of mythological elucidation is undone, for no
+one system will serve for all examples.
+
+To those who may object, "Oh, but Kentigern was a _real_ person," I
+reply that I know many myths concerning 'real' people. For the matter
+of that, we assist in the manufacture of these every day of our lives,
+and it is quite a fallacy that legends cannot spring up concerning
+veritable historical personages, and even around living, breathing
+folk. And for the rest of it mythology and hagiology are hopelessly
+intermingled in their _motifs_.
+
+
+_Miraculous Crossings_
+
+Another Celtic saint besides Budoc possessed a stone boat. He is St
+Baldred, who, like Kentigern, hails from the Firth of Forth, and dwelt
+on the Bass Rock. He is said to have chosen this drear abode as a
+refuge from the eternal wars between the Picts and the Scots toward
+the close of the seventh century. From this point of vantage, and
+probably during seasons of truce, he rowed to the mainland to minister
+to the spiritual wants of the rude natives of Lothian. Inveresk seems
+to have been the eastern border of his 'parish.' Tradition says that
+he was the second Bishop of Glasgow, and thus the successor of
+Kentigern, but the lack of all reliable data concerning the western
+see subsequent to the death of Glasgow's patron saint makes it
+impossible to say whether this statement is authentic or otherwise.
+Many miracles are attributed to Baldred, not the least striking of
+which is that concerning a rock to the east of Tantallon Castle, known
+as 'St Baldred's Boat.' At one time this rock was situated between the
+Bass and the adjacent mainland, and was a fruitful source of
+shipwreck. Baldred, pitying the mariners who had to navigate the
+Firth, and risk this danger, rowed out to the rock and mounted upon
+it; whereupon, at his simple nod, it was lifted up, and, like a ship
+driven by the wind, was wafted to the nearest shore, where it
+thenceforth remained. This rock is sometimes called 'St Baldred's
+Coble,' or 'Cock-boat.' This species of miracle is more commonly
+discovered in the annals of hagiology than in those of pure myth,
+although in legend we occasionally find the landscape altered by order
+of supernatural or semi-supernatural beings.
+
+One rather striking instance of miraculous crossing is that of St
+Noyala, who is said to have crossed to Brittany on the leaf of a tree,
+accompanied by her nurse. She was beheaded at Beignon, but walked to
+Pontivy carrying her head in her hands. A chapel at Pontivy is
+dedicated to her, and was remarkable in the eighteenth century for
+several interesting paintings on a gold ground depicting this legend.
+
+We find this incident of miraculous crossing occurring in the stories
+of many of the Breton saints. A noteworthy instance is that of St
+Tugdual, who, with his followers, crossed in a ship which vanished
+when they disembarked. Still another example is found in the case of
+St Vougas, or Vie, who is specially venerated in Tréguennec. He is
+thought to have been an Irish bishop, and is believed to have mounted
+a stone and sailed across to Brittany upon it. This particular version
+of the popular belief may have sprung from the fact that there is a
+rock off the coast of Brittany called 'the Ship,' from a fancied
+resemblance to one. In course of time this rock was affirmed to have
+been the ship of St Vougas.
+
+
+_Azénor the Pale_
+
+There is a story of another Azénor, who, according to local history,
+married Yves, heritor of Kermorvan, in the year 1400. A popular
+ballad of Cornouaille tells how this Azénor, who was surnamed 'the
+Pale,' did not love her lord, but gave her heart to another, the Clerk
+of Mezléan.
+
+One day she sat musing by a forest fountain, dressed in a robe of
+yellow silk, wantonly plucking the flowers which grew on the mossy
+parapet of the spring and binding them into a bouquet for the Clerk of
+Mezléan.
+
+The Seigneur Yves, passing by on his white steed at a hand-gallop,
+observed her "with the corner of his eye," and conceived a violent
+love for her.
+
+The Clerk of Mezléan had been true to Azénor for many a day, but he
+was poor and her parents would have none of him.
+
+One morning as Azénor descended to the courtyard she observed great
+preparations on foot as if for a festival.
+
+"For what reason," she said, "has this great fire been kindled, and
+why have they placed two spits in front of it? What is happening in
+this house, and why have these fiddlers come?"
+
+Those whom she asked smiled meaningly.
+
+"To-morrow is your wedding-day," said they.
+
+At this Azénor the Pale grew still paler, and was long silent.
+
+"If that be so," she said, "it will be well that I seek my marriage
+chamber early, for from my bed I shall not be raised except for
+burial."
+
+That night her little page stole through the window.
+
+"Lady," he said, "a great and brilliant company come hither. The
+Seigneur Yves is at their head, and behind him ride cavaliers and a
+long train of gentlemen. He is mounted on a white horse, with
+trappings of gold."
+
+Azénor wept sorely.
+
+"Unhappy the hour that he comes!" she cried, wringing her hands.
+"Unhappy be my father and mother who have done this thing!"
+
+Sorely wept Azénor when going to the church that day. She set forth
+with her intended husband, riding on the crupper of his horse. Passing
+by Mezléan she said:
+
+"I pray you let me enter this house, Seigneur, for I am fatigued with
+the journey, and would rest for a space."
+
+"That may not be to-day," he replied; "to-morrow, if you wish it."
+
+At this Azénor wept afresh, but was comforted by her little page. At
+the church door one could see that her heart was breaking.
+
+"Approach, my daughter," said the aged priest. "Draw near, that I may
+place the ring upon your finger."
+
+"Father," replied Azénor, "I beg of you not to force me to wed him
+whom I do not love."
+
+"These are wicked words, my child. The Seigneur Yves is wealthy, he
+has gold and silver, châteaux and broad lands, but the Clerk of
+Mezléan is poor."
+
+"Poor he may be, Father," murmured Azénor, "yet had I rather beg my
+bread with him than dwell softly with this other."
+
+But her relentless parents would not hearken to her protestations, and
+she was wed to the Lord Yves. On arriving at her husband's house she
+was met by the Seigneur's mother, who received her graciously, but
+only one word did Azénor speak, that old refrain that runs through all
+ballad poetry.
+
+"Tell me, O my mother," she said, "is my bed made?"
+
+"It is, my child," replied the châtelaine. "It is next the Chamber of
+the Black Cavalier. Follow me and I will take you thither."
+
+Once within the chamber, Azénor, wounded to the soul, fell upon her
+knees, her fair hair falling about her.
+
+"My God," she cried, "have pity upon me!"
+
+The Seigneur Yves sought out his mother.
+
+"Mother of mine," said he, "where is my wife?"
+
+"She sleeps in her high chamber," replied his mother. "Go to her and
+console her, for she is sadly in need of comfort."
+
+The Seigneur entered. "Do you sleep?" he asked Azénor.
+
+She turned in her bed and looked fixedly at him. "Good morrow to you,
+widower," she said.
+
+"By the saints," cried he, "what mean you? Why do you call me
+widower?"
+
+"Seigneur," she said meaningly, "it is true that you are not a widower
+yet, but soon you will be."
+
+Then, her mind wandering, she continued: "Here is my wedding gown;
+give it, I pray you, to my little servant, who has been so good to me
+and who carried my letters to the Clerk of Mezléan. Here is a new
+cloak which my mother broidered; give it to the priests who will sing
+Masses for my soul. For yourself you may take my crown and chaplet.
+Keep them well, I pray, as a souvenir of our wedding."
+
+Who is that who arrives at the hamlet as the clocks are striking the
+hour? Is it the Clerk of Mezléan? Too late! Azénor is dead.
+
+"I have seen the fountain beside which Azénor plucked flowers to make
+a bouquet for her 'sweet Clerk of Mezléan,'" says the Vicomte Hersart
+de la Villemarqué, "when the Seigneur of Kermorvan passed and withered
+with his glance her happiness and these flowers of love. Mezléan is in
+ruins, no one remains within its gates, surmounted by a crenellated
+and machicolated gallery."
+
+There is a subscription at the end of the ballad to the effect that it
+was written on a round table in the Manor of Hénan, near Pont-Aven, by
+the "bard of the old Seigneur," who dictated it to a damsel. "How
+comes it," asks Villemarqué, "that in the Middle Ages we still find a
+seigneur of Brittany maintaining a domestic bard?" There is no good
+reason why a domestic bard should not have been found in the Brittany
+of medieval times, since such singers of the household were maintained
+in Ireland and Scotland until a relatively late date--up to the period
+of the '45 in the case of the latter country.
+
+
+_St Pol of Léon_
+
+St Pol (or Paul) of Léon (sixth century) was the son of a Welsh
+prince, and, like so many of the Breton saints, he was a disciple of
+St Iltud, being also a fellow-student of St Samson and St Gildas. At
+the age of sixteen he left his home and crossed the sea to Brittany.
+In the course of time other young men congregated round him, and he
+became their superior, receiving holy orders along with twelve
+companions. Near these young monks dwelt Mark, the King of Vannes, who
+invited Pol to visit his territory and instruct his people. The Saint
+went to Vannes and was well received, but after dwelling for some time
+in that part of the country he felt the need of solitude once more,
+and entreated the King that he might have permission to depart and
+that he might be given a bell; "for," as the chronicler tells us, "at
+that time it was customary for kings to have seven bells rung before
+they sat down to meat."
+
+The King, however, vexed that Pol should wish to leave him, refused to
+give him the bell, so the Saint went without it. Before leaving Vannes
+Pol visited his sister, who lived in solitude with other holy women on
+a little island, but when the time came for him to depart she wept and
+entreated him to stay, and the Saint remained with her for another
+three days. When he was finally taking leave of her, she begged him
+that as he was "powerful with God" he would grant her a request, and
+when Pol asked what it was she desired him to do, she explained that
+the island on which she dwelt was small "and incommodious for landing"
+and requested him to pray to God that it might be extended a little
+into the sea, with a "gentle shore." Pol said she had asked what was
+beyond his power, but suggested that they should pray that her desire
+might be granted. So they prayed, and the sea began to retreat,
+"leaving smooth, golden sand where before there had been only stormy
+waves." All the nuns came to see the miracle which had been wrought,
+and the sister of St Pol gathered pebbles and laid them round the land
+newly laid bare, and strewed them down the road that she and her
+brother had taken. These pebbles grew into tall pillars of rock, and
+the avenue thus formed is to this day called 'the Road of St Pol.'
+Thus do the peasants explain the Druidical circles and avenue on the
+islet.
+
+After this miracle Pol departed, and rowed to the island of Ouessant,
+and later he travelled through Brittany, finally settling in the
+island of Batz, near the small town encompassed by mud walls which has
+since borne his name. There he founded a monastery. The island was at
+that time infested by a dreadful monster, sixty feet long, and we are
+told how the Saint subdued this dragon. Accompanied by a warrior, he
+entered its den, tied his stole round its neck, and, giving it to his
+companion to lead, he followed them, beating the animal with his
+stick, until they came to the extremity of the island. There he took
+off the stole and commanded the dragon to fling itself into the
+sea--an order which the monster immediately obeyed. In the church on
+the island a stole is preserved which is said to be that of St Pol.
+Another story tells us how St Jaoua, nephew of St Pol, had to call in
+his uncle's aid in taming a wild bull which was devastating his cell.
+These incidents remind us of St Efflam's taming of the dragon. St Pol
+is one of the saints famous for his miraculous power over wild
+beasts.
+
+The Saint's renown became such that the Breton king made him
+Archbishop of Léon, giving him special care and control of the city
+bearing his name. We are told how the Saint found wild bees swarming
+in a hollow tree, and, gathering the swarm, set them in a hive and
+taught the people how to get honey. He also found a wild sow with her
+litter and tamed them. The descendants of this progeny remained at
+Léon for many generations, and were regarded as royal beasts. Both of
+these stories are, of course, a picturesque way of saying that St Pol
+taught the people to cultivate bees and to keep pigs.
+
+St Pol's early desire to possess a bell was curiously granted later,
+as one day when he was in the company of a Count who ruled the land
+under King Childebat a fisherman brought the Count a bell which he had
+picked up on the seashore. The Count gave it to St Pol, who smiled and
+told him how he had longed and waited for years for such a bell. In
+the cathedral at Saint-Pol-de-Léon is a tiny bell which is said to
+have belonged to St Pol, and on the days of pardon "its notes still
+ring out over the heads of the faithful," and are supposed to be
+efficacious in curing headache or earache.
+
+In the cathedral choir is the tomb of St Pol, where "his skull, an
+arm-bone, and a finger are encased in a little coffer, for the
+veneration of the devout." St Pol built the cathedral at Léon, and was
+its first bishop. Strategy had to be resorted to to secure the see for
+him. The Count gave Pol a letter to take in person to King Childebat,
+which stated that he had sent Pol to be ordained bishop and invested
+with the see of Léon. When the Saint discovered what the letter
+contained he wept, and implored the King to respect his great
+disinclination to become a bishop; but Childebat would not listen,
+and, calling for three bishops, he had him consecrated. The Saint was
+received with great joy by the people of Léon, and lived among them to
+a green old age.
+
+In art St Pol is most generally represented with a dragon, and
+sometimes with a bell, or a cruse of water and a loaf of bread,
+symbolical of his frugal habits.
+
+
+_St Ronan_
+
+Of St Ronan there is told a tale of solemn warning to wives addicted
+to neglecting their children and "seeking their pleasure elsewhere,"
+as it is succinctly expressed. St Ronan was an Irish bishop who came
+to Léon, where he retired into a hermitage in the forest of Névet.
+Grallo, the King of Brittany, was in the habit of visiting him in his
+cell, listening to his discourses, and putting theological questions
+to him. The domestic question must have been a problem even in those
+days, since we find Grallo's Queen, Queban, in charge of her
+five-year-old daughter. Family cares proving rather irksome, Queban
+solved the difficulty of her daughter by putting the child into a box,
+with bread and milk to keep her quiet, while she amused herself with
+frivolous matters. Unfortunately, this ingeniously improvized _crêche_
+proved singularly unsuccessful, for the poor little girl choked on a
+piece of crust, and when the Queen next visited the child she found to
+her horror that she was dead. Terrified at the fatal result of her
+neglect, and not daring to confess what had happened, the Queen, being
+a woman of resource, closed the box and raised a hue and cry to find
+the girl, who she declared must have strayed.
+
+She rushed in search of her husband to St Ronan's cell, and upbraided
+the hermit for being the cause of the King's absence. "But for you,"
+she declared, "my daughter would not have been lost!" But it was a
+fatal mistake to accuse the Saint, or to imagine that he could be
+deceived. Sternly rebuking her, he challenged her with the fact that
+the child lay dead in a box, with milk and bread beside her! Rising,
+he left his cell, and, followed by the agitated royal couple, he led
+the way to where the proof of the Queen's neglect and deceit was
+found. Small mercy was shown in those days to erring womanhood, and
+the guilty Queen was instantly "stoned with stones till she died." The
+Saint completed his share in the matter by casting himself on his
+knees beside the child, whereupon she was restored to life.
+
+
+_St Goezenou_
+
+St Goezenou (_circ._ A.D. 675) was a native of Britain whose parents
+crossed to Brittany and settled near Brest, where the Saint built an
+oratory and cabin for himself. The legend runs that the prince of the
+neighbourhood having offered to give him as much land as he could
+surround with a ditch in one day, the Saint took a fork and dragged it
+along the ground after him as he walked, in this way enclosing a
+league and a half of land, the fork as it trailed behind him making a
+furrow and throwing up an embankment, on a small scale. This story is
+quite probably a popular tradition, which grew up to explain the
+origin of old military earthworks in that part of the country, which
+were afterward utilized by the monks of St Goezenou.
+
+[Illustration: QUEEN QUEBAN STONED TO DEATH]
+
+It is also related of this worthy Saint that he had such a horror of
+women that he set up a huge menhir to mark the boundary beyond which
+no female was to pass under penalty of death. On one occasion a woman,
+either to test the extent of the Saint's power or from motives of
+enmity, pushed another woman who was with her past this landmark; but
+the innocent trespasser was unhurt and her assailant fell dead.
+
+On one occasion, we are told, Goezenou asked a farmer's wife for some
+cream cheeses, but the woman, not wishing to part with them, declared
+that she had none. "You speak the truth," said the Saint. "You had
+some, but if you will now look in your cupboard you will find they
+have been turned into stone," and when the ungenerous housewife ran to
+her cupboard she found that this was so! The petrified cheeses were
+long preserved in the church of Goezenou--being removed during the
+Revolution, and afterward preserved in the manor of Kergivas.
+
+Goezenou governed his church for twenty-four years, till he met with a
+violent death. Accompanied by his brother St Magan, he went to
+Quimperlé to see the monastery which St Corbasius was building there,
+but he began to praise the architecture of his own church, and this so
+enraged the master builder that he dropped his hammer on the critic's
+head. To add to the grief of St Magan, St Corbasius endeavoured to
+appropriate the body of the murdered Saint. He consented, however, to
+allow St Magan to have such bones as he was able to identify as
+belonging to his brother, whereupon St Magan prayed all night, and
+next morning spread a sheet for the bones, which miraculously arranged
+themselves into an entire skeleton, which the sorrowing Magan was thus
+enabled to remove.
+
+
+_St Winwaloe, or Gwenaloe_
+
+St Winwaloe, born about 455, was the son of Fragan, Governor of Léon,
+who had married a wealthy lady named Gwen. Their son was so beautiful
+that they named him Gwenaloe, or 'He that is white.' When the lad was
+about fifteen years old he was given to the care of a holy man, with
+whom he lived on the islet called Ile-Verte. One day a pirate fleet
+was sighted off the coast, near the harbour of Guic-sezne, and
+Winwaloe, who was with his father at the time, is said to have
+exclaimed, "I see a thousand sails," and to this day a cross which
+marks the spot is called 'the Cross of the Thousand Sails,' to
+commemorate the victory which Fragan and his son won over the pirates,
+who landed but were utterly defeated by the Governor and his
+retainers. During the fight Winwaloe, "like a second Moses," prayed
+for victory, and when the victory had been won he entreated his father
+to put the booty gained to a holy use and to build a monastery on the
+site of the battle. This was done, and the monastery was called
+Loc-Christ.
+
+Leaving his master after some years, Winwaloe settled on the island of
+Sein, but finding that it was exposed to the fury of every gale that
+blew from the Atlantic he left it and went to Landévennec, on the
+opposite side of the harbour at Brest. There he established a
+monastery, gathered round him many disciples, and dwelt there until
+his death, many years later. He died during the first week of Lent,
+"after bestowing a kiss of peace on his brethren," and his body is
+preserved at Montreuil-sur-Mer, his chasuble, alb, and bell being laid
+in the Jesuit church of St Charles at Antwerp.
+
+In art St Winwaloe is represented vested as an abbot, with staff in
+one hand and a bell in the other, standing beside the sea, from which
+fishes arise as if in answer to the sound of his bell.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII: COSTUMES AND CUSTOMS OF BRITTANY
+
+
+Distinctive national costume has to a great extent become a thing of
+the past in Europe, and for this relinquishment of the picturesque we
+have doubtless in a measure to thank the exploitation of remote
+districts as tourist and sporting centres. Brittany, however, has been
+remarkably faithful to her sartorial traditions, and even to-day in
+the remoter parts of the west and in distant sea-coast places her men
+and women have not ceased to express outwardly the strong national and
+personal individuality of their race. In these districts it is still
+possible for the traveller to take a sudden, bewildering, and wholly
+entrancing step back into the past.
+
+In Cornouaille the national costume is more jealously cherished than
+in any other part of the country, even to the smallest details, for
+here the men carry a _pen-bas_, or cudgel, which is as much a
+supplement to their attire and as characteristic of it as the Irish
+shillelagh is of the traditional Irish dress. Quimper is perhaps
+second to Cornouaille in fidelity to the old costume, for all the men
+wear the national habit. On gala days this consists of gaily
+embroidered and coloured waistcoats, which often bear the travelling
+tailor's name, and voluminous _bragou-bras_, or breeches of blue or
+brown, held at the waist with a broad leather belt with a metal buckle
+and caught in at the knee with ribbons of various hues, the whole set
+off with black leather leggings and shoes ornamented with silver
+buckles. A broad-brimmed hat, beneath which the hair falls down
+sometimes to below the shoulders, finishes a toilet which on weekdays
+or work-days has to give place to white _bragou-bras_ of tough
+material, something more sombre in waistcoats, and the ever
+serviceable sabot.
+
+
+_Hats and Hymen_
+
+In the vast stretch of the salt-pans of Escoublac, between Batz and Le
+Croisic, where the entire population of the district is employed, the
+workers, or _paludiers_, affect a smock-frock with pockets, linen
+breeches, gaiters, and shoes all of white, and with this dazzling
+costume they wear a huge, flapping black hat turned up on one side to
+form a horn-shaped peak. This peak is very important, as it indicates
+the state of the wearer, the young bachelor adjusting it with great
+nicety over the ear, the widower above his forehead, and the married
+man at the back of his head. On Sundays or gala-days, however, this
+uniform is discarded in favour of a multicoloured and more distinctive
+attire, the breeches being of fine cloth, exceedingly full and pleated
+and finished with ribbons at the knees, the gaiters and white shoes of
+everyday giving place to white woollen stockings with clocks
+embroidered on them and shoes of light yellow, while the smock is
+supplanted by several waistcoats of varying lengths and shades, which
+are worn one above the other in different coloured tiers, finished at
+the neck with a turnover muslin collar. The holiday hat is the same,
+save for a roll of brightly and many tinted chenille.
+
+Several petticoats of pleated cloth, big bibs or plastrons called
+_pièces_, of the same shade as their dresses, and a shawl with a
+fringed border, compose the costume of the women. The aprons of the
+girls are very plain and devoid of pockets, but the older women's are
+rich in texture and design, some of them being of silk and others
+even of costly brocade. The women's head-dress is almost grotesque in
+its originality, the hair being woven into two rolls, swathed round
+with tape, and wound into a coronet across the head. Over this is
+drawn tightly a kind of cap, which forms a peak behind and is crossed
+in front like a handkerchief. Should widowhood overtake a woman she
+relinquishes this _coiffe_ and shrouds her head and shoulders in a
+rough black triangular-shaped sheepskin mantle.
+
+The toilette of a bride is as magnificent as the widow's is depressing
+and dowdy. It consists of three different dresses, the first of white
+velvet with apron of moire-antique, the second of purple velvet, and
+the third of cloth of gold with embroidered sleeves, with a _pièce_ of
+the same material. A wide sash, embroidered with gold, is used for
+looping up all these resplendent skirts in order to reveal the gold
+clocks which adorn the stockings. These, and all gala costumes, are
+carefully stored away at the village inn, and may be seen by the
+traveller sufficiently interested to pay a small fee for the
+privilege.
+
+
+_Quaint Head-dresses_
+
+Though the dress of the Granville women does not attempt to equal or
+rival the magnificence just described, nevertheless it is as quaint
+and characteristic. They favour a long black or very dark coat, with
+bordering frills of the same material and shade, and their cap is a
+sort of _bandeau_, turning up sharply at the ears, and crested by a
+white handkerchief folded square and laid flat on top.
+
+In Ouessant the peasant women adopt an Italian style of costume, their
+head-dress, from under which their hair falls loosely, being exactly
+in almost every detail like that which one associates with the women
+of Italy. The costume of the man from St Pol is, like that of the
+Granville women, soberer than most others of Brittany. Save for his
+buttons, the buckle on his hat, and the clasps of white metal
+fastening his leather shoes, his dress, including spencer, waistcoat,
+trousers, and stockings, is of black, and his hair is worn falling on
+his shoulders, while he rarely carries the _pen-bas_--an indication,
+perhaps, of his rather meditative, pious temperament.
+
+At Villecheret the cap of the women is bewilderingly varied and very
+peculiar. At first sight it appears to consist of several large sheets
+of stiff white paper, in some cases a sheet of the apparent paper
+spreading out at either side of the head and having another roll
+placed across it; in other cases a ridged roof seems to rest upon the
+hair, a roof with the sides rolling upward and fastened at the top
+with a frail thread; while a third type of head-dress is of the
+skull-cap order, from which is suspended two ties quite twenty inches
+long and eight inches wide, which are doubled back midway and fastened
+again to the top of the skull-cap. The unmarried woman who adopts this
+_coiffe_ must wear the ties hanging over the shoulders.
+
+Originality in head-dress the male peasant leaves almost entirely to
+the woman, for nearly everywhere in Brittany one meets with the long,
+wide-brimmed, black hat, with a black band, the dullness of which is
+relieved by a white or blue metal buckle, as large as those usually
+found on belts. To this rule the Plougastel man is one of the
+exceptions, wearing a red cap with his trousers and coat of white
+flannel.
+
+At Muzillac, some miles distant from La Roche-Bernard, the women
+supplant the white _coiffe_ with a huge black cap resembling the cowl
+of a friar, while at Pont l'Abbé and along the Bay of Audierne the cap
+or _bigouden_ is formed of two pieces, the first a species of
+skull-cap fitting closely over the head and ears, the second a small
+circular piece of starched linen, shaped into a three-cornered peak,
+the centre point being embroidered and kept in position by a white
+tape tie which fastens under the chin. Over the skull-cap the hair is
+dressed _en chignon_. The dress accompanying this singular _coiffe_
+and _coiffure_ has a large yellow _pièce_, with sleeves to match. The
+men wear a number of short coats, one above the other, the shortest
+and last being trimmed with a fringe, and occasionally ornamented with
+sentences embroidered in coloured wools round the border, describing
+the patriotic or personal sentiments of the wearer.
+
+The women of Morlaix are also partial to the tight-fitting _coiffe_.
+This consists of five broad folds, forming a base from which a
+fan-like fall of stiffened calico spreads out from ear to ear,
+completely shading the nape of the neck and reaching down the back
+below the shoulders. Many of the women wear calico tippets, while the
+more elderly affect a sort of mob-cap with turned-up edges, from which
+to the middle of the head are stretched two wide straps of calico,
+joined together at the ends with a pin. Most of the youths of Morlaix
+wear the big, flapping hat, but very often a black cloth cap is also
+seen. This is ridiculous rather than picturesque, for so long is it
+that with almost every movement it tips over the wearer's nose. The
+tunic accompanying either hat or cap is of blue flannel, and over it
+is worn a black waistcoat. The porters of the market-places wear a
+sort of smock. The young boys of Morlaix dress very like their elders,
+and nearly all of them wear the long loose cap, with the difference
+that a tasselled end dangles down the back.
+
+[Illustration: MODERN BRITTANY]
+
+On religious festivals the gala dress is always donned in all
+vicinities of Brittany, and the costume informs the initiated at once
+in what capacity the Breton is present. For instance, the _porteuses_,
+or banner-bearers, of certain saints are dressed in white; others may
+be more gorgeously or vividly attired in gowns of bright-coloured silk
+trimmed with gold lace, scarves of silver thread, aprons of gold
+tissue or brocade, and lace _coiffes_ over caps of gold or silver
+tissue; while some, though in national gala dress, will have flags or
+crosses to distinguish them from the more commonplace worshipper.
+
+
+_Religious Festivals_
+
+This dressing for the part and the occasion is interwoven with the
+Breton's existence as unalterably as sacred and profane elements are
+into the occasions of his religious festivals. A feast day well and
+piously begun is interspersed and concluded with a gaiety and abandon
+which by contrast strikes a note of profanity. Yet Brittany is quite
+the most devotedly religious of all the French provinces, and one may
+see the great cathedrals filled to their uttermost with congregations
+including as many men as women. Nowhere else, perhaps, will one find
+such great masses of people so completely lost in religious fervour
+during the usual Church services and the grander and more impressive
+festivals so solemnly observed. This reverence is attributed by some
+to the power of superstition, by others to the Celtic temperament of
+the worshippers; but from whatever cause it arises no one who has
+lived among the Bretons can doubt the sincerity and childlike faith
+which lies at the base of it all, a faith of which a medieval
+simplicity and credence are the keynotes.
+
+
+_The Pardons_
+
+This pious punctiliousness is not confined to Church services and
+ceremonies alone, for rarely are wayside crosses or shrines
+unattended by some simple peasant or peasants telling beads or
+unfolding griefs to a God Who, they have been taught, takes the
+deepest interest in and compassionates all the troubles and trials
+which may befall them. Between May and October the religious
+ardour of the Breton may be witnessed at its strongest, for during
+these months the five great 'Pardons' or religious pilgrimage
+festivals are solemnized in the following sequence: the Pardon of the
+Poor, at Saint-Yves; the Pardon of the Singers, at Rumengol; the
+Pardon of the Fire, at Saint-Jean-du-Doigt; the Pardon of the
+Mountain, at Troménie-de-Saint-Renan; the Pardon of the Sea, at
+Sainte-Anne-la-Palud.
+
+The Pardon of the Poor, the Pardon of the Singers, and the Pardon of
+the Sea are especially rigorous and exacting, but the less celebrated
+Pardon of Notre Dame de la Clarté, in Morbihan, has an earthly as much
+as a celestial object, for while the pilgrimage does homage to the
+Virgin it is at the same time believed to facilitate marriage. Here,
+once the sacred side of the festival has been duly observed, the young
+man in search of a wife circles about the church, closely scrutinizing
+all the eligible demoiselles who come within range of his vision. As
+soon as he decides which maiden most appeals to him, he asks her
+politely if she will accept a gift from him, and at the same time
+presents a large round cake, with which he has armed himself for that
+occasion. "Will mademoiselle break the cake with me?" is the customary
+form of address, and in the adoption or rejection of this suggestion
+lies the young peasant's yea or nay.
+
+The Pardon of Saint-Jean-du-Doigt takes place on the 22nd of June, and
+is, perhaps, the most solemn of these festivals. During its
+celebration the relic of the Saint, the little finger of his right
+hand, is held before the high altar of the church by an _abbé_ clad in
+his surplice. The finger is wrapped in the finest of linen, and one by
+one the congregation files past the _abbé_ for the purpose of touching
+for one brief moment the relic he holds. At the same time another
+cleric stands near the choir, holding the skull of St Mériadec, and
+before this the pilgrims also promenade, reverently bowing their heads
+as they go. The devotees then repair to a side wall near which there
+is a fountain, the waters of which have been previously sanctified by
+bathing in them the finger of St Jean suspended from a gold chain, and
+into this the pilgrims plunge their palms and vigorously rub their
+eyes with them, as a protection against blindness. This concludes the
+religious side of the Pardon, and immediately after its less edifying
+ceremonies begin.
+
+The Pardon of the Mountain is held on Trinity Sunday at Troménie.
+Every sixth year there is the 'Grand Troménie,' an event which draws
+an immense concourse of people from all parts. The principal feature
+of this great day from the spectator's point of view is the afternoon
+procession. It is of the most imposing description, and all who have
+come to take part in the Pardon join it, as with banners flying and
+much hymn-singing it takes its way out of the town to wind round a
+mountain in the vicinity.
+
+
+_Barking Women_
+
+In the old days of religious enthusiasm a remarkable phenomenon often
+attended these festivals, when excitement began to run high, as it was
+certain to do among a Celtic people. This was the barking of certain
+highly strung hysterical women. In time it became quite a usual
+feature, but now, happily, it is a part of the ceremony which has
+almost entirely disappeared. There is a legend in connexion with this
+custom that the Virgin appeared before some women disguised as a
+beggar, and asked for a draught of water, and, when they refused it,
+caused them and their posterity to be afflicted with the mania.
+
+
+_The Sacring Bell_
+
+Another custom of earlier times was that of ringing the sacring bell.
+These bells are very tiny, and are attached at regular intervals to
+the outer rim of a wooden wheel, wrongly styled by some 'the Wheel of
+Fortune,' from which dangles a long string. In most places the sacring
+bell is kept as a curiosity, though in the church of St Bridget at
+Berhet the _Sant-e-roa_, or Holy Wheel, is still rung by pilgrims
+during Mass. The bells are set pealing through the medium of a long
+string by the impatient suppliant, to remind the saint to whom the
+_Sant-e-roa_ may be dedicated of the prayerful requests with which he
+or she has been assailed.
+
+There are in many of the churches of Brittany wide, old-fashioned
+fireplaces, a fact which testifies to a very sensible practice which
+prevailed in the latter half of the sixteenth century--that of
+warming the baptismal water before applying it to the defenceless head
+of the lately born. The most famous of these old fireplaces belong to
+the churches of St Bridget in Perguet, Le Moustoir-le-Juch, St Non at
+Penmarch, and Brévélenz. In the church at the latter place one of the
+pinnacles of the porch forms the chimney to its historic hearth.
+
+
+_The Venus of Quinipily_
+
+Childless people often pay a visit to some standing stone in their
+neighbourhood in the hope that they may thereby be blessed with
+offspring. Famous in this respect is the 'Venus,' or _Groabgoard_, of
+Quinipily, a rough-hewn stone in the likeness of a goddess. The
+letters ...LIT... still remain on it--part of a Latin inscription
+which has been thought to have originally read ILITHVIA, "a name in
+keeping with the rites still in use before the image," says
+MacCulloch.[61]
+
+
+_Holy Wells_
+
+The holy well is another institution dating from early days, and there
+is hardly a church in Brittany which does not boast one or more of
+these shrines, which are in most cases dedicated to the saint in whose
+honour the church has been raised. So numerous are these wells that to
+name them and dwell at any length on the curative powers claimed for
+their waters would fill a large volume. Worthy of mention, however, is
+the Holy Well of St Bieuzy, as typical of most of such sacred springs.
+It is close to the church of the same name in Bieuzy, and flows from a
+granite wall. Its waters are said to relieve and cure the mentally
+deranged. Some of the wells are large enough to permit the afflicted
+to bathe in their waters, and of these the well near the church of
+Goezenou is a good example. It is situated in an enclosure surrounded
+by stone seats for the convenience of the devotees who may desire to
+immerse themselves bodily in it. Several of these shrines bear dates,
+but whether they are genuine is a matter for conjecture.
+
+
+_Reliquaries_
+
+Every Breton churchyard worthy of the name has its reliquary or
+bone-house. There may be seen rows of small boxes like dog-kennels
+with heart-shaped openings. Round these openings, names, dates, and
+pious ejaculations are written. Looking through the aperture, a
+glimpse of a skull may startle one, for it is a gruesome custom of the
+country to dig up the bones of the dead and preserve the skulls in
+this way. The name upon the box is that once borne by the deceased,
+the date that of his death, and the charitable prayer is for the
+repose of his soul. Occasionally these boxes are set in conspicuous
+places in the church, but generally they remain in the reliquary. In
+the porch of the church of St Trémeur, the son of the notorious Breton
+Bluebeard, Comorre, there is one of the largest collections of these
+receptacles in Brittany. Rich people who may have endowed or founded
+sacred edifices are buried in an arched recess of the abbey or church
+they have benefited.
+
+
+_Feeding the Dead_
+
+In some parts of Brittany hollows are found in tombstones above
+graves, and these are annually filled with holy water or libations of
+milk. It would seem as if this custom linked prehistoric with modern
+practice and that the cup-hollows frequently met with on the top of
+dolmens may have been intended as receptacles for the food of the
+dead. The basins scooped in the soil of a barrow may have served the
+same purpose. On the night of All Souls' Day, when this libation is
+made, the supper is left spread on the table of each cottage and the
+fire burns brightly, so that the dead may return to refresh and warm
+themselves after the dolours of the grave.
+
+
+_The Passage de l'Enfer_
+
+How hard custom dies in Brittany is illustrated by the fact that it is
+still usual at Tréguier to convey the dead to the churchyard in a boat
+over a part of the river called the 'Passage de l'Enfer,' instead of
+taking the shorter way by land. This custom is reminiscent of what
+Procopius, a historian of the sixth century, says regarding Breton
+Celtic custom in his _De Bello Gothico_. Speaking of the island of
+Brittia, by which he means Britain, he states that it is divided by a
+wall. Thither fishermen from the Breton coast are compelled to ferry
+over at darkest night the shades of the dead, unseen by them, but
+marshalled by a mysterious leader. The fishermen who are to row the
+dead across to the British coast must go to bed early, for at midnight
+they are aroused by a tapping at the door, and they are called in a
+low voice. They rise and go down to the shore, attracted by some force
+which they cannot explain. Here they find their boats, apparently
+empty, yet the water rises to the bulwarks, as if they were crowded.
+Once they commence the voyage their vessels cleave the water speedily,
+making the passage, usually a day and a half's sailing, in an hour.
+When the British shore is reached the souls of the dead leave the
+boats, which at once rise in the sea as if unloaded. Then a loud voice
+on shore is heard calling out the name and style of those who have
+disembarked.
+
+Procopius had, of course, heard the old Celtic myth of an oversea
+Elysium, and had added to it some distorted reminiscence of the old
+Roman wall which divided Britain. The 'ship of souls' is evidently a
+feature of Celtic as well as of Latin and Greek belief.
+
+
+_Calvaries_
+
+Calvaries, or representations of the passion on the Cross, are most
+frequently encountered in Brittany, so much so, indeed, that it has
+been called 'the Land of the Calvaries.' Over the length and breadth
+of the country they are to be met at almost every turn, some of them
+no more than rude, simple crosses originating in local workshops, and
+others truly magnificent in carving and detail. Some of the most
+famous are those situated at Plougastel, Saint-Thégonnec, and
+Guimiliau.
+
+The Calvary of Plougastel dates from the early sixteenth century, and
+consists of an arcade beneath a platform filled with statues. The
+surrounding frieze has carvings in bas-relief representing incidents
+in the life of Christ. The Calvary of Saint-Thégonnec represents
+vividly the phases of the passion, being really a 'way of the Cross'
+in sculpture. It bears the unmistakable stamp of the sixteenth
+century. The Calvary of Guimiliau is dated 1580 and 1588. A platform
+supported by arches bears the three crosses, the four evangelists, and
+other figures connected with the principal incidents in the life and
+passion of our Lord. The principal figures, that of Christ and those
+of the attending Blessed Virgin and St John, are most beautifully and
+sympathetically portrayed. The figures in the representations from the
+life of Christ, which are from necessity much smaller than those of
+the Crucifixion, are dressed in the costume of the sixteenth century.
+The entire Calvary is sculptured in Kersanton stone.
+
+[Illustration: THE SOULS OF THE DEAD]
+
+Whether these and other similar groups are really works of art is
+perhaps a matter for discussion, but regarding their impressiveness
+there cannot be two opinions. By the bulk of the people they are
+held in great reverence, and rarely are they unattended by tiny
+congregations of two or three, while on the occasion of important
+religious festivals people flock to them in hundreds.
+
+
+_Weddings_
+
+In many of their religious observances the Bretons are prone to
+confuse the sacred with the profane, and chief among these is the
+wedding ceremony--the customs attendant on which in some ostensibly
+Christian countries are yet a disgrace to the intellect as well as the
+good feeling of man. In rural Brittany, however, the revelry which
+ensues as soon as the church door closes on the newly wedded pair is
+more like that associated with a children's party than the recreation
+of older people. Should the marriage be celebrated in the morning,
+tables laid out with cakes are ranged outside the church door, and
+when the bridal procession files out of the church the bride and
+bridegroom each take a cake from the table and leave a coin in its
+stead for the poor. The guests follow suit, and then the whole party
+repairs to the nearest meadow, where endless _ronds_ are begun.
+
+The _rond_ is a sort of dance in which the whole assembly joins
+hands and revolves slowly with a hop-skip-and-a-jump step to the
+accompaniment of a most wearisome and unvarying chant, the music for
+which is provided by the _biniou_, or bagpipe, and the flageolet
+or hautboy, both being occasionally augmented by the drum. Before
+the ceremony begins the musicians who are responsible for this
+primitive harmony are dispatched to summon the guests, who, of
+course, arrive in the full splendour of the national gala costume. As
+soon as the _ronds_ are completed to the satisfaction of everybody
+the custom common to so many countries of stealing the bride away
+is celebrated. At a given signal she speeds away from the party,
+hotly pursued by the young gallants present, and when she is
+overtaken she presents the successful swain with a cup of coffee at a
+public _café_. This interlude is followed by dinner, and after that
+the _ronds_ are resumed. These festivities, in the case of prosperous
+people, sometimes last three days, during which time the guests are
+entertained at their host's expense. If the wedding happens to be held
+in the evening, dancing is about the only amusement indulged in, and
+this follows an elaborate wedding supper. The _biniou_ and its
+companions are decidedly _en évidence_, while sometimes the monotony
+of the _ronds_ is varied by the _grand rond_, a much more graceful
+and intricate affair, containing many elaborate and difficult steps;
+but the more ordinary dance is the favourite, probably because of the
+difficulties attending the other.
+
+
+_Breton Burials_
+
+An ancient Breton funeral ceremony was replete with symbolic meaning
+and ritual, which have been carried down through the Middle Ages to
+the present time. As soon as the head of the family had ceased to
+breathe, a great fire was lit in the courtyard, and the mattress upon
+which he had expired was burned. Pitchers of water and milk were
+emptied, for fear, perhaps, that the soul of the defunct might be
+athirst. The dead man was then enveloped from head to foot in a great
+white sheet and placed in a description of funeral pavilion, the hands
+joined on the breast, the body turned toward the east. At his feet a
+little stool was placed, and two yellow candles were lit on each side
+of him. Then the beadle or gravedigger, who was usually a poor man,
+went round the country-side to carry the news of death, which he
+usually called out in a high, piping voice, ringing his little bell
+the while. At the hour of sunset people arrived from all parts for the
+purpose of viewing the body. Each one carried a branch, which he
+placed on the feet of the defunct.
+
+The evening prayer was recited by all, then the women sang the
+canticles. From time to time the widow and children of the deceased
+raised the corner of the shroud and kissed it solemnly. A repast was
+served in an adjoining room, where the beggar sat side by side with
+the wealthy, on the principle that all were equal before death. It is
+strange that the poor are always associated with the griefs as with
+the pleasures of Breton people; we find them at the feast of death and
+at the baptism as at the wedding rejoicing.
+
+In the morning the rector of the parish arrived and all retired, with
+the exception of the parents, if these chanced to be alive, in whose
+presence the beadle closed the coffin. No other member of the family
+was permitted to take part in this solemn farewell, which was regarded
+as a sacred duty. The coffin was then placed on a car drawn by oxen,
+and the funeral procession set out, preceded by the clergy and
+followed by the female relations of the deceased, wearing yellow
+head-dresses and black mantles. The men followed with bared heads. On
+arriving at the church the coffin was disposed on trestles, and the
+widow sat close by it throughout the ceremony. As it was lowered into
+the tomb the last words of the prayer for the dead were repeated by
+all, and as it touched the soil beneath a loud cry arose from the
+bereaved.
+
+The Breton funeral ceremony, like those prevalent among other Celtic
+peoples, is indeed a lugubrious affair, and somewhat recalls the Irish
+wake in its strange mixture of mourning and feasting; but curiously
+enough brightness reigns afterward, for the peasant is absolutely
+assured that at the moment his friend is placed in the tomb he
+commences a life of joy without end.
+
+
+_Tartarus and Paradise_
+
+Two very striking old Breton ballads give us very vivid pictures of
+the Breton idea of Heaven and its opposite. That dealing with the
+infernal regions hails from the district of Léon. It is attributed to
+a priest named Morin, who flourished in the fifteenth century, but
+others have claimed it for a Jesuit father called Maunoir, who lived
+and preached some two hundred years later. In any case it bears the
+ecclesiastical stamp. "Descend, Christians," it begins, "to see what
+unspeakable tortures the souls of the condemned suffer through the
+justice of God, Who has chained them in the midst of flames for
+having abused their gifts in this world. Hell is a profound abyss,
+full of shadow, where not the least gleam of light ever comes. The
+gates have been closed and bolted by God, and He will never open them
+more. The key is lost!
+
+"An oven heated to whiteness is this place, a fire which constantly
+devours the lost souls. There they will eternally burn, tormented by
+the intolerable heat. They gnash their teeth like mad dogs; they
+cannot escape the flames, which are over their heads, under their
+feet, and on all sides. The son rushes at his father, and the daughter
+at her mother. They drag them by the hair through the midst of flames,
+with a thousand maledictions, crying, 'Cursed be ye, lost woman, who
+brought us into the world! Cursed be ye, heedless man, who wert the
+cause of our damnation!'
+
+"For drink they have only their tears. Their skins are scorched, and
+bitten by the teeth of serpents and demons, and their flesh and their
+bones are nothing but fuel to the great fire of Hell!
+
+"After they have been for some time in this furnace, they are plunged
+by Satan into a lake of ice, and from this they are thrown once more
+into the flames, and from the flames into the water, like a bar of
+iron in a smithy. 'Have pity, my God, have pity on us!' they call; but
+they weep in vain, for God has closed His ears to their plaints.
+
+"The heat is so intense that their marrow burns within their bones.
+The more they crave for pity, the more they are tormented.
+
+"This fire is the anger of God which they have aroused; verily it may
+never be put out."
+
+One turns with loathing, with anger, and with contempt from this
+production of medieval ecclesiasticism. When one thinks of the
+thousands of simple and innocent people who must have been tortured
+and driven half wild with terror by such infamous utterances as this,
+one feels inclined to challenge the oft-repeated statement concerning
+the many virtues of the medieval Church. But Brittany is not the only
+place where this species of terrorism was in vogue, and that until
+comparatively recent times. The writer can recall such descriptions as
+this emanating from the pulpits of churches in Scottish villages only
+some thirty years ago, and the strange thing is that people of that
+generation were wont to look back with longing and admiration upon the
+old style of condemnatory sermon, and to criticize the efforts of the
+younger school of ministers as being wanting in force and lacking the
+spirit of menace so characteristic of their forerunners. There are no
+such sermons nowadays, they say. Let us thank God that to the credit
+of human intelligence and human pity there are not!
+
+The opposite to this picture is provided by the ballad on Heaven. It
+is generally attributed to Michel de Kerodern, a Breton missionary of
+the seventeenth century, but others claim its authorship for St Hervé,
+to whom we have already alluded. In any case it is as replete with
+superstitions as its darker fellow. The soul, it says, passes the
+moon, sun, and stars on its Heavenward way, and from that height turns
+its eyes on its native land of Brittany. "Adieu to thee, my country!
+Adieu to thee, world of suffering and dolorous burdens! Farewell,
+poverty, affliction, trouble, and sin! Like a lost vessel the body
+lies below, but wherever I turn my eyes my heart is filled with a
+thousand felicities. I behold the gates of Paradise open at my
+approach and the saints coming out to receive me. I am received in the
+Palace of the Trinity, in the midst of honours and heavenly harmonies.
+The Lord places on my head a beautiful crown and bids me enter into
+the treasures of Heaven. Legions of archangels chant the praise of
+God, each with a harp in his hand. I meet my father, my mother, my
+brothers, the men of my country. Choirs of little angels fly hither
+and thither over our heads like flocks of birds. Oh, happiness without
+equal! When I think of such bliss to be, it consoles my heart for the
+pains of this life."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+  [61] _Religion of the Ancient Celts_, p. 289.
+
+
+
+
+GLOSSARY & INDEX
+
+  A
+
+  ABÉLARD. A Breton monk;
+    the story of Héloïse and, 248-253
+
+  ABERLADY BAY. A bay in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, 357
+
+  ABERNETHY. A town in Scotland;
+    the Round Tower at, 52
+
+  ABERYSTWYTH. A town in Wales;
+    Taliesin buried at, 22
+
+  ADDER'S STONE. A substance supposed to have magical properties,
+        employed in Druidic rites, 247;
+    Héloïse, represented as a sorceress, said to have possessed,
+        252
+
+  ALAIN III. Count of Brittany (Count of Vannes);
+    drives back the Northmen, 25
+
+  ALAIN IV (BARBE-TORTE). Arch-chief of Brittany;
+    defeats the Northmen, 25-26
+
+  ALAIN V. Duke of Brittany, 27, 28
+
+  ALAIN FERGANT. Duke of Brittany, 30
+
+  ALAIN. Son of Eudo of Brittany, 29
+
+  ALBERT LE GRAND. Monk of Morlaix, 278
+
+  ALCHEMY. The art of;
+    the position of, in the fifteenth century, 175;
+    Gilles de Retz experiments in, 175-179
+
+  ALGONQUINS. A race of North American Indians;
+    mentioned, 302
+
+  ALI BABA. The story of;
+    mentioned, 316
+
+  ALL SOULS' DAY. The custom of leaving food for the dead on, 383
+
+  ALOÏDA. A maiden;
+    in the ballad of the Marriage-girdle, 234-236
+
+  'ALPINE' RACE. A European ethnological division;
+    the Bretons probably belong to, 14, 37 _n._
+
+  AMENOPHIS III. An Egyptian king;
+    mentioned, 43
+
+  AMERICA. _See_ United States
+
+  ANGERS. A town in France;
+    St Convoyon goes to, to obtain holy relics from the cathedral,
+        336
+
+  ANIMALS. Frequently the bearers of divine aid, in legends of the
+        saints, 347;
+    St Pol noted for his miraculous power over wild beasts, 366
+
+  ANIMISM, 86-87
+
+  ANKOU, THE. The death-spirit of Brittany, 101-102
+
+  ANNAÏK. A maiden;
+    in a story of the Marquis of Guérande, 199-202
+
+  ANNE. Duchess of Brittany;
+    married to Charles VIII of France, and then to Louis XII, 36;
+    the oratory of, in the château of Dinan, 209;
+    gives the château of Suscino to John of Châlons, 210
+
+  ANTWERP. The city;
+    relics of St Winwaloe preserved in the Jesuit church of St Charles
+        at, 371;
+    mentioned, 205
+
+  APPLE, THE. Said to have been introduced into Brittany by Telio,
+        18
+
+  ARDMORE. A town in Ireland;
+    the Round Tower at, 51-52
+
+  AREZ, MOUNTAINS OF. Same as Montagnes d'Arrée, _which see_
+
+  ARGOED. A place in Wales;
+    battle of, 22
+
+  ARMAGH. A city in Ireland;
+    Budoc made Bishop of, 356
+
+  ARMENIA. The country;
+    were-wolf superstition in, 291
+
+  ARMOR ('On the Sea'). The ancient Celtic name for Brittany, 13
+
+  ARMORICA. The Latin name for the country of Brittany, 13, 15;
+    Julius Cæsar in, 16;
+    two British kingdoms in, 19;
+    the first monastery in, founded by Gwénnolé, 185;
+    King Arthur hunts wild beasts in, 278;
+    St Samson bidden to go to, 349
+
+  ARTHUR, KING. British chieftain, of legendary fame;
+    his finding of Excalibur, 256-257;
+    his encounter with the giant of Mont-Saint-Michel, 275-277;
+    his existence doubted by Bretons in the twelfth century, 278;
+    his fight with the dragon at the Lieue de Grève, 278-281;
+    carried to the Isle of Avalon after his last battle, 282;
+    Gugemar at the Court of, 292;
+    his contest with Modred, 344;
+    his sister Margawse the wife of King Lot of Lothian, 357;
+    mentioned, 64, 66, 173, 212, 224
+
+  ARTHUR. Duke of Brittany, son of Geoffrey Plantagenet;
+    murdered by King John of England, 30
+
+  ARTHURIAN ROMANCE. Resemblances in Villemarqué's _Barzaz-Breiz_ to,
+        224;
+    the controversy as to the original birthplace of, 228,
+        254-255;
+    indigenous to British soil, 255
+
+  ARZ. _See_ Ile d'Arz
+
+  ASH-TREE, THE LAY OF THE. One of the _Lais_ of Marie de France,
+        317-320
+
+  AUCHENTORLIE. An estate in Scotland;
+    inscribed stones at, 46
+
+  AUCHINLECK MS. A manuscript containing a version of the story of
+        Tristrem and Ysonde, 272
+
+  AUDIERNE, BAY OF. A bay on the Breton coast;
+    national costume in the district of, 376
+
+  AULNOY, COMTESSE D'. Noted seventeenth-century French authoress;
+    mentioned, 144
+
+  AURAY. A town in Brittany;
+    battle at, 35;
+    centre from which to visit the megaliths of Carnac, 42
+
+  AVALON, ISLE OF. A fabled island to which King Arthur was carried
+        after his last battle, 282
+
+  AVENUE OF SPHINXES. At Karnak, Egypt, 43
+
+  AZÉNOR. Mother of St Budoc of Dol, 354-356
+
+  AZÉNOR THE PALE. A maiden;
+    the legend of, 360-364
+
+  B
+
+  BACCHUS. The Greek god of wine;
+    mentioned, 189
+
+  BALON. Monastery of;
+    St Tivisiau and, 338-339
+
+  BAN. King of Benwik;
+    father of Sir Lancelot, 257
+
+  BANGOR TEIVI. A village in Wales;
+    Taliesin said to have died at, 22
+
+  BARANTON, THE FOUNTAIN OF. A magical fountain in Broceliande,
+        70-71
+
+  BARD. Singer or poet attached to noble households;
+    late survival of the custom of maintaining, 364
+
+  BARKING WOMEN. A phenomenon connected with religious festivals,
+        380
+
+  BARON OF JAUIOZ, THE. A ballad, 145-147
+
+  BARRON. A fictitious youth;
+    in a story of Gilles de Retz, 178
+
+  BARZAZ-BREIZ ("The Breton Bards"). A collection of Breton ballads
+        made by Villemarqué;
+    cited (under sub-title, _Chants populaires de la Bretagne_), 57
+        _n._;
+    criticism of, 211-212
+
+  BASS ROCK. An islet in the Firth of Forth, 359
+
+  BATZ.
+    I. An island off the coast of Brittany; St Pol settles on,
+        365-366
+    II. A town in Brittany, 373
+
+  BAYARD, THE CHEVALIER DE. A famous French knight;
+    mentioned, 31
+
+  BEAN NIGHE ('The Washing Woman'). An evil spirit of the Scottish
+        Highlands, 100
+
+  BEAUMANOIR. A Breton noble house, 229
+
+  BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. The story of;
+    mentioned, 137
+
+  BEAUVAU. Matthew, Seigneur of;
+    in the story of the Clerk of Rohan, 190-193
+
+  BEDIVERE, SIR. One of King Arthur's knights;
+    accompanies Arthur on his expedition against the giant of
+        Mont-Saint-Michel, 275-277
+
+  BEES. Cultivated by the monks of Dol, 19;
+    St Pol taught the people to cultivate, 366
+
+  BEIGNON. A town in Brittany, 360
+
+  BELGIUM. Mentioned, 52
+
+  BELIAGOG. A giant;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 271
+
+  BELSUNCE DE CASTELMORON, HENRI-FRANÇOIS-XAVIER DE. Bishop of
+        Marseilles;
+    mentioned, 195
+
+  BENEDICTION OF THE BEASTS. A festival held at Carnac, 45
+
+  BERHET. A village in Brittany;
+    the custom of ringing the sacring bell still observed in the
+        church of St Bridget at, 380
+
+  BERRY. John, Duke of;
+    mentioned, 145
+
+  BERRY. Caroline, Duchess of;
+    imprisoned in the castle of Nantes, 205
+
+  BERTRAND DE DINAN. A Breton knight, 29
+
+  BIEUZY. A town in Brittany;
+    the Holy Well of St Bieuzy at, 381
+
+  BIGOUDEN. A cap worn by the women in some parts of Brittany, 376
+
+  BINIOU. A musical instrument resembling the bagpipe;
+    one of the national instruments of Brittany, 229;
+    played at weddings, 386
+
+  BIRDS. In Breton tradition, the dead supposed to return to earth in
+        the form of, 227;
+    frequently messengers in ballad literature, 233;
+    in the legends of the saints, commonly the bearers of divine aid,
+        347
+
+  BISCLAVERET. The Breton name for a were-wolf;
+    in the Lay of the Were-wolf, 287-289, 291
+
+  BLACK MOUNTAIN. The name of one of the peaks of the Black Mountains,
+        197
+
+  BLACK MOUNTAINS. A mountain chain in Brittany, 196
+
+  BLANCHE OF CASTILE. Mother of Louis IX, 208
+
+  BLANCHEFLOUR. Princess, sister of King Mark, mother of Tristrem;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 258-259, 261
+
+  BLOIS. A famous French château;
+    mentioned, 206
+
+  BLOIS, CHARLES OF. Duke of Brittany;
+    contests the succession to the duchy, 30-32;
+    taken prisoner by Joan of Flanders, 31;
+    the marriage of, with Joan of Penthièvre, 32;
+    defeated at Auray, 35;
+    the château of Suscino taken by, 210
+
+  BLUEBEARD. The villain in the nursery-tale;
+    Gilles de Retz identified with, 174, 180;
+    the story of, identified with the story of Comorre and Triphyna,
+        180
+
+  BLUE CHAMBER. A boudoir in the château of Tourlaville, 209
+
+  BODMIN. A town in Cornwall;
+    mentioned, 278
+
+  BOITEUX. A fiend;
+    in the story of the Princess Starbright, 123, 124, 125
+
+  BONCOTEST, COLLEGE OF. One of the colleges of the old University of
+        Paris;
+    Fontenelle at, 229
+
+  BONNY KILMENY. A ballad by James Hogg;
+    mentioned, 327
+
+  BOURDAIS, MARC. A peasant, nicknamed Maraud;
+    in the story of the Lost Daughter, 75-77
+
+  BOUTEVILLE. John of, Seigneur of Faouet;
+    mentioned, 335
+
+  BOY WHO SERVED THE FAIRIES, THE. The story of, 88-95
+
+  BRAN ('Crow'). A Breton warrior;
+    the story of, 225-227;
+    analogies between the story of, and the poem of _Sir Tristrem_,
+        227-228
+
+  BRENGWAIN. A lady of Ysonde's suite;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 267, 269, 271, 272
+
+  BRENHA, FATHER JOSÉ. A Portuguese antiquary;
+    mentioned, 47
+
+  BREOCHAN. A legendary Welsh king, father of St Nennocha, 340
+
+  BRÉRI. A Breton poet, 255
+
+  BREST. A town in Brittany, 354, 368, 371
+
+  BRETON. The language, 15-16
+
+  BRETONS. The race;
+    their origin and affinities, 13-15, 17, 37 _n._;
+    Bretons join William of Normandy in his expedition against
+        England, 29, 232, 233;
+    send an expedition to help Owen Glendower, 234;
+    defeat the English in a naval battle, 236
+
+  BREVELENZ. A village in Brittany;
+    a fireplace in the church of, 381
+
+  BREZONEK. The language spoken by the Bretons, 15-16
+
+  BRIAN. Son of Eudo of Brittany, 29
+
+  BRIDE OF SATAN, THE. The story of, 143-144;
+    mentioned, 147
+
+  BRITAIN. Celts flee from, to Brittany, before the Saxon invaders,
+        15, 17;
+    subject kingdoms of, in Brittany, 19;
+    immigrants from, in Brittany, form a confederacy and fight against
+        the Franks, 22-23;
+    the headquarters of the Druidic cult, 245;
+    Arthurian romance indigenous to, 255;
+    St Patern founds religious houses in, 348;
+    St Samson fled from, to Brittany, 350;
+    Procopius' story of the ferrying of the Breton dead over to,
+        383-384
+
+  BRITONS. The race;
+    members of, emigrate to Brittany, 15, 17, 22-23;
+    carried Arthurian romance to Brittany, 254, 255
+
+  BRITTANY. Divisions and character of the country, 13;
+    Julius Cæsar in, 16;
+    the Latin tongue did not spread over, 17;
+    the origin of the name, 17;
+    Nomenoë wins the independence of, 23;
+    invaded by Northmen, 25;
+    the Northmen expelled from, 26;
+    division of, into counties and seigneuries, 27;
+    relations with Normandy, 27-30;
+    French influences in, 30;
+    the War of the Two Joans, 30-31, 35-36;
+    annexed to France by Francis I, 36;
+    the prehistoric stone monuments of, 37-53;
+    the fairies of, 54-95;
+    the sprites and demons of, 96-105;
+    'world-tales' in, 106-155;
+    folk-tales of, 156-172;
+    popular legends of, 173-202;
+    the châteaux of, 202-210;
+    hero-tales of, 211-240;
+    sends help to Owen Glendower in his conflict with the English,
+        234;
+    a British army in, 237;
+    the black art in, 241-253;
+    Arthurian romance in, 254-282;
+    Arthur found Excalibur in, 256;
+    Tristrem in, 270-271, 272;
+    the scene of the _Lais_ of Marie de France, 284;
+    the saints of, 332-371;
+    many saints in, 350;
+    costumes of, 372-377;
+    customs of, 378-388;
+    religious observance in, 377-378;
+    holy wells in, 381-382;
+    observances relating to the dead and interments, 382-384,
+        386-388;
+    Calvaries in, 384-385;
+    wedding ceremonies in, 385-386
+
+  BRITTANY, COUNTS AND DUKES OF. _See under_ Alain; Arthur; Blois,
+        Charles of; Conan; Dreux; Eudo; Francis; Geoffrey; Hoel; John;
+        _and_ Salomon
+
+  BRITTIA. Procopius' name for Britain, 383
+
+  BROCELIANDE. A forest in Brittany, 54-73;
+    the shrine of Arthurian story, 55;
+    the Korrigan a denizen of, 56;
+    the scene of the adventures of Merlin and Vivien, 64;
+    the fountain of Baranton in, 70-71;
+    lines on, 71;
+    in the story of Bruno of La Montagne, 72-73;
+    the wood of Helléan a part of, 221;
+    mentioned, 338
+
+  BRODINEUF. A Breton château, 207
+
+  BROWNIES. Elfish beings of small size;
+    distinct from fairies, 87
+
+  BRUNHILDA. Queen of Austrasia;
+    mentioned, 31
+
+  BRUNO OF LA MONTAGNE. The story of, 72-73
+
+  BRUYANT. A friend of Butor of La Montagne;
+    in the story of Bruno of La Montagne, 72-73
+
+  BUGELNOZ, or TEUS. A beneficent spirit of the Vannes district,
+        100
+
+  BURIAL CUSTOMS. In Brittany, 382-384, 386-388
+
+  BURNS, ROBERT. The poet;
+    his use of old songs and ballads, 211;
+    mentioned, 241
+
+  BURON. A knight;
+    in the Lay of the Ash-tree, 318-320
+
+  BUTOR. Baron of La Montagne;
+    in the story of Bruno of La Montagne, 72
+
+  C
+
+  CADOUDAL, GEORGES. A Chouan leader;
+    mentioned, 25
+
+  CAERLEON-UPON-USK. A town in Wales;
+    Tristrem sails for, 263;
+    mentioned, 21
+
+  CÆSAR. _See_ Julius
+
+  CALENDAR, THE. Supernatural beings often associated with, 97
+
+  CALIBURN. A name for Excalibur. _See_ Excalibur
+
+  CALLERNISH. A district in the island of Lewis, Outer Hebrides;
+    mentioned, 53
+
+  CALVARIES. Representations of the passion on the Cross;
+    common in Brittany, 384-385
+
+  CAMARET. A town in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 41
+
+  CAMELOT. A legendary town in England, the scene of King Arthur's
+        Court;
+    the battle at, in which King Arthur was killed, 344;
+   mentioned, 64
+
+  CANADOS. King Mark's Constable, in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde,
+        272
+
+  CANCOET. A village in Brittany;
+    the Maison des Follets at, 49
+
+  CARADEUC. A Breton château, 207
+
+  CARDIGAN BAY. A bay in Wales;
+    the site of a submerged city, according to Welsh legend, 187,
+        188
+
+  CARDIGANSHIRE. Welsh county;
+    mentioned, 22
+
+  CARHAIX. A town in Brittany;
+    Comorre the ruler of, 180
+
+  CARNAC. A town in Brittany;
+    the megaliths at, 42-45;
+    the legend of, 44-45;
+    the 'Benediction of the Beasts' at, 45;
+    sometimes called 'Ty C'harriquet,' 98;
+    its megaliths supposed to have been built by the gorics, 98;
+    the gorics' revels around the megaliths of, 99
+
+  CAROLINE. Queen of England, wife of George II;
+    mentioned, 196
+
+  CASTLE OF THE SUN, THE. The story of, 131-137
+
+  CATTWG. A town in Wales;
+    Taliesin and Gildas said to have been educated at the school of,
+        21
+
+  CAYOT DÉLANDRE, F. M. A Breton poet, 43
+
+  'CELTIC.' The term;
+    its disputed connotation, 37
+
+  CELTS. The race;
+    the Bretons a division of, 14-15;
+    Druidism may not have originated with, 245;
+    musical and poetic elements in the temperament of, 339
+
+  CHAMBER OF THE BLACK CAVALIER. In the ballad of Azénor the Pale,
+        362
+
+  CHAMBORD. A famous French château;
+    mentioned, 206
+
+  CHAMP DOLENT ('Field of Woe'). The field in which the menhir of Dol
+        stands, 40;
+    the battle in, 40
+
+  CHAMPTOCÉ. A Breton château;
+    the home of Gilles de Retz, 175, 176, 179-180
+
+  CHANGELINGS. The Breton fairies and, 83
+
+  CHANSONS DE GESTES. Medieval French poems with an heroic theme;
+    Villemarqué's work marked by the style of, 224-225
+
+  CHANTS POPULAIRES DE LA BRETAGNE. The sub-title of Villemarqué's
+        _Barzaz-Breiz_. _See_ _Barzaz-Breiz_
+
+  CHAPELLE DU DUC. A chapel at Tréguier, built by Duke John V, 353
+
+  CHARLEMAGNE. The Emperor;
+    mentioned, 225
+
+  CHARLES I (THE BALD). King of France;
+    Nomenoë rises against, 23, 337-338
+
+  CHARLES V. King of France;
+    mentioned, 32
+
+  CHARLES VI. King of France;
+    mentioned, 174
+
+  CHARLES VIII. King of France;
+    Anne of Brittany married to, 36
+
+  CHARLES. A youth;
+    in the story of the Princess of Tronkolaine, 115-121
+
+  CHASE, THE. Superstitions of, 301
+
+  CHÂTEAU DES PAULPIQUETS. A name given to a megalithic structure in
+        Questembert, 49
+
+  CHÂTEAUX. Of Brittany;
+    their rich legendary and historical associations, 202-203;
+    stories of, 203-210
+
+  CHÂTEAUBRIAND. François-René-Auguste, Viscount of;
+    famous French writer and statesman;
+    associated with the château of Comburg, 207
+
+  CHÂTEAUBRIANT. A Breton château, 207
+
+  CHÂTEAUBRIANT. Françoise de Foix, Countess of;
+    a story of her relations with King Francis I and her fate, 207;
+    the château of Suscino given to, by Francis I, 210
+
+  CHAVEAU-NARISHKINE, COUNTESS. Restored the château of Kerjolet,
+        208
+
+  CHILDEBAT. A Breton king, 366;
+    and St Pol, 367
+
+  CHRAMNE. Son of Clotaire I, King of the Franks, 40
+
+  CHRISTIANITY. St Samson teaches, in Brittany, 17-19;
+    the Curiosolites refuse to receive the teachings of St Malo,
+        342
+
+  CHURCH. The early;
+    hostility of, to the fairies, 56
+
+  CINDERELLA. The story of;
+    mentioned, 144
+
+  CISALPINE GAUL. Roman province;
+    had no Druidic priesthood, 245
+
+  CLAIRSCHACH. The Highland harp;
+    replaced as the national instrument by the bagpipe, 229
+
+  CLAUDE. Queen of Francis I of France, 36
+
+  CLÉDER. A town in Brittany;
+    St Keenan built a monastery at, 344
+
+  CLERK OF ROHAN, THE. The story of, 189-193
+
+  CLISSON. A Breton château, 204-205
+
+  CLISSON, OLIVER DE. A celebrated Breton soldier, Constable of
+        France;
+    fought in the War of the Two Joans, 35, 204;
+    and the château of Clisson, 204;
+    and the château of Josselin, 205, 206
+
+  CLOTAIRE I. King of the Franks, 40
+
+  COADELAN. The manor of;
+    occupied by Fontenelle, 230, 231;
+    has gone to decay, 232
+
+  COADELAN, THE LADY OF. Her daughter carried off by Fontenelle,
+        229-230
+
+  COAT-SQUIRIOU, MARQUIS OF. In the story of the Youth who did not
+        Know, 106-109
+
+  COCKNO. A place in Scotland;
+    inscribed stones at, 47
+
+  COESORON. A river in Brittany, 17
+
+  COÊTMAN. The house of, 204
+
+  COÊTMAN, VISCOUNT OF. A Breton nobleman;
+    mentioned, 204-205
+
+  COËTQUEN, TOWER OF. One of the towers in the city wall of Dinan,
+        209
+
+  COIFFES. Of Brittany;
+    specimens of, in the museum at Kerjolet, 208
+    _See_ Head-dress
+
+  COLE, KING. A half-legendary British king;
+    mentioned, 173
+
+  COLODOC. A name given to St Keenan. _See_ St Keenan
+
+  COMBAT OF SAINT-CAST, THE. The ballad of, 236-238
+
+  COMBOURG. A Breton château, 207-208;
+    Châteaubriand associated with, 208
+
+  COMORRE THE CURSED. The story of, 180-184;
+    mentioned, 382
+
+  COMTE DE GABALIS, LE. The Abbé de Villars' work;
+    mentioned, 64
+
+  CONAN I. Count of Brittany (Count of Rennes), 27
+
+  CONAN II. Duke of Brittany;
+    and Duke William of Normandy, 27-29
+
+  CONAN III. Duke of Brittany, 30;
+    patron of Abélard, 248
+
+  CONAN IV. Duke of Brittany, 30
+
+  CONAN. Father of Morvan, 215
+
+  CONCARNEAU. A town in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 42;
+    the château of Kerjolet in, 208
+
+  CONCORET. A town in Brittany;
+    had a reputation as the abode of sorcerers, 242
+
+  CONCURRUS. A village in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 42
+
+  CONNAUGHT. An Irish province;
+    St Keenan a native of, 343
+
+  CONSTANCE. Daughter of Conan IV of Brittany;
+    married to Geoffrey Plantagenet, 30
+
+  CONTES POPULAIRES DE LA HAUTE-BRETAGNE. P. Sébillot's work;
+    cited, 83 _n._
+
+  CORK. A county of Ireland;
+    mentioned, 355
+
+  CORNOUAILLE. A district in Brittany;
+    the ancient Cornubia, 19;
+    formed by immigrants from Britain, 23;
+    Azénor the Pale, a ballad of, 360-364;
+    distinctive national costume in, 372;
+    mentioned, 108
+
+  CORNUBIA. A British kingdom in Armorica, the modern Cornouaille,
+        19
+
+  CORNWALL. An English county, anciently a kingdom;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 257-262;
+    mentioned, 278
+
+  CORSEUL. A town in Brittany;
+    the people of, refuse the teachings of St Malo, 342-343
+
+  CORSTORPHINE. A village near Edinburgh;
+    the legend of the building of the church at, 51
+
+  COSTUME. Breton;
+    specimens of, in the museum at Kerjolet, 208;
+    the faithfulness of the Bretons to their national costume, 372;
+    the varieties of, 372-377;
+    the costume of Cornouaille, 372;
+    of Quimper, 372-373;
+    of the workers of the Escoublac district, 373-374;
+    of the women of Granville, 374;
+    of the women of Ouessant, 374;
+    of the men of St Pol, 375;
+    of Pont l'Abbé and the Bay of Audierne, 376;
+    of Morlaix, 376-377;
+    gala dress in Brittany, 377
+
+  CÔTES-DU-NORD. One of the departments of Brittany, 13;
+    part of the ancient kingdom of Domnonia, 19;
+    mentioned, 41, 88, 167, 282, 351
+
+  COUDRE. A maiden;
+    in the Lay of the Ash-tree, 319-320
+
+  COURILS. A race of gnomes peculiar to Brittany, 87, 98-99
+
+  COURONNES DE STE BARBE. Amulets sold at the festival of St Barbe at
+        Le Faouet, 333
+
+  COX, REV. SIR G. W. Cited, 275 _n._
+
+  CRAON. The house of, 174
+
+  CRIONS. A race of gnomes peculiar to the ruins of Tresmalouen, 99
+
+  CROMLECH. The term;
+    its derivation and significance, 38
+
+  CROSS OF THE THOUSAND SAILS. A monument at Guic-sezne, 370
+
+  CRUSADES. Mentioned, 190
+
+  CULROSS. A town in Scotland;
+    St Kentigern born at, 357
+
+  CUP-AND-RING ALTAR. A monument discovered in the Milton of Colquhoun
+        district, Scotland, 47
+
+  CUP-AND-RING MARKINGS. Symbols inscribed on megaliths;
+    their meaning and purpose, 46-48
+
+  CUPID AND PSYCHE. The story of;
+    mentioned, 137
+
+  CURIOSOLITÆ. A Gallic tribe which inhabited Brittany, 16;
+   the Curiosolites refuse to receive Christian teaching from St Malo,
+        342-343
+
+  CYMBELINE. A half-legendary British king;
+    mentioned, 173
+
+  D
+
+  DAGWORTH, SIR THOMAS. An English knight;
+    at the battle of La Roche-Derrien, 31
+
+  DAHUT. Princess, daughter of Gradlon;
+    in the legend of Ys, 185, 186
+
+  DANAË. A maiden, in Greek mythology, mother of Perseus;
+    mentioned, 358
+
+  DAOINE SIDHE. Irish deities, 87
+
+  DAOULAS. A village in Brittany;
+    the statue of the Virgin in the abbey of, adorned with a girdle of
+        rubies, 236
+
+  DEAD, THE. In Breton tradition, supposed to return to earth in the
+        form of birds, 227;
+    food left for, 382-383, 387;
+    burial customs, 382-384, 386-388;
+    the Breton dead ferried over to Britain, 383-384
+
+  DEATH-BIRD. A bird whose note is supposed to portend misfortune to
+        the maiden who hears it, 145, 147
+
+  DEATH-SPIRIT. The Ankou, 101-102
+
+  DEER GOD. A deity of the North American Indians, 301
+
+  DÉLANDRE, CAYOT. _See_ Cayot
+
+  DEMETER. Greek corn goddess;
+    mentioned, 59
+
+  DEMON LOVER, THE. A Scottish ballad;
+    mentioned, 144
+
+  DEMONS. Of Brittany, 96-105;
+    the invariable accompaniment of an illiterate peasantry, 96
+
+  DENIS PYRAMUS. An Anglo-Norman chronicler;
+    on the poems of Marie de France, 284
+
+  DESONELLE, PRINCESS. Heroine of _Sir Torrent of Portugal_;
+    mentioned, 358
+
+  DEVIL, THE. The erection of the megalithic monuments ascribed to,
+        49;
+    the Teus and, 100
+    _See also_ Satan
+
+  DIANA. Roman moon-goddess;
+    mentioned, 74
+
+  DIANCECHT. An Irish god;
+    mentioned, 247
+
+  DINAN.
+    I. A town in Brittany, 194, 195, 209
+    II. The château of, 209
+
+  DOL. A town in Brittany;
+    the menhir near, 18, 39-40, 318;
+    St Samson settled near, 18;
+    the Northmen defeated by Alain Barbe-torte near, 26;
+    the legend of the menhir of, 40;
+    Buron lived at, 318;
+    St Turiau, or Tivisiau, associated with, 338-339;
+    the legend of the founding of, by St Samson, 350;
+    the legend of St Budoc of, 353-358
+
+  DOL, BISHOP OF. And St Tivisiau, 338-339
+
+  DOL DES MARCHANDS. The name given to a dolmen near Dol, 48
+
+  DOLMENS. Derivation and meaning of the term, 38;
+    purpose of the monuments, 38-39;
+    the dolmen-chapel at Plouaret, 41;
+    the dolmen at Trégunc, 42;
+    the dolmen at Rocenaud, 46;
+    cup-and-ring markings upon, 46-48;
+    the dolmen at Penhapp, 48;
+    the dolmen near the wood of Rocher, 50;
+    the dolmen at La Lande-Marie, 51;
+    the dolmen of Essé, 53;
+    haunted by nains, 96;
+    cup-hollows on, may have been intended as receptacles for food for
+        the dead, 383
+
+  DOLOROUS KNIGHT, THE LAY OF THE, or THE LAY OF THE FOUR SORROWS. One
+        of the _Lais_ of Marie de France, 328-331
+
+  DOMNONÉE. A county of Brittany, 23
+    _See also_ Domnonia
+
+  DOMNONIA. A British kingdom in Armorica, 19, 27
+    _See also_ Domnonée
+
+  DOTTIN, GEORGES. Cited, 37 _n._
+
+  DOUARNENEZ, BAY OF. A bay on the Breton coast;
+    the city of Ys said to have been situated there, 185
+
+  DRACHENFELS. A famous castle on the Rhine;
+    mentioned, 203
+
+  DREUX, PIERRE DE. Duke of Brittany;
+    defeats John of England at Nantes, 30
+
+  DREZ, JOB ANN. A sexton;
+    in a story of the Yeun, 103-105
+
+  DRUIDISM. In early times, sorcery identified with, 245;
+    the question whether Druidism was of Celtic or non-Celtic origin,
+        245;
+    the nature of the practices of, 245-248;
+    survival of Druidic spells and ritual, 246;
+    an Eastern origin claimed for, 247;
+    survivals of the Druidic priesthood, 247;
+    a college of Druidic priestesses situated near Nantes, 253;
+    mentioned, 53
+    _See also_ Druids
+
+  DRUIDS. Origin of the cult, 245;
+    the nature of their practices, 245-246;
+    in the legend of Kentigern's birth, condemn Thenaw, 357
+    _See also_ Druidism
+
+  DUBLIN. The city;
+    Tristrem comes to, 263;
+    Tristrem's second visit to, 265
+
+  DUBRIC. Archbishop who officiated at the marriage of King Arthur and
+        Guinevere, 67
+
+  DU GUESCLIN, BERTRAND. A famous knight, Constable of France;
+    helps Charles of Blois in the War of the Two Joans, 31-32;
+    a notable figure in Breton legend, 32;
+    buried at Saint-Denis, 32;
+    the legend of the Ward of, 33-35;
+    taken prisoner at the battle of Auray, 35
+
+  DUNGIVEN. A town in Ireland;
+    Druidic ritual still observed at, 246
+
+  DUNPENDER. A mountain in East Lothian, now called Traprain Law;
+    Thenaw cast from, 357
+
+  DUSII. Spirits inhabiting Gaul, 100
+
+  DYLAN. A British sea-god;
+    mentioned, 69
+
+  DYONAS. A god of the Britons;
+    Vivien sometimes represented as the daughter of, 69
+
+  E
+
+  EDINBURGH. The city;
+    mentioned, 51, 60, 203
+
+  EDMUND. King of East Anglia;
+    mentioned, 284
+
+  ELIDUC, THE LAY OF. One of the LAIS of Marie de France, 305-313
+
+  ELLÉ. A river in Brittany, 19, 332
+
+  ÉLORN. A river in Brittany, 19
+
+  ELPHIN. Son of the Welsh chieftain Urien;
+    taught by Taliesin, 21
+
+  ELVES. In Teutonic mythology, diminutive spirits;
+    the fairy race of Celtic countries may have been confused with,
+        87
+
+  EMERALD COAST, THE. A district in the southern portion of Brittany,
+        13
+
+  ENGLAND.
+    I. The country;
+      loses its ancient British name, which becomes that of Brittany,
+        17;
+      Bretons who accompanied William the Conqueror receive land in,
+        232;
+      Bretons invade, from Wales, 234;
+      claimed as the birthplace of Arthurian romance, 254;
+      King Arthur moves against the Emperor Lucius' threatened
+        invasion of, 275;
+      the existence of King Arthur credited in, in the twelfth
+        century, 278;
+      Marie de France lived in, 283
+    II. The State;
+      supports John of Montfort's claim to Brittany, 31
+
+  ENORA. _See_ St Enora
+
+  EQUITAN, THE LAY OF. One of the _Lais_ of Marie de France,
+        313-317
+
+  ERDEVEN. A town in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 42
+
+  ERMONIE. A mythical kingdom, in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde;
+    Roland Rise, Lord of, 258;
+    Duke Morgan becomes Lord of, 259;
+    Tristrem returns to, 261
+
+  ERNAULT, E. Cited, 16 _n._
+
+  ERYRI, MOUNT. King Arthur slew the giant Ritho upon, 277
+
+  ESCOUBLAC. A town in Brittany, 373
+
+  ESSÉ. A village in Brittany;
+    the dolmen of, 53
+
+  ESTAING, PIERRE D'. A French alchemist;
+    mentioned, 175
+
+  ÉTANG DE LAVAL. A lake, supposed to cover the site of the submerged
+        city of Ys, 185
+
+  ETHWIJE. Wife of Geoffrey I of Brittany, 196, 198
+
+  EUDO. Count of Brittany, son of Geoffrey I, 27, 29
+
+  EUFUERIEN. King of Cumbria, 357
+
+  EVEN THE GREAT. Breton leader;
+    defeats the Norsemen at the battle of Kerlouan, 225, 227
+
+  EWEN. Son of Eufuerien, King of Cumbria, 357
+
+  EXCALIBUR. King Arthur's miraculous sword;
+    given to Arthur in Brittany, 256-257;
+    Arthur kills the giant of Mont-Saint-Michel with, 277;
+    mentioned, 280
+
+  EXETER. The city;
+    mentioned, 307
+
+  F
+
+  FABLES. Of Marie de France, 283
+
+  FAIRIES. Credited with the erection of the megalithic monuments,
+        49-52;
+    magically imprisoned in dolmens, trees, and pillars, 52;
+    the fairy lore of Brittany bears evidence of Celtic influence,
+        54;
+    the fairies of Brittany hostile to man, 54, 55-56, 85;
+    the Church the enemy of, 56;
+    what derived from, in folk-lore, 73-74;
+    the varying conceptions of, 73;
+    the Bretons' ideas of, 74-75;
+    the fairies of the _houles_, 75, 88;
+    the fairies' distaste for being recognized, and stories
+        illustrating this, 82;
+    bestow magical sight, 82-83;
+    and changelings, 83;
+    prone to take animal, bird, and fish shapes, 83-84;
+    probable reasons for the fairies' malevolence, 85-86;
+    origin of the fairy idea, 85-87;
+    may have originally been deities, 87;
+    in Brittany, conceived as of average mortal height, 87;
+    the _Margots la fée_, a variety of, 88;
+    a story illustrating fairy malevolence, 88;
+    the fairy-woman in the Lay of Graelent, 322-328
+
+  FAIRYLAND. Graelent enters, 326;
+    identified with the Celtic Otherworld, 327;
+    a place of death and remoteness, 328
+
+  FAIRY-WIFE. A folk-lore _motif_, 327
+
+  FALCON, THE. A ballad, 196-198
+
+  FARMER, CAPTAIN GEORGE. Commander of the _Quebec_;
+    in a Breton ballad, 238
+
+  FAYS. _See_ Fairies
+
+  FEBRUARY. The month;
+    personified in the story of Princess Starbright, 128-129
+
+  FÉLIX. Bishop of Quimper, 337
+
+  FEUILLET, OCTAVE. A French novelist;
+    mentioned, 206
+
+  FINETTE CENDRON ('Cinderella'). Mme d'Aulnoy's story of;
+    mentioned, 144
+
+  FINISTÈRE. One of the departments of Brittany, 13;
+    part of the ancient kingdom of Domnonia, 19;
+    mentioned, 41, 49, 180
+
+  FIONS. A name sometimes given to the fairies in Brittany, occurring
+        also in Scottish and Irish folk-lore, 74
+
+  FIRE-GODDESS. St Barbe probably represents the survival of a, 334
+
+  FIREPLACES in Breton churches, 380-381
+
+  FISHERMAN AND THE FAIRIES, THE. The story of, 80-83
+
+  FLAMEL, NICOLAS. A French alchemist;
+    mentioned, 175
+
+  FLANDERS. The country;
+    Gugemar in, 292;
+    mentioned, 145
+
+  FOLK-TALES. Of Brittany, 156-172
+
+  FONTENELLE, GUY EDER DE. A Breton leader, associated with the
+        Catholic League, 229-232
+
+  FÖRSTER, PROFESSOR WENDELIN. And the origin of Arthurian romance,
+        254
+
+  FORTH. A river in Scotland;
+    mentioned, 357
+
+  FORTH, FIRTH OF. Mentioned, 356, 359
+
+  FOSTER-BROTHER, THE. The story of, 167-172
+
+  FOUCAULT, JEAN. A Breton peasant;
+    a story of, 244
+
+  FOUGÈRES. A town in Brittany;
+    had a reputation as the dwelling-place of sorcerers, 242
+
+  FOUQUET, NICOLAS. A French statesman;
+    imprisoned in the castle of Nantes, 205
+
+  FOUR SORROWS, THE LAY OF THE, or THE LAY OF THE DOLOROUS KNIGHT. One
+        of the _Lais_ of Marie de France, 328-331
+
+  FRAGAN. Governor of Léon, father of St Winwaloe, 370
+
+  FRANCE.
+    I. The country;
+      manners and fashions of, spread in Brittany, 30;
+      the were-wolf superstition prevalent in, 291
+    II. The State;
+      intervenes in the conflict between Brittany and Normandy, 30;
+      Brittany annexed by, under Francis I, 36
+
+  FRANCIS I. King of France;
+    annexes Brittany to France, 36;
+    and Françoise de Foix, the Countess of Châteaubriant, 207;
+    gives the château of Suscino to Françoise de Foix, 210
+
+  FRANCIS I. Duke of Brittany, 36
+
+  FRANKS. The people;
+    exercised a nominal suzerainty over Brittany, 23;
+    Morvan fights with, 216-221;
+    "Morvan will return to drive the Franks from the Breton land,"
+        224
+
+  FRANKS, KING OF THE. In Villemarqué's _Barzaz-Breiz_;
+    and Morvan's fight with the Moor, 218-220;
+    Morvan fights with, 220-221;
+    the character drawn in the style of the _chansons de gestes_,
+        224
+
+  FREDEGONDA. Queen of Neustria;
+    mentioned, 31
+
+  FRÉMIET, EMMANUEL. A French sculptor;
+    mentioned, 206
+
+  FRÊNE. A maiden;
+    in the Lay of the Ash-tree, 318-320
+
+  FULBERT. A canon of Notre-Dame, Paris, uncle of Héloïse, 249;
+    mutilated Abélard, 250
+
+  FUNERAL CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES. In Brittany, 382-384, 386-388
+
+  G
+
+  GAIDOZ, H. Cited, 212 _n._
+
+  GANHARDIN. Brother of Ysonde of the White Hand;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 271-272, 273
+
+  GARB OF OLD GAUL, THE. A song;
+    mentioned, 237
+
+  GARGANTUA. A mythical giant;
+    the erection of the megalithic monuments ascribed to, 49
+
+  GARLON, THE CLERK OF. In a legend of the Marquis of Guérande,
+        199-202
+
+  GAVR'INIS ('Goat Island'). An island in the Gulf of Morbihan;
+    the tumulus at, 48;
+    nains' inscriptions on the megaliths of, 98
+
+  GAWAINE, SIR. One of King Arthur's knights;
+    mentioned, 357
+
+  GEBER. An Arabian alchemist;
+    mentioned, 175
+
+  GEOFFREY I. Duke of Brittany, 27;
+    in the legend of the Falcon, 196
+
+  GEOFFREY II (PLANTAGENET). Duke of Brittany, 30
+
+  GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH. An English chronicler;
+    the presentation of Vivien in his work, 69;
+    and the presentation of Merlin, 70;
+    acknowledged a Breton source for his work, 255
+
+  GILDAS. A British chronicler;
+    fellow-pupil with Taliesin at the school of Cattwg, 21;
+    St Keenan associated with, 343;
+    St Bieuzy a friend and disciple of, 345;
+    the bell of, in the chapel at La Roche-sur-Blavet, 345;
+    St Bieuzy dies in the presence of, 346;
+    St Pol of Léon a fellow-student of, 364
+
+  GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS. A Welsh chronicler;
+    and the legend of the submerged city, 187
+
+  GIRDLE. Superstition of the, 302
+
+  GLAIN NEIDR. The sea-snake's egg or adder's stone, used in Druidic
+        rites, 247;
+    Héloïse, represented as a sorceress, said to have possessed,
+        252
+
+  GLASGOW. The city;
+    mentioned, 357, 359
+
+  GOELC. A seigneury of Brittany;
+    a Count of, the father of St Budoc of Dol, 354, 355
+
+  GOEZENOU. A village in Brittany;
+    the cheeses petrified by St Goezenou preserved in the church of,
+        369;
+    holy well at, 382
+
+  GOIDELIC DIALECT. A Celtic tongue, 15
+
+  GOLDEN BELL, CHÂTEAU OF THE. In the story of the Youth who did not
+        Know, 111-114
+
+  GOLDEN BELL, PRINCESS. In the story of the Youth who did not Know,
+        110-115
+
+  GOLDEN HERB. A plant supposed in Druidical times to possess magical
+        properties, 247-248
+
+  GOMME, SIR G. L. Cited, 173, 247 _n._
+
+  GORICS. A race of gnomes peculiar to Brittany, 87, 98-99
+
+  GOULVEN. A village in Brittany;
+    historical tablet in the church of, 225
+
+  GOUVERNAYL. Servitor to Tristrem;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 263, 264
+
+  GRADLON MEUR. A ruler of Ys;
+    in the legend of the city, 185-186;
+    the statue of, at Quimper, 188-189;
+    supposed to have introduced the vine into Brittany, 189
+
+  GRAELENT, THE LAY OF. One of the _Lais_ of Marie de France,
+        320-328
+
+  GRAIL. Legend of the;
+    a parallel incident in the Lay of Gugemar and, 301-302
+
+  GRALLO. King of Brittany;
+    and St Ronan, 367
+
+  GRAND MONT. An eminence upon which St Gildas built his abbey, 249
+
+  GRAND TROMÉNIE. The special celebration of the Pardon of the
+        Mountain held every sixth year, 379-380
+
+  GRANVILLE. A town in Brittany;
+    women's costume in, 374
+
+  GRIFESCORNE. King of the Demons;
+    in the story of the Youth who did not Know, 111, 114
+
+  GROABGOARD. An image at Quinipily, 381
+
+  GROTTES AUX FÉES. Name given to the megalithic monuments by the
+        Bretons, 48, 49
+
+  GUÉMENÉ. A town in Brittany, 334
+
+  GUÉRANDE. A town in Brittany, 198
+
+  GUÉRANDE. Louis-François, Marquis of;
+    the story of, 199-202
+
+  GUERECH. Count of Vannes;
+    in the story of Comorre the Cursed, 180-181, 183, 184
+
+  GUGEMAR, THE LAY OF. One of the _Lais_ of Marie de France,
+        292-302
+
+  GUIC-SEZNE. A town in Brittany, 370
+
+  GUILDELUEC. Wife of Eliduc, 306-313
+
+  GUILLARDUN. A princess;
+    in the Lay of Eliduc, 307-313
+
+  GUILLEVIC, A. Cited, 16 _n._
+
+  GUIMILIAU. A town in Brittany;
+    the Calvary at, 384-385
+
+  GUINDY. A river in Brittany, 167, 220
+
+  GUINEVERE. King Arthur's Queen;
+    mentioned, 67;
+    comforted by St Keenan after Arthur's death, 344
+
+  GUINGAMP. A town in Brittany, 229
+
+  GWEN. Mother of St Winwaloe, 370
+
+  GWENALOE ('He that is white'). The Breton name for St Winwaloe,
+        370
+
+  GWENN-ESTRAD. A place in Wales;
+    battle of, 22
+
+  GWENNOLAÏK. A maiden of Tréguier;
+    in the story of the Foster-brother, 167-172
+
+  GWÉNNOLÉ. A holy man;
+    in the legend of the city of Ys, 185, 186
+
+  GWEZKLEN. The Breton name for Du Guesclin, 32
+    _See_ Du Guesclin
+
+  GWINDELUC. A monk, a disciple of St Convoyon, 335
+
+  GWYDDNO. Twelfth-century Welsh bard;
+    relates the story of the submerged city, 188
+
+  H
+
+  HAINAULT. A Belgian province;
+    mentioned, 328
+
+  HARP, THE. Not now popular in Brittany, but in ancient times one of
+        the national instruments, 228-229
+
+  HATCHET OF BRITTANY, THE. An appellation of Morvan, 221
+
+  HAUTE-BÉCHEREL. A town in Brittany;
+    pagan temple at, 342
+
+  HEAD-DRESS. Of the women of the Escoublac district, 374;
+    of the women of Ouessant, 374;
+    of the women of Villecheret, 375;
+    of the men of Brittany, does not vary much, 375;
+    headgear of the men of Plougastel, 375;
+    of the women of Muzillac, 376;
+    of the women of Pont l'Abbé and the Bay of Audierne, 376;
+    of the women of Morlaix, 376
+    _See also_ COIFFES
+
+  HEAVEN. An old Breton conception of, 388, 390-391
+
+  HELENA, LADY. Niece of Duke Hoel I of Brittany;
+    carried off by the giant of Mont-Saint-Michel, 275, 276
+
+  HELL. In the story of the Bride of Satan, 144;
+    an old Breton conception of, 388-389
+
+  HELLÉAN, WOOD OF. A former part of the forest of Broceliande, 221,
+        224
+
+  HELOÏSE. An abbess, beloved of Abélard;
+    the story of Abélard and, 248-253;
+    in a Breton ballad represented as a sorceress, 250-253
+
+  HÉNAN. Manor of, in Brittany, 364
+
+  HENDERSON, GEORGE. Cited, 52
+
+  HENNEBONT. A Breton château, 206
+
+  HENRY II. King of England, 30;
+    identified as the king to whom Marie of France dedicated her
+        _Lais_, 284
+
+  HENRY III. King of England;
+    mentioned, 284
+
+  HENRY IV. King of France;
+    and Fontenelle, 231-232;
+    mentioned, 204
+
+  HENWG. A Welsh bard;
+    said to be the father of Taliesin, 21
+
+  HERSART DE LA VILLEMARQUÉ, VICOMTE. Writer on Breton legendary
+        lore;
+    his poem on Nomenoë, 23;
+    his ballad of Alain Barbe-torte, 25-27;
+    and a story of the Clerk of Rohan, 190 _n._;
+    his _Barzaz-Breiz_, 211-212;
+    stories from his _Barzaz-Breiz_, 212-237;
+    indications of the source of his matter, 224-225;
+    and the story of Fontenelle, 230;
+    and the story of the Combat of Saint-Cast, 237;
+    on the story of Azénor the Pale, 363, 364;
+    cited, 57 _n._, 65 _n._, 184 _n._, 247
+
+  HERVÉ. Son of Kyvarnion;
+    the story of the wolf and, 22;
+    mentioned, 390
+
+  HIGHLANDERS. Scottish;
+    in the story of the Combat of Saint-Cast, 237
+
+  HIGHLANDS. Scottish;
+    beliefs in, respecting stones, 52-53;
+    the 'Washing Woman' of, 100
+
+  HILDWALL. A pious man of Angers;
+    St Convoyon lodges with, 336
+
+  HODAIN. A dog;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 267
+
+  HOEL I. Duke of Brittany, 275, 276, 278
+
+  HOEL V. Duke of Brittany, 30
+
+  HOLGER. A half-mythical Danish hero;
+    mentioned, 212
+
+  HOLMES, T. RICE. Cited, 245 _n._
+
+  HOLY LAND. _See_ Palestine
+
+  HOULES. Caverns;
+    the Bretons suppose fairies to inhabit, 75
+
+  HUON DE MÉRY. A thirteenth-century writer;
+    on the fountain of Baranton, 71
+
+  HURLERS, THE. A Cornish legend;
+    mentioned, 44
+
+  I
+
+  IBERIANS. A non-Aryan race, supposed to have inhabited Britain;
+    held by Rhys to be the originators of Druidism, 245
+
+  IDA. King of Bernicia;
+    mentioned, 21, 22
+
+  ILE D'ARZ. An island off the coast of Brittany;
+    megaliths in, 48
+
+  ILE-DE-FRANCE. A French province;
+    Marie of France said to have been a native of, 283
+
+  ILE AUX MOINES. An island in the Gulf of Morbihan;
+    megalithic monuments in, 48
+
+  ILE DE SEIN. An island off the Breton coast, 63;
+    St Winwaloe settled on, 371
+
+  ILE-VERTE. An island off the Breton coast;
+    St Winwaloe lived on, 370
+
+  ILLE-ET-VILAINE. One of the departments of Brittany, 13, 39,
+        50
+
+  INVERESK. A village in Scotland;
+    mentioned, 359
+
+  IOUENN. A young man;
+    in the story of the Man of Honour, 147-155
+
+  IRELAND. Markings on the megalithic monuments in, 46;
+    the legend of the submerged city in, 187;
+    the harp anciently the national instrument of, 229;
+    Tristrem in, 264, 265-267;
+    Petranus, father of St Patern, goes to, 347;
+    St Patern meets his father in, 348;
+    many saints in, 350;
+    Azénor and Budoc in, 355-356;
+    Budoc made King of, 356;
+    late survival of the custom of keeping domestic bards in, 364
+
+  IRELAND, KING OF. In the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 265, 266
+
+  IRELAND, QUEEN OF. In the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 264-267
+
+  IRMINSUL. A Saxon idol;
+    probable connexion between the menhir and the worship of, 18
+        _n._
+
+  ISIDORE OF SEVILLE. A Spanish ecclesiastic and writer;
+    mentioned, 100
+
+  J
+
+  JANUARY. The month;
+    personified, in the story of the Princess Starbright, 128-129
+
+  JARGEAU. A town in France;
+    the battle of, 174
+
+  JAUDY. A river in Brittany, 31, 167
+
+  JAUIOZ. A seigneury in Languedoc;
+    the story of Louis, Baron of, 145-146
+
+  JEANNE DARC. The French heroine;
+    mentioned, 174;
+    the play or mystery of, 175
+
+  JOAN OF FLANDERS. Wife of John of Montfort;
+    in the War of the Two Joans, 31
+
+  JOAN OF PENTHIÈVRE. _See_ Penthièvre
+
+  JOB THE WITLESS. In the story of the Foster-brother, 169
+
+  JOHN (LACKLAND). King of England;
+    mentioned, 30
+
+  JOHN III. Duke of Brittany, 30
+
+  JOHN IV. Duke of Brittany
+    _See_ Montfort, John of
+
+  JOHN V. Duke of Brittany, son of the famous John of Montfort,
+        35-36;
+    and Gilles de Retz, 179;
+    built a magnificent tomb for St Yves, 353
+
+  JOHN. Duke of Châlons;
+    the château of Suscino given to, 210
+
+  JOSSELIN. A Breton château, 205-206
+
+  JOYOUS GARDEN. A garden raised by enchantment by Merlin to please
+        Vivien, 66;
+    mentioned, 67, 69
+
+  JUD-HAEL. A Breton chieftain;
+    the vision of, 20-21
+
+  JUDIK-HAEL. A Breton chieftain, son of Jud-Hael, 21
+
+  JULIUS CÆSAR. On the Druids of Gaul, 245
+
+  K
+
+  KADO THE STRIVER. A Breton peasant, leader of a revolt, 197-198
+
+  KARNAK. A village in Egypt;
+    mentioned, 43
+
+  KARO. Son of a Breton chieftain;
+    in a story of Nomenoë, 23-25
+
+  KAY, SIR. King Arthur's seneschal, 275
+
+  KENNEDY. A character in a Highland tale, 51
+
+  KERGARIOU, COMTE DE. And the story of Fontenelle, 230
+
+  KERGIVAS. A place in Brittany;
+    the cheeses petrified by St Goezenou preserved in the manor of,
+        369
+
+  KERGOALER, COUÉDIC DE. Captain of the _Surveillante_;
+    in a Breton ballad, 238
+
+  KERGONAN. A village in the Ile aux Moines;
+    megaliths at, 48
+
+  KERIDWEN. A fertility goddess who dwelt in Lake Tegid, Wales;
+    mentioned, 59
+
+  KER-IS. A name of the city of Ys, 185
+    _See_ Ys
+
+  KERJOLET. A Breton château, 208
+
+  KERLAZ. A village in Brittany, 232
+
+  KERLESCANT. A village in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 42
+
+  KERLOUAN. A town in Brittany;
+    battle at, between Norsemen and Bretons, 225;
+    the oak on the battlefield at, 227
+
+  KERMARIO. A village in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 42
+
+  KERMARTIN. A village in Brittany;
+    St Yves born at, 350
+
+  KERMORVAN. A place in Brittany;
+    Yves the Seigneur of, in the ballad of Azénor the Pale, 360-363
+
+  KERODERN, MICHEL DE. A Breton missionary, 390
+
+  KEROUEZ. An old château;
+    in the story of the Seigneur with the Horse's Head, 137
+
+  KERSANTON. A place in Brittany;
+    stone from, forms the Calvary of Guimiliau, 385
+
+  KERVRAN. A village in Brittany;
+    the warrior Bran taken prisoner at, 225
+
+  KING OF THE ANTS. In the story of the Princess of Tronkolaine,
+        118, 119, 120
+
+  KING OF THE BIRDS. In the story of the Youth who did not Know,
+        111, 113
+
+  KING OF THE FISHES. In a tale from Saint-Cast, 84-85;
+    in the story of the Youth who did not Know, 110, 114
+
+  KING OF THE LIONS. In the story of the Princess of Tronkolaine,
+        118, 119, 120
+
+  KING OF THE SPARROW-HAWKS. In the story of the Princess of
+        Tronkolaine, 118, 119
+
+  KIPLING, RUDYARD. Quoted, 86
+
+  KORRIGAN, THE. A forest fairy;
+    a denizen of Broceliande, 56;
+    in the story of the Seigneur of Nann, 57-58;
+    associated with water, an element of fertility, 59;
+    an enchantress, 60;
+    in the story of the Unbroken Vow, 62-63;
+    desired union with humanity, 64;
+    mentioned, 69, 98
+
+  KYVARNION. A British bard, father of Hervé, 22
+
+  L
+
+  LADY OF LA GARAYE, THE. Poem by Mrs Norton;
+    quoted, 194, 195, 196
+
+  LADY OF THE LAKE. In Arthurian legend, Vivien;
+    foster-mother of Lancelot, 69, 257;
+    of Breton origin, 256;
+    gives Arthur the sword Excalibur, 256-257
+    _See also_ Vivien
+
+  LA GARAYE. A Breton château, near Dinan;
+    the story of the Lady of, 195
+
+  LAILOKEN. A character in early British legend;
+    mentioned, 70
+
+  LAIS. Of Marie de France;
+    their value in the study of Breton lore, 283;
+    date and other circumstances of their composition, 283-284;
+    stories from, 284-289, 292-331
+
+  LAKE OF ANGUISH, THE. A lake in Hell;
+    in the story of the Bride of Satan, 144;
+    in the story of the Baron of Jauioz, 146
+
+  LA LANDE MARIE. A place in Brittany;
+    the dolmen at, 51
+
+  LANCELOT, SIR. One of the Knights of the Round Table, son of King
+        Ban of Benwik;
+    stolen and brought up by Vivien, 257;
+    does not appear in Celtic legend, 257;
+    mentioned, 64, 69
+
+  LANDÉVENNEC. A town in Brittany;
+    a chapel of St Nicholas at, 345;
+    a monastery built at, by St Winwaloe, 371
+
+  LANDIVISIAU. A town in Brittany, 338;
+    fine carvings in the church of, 339-340
+
+  LANDEGU. A village in Cornwall;
+    St Keenan at, 344
+
+  LANGOAD. A town in Brittany, 198
+
+  LANGUAGE. Brezonek, the tongue of the Bretons, 15;
+    the old Breton tongue closely similar to Welsh, 15;
+    the Latin tongue did not spread over Brittany, 17
+
+  LARGOET. A Breton château, 206
+
+  LA ROCHE-BERNARD. A town in Brittany, 376
+
+  LA ROCHE-SUR-BLAVET. A place in Brittany;
+    a retreat of Gildas and St Bieuzy, 345
+
+  LA ROCHE-DERRIEN. A place in Brittany;
+    battle at, 31
+
+  LA ROCHE-JAGU. A Breton château, 203-204
+
+  LA ROSE. A young man;
+    in the story of the Magic Rose, 156-162
+
+  LATIN. The language;
+    did not spread over Brittany, 17
+
+  LAUSTIC, THE LAY OF. One of the _Lais_ of Marie de France,
+        302-305
+
+  LAVAL, GILLES DE. _See_ Retz
+
+  LAVAL, JEAN DE. Governor of Brittany, 207;
+    married to Françoise de Foix, Countess of Châteaubriant, 207
+
+  LAY OF THE WERE-WOLF, THE. One of the _Lais_ of Marie de France,
+        284-289
+
+  LEAGUE, THE. A Catholic organization formed against the Huguenots,
+        205, 206;
+    Fontenelle associated with, 229
+
+  LE BRAZ, ANATOLE. Cited, 102, 184 _n._
+
+  LE CLERC, L. Cited, 16 _n._
+
+  LE CROISIC. A town in Brittany, 373
+
+  LE FAOUET. A village in Brittany;
+    the chapel of St Barbe near, 332-333, 334-335
+
+  LEGEND. The meaning of the term, 173
+
+  LE GOFF, P. Cited, 16 _n._
+
+  LE GRAND, A. Cited, 184 _n._
+
+  LÉGUER. A town in Brittany, 220
+
+  LÉGUER, LAKE OF. In the story of the Princess Starbright, 121,
+        131
+
+  LELIAN. Father of St Tivisiau, 338
+
+  LE MOUSTOIR-LE-JUCH. A village in Brittany;
+    fireplace in the church of, 381
+
+  LEO IV. Pope;
+    Nomenoë sends gifts to, 337;
+    and St Convoyon, 337
+
+  LÉON.
+    I. A county of Brittany, 23, 143, 212, 225, 226, 229,
+        356, 367, 388
+    II. The see of;
+      given to St Pol, 367
+
+  LE ROUZIC, ZACHARIE. A Breton archæologist;
+    mentioned, 45
+
+  LEWIS. An island in the Outer Hebrides;
+    mentioned, 53
+
+  LEYDEN, JOHN. A Scottish poet and Orientalist;
+    his treatment of legendary material, 211
+
+  LÉZAT. A town in Brittany;
+    had a reputation as the abode of sorcerers, 242
+
+  LEZ-BREIZ, MORVAN. _See_ Morvan
+
+  LIEUE DE GRÈVE. A place in Brittany;
+    Arthur's fight with the dragon of, 278-281
+
+  LIVONIA. The country;
+    were-wolf superstition in, 290
+
+  LLANVITHIN. A village in Wales;
+    mentioned, 21
+
+  LOC-CHRIST. Monastery of, built under the persuasion of St Winwaloe,
+        370-371
+
+  LOCMARIA. A place in Brittany, 199
+
+  LOCMARIAQUER. A town in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 42
+
+  LOGRES. An ancient British kingdom;
+    in the Lay of Eliduc, 306-311
+
+  LOGUIVY-PLOUGRAS. A town in Brittany, 137
+
+  LOHANEC. A village in Brittany;
+    St Yves incumbent of, 351
+
+  LOHENGRIN. A knight, in German legend;
+    mentioned, 137
+
+  LOIRE. The river;
+    mentioned, 16, 174, 253
+
+  LOIRE-INFÉRIEURE. One of the departments of Brittany, 13
+
+  LONDON. The city;
+    mentioned, 31, 99
+
+  LONG MEG. A Cumberland legend;
+    mentioned, 44
+
+  LONGSWORD, WILLIAM. Earl of Salisbury;
+    identified as the nobleman to whom Marie of France dedicated her
+        _Fables_, 284
+
+  LORELEI. A water-spirit of the Rhine;
+    mentioned, 64
+
+  LORGNEZ. A Frankish chieftain;
+    Morvan fights with, and slays, 217-218
+
+  LOST DAUGHTER, THE. The story of, 75-80
+
+  LOT. King of Lothian, grandfather of St Kentigern, 357
+
+  LOTHIAN. A district in Scotland, formerly a kingdom;
+    mentioned, 357, 359
+
+  LOTHIAN, EAST. A county of Scotland;
+    mentioned, 357
+
+  LOUDÉAC. An _arrondissement_ of Brittany, 88
+
+  LOUGH NEAGH. A lake in Ireland;
+    according to Irish legend, the site of submerged city, 187
+
+  LOUIS I (THE PIOUS). King of France;
+    places the native chieftain Nomenoë over Brittany, 23;
+    St Convoyon visits, to obtain confirmation of grants, 335
+
+  LOUIS IX. King of France;
+    mentioned, 208
+
+  LOUIS XI. King of France;
+    mentioned, 36, 205
+
+  LOUIS XII. King of France;
+    Anne of Brittany married to, 36
+
+  LOUIS XV. King of France;
+    honours the Count of La Garaye, 195
+
+  LOUIS. Baron of Jauioz;
+    the story of, 145-147
+
+  LOUVRE, THE. A palace in Paris;
+    mentioned, 206
+
+  LUCIUS. Roman consul, sometimes referred to as Emperor;
+    King Arthur moves against, 275
+
+  LUZEL, F. M. His _Guerziou Breiz-Izel_, mentioned, 211
+
+  LYONESSE. A legendary kingdom near Cornwall, 257
+
+  M
+
+  MACCULLOCH, J. R. Cited, 59 _n._, 70, 102, 188 _n._, 189
+        _n._, 381
+
+  MACCUNN, HAMISH. Composer;
+    mentioned, 145
+
+  MACHUTES. _See_ St Malo
+
+  MACPHERSON, JAMES. A Scottish poet;
+    mentioned, 23, 211
+
+  MACRITCHIE, D. Cited, 74
+
+  MAC-TIERNS ('Sons of the Chief'). A name given to Brian and Alain,
+        sons of Count Eudo, 29
+
+  MAGEEN. Mother of St Tivisiau, 338
+
+  MAGIC. _See_ Sorcery
+
+  MAGIC ROSE, THE. The story of, 156-162
+
+  MAH[=A]BH[=A]RATA. A Hindu epic;
+    mentioned, 52
+
+  MAISON DES FOLLETS. A name given to a megalithic structure at
+        Cancoet, 49
+
+  MAMAU, Y. Welsh deities, 87
+
+  MAN OF HONOUR, THE. The story of, 147-155
+
+  MARAUD. A peasant;
+    in the story of the Lost Daughter, 75-77
+
+  MARCH. The month;
+    personified in the story of Princess Starbright, 128-129
+
+  MARGAWSE. Sister of King Arthur, wife of King Lot of Lothian, 357
+
+  MARGOTS LA FÉE, LES. Fairies which inhabit large rocks and the
+        moorlands, 88
+
+  MARGUERITE. A maiden, avenged by Du Guesclin, 33-35
+
+  MARIE DE FRANCE. A twelfth-century French poetess;
+    acknowledged Breton sources for her work, 255, 283;
+    the _Lais_ and _Fables_ of, 283-284;
+    personal history, 283;
+    stories from the _Lais_, 284-331;
+    and the Lay of Laustic, 302;
+    and the Lay of Eliduc, 305-306;
+    and the Lay of the Dolorous Knight, 328, 330-331
+
+  MARK. King of Cornwall;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 258-274
+
+  MARK. King of Vannes;
+    and St Pol of Léon, 364
+
+  MAROT, CLAUDE TOUSSAINT. Count of La Garaye;
+    the story of, 194-196
+
+  MARRIAGE. Costume of the bride in the Escoublac district, 374;
+    the Pardon of Notre Dame de la Clarté made the occasion of
+        betrothals, 378;
+    wedding customs, 385-386
+
+  MARRIAGE-GIRDLE, THE. The ballad of, 234-236
+
+  MARSEILLES. The city;
+    mentioned, 195
+
+  MATSYS, QUENTIN. A Flemish painter;
+    the well of, at Antwerp, 205
+
+  MATTHEW. Seigneur of Beauvau;
+    in the story of the Clerk of Rohan, 189-193
+
+  MAUNOIR. A Jesuit Father, 388
+
+  MAURON. A town in Brittany;
+    battle at, 31
+
+  MAY, ISLE OF. An island in the Firth of Forth, 357
+
+  MAYENNE. Charles de Lorraine, Duke of;
+    one of the leaders of the Catholic League, 229
+
+  MEGALITHS. The derivation and meaning of the terms 'menhir' and
+        'dolmen,' 37-38;
+    nature and purpose of the monuments, 38-39;
+    the menhir of Dol, and its legend, 39-41;
+    the chapel-dolmen at Plouaret, 41;
+    the megaliths at Camaret, 41;
+    at Penmarch, 41;
+    at Carnac, 42-45;
+    the tumulus at Mont-Saint-Michel, 45;
+    the dolmen at Rocenaud, 46;
+    'cup-and-ring' markings, 46-48;
+    the gallery of Gavr'inis, 48;
+    the megaliths of the Ile aux Moines and the Ile d'Arz, 48;
+    folk-beliefs associated with the monuments, 48-53;
+    tales connected with them, 52;
+    the question of the date of their erection, 53;
+    the nains' inscriptions upon, 97-98;
+    the megaliths of Carnac supposed to have been built by the gorics,
+        98
+    _See also_ Menhir _and_ Dolmens
+
+  MELUSINE. A fairy, in French folk-lore;
+    mentioned, 327
+
+  MENAO. A place in Wales;
+    battle of, 22
+
+  MÉNÉAC. A town in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 42
+
+  MENHIR. A megalithic monument, 18;
+    the menhir of Dol, 18, 39-40;
+    probably connected with pillar-worship and Irminsul-worship, 18
+        _n._;
+    derivation and meaning of the term, 38;
+    purpose of the monuments, 38-39
+
+  MERIADOK. A Cornish knight;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 269, 272
+
+  MERIADUS. A Breton chieftain;
+    in the Lay of Gugemar, 299-301
+
+  MERLIN. An enchanter, in Arthurian legend;
+    meets Vivien in Broceliande, and is afterward enchanted by her
+        there, 65-69;
+    his relationship with Vivien as presented in Arthurian legend,
+        69;
+    the varying conceptions of, 70;
+    the typical Druid or wise man of Celtic tradition, 70;
+    protects Arthur in his combat with Sir Pellinore, 256;
+    and Arthur's finding of Excalibur, 256-257
+
+  MEZLÉAN. A place in Brittany, 362, 363;
+    the Clerk of, in the ballad of Azénor the Pale, 361-363
+
+  MILTON OF COLQUHOUN. A district in Scotland;
+    inscribed stones found in, 47
+
+  MINIHY. A town in Brittany;
+    St Yves' will and breviary preserved in the church of, 353
+
+  MODRED, SIR. Nephew of King Arthur;
+    his contest with the King, 344
+
+  MONCONTOUR. A village in Brittany, 242
+
+  MONEDUC. Mother of St Nennocha, 340
+
+  MONTAGNES D'ARRÉE, or AREZ. A mountain chain in Brittany;
+    the Yeun in, 102;
+    mentioned, 235
+
+  MONTALEMBERT, COMTE DE. His _Moines d'Occident_, cited, 19
+
+  MONTFORT, JOHN OF. Duke of Brittany (John IV);
+    disputes the succession to the Dukedom, 30-32, 35-36;
+    captures the château of Suscino, 210;
+    mentioned, 204
+
+  MONTMORENCY. The house of;
+    mentioned, 174
+
+  MONTREUIL-SUR-MER. A town in the Pas-de-Calais, France;
+    St Winwaloe's body preserved at, 371
+
+  MONT-SAINT-MICHEL.
+    I. A tumulus, 45-46
+    II. An island off the coast of Brittany, 45 _n._;
+      King Arthur's fight with the giant of, 275;
+      mentioned, 103
+
+  MOOR, THE. In a story of Morvan;
+    Morvan's fight with, 218-220;
+    the character of, probably drawn from Carlovingian legend, 225
+
+  MOORS, THE. Mentioned, 225
+
+  MOORE, THOMAS. The poet;
+    quoted, 187
+
+  MORAUNT. An Irish ambassador at the English Court;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 262-263, 264, 266
+
+  MORBIHAN.
+    I. One of the departments of Brittany, 13, 48, 49;
+      the nains' inscriptions on the megaliths of, 98;
+      the Pardon of Notre Dame de la Clarté held in, 378
+    II. An inland sea or gulf in the south of Brittany, (Gulf of
+        Morbihan);
+    naval battle between the Romans and Veneti probably took place in,
+        16;
+    mentioned, 48
+
+  MORGAN, DUKE. A Cymric chieftain;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 258-259, 261-262
+
+  MORIN. A priest, 388
+
+  MORLAIX. A town in Brittany;
+    the castle of, haunted by gorics, 99;
+    the teursts of the district of, 100;
+    in the story of the Youth who did not Know, 106, 107, 108,
+        109;
+    national costume in, 376-377
+
+  MORTE D'ARTHUR. Malory's romance;
+    the presentation of Vivien in, 69;
+    Arthur's finding of Excalibur related in, 256;
+    incident in, paralleled in the Lay of Gugemar, 301-302;
+    mentioned, 257
+
+  MORVAN LEZ-BREIZ. A famous Breton hero of the ninth century, 212;
+    stories of, 212-224;
+    tradition that he will return to "drive the Franks from the Breton
+        land," 224
+
+  MOURIOCHE, THE. A malicious demon, 101
+
+  MÜLLER, W. MAX. Mentioned, 358
+
+  MURILLO. A celebrated Spanish painter;
+    paintings by, in the château of Caradeuc, 207
+
+  MUT. An Egyptian goddess;
+    mentioned, 43
+
+  MUZILLAC. A town in Brittany;
+    head-dress of the women of, 376
+
+  N
+
+  NAINS. A race of demons;
+    their character, 96-98;
+    guardians of hidden treasure, 99
+
+  NAMNETES. A Gallic tribe which inhabited Brittany, 16
+
+  NANN, THE SEIGNEUR OF. The story of, 57-59
+
+  NANTES. A city in Brittany;
+    in a ballad, represented as the scene of magical exploits of
+        Abélard and Héloïse, 253;
+    traditionally associated with sorcery, 253;
+    Equitan the King of, 313;
+    the scene of the Lay of the Dolorous Knight, 328;
+    Nomenoë obtains possession of, 338;
+    mentioned, 17, 30, 168, 169, 170, 180, 337
+
+  NANTES. The castle of, 205
+
+  NEOLITHIC AGE. The race which built the stone monuments of Brittany
+        probably belonged to, 37 _n._
+
+  NÉVET. Forest of, in Léon, 367
+
+  NÉVEZ. A town in Brittany, 190
+
+  NEW CALEDONIA. An island in the Pacific;
+    markings on the megalithic monuments in, 46-47
+
+  NICOLE, THE. A mischievous spirit, 100-101
+
+  NIGHTINGALE, THE LAY OF THE. One of the _Lais_ of Marie de France,
+        302
+
+  NIGHT-WASHERS. A race of supernatural beings, 100
+
+  NIMUE. A name under which Vivien, the Lady of the Lake, appears in
+        some romances, 69;
+    mentioned, 256
+    _See_ Vivien
+
+  NOGENT. Sister of Gugemar, 292
+
+  NOGENT-SUR-SEINE. A town in France;
+    the abbey at, founded by Abélard, and made over by him to Héloïse,
+        249;
+    Abélard and Héloïse buried at, 250
+
+  NOLA. A youth;
+    in the story of the Foster-brother, 170-171
+
+  NOMENOË. A Breton chieftain, afterward King of Brittany;
+    rises against Charles the Bald and defeats him, 23, 337-338;
+    a story of, 23-25;
+    and St Convoyon, 335, 336, 337;
+    sends gifts to Pope Leo IV, 337;
+    burns the abbey of Saint-Florent, 337
+
+  NORMANDY. The duchy;
+    early relations of Brittany with, 27-30
+
+  NORMANS. The Bretons rise against, 196-198;
+    spread the Arthur legend, 254, 255;
+    mentioned, 338
+
+  NOROUAS. Personification of the north-west wind;
+    a story of, 163-167
+
+  NORTHMEN, NORSEMEN. Invade Brittany, 25;
+    defeated by Alain Barbe-torte and expelled from Brittany,
+        25-27;
+    the battle of Kerlouan between the Bretons and, 225
+
+  NORTH-WEST WIND, THE. Personification of;
+    a story of, 163-167
+
+  NORTON, MRS. An English poetess;
+    her _Lady of La Garaye_, quoted, 194, 195, 196
+
+  N'OUN DOARE. A youth;
+    in the story of the Youth who did not Know, 106-115
+
+  NUTT, A. Cited, 99 _n._, 254
+
+  O
+
+  OBERON. King of the fairies;
+    mentioned, 74
+
+  OEDIPUS. King of Thebes;
+    mentioned, 357
+
+  OGIER THE DANE. One of the paladins of Charlemagne;
+    entered Fairyland, 326
+
+  OLAUS MAGNUS. A sixteenth-century Swedish ecclesiastic and writer;
+    mentioned, 290
+
+  ORIDIAL. Father of Gugemar, 292
+
+  ORIGEN. One of the Fathers of the early Church;
+    and St Barbe, 333
+
+  ORLÉANS. The city;
+    the siege of (1428-29), 174;
+    the play or mystery of, on Jeanne Darc, 175;
+    mentioned, 229
+
+  OSISMII. A Gallic tribe which inhabited Brittany, 16
+
+  OSSIAN. A semi-legendary Celtic bard and warrior;
+    mentioned, 211
+
+  OSSORY. A district in Ireland;
+    emigration from, to Brittany, 22
+
+  OTHERWORLD. The Celtic, 171-172;
+    Fairyland identified with, 327
+
+  OUESSANT. An island off the coast of Brittany;
+    St Pol in, 365;
+    the costume of the women of, 374-375
+
+  OUST. A river in Brittany, 205
+
+  OWAIN. A Welsh chieftain, son of Urien;
+    Taliesin the bard of, 22
+
+  OWEN GLENDOWER. A Welsh chieftain;
+    the Bretons send an expedition to help, in his conflict with the
+        English, 234
+
+  P
+
+  PALESTINE. Mentioned, 145, 190, 269, 302
+
+  PARACLETE ('Comforter'). Name given by Abélard to his abbey at
+        Nogent, 249;
+    Abélard and Héloïse buried at, 250
+
+  PARDONS. Religious pilgrimage festivals of the Bretons, 378-380
+
+  PARIS. The city;
+    mentioned, 108, 109, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118,
+        119, 120-121, 156, 157, 158, 195, 208, 229,
+        230-231, 351
+
+  PARIS, GASTON. A noted French philologist;
+    claims that Arthurian romance originated in Wales, 254;
+    identifies the persons to whom Marie de France dedicated her
+        _Lais_ and _Fables_, 284
+
+  PASSAGE DE L'ENFER. An arm of the sea over which the Breton dead
+        were supposed to be ferried, 383
+
+  PATAY. A village in Loiret, France;
+    the battle of, 174
+
+  PAVIA. A city in Italy;
+    Francis I of France taken prisoner at, 207
+
+  PELLINORE, SIR. One of the Knights of the Round Table;
+    Arthur broke his sword in combat with, 256
+
+  PEMBROKESHIRE. Welsh county;
+    St Samson a native of, 17
+
+  PENATES. Household gods of the Romans;
+    mentioned, 53
+
+  PEN-BAS. A cudgel carried by the men of Cornouaille, 372;
+    rarely carried by the men of St Pol, 375
+
+  PENHAPP. A village in the Ile aux Moines;
+    dolmen at, 48
+
+  PENMARCH. A town in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 41;
+    Ty C'harriquet near, 49;
+    a fireplace in the church of St Non at, 381
+
+  PENRAZ. A village in the Isle of Arz;
+    megaliths at, 48
+
+  PENTECOST. A Jewish festival;
+    mentioned, 324
+
+  PENTHIÈVRE. A former county of Brittany, 27, 205
+
+  PENTHIÈVRE. Joan of;
+    wife of Charles of Blois, 30;
+    in the War of the Two Joans, 31;
+    her marriage to Charles, 32
+
+  PENTHIÈVRE. Stephen, Count of, 208
+
+  PERCIVAL. Hero of _Percival le Gallois_;
+    analogy between his flight and that of Morvan, 224
+
+  PERCIVAL LE GALLOIS. Arthurian saga;
+    mentioned, 224
+
+  PÈRE LA CHIQUE. An old man;
+    in the story of the Magic Rose, 159-160, 162
+
+  PERGUET. A village in Brittany;
+    the fireplace in the church of St Bridget at, 381
+
+  PERSEUS. A mythical Greek hero;
+    mentioned, 357, 358
+
+  PERTHSHIRE. Scottish county;
+    the 'Washing Woman' in, 100
+
+  PETRANUS. Father of St Patern, 347
+
+  PHILIP VI. King of France;
+    mentioned, 30
+
+  PICTS. The race;
+    Celts flee from Britain to Brittany, to escape, 17;
+    the legend that they built the original church of Corstorphine,
+        near Edinburgh, 51;
+    "wee fouk but unco' strang," 99
+
+  PIGS. St Pol taught the people to keep, 366
+
+  PILLAR-WORSHIP. Probable connexion of the menhir with, 18 _n._
+
+  PILLARS. Tales of spirits enclosed in, 52
+
+  PLACE OF SKULLS, THE. In the story of the Bride of Satan, 144
+
+  PLÉLAN. A town in Brittany;
+    St Convoyon removes to, from Redon, 338
+
+  PLESTIN-LES-GRÈVES. A town in Brittany;
+    St Efflam buried in the church of, 281
+
+  PLOERMEL. A town in Brittany;
+    St Nennocha founded her monastery at, 340
+
+  PLOUARET. A town in Brittany;
+    the dolmen-chapel at, 41
+
+  PLOUBALAY. A town in Brittany;
+    in the story of the Fisherman and the Fairies, 81
+
+  PLOUBER. A town in Brittany, 199, 202
+
+  PLOUGASTEL. A town in Brittany;
+    the costume of the men of, 375;
+    the Calvary of, 384
+
+  PLOUHARNEL. A village in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 42
+
+  PLOURIN. A village in Brittany;
+    St Budoc lived at, 356
+
+  POITOU. A former county of France;
+    ravaged by Nomenoë, 337;
+    mentioned, 176
+
+  POMPONIUS MELA. A Roman geographer;
+    quoted, 63
+
+  PONT L'ABBÉ. A town in Brittany;
+    national costume in, 376
+
+  PONT-AVEN. A village in Brittany, 364
+
+  PONTIVY. A town in Brittany;
+    chapel to St Noyola at, 360
+
+  PONTORSON. A town in Brittany, 275
+
+  POOR, THE. Regard paid to, at Breton festivals and ceremonies,
+        387
+
+  PORSPODER. A town in Brittany;
+    St Budoc lands at, and dwells in, 356
+
+  POULDERGAT, MANNAÏK DE. The bride-to-be of Silvestik, 232
+
+  PRAGUE. Capital of Bohemia;
+    mentioned, 203
+
+  PRELATI. An alchemist of Padua, employed by Gilles de Retz, 176,
+        178-179
+
+  PRINCESS STARBRIGHT, THE. The story of, 121-131;
+    mentioned, 153
+
+  PRINCESS OF TRONKOLAINE, THE. The story of, 115-121
+
+  PROCOPIUS. A Byzantine historian;
+    on a Breton burial custom, 383-384
+
+  PROP OF BRITTANY, THE. Name given to Morvan, chieftain of Léon,
+        212;
+    stories of, 212-224
+
+  Q
+
+  QUEBAN. Wife of King Grallo;
+    St Ronan discovers her fault, 368
+
+  QUEBEC, THE. A British vessel;
+    her fight with the _Surveillante_, 238-240
+
+  QUEEN ANNE'S TOWER. Name of the keep of the château of Dinan, 209
+
+  QUESTEMBERT. A town in Brittany;
+    the Château des Paulpiquets at, 49
+
+  QUIBERON. A town in Brittany, 46
+
+  QUIMPER. A city in Brittany;
+    St Convoyon Bishop of, 335;
+    national costume in, 372-373;
+    mentioned, 186, 188
+
+  QUIMPER, COUNT OF. In a story of Morvan, 213, 216
+
+  Quimperlé. A town in Brittany;
+    the château of Rustefan near, 208;
+    St Goezenou killed at the building of the monastery at, 370
+
+  R
+
+  RAMA. A hero in Hindu mythology;
+    mentioned, 52
+
+  R[=A]M[=A]YANA. A Hindu epic;
+    mentioned, 52
+
+  RAOUL LE GAEL. A Breton knight, 29
+
+  RAVELSTON QUARRY. A quarry near Edinburgh;
+    mentioned, 51
+
+  REDON or RODON. A town in Brittany;
+    the abbey of: founded by St Convoyon, 335-336;
+    the bones of St Apothemius carried to, 336;
+    the bones of St Marcellinus carried to, 337;
+    Nomenoë takes spoil from the Abbey of Saint-Florent to, 337;
+    St Convoyon removes from, 338;
+    St Convoyon buried at, 338
+
+  REDONES. A Gallic tribe which inhabited Brittany, 16
+
+  REGINALD. Bishop of Vannes, 335, 336
+
+  REID, GENERAL JOHN. The composer of _The Garb of Old Gaul_, 238
+
+  REINACH, SALOMON. Cited, 53
+
+  RELIGION. Brittany the most religious of the French provinces,
+        377;
+    the religious element in the Breton character, 377-378
+
+  RELIQUARIES. In Brittany, 382
+
+  REMUS. In Roman legend, brother of Romulus;
+    mentioned, 358
+
+  RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE. References to, 205, 206, 209
+
+  RENÉ. Constable of Naples, 190
+
+  RENNES. A city in Brittany;
+    the scene of Nomenoë's vengeance, 23-25;
+    the Counts of, gain ascendancy in Brittany, 27;
+    the marriage of Charles of Blois and Joan of Penthièvre at, 32;
+    Robert the sorcerer dwelt in, 242;
+    Nomenoë obtains possession of, 338;
+    mentioned, 17, 181, 195
+
+  RESTALRIG. A village near Edinburgh;
+    the well of St Triduana at, 59-60
+
+  RETIERS. A town in Brittany the Roches aux Fées at, 51
+
+  RETZ, or RAIS. A district in Brittany, 23, 174
+
+  RETZ, CARDINAL DE. A French politician and writer;
+    imprisoned in the castle of Nantes, 205
+
+  RETZ, GILLES DE. A Breton nobleman;
+    a story of, 173-180;
+    the identification of, with Bluebeard, 174, 180
+
+  REVOLUTION, FRENCH. Of 1789;
+    mentioned, 188, 195, 338, 353, 369
+
+  REVUE CELTIQUE. Cited, 212 _n._
+
+  RHEINSTEIN. A famous castle on the Rhine;
+    mentioned, 203
+
+  RHINE. The river;
+    mentioned, 203
+
+  RHUYS. _See_ St Gildas de Rhuys
+
+  RHYS, SIR JOHN. And the origin of Druidism, 245;
+    mentioned, 70
+
+  RICHARD II. Duke of Normandy;
+    mentioned, 196
+
+  RICHELIEU, CARDINAL. A famous French statesman;
+    the château of Tonquédec demolished by order of, 204
+
+  RIEUX, JEAN DE. Marshal of Brittany;
+    leader of the expedition to help Owen Glendower, 234
+
+  RITHO. A giant whom King Arthur slew, 277
+
+  ROAD OF ST POL, THE. Name given by Breton peasants to a megalithic
+        avenue, 365
+
+  ROBERT I. Duke of Normandy, 28
+
+  ROBERT. A sorcerer who dwelt in Rennes, 242-243
+
+  ROBERT DE VITRY. A Breton knight, 29
+
+  ROCENAUD. A village in Brittany;
+    dolmen at, 46
+
+  ROCEY. The house of, 174
+
+  ROCHE-MARCHE-BRAN. A rocky hill;
+    the chapel of St Barbe built on, 335
+
+  ROCHER, THE WOOD OF. The dolmen near, 50
+
+  ROCHERS. A Breton château;
+    Mme Sévigné associated with, 208
+
+  ROCHES AUX FÉES. Name given to the megalithic monuments by the
+        Bretons, 49;
+    near Saint-Didier-et-Marpire, 50;
+    in Rhetiers, 51;
+    supposed to be the meeting-place of sorcerers, 243
+
+  ROCKFLOWER. A fairy maiden;
+    in a tale from Saint-Cast, 83
+
+  RODRIGUEZ, FATHER. Mentioned, 47
+
+  ROE. A river in Ireland;
+    Druidic ritual associated with, 246
+
+  ROGER. An English knight;
+    in the legend of the Ward of Du Guesclin, 33-35
+
+  ROHAN. The house of, 206
+
+  ROHAN. Alain, Viscount of, 189
+
+  ROHAN. Jeanne de, daughter of Alain de Rohan;
+    in the story of the Clerk of Rohan, 189-193
+
+  ROHAND. A vassal of Roland;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 258-259, 260-261, 262
+
+  ROLAND, SIR. A knight;
+    in the story of the Unbroken Vow, 60-63
+
+  ROLAND RISE. A Cymric chieftain, Lord of Ermonie;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 258-259, 261
+
+  ROLLESTON, T. W. Cited, 246
+
+  ROLLO. A famous Norse leader, first Duke of Normandy;
+    mentioned, 28
+
+  ROMANS, THE. In Brittany, 16
+
+  ROME. The city;
+    mentioned, 196, 337
+
+  ROMULUS. In Roman legend, the founder of Rome;
+    mentioned, 357, 358
+
+  RON. The name of King Arthur's lance, 280
+
+  ROND. A dance performed at weddings, 385-386
+
+  ROSAMOND. Mistress of Henry II of England (Rosamond Clifford, 'the
+        Fair Rosamond');
+    mentioned, 284
+
+  ROS-YNYS. A place in Wales, afterward St David's;
+    a story of St Keenan and, 343-344
+
+  ROUND TOWER. At Ardmore, Ireland, 51;
+    at Abernethy, Perthshire, 52
+
+  RUMENGOL. A village in Brittany;
+    the Pardon of the Singers held at, 378
+
+  S
+
+  SACRING BELLS. The use of, an old Breton custom, 380
+
+  ST ANNE. A Breton saint;
+    Morvan prays to, 216-217;
+    Morvan rewards with gifts, 218;
+    Morvan gives praise to, for his victory over the Moor, 220;
+    frees Morvan from his burden, 224;
+    mentioned, 146
+
+  SAINTE-ANNE-LA-PALUD. A village in Brittany;
+    the Pardon of the Sea held at, 378
+
+  ST APOTHEMIUS. St Convoyon steals the bones of, from Angers
+        Cathedral, and takes them to Redon, 336
+
+  ST AUGUSTINE. Archbishop of Canterbury;
+    mentioned, 100
+
+  ST BALDRED. A Celtic saint, 359-360
+
+  ST BALDRED'S BOAT. A rock in the Firth of Forth;
+    the legend of, 359
+
+  ST BARBE. A Breton saint, 332-335
+
+  SAINTE-BARBE. A village in Brittany;
+    megaliths at, 42
+
+  ST BIEUZY. A Breton saint, 345-346;
+    the Holy Well of, at Bieuzy, 381
+
+  ST BRIDGET. An Irish saint;
+    Azénor prays to, and is helped by, 354;
+    church of, at Berhet, the custom of ringing the sacring bell
+        survives in, 380;
+    church of, at Perguet, the fireplace in, 381
+
+  SAINT-BRIEUC.
+    I. An _arrondissement_ of Brittany, 88, 350
+    II. A town in Brittany;
+      a relic of St Keenan preserved in the cathedral of, 344
+
+  SAINT-BRIEUC, BAY OF. A bay on the Breton coast;
+    the Nicole of, 100;
+    mentioned, 18, 350
+
+  ST BUDOC. A Breton saint;
+    the legend of, 353-356
+
+  SAINT-CAST. A village in Brittany;
+    in the story of the Lost Daughter, 75;
+    a story from, 84;
+    the story of the Combat of, 236-237;
+    mentioned, 83
+
+  ST CECILIA'S DAY. Ceremonies in honour of King Gradlon on, 189
+
+  ST CHARLES. Jesuit church of, at Antwerp;
+    relics of St Winwaloe preserved at, 371
+
+  ST CONVOYON. A Breton saint, 335-338
+
+  ST CORBASIUS. A Breton saint;
+    kills St Goezenou, 370
+
+  ST CORNELY. A Breton saint, the patron of cattle;
+    in a legend of Carnac, 44-45
+
+  ST DAVID'S. A city in Wales, originally called Ros-ynys;
+    in a story of St Keenan, 344
+
+  SAINT-DENIS. A famous abbey, in the city of Saint-Denis, in France;
+    Du Guesclin buried in, 32
+
+  SAINT-DIDIER. A village in Brittany;
+    the Roches aux Fées near, 50
+
+  ST DUBRICUS. A British saint;
+    mentioned, 346
+
+  ST DUNSTAN. A British saint, called St Goustan in Brittany,
+        248-249
+
+  ST EFFLAM. A Breton saint;
+    and King Arthur's encounter with the dragon of the Lieue de Grève,
+        278-281;
+    the story of St Enora and, 340-342;
+    mentioned, 366
+
+  ST ENORA, or HONORA. A Breton saint;
+    the story of Efflam and, 279, 281, 340-342
+
+  SAINT-FLORENT. A town in France;
+    Nomenoë and the abbey of, 337
+
+  ST GALL. A famous monastery in Switzerland;
+    mentioned, 247
+
+  ST GERMAIN. A French saint, Bishop of Paris;
+    the exchange of wax for wine between St Samson and, 19;
+    persuades Nennocha to embrace the religious life, 340
+
+  ST GILDAS. A British saint;
+    in the story of Comorre the Cursed, 181, 183-184;
+    founded the abbey of St Gildas de Rhuys, near Vannes, 248-249
+
+  ST GILDAS DE RHUYS. An abbey near Vannes;
+    founded by St Gildas, 248-249;
+    Abélard appointed abbot of, 248;
+    St Bieuzy died and was buried at, 346;
+    St Patern educated at, 348
+
+  ST GOEZENOU. A Breton saint, 368-370
+
+  ST GOUSTAN. The Breton name of St Dunstan, 249
+
+  ST HENWG. _See_ Henwg
+
+  ST HONORA, or ENORA. _See_ St Enora
+
+  ST ILTUD. A Welsh saint;
+    in a legend of St Samson, 349;
+    St Pol a disciple of, 364;
+    mentioned, 346
+
+  ST IVES. _See_ St Yves
+
+  SAINT-JACUT-DE-LA-MER. A village in Brittany;
+    in the story of the Fisherman and the Fairies, 80, 84
+
+  ST JAOUA. A Breton saint, 366
+
+  SAINT-JEAN-DU-DOIGT. A village in Brittany;
+    the Pardon of the Fire held at, 378, 379
+
+  ST JOHN. A Breton saint, 197
+
+  ST KADO. A Breton saint;
+    mentioned, 197
+
+  ST KÉ, or ST QUAY. Popular name in Brittany for St Keenan, 344
+
+  ST KEENAN. A Breton saint, 343-344
+
+  ST KENTIGERN, or ST MUNGO. Patron saint of Glasgow;
+    the legend of, 356-357;
+    mentioned, 70, 359
+
+  ST LAZARUS. The Order of;
+    Louis XV sends to the Count of La Garaye, 195
+
+  ST LEONORIUS, or LÉONORE. A Breton saint, 346-347
+
+  ST LOUIS. _See_ Louis IX
+
+  ST MAGAN. A Breton saint, brother of St Goezenou, 370
+
+  ST MALGLORIOUS. A Breton saint, 356
+
+  ST MALO, or MACHUTES. A Breton saint;
+    the people of Corseul hostile to the teachings of, 343
+
+  SAINT-MALO. A town in Brittany;
+    the scene of the Lay of Laustic, 302;
+    St Convoyon born near, 335;
+    mentioned, 230
+
+  SAINT-MALO, BAY OF. The Nicole of, 100-101
+
+  ST MARCELLINUS. Bishop of Rome;
+    the bones of, given to St Convoyon by Pope Leo IV, and taken by
+        him to Redon, 337
+
+  ST MÉRIADEC. A Breton saint;
+    his skull used in the ritual of the Pardon of Saint-Jean-du-Doigt,
+        379
+
+  ST MICHAEL. The archangel;
+    chapel of, on the tumulus of Mont-Saint-Michel, 46;
+    the child Morvan thinks he has seen, 213;
+    Morvan thinks a knight more splendid than, 214
+
+  ST MICHEL. A Breton saint, 'Lord of Heights';
+    a chapel of, near Le Faouet, 333
+
+  ST MUNGO. _See_ St Kentigern
+
+  ST NENNOCHA. A Breton saint, 340
+
+  ST NICHOLAS. A Breton saint;
+    probably the survival of a pagan divinity, 345
+
+  ST NICOLAS DE BIEUZY. Church of, in Bieuzy, 180
+
+  ST NON. A Breton saint;
+    a fireplace in the church of, at Penmarch, 381
+
+  ST NOYALA. A Breton saint, 360
+
+  ST PATERN. A Breton saint, 347-349
+
+  ST POL, or PAUL. Of Léon;
+    a Breton saint, 248, 364-367
+
+  SAINT-POL-DE-LÉON. A town in Brittany;
+    the bell of St Pol in the cathedral of, 367;
+    St Pol buried in the cathedral of, 367;
+    the cathedral of, built by St Pol, 367;
+    costume of the men of, 375;
+    mentioned, 237, 365, 366
+
+  ST ROCH. A Breton saint;
+    shrine of, at Auray, 42;
+    and the markings on the dolmen at Rocenaud, 46
+
+  ST RONAN. A Breton saint, 367
+
+  ST SAMSON. A British saint;
+    settles in Brittany, 17-19;
+    St Gildas the friend of, 248;
+    stories of, 349-350;
+    St Pol of Léon a fellow-student of, 364
+
+  ST SERF. A Scottish saint, abbot of Culross, 357
+
+  SAINT-THÉGONNEC. A town in Brittany;
+    the Calvary at, 384
+
+  ST TIVISIAU, or TURIAU. A Breton saint, 338-339;
+    the fountain of, at Landivisiau, 340
+
+  ST TREMEUR. A Breton saint, son of Comorre;
+    the reliquary in the church of, 382
+
+  ST TRIDUANA. Guardian of a well at Restalrig, near Edinburgh,
+        59-60
+
+  ST TRIPHYNE. A Breton saint;
+    wife of Comorre, 180
+    _See_ Triphyna
+
+  ST TUGDUAL. A Breton saint;
+    founded the church of Tréguier, 167;
+    made a miraculous crossing to Brittany, 360
+
+  ST TURIAU. _See_ St Tivisiau
+
+  ST VOUGAS, or VIE. A Breton saint, 360
+
+  ST WINWALOE. A Breton saint, 370-371
+
+  ST YVES, or YVO. Brittany's favourite saint, 350-353
+
+  SAINT-YVES. A village in Brittany;
+    the Pardon of the Poor held at, 378
+
+  SAINTS. Stories of, an important element in Breton folk-lore,
+        332;
+    the primitive saint driven to use methods similar to those of the
+        pagan priests around him, 332;
+    tales of the Breton saints, 332-371;
+    the product of poor countries rather than of prosperous ones,
+        350
+
+  SAINTSBURY, G. E. B. Cited, 254
+
+  SALOMON III. Count of Brittany;
+    drives back the Northmen, 25
+
+  SANT-E-ROA ('Holy Wheel'). Apparatus of the sacring bell;
+    at the church of St Bridget, Berhet, 380
+
+  SATAN. A story of, 143-144;
+    Gilles de Retz seeks association with, 177-179;
+    in an old Breton conception of Hell, 389
+    _See also_ Devil
+
+  SAXONS. The race;
+    Celts flee from Britain to Brittany to escape, 15, 17
+
+  SCOTLAND. Markings on the megalithic monuments in, 46-47;
+    the harp formerly the national instrument of, 229;
+    claimed as the birthplace of Arthurian romance, 254;
+    late survival of the custom of keeping domestic bards in, 364;
+    mentioned, 52
+
+  SCOTS. The race;
+    Celts flee from Britain to Brittany to escape, 17
+
+  SCOTT, SIR WALTER. The novelist;
+    his treatment of legendary matter, 211;
+    one of the first to bring the story of Tristrem to public notice,
+        258;
+    continued the story of Tristrem beyond the point at which the
+        Auchinleck MS. breaks off, 272
+
+  SEA OF DARKNESS, THE. In the story of the Castle of the Sun, 132
+
+  SEA-SNAKE'S EGG. _See_ Adder's Stone
+
+  SÉBILLOT, PAUL. Cited, 52, 212 _n._;
+    mentioned, 74;
+    and the story of the Combat of Saint-Cast, 237 _n._
+
+  SEIGNEUR WITH THE HORSE'S HEAD, THE. The story of, 137-143
+
+  SEIGNEUR OF NANN, THE. The story of, 57-59
+
+  SEIN. _See_ Ile de Sein
+
+  SERIPHOS. An island in the Ægean Sea to which Danaë was carried;
+    mentioned, 358
+
+  SEVEN SAINTS OF BRITTANY. St Samson and six others who fled with him
+        from Britain, 350
+
+  SEVEN SLEEPERS, THE. Seven Christian youths of Ephesus who hid to
+        escape persecution and slept for several hundreds of years;
+    an altar to, in the dolmen-chapel at Plouaret, 41
+
+  SEVERN. The river;
+    mentioned, 349
+
+  SÉVIGNÉ, MME DE. A famous French epistolary writer;
+    sojourned in the castle of Nantes, 205;
+    wrote many of her letters from the château of Rochers, 208
+
+  SHARPE, CHARLES KIRKPATRICK. An antiquary and writer, friend of Sir
+        Walter Scott;
+    his treatment of legendary material, 211
+
+  SHEWALTON SANDS. A place in Scotland;
+    inscribed stones found at, 47
+
+  SHIP, THE. A rock off the coast of Brittany, said to have been the
+        vessel of St Vougas, 360
+
+  SHIP O' THE FIEND, THE. Orchestral work by Hamish MacCunn;
+    mentioned, 145
+
+  SHIP OF SOULS. A feature in Breton folk-belief, 384
+
+  SIGHT, MAGICAL. Bestowed by fairies, 82-83
+
+  SILVESTIK. A young Breton who followed in the train of William the
+        Conqueror to England;
+    the story of, 232-233
+
+  SIMROCK, C. J. Cited, 83
+
+  SKYE. An island off the west coast of Scotland;
+    the 'Washing Woman' in, 100
+
+  SLIEVE GRIAN. A mountain in Ireland;
+    mentioned, 52
+
+  SMALL, A. Cited, 52
+
+  SOCIÉTÉ ACADÉMIQUE DE BREST, BULLETIN DE. Cited, 199 _n._
+
+  SONG OF THE PILOT, THE. A Breton ballad, 238-240
+
+  SORCERY. Belief in, prevalent in Brittany, 241-243;
+    in ancient times, identified with Druidism, 245
+
+  SOUTH-WEST WIND, THE. Personification of, in a wind-tale, 163
+
+  SOUVESTRE, ÉMILE. A French novelist and dramatist;
+    mentioned, 180
+
+  SPAIN. Tristrem in, 270;
+    the giant of Mont-Saint-Michel came from, 275
+
+  SPENSER, EDMUND. The poet;
+    mentioned, 56
+
+  STONES. Folk-tales and beliefs connected with, 52-53
+
+  STYX. In Greek mythology, a river of the underworld;
+    mentioned, 327
+
+  SUN, THE. Personified in the story of the Princess of Tronkolaine,
+        117-118;
+   the story of Tristrem and Ysonde claimed as a sun-myth, 274-275;
+   personified in the 'fatal children' stories, 358
+
+  SUN-PRINCESS. A story of the search for, 121-131
+
+  SUROUAS. Name of the south-west wind;
+    in a wind-tale, 163
+
+  SURVEILLANTE, LE. A Breton vessel;
+    her fight with the British ship _Quebec_, 238-240
+
+  SUSANNUS. Bishop of Vannes, 336-337
+
+  SUSCINO. A Breton château, 209-210
+
+  SWINBURNE, Algernon. The poet;
+    quoted, 267
+
+  T
+
+  TADEN. A village in Brittany;
+    the Count and Countess of La Garaye buried at, 195
+
+  TALIESIN ('Shining Forehead'). A British bard;
+    and the vision of Jud-Hael, 20-21;
+    early years, 21;
+    the bard of Urien and Owain-ap-Urien, 22;
+    death of, 22;
+    probably sojourned in Brittany, 22;
+    acquainted with black art, 252
+
+  TAM O' SHANTER. The character in Burns's poem;
+    mentioned, 244
+
+  TANTALLON CASTLE. A famous ruin in Scotland;
+    mentioned, 359
+
+  TARTARY. The country;
+    mentioned, 115
+
+  TEGID, LLYN. A lake in Wales (Lake Bala);
+    the dwelling-place of Keridwen, a fertility goddess, 59
+
+  TELIO. A British monk, associated with St Samson;
+    said to have introduced the apple into Brittany, 18
+
+  TEURSTA POULICT. A variety of the teursts taking animal shape,
+        100
+
+  TEURSTS. A race of evil spirits, 100
+
+  TEUS, or BUGELNOZ. A beneficent spirit of the district of Vannes,
+        100
+
+  THENAW. Mother of St Kentigern, 357
+
+  THIERRY, J. N. A. A French historian;
+    quoted, 17
+
+  THOMAS THE RHYMER, or THOMAS OF ERCILDOUNE. Thirteenth-century
+        Scottish poet;
+    his version of the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 258 _et seq._;
+    visited Fairyland, 326;
+    mentioned, 64, 255, 327
+
+  THOUARS, CATHERINE DE. Wife of Gilles de Retz, 174
+
+  THOUARS, GUY DE. A French knight;
+    married to Constance of Brittany, 30
+
+  TIBER. The river;
+    mentioned, 358
+
+  TINA. A maiden;
+    in the story of the Baron of Jauioz, 145-147
+
+  TITANIA. Queen of the fairies;
+    mentioned, 74
+
+  TONQUÉDEC. A Breton château, 204
+
+  TOPOGRAPHY OF IRELAND. A work by Giraldus Cambrensis;
+    cited, 187
+
+  TORRENT OF PORTUGAL, SIR. A fifteenth-century English metrical
+        romance;
+    mentioned, 358
+
+  TOULBOUDOU. A seigneury near Guémené, 334
+
+  TOULBOUDOU, John, Lord of;
+    builds the chapel of St Barbe at Le Faouet, 334-335
+
+  TOUR D'ELVEN. A keep of the château of Largoet, 206
+
+  TOURLAVILLE. A Breton château, 208-209
+
+  TOWER OF LONDON, THE. Charles of Blois confined in, 31;
+    the name of, occurs frequently in Celtic and Breton romance, 99
+
+  TRAPRAIN LAW. A mountain in East Lothian, formerly called
+        Dunpender;
+    Thenaw cast from, 357
+
+  TREASURE, J. P. Cited, 16 _n._
+
+  TREDRIG. A village in Brittany;
+    St Yves the incumbent of, 351
+
+  TREES. Tales of spirits enclosed in, 52
+
+  TRÉGASTEL. A town on the Breton coast;
+    an island near believed by the Bretons to be the fabled Isle of
+        Avalon, 282
+
+  TRÉGUENNEC. A village in Brittany;
+    St Vougas associated with, 360
+
+  TRÉGUIER.
+    I. A former county of Brittany, 27, 350
+    II. A town in Brittany;
+      St Yves buried at, 353;
+      a burial custom of, 383;
+      mentioned, 167, 168, 237, 350
+
+  TRÉGUNC. A town in Brittany;
+    dolmen at 42
+
+  TREMALOUEN. A hamlet in Brittany;
+    ruins at, haunted by courils, 99
+
+  TREMTRIS. Inverted form of Tristrem's name given him by Rohand to
+        secure his safety, 259;
+    Tristrem assumes the name in Ireland, 264, 266
+
+  TRÉPASSÉS, BAY OF. A bay on the Breton coast, 185
+
+  TRÈVES. A village in Brittany;
+    had a reputation as the abode of sorcerers, 242
+
+  TRIDWAN. _See_ St Triduana
+
+  TRIEUX. A river in Brittany, 203, 204
+
+  TRIPHYNA (ST TRIPHYNE). A maiden, married to Comorre, 180-184
+
+  TRISTREM, SIR ('Child of Sorrow'). One of the Knights of the Round
+        Table, son of Blancheflour;
+    the story of, and Ysonde, 257-275;
+    mentioned, 301
+
+  TRISTREM, SIR. An ancient metrical romance;
+    incidents in, paralleled in the story of Bran, 227-228;
+    date of composition of, 228;
+    had a Breton source, 255;
+    Sir Walter Scott one of the first to bring Thomas the Rhymer's
+        version of, to public notice, 258;
+    Thomas the Rhymer's version of, recounted, 258-272;
+    Scott's continuation of the Auchinleck MS., 272-274;
+    the story of Tristrem and Ysonde claimed as a sun-myth, 274-275
+
+  TROGOFF. The château of;
+    in the legend of the Ward of Du Guesclin, 33-35
+
+  TROLLOPE, T. ADOLPHUS. Quoted, 179-180
+
+  TROMÉNIE-DE-SAINT-RENAN. A town in Brittany;
+    the Pardon of the Mountain held at, 378, 379
+
+  TROYES. A city in France;
+    Abélard's abbey of Nogent near, 249
+
+  TUGDUAL SALAÜN. A peasant of Plouber, composer of a ballad on the
+        Marquis of Guérande, 199, 202
+
+  TY C'HARRIQUET ('The House of the Gorics')
+    I. A name given to a megalithic structure near Penmarch, 49
+    II. A name applied to Carnac, 98
+
+  TY EN CORYGANNT. A name given to a megalithic structure in Morbihan,
+        49
+
+  U
+
+  UNBROKEN VOW, THE. A story of Broceliande, 60-63
+
+  UNITED STATES, THE. The Bretons aid, in the War of Independence,
+        238
+
+  URIEN. A Welsh chieftain;
+    Taliesin the bard of, 21, 22
+
+  V
+
+  VAL-ÈS-DUNES. A place in Brittany;
+    Alain, Count of Brittany, defeated in battle at, 28
+
+  VALLEY OF BLOOD. A place in hell;
+    in the story of the Baron of Jauioz, 146
+
+  VANNES.
+    I. A former county of Brittany;
+      mentioned, 23, 180
+    II. The city;
+      the dialect of, 16 _and n._;
+      the ancient city of the Veneti, 17;
+      the Teus or Bugelnoz of, 100;
+      in the story of Comorre the Cursed, 183;
+      the château of Suscino near, 209;
+      the abbey of St Gildas near, 248;
+      St Convoyon educated at, 335;
+      St Patern the patron saint of, 347;
+      St Patern Bishop of, 348;
+      the legend of the founding of the church of St Patern at,
+        348;
+      St Pol of Léon in, 364
+
+  VENETI. A Gallic tribe which inhabited Brittany, 16, 17
+
+  'VENUS, THE.' An image at Quinipily, 381
+
+  VILAINE. A river in Brittany, 335
+
+  VILLARS, ABBÉ DE. A French priest and writer;
+    cited, 64
+
+  VILLECHERET. A village in Brittany;
+    the head-dress of the women of, 375
+
+  VILLEMARQUÉ. _See_ Hersart de la Villemarqué
+
+  VINE, THE. Said to have been introduced into Brittany by Gradlon,
+        189
+
+  VIRGIN MARY, THE. In a Breton legend, 380
+
+  VITRÉ. A Breton château, 208
+
+  VIVIEN. An enchantress, in Arthurian legend;
+    meets Merlin in Broceliande, and afterward enchants him there,
+        65-69;
+    as presented in Arthurian legend and in other romances, 69;
+    may be classed as a water-spirit, 69;
+    the probable purpose of the story of Merlin and, in Arthurian
+        legend, 70;
+    of Breton origin, and does not appear in British myth, 256;
+    gives Arthur the sword Excalibur, 256-257;
+    Sir Lancelot stolen and brought up by, 257
+
+  W
+
+  WACE. A twelfth-century Anglo-Norman poet;
+    quoted, 54;
+    and the fountain of Baranton, 71
+
+  WAGNER, RICHARD. The composer;
+    mentioned, 258
+
+  WALES. Legend of the submerged city in, 187, 188;
+    the harp anciently the national instrument of, 229;
+    Bretons send an expedition to, to help Glendower, 234;
+    claimed as the birthplace of Arthurian romance, 254;
+    helped the development of Arthurian romance, 255;
+    Tristrem sojourns in, and wins fame there, 270;
+    mentioned, 59, 343
+
+  WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, AMERICAN. Bretons take part in, against
+        England, 238
+
+  WAR OF THE TWO JOANS, THE. A war waged for the succession to the
+        Dukedom of Brittany, 31-32, 35-36
+
+  WARD OF DU GUESCLIN, THE. A Du Guesclin legend, 33-35
+
+  WASHING WOMAN, THE. An evil spirit of the Scottish Highlands, 100
+
+  WEDDING CUSTOMS. In Brittany, 385-386
+    _See also_ Marriage
+
+  WELLS, HOLY. In Brittany, 381-382
+
+  WELSH. The language;
+    the Breton tongue akin to, 15
+
+  WERE-WOLF. A man transformed into a wolf;
+    the prevalence, origin, and forms of the superstition, 289-292;
+    a were-wolf story, 284-289
+
+  WESTMINSTER. The city;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, Ysonde carried to, for trial,
+        270
+
+  WEXFORD. A county of Ireland;
+    emigration from, to Brittany, 22
+
+  WHEEL OF FORTUNE, THE. A name wrongly given to part of the apparatus
+        of the sacring bell, 380
+
+  WHITE CHURCH. A church in Tréguier;
+    in the story of the Foster-brother, 170, 171
+
+  WILLIAM II. Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror);
+    Conan II of Brittany and, 27, 28-29;
+    Bretons accompany, on his expedition against England, 232,
+        233
+
+  WILLIAM, COUNT. The name of the nobleman to whom Marie of France
+        dedicated her Fables, identified with Longsword, Earl of
+        Salisbury, 283-284
+
+  WINDS, THE. Play a large part in Breton folk-lore, 162;
+    a wind-tale, 163-167
+
+  WINE. St Germain exchanges for wax from the monks of Dol, 19;
+    a wine festival in honour of King Gradlon, 189
+
+  WOMEN. In early communities, magical power often the possession of,
+        246;
+    generally the conservators of surviving Druidic tradition, 247;
+    St Goezenou's antipathy to, 369;
+    costume of the women of Brittany--_see_ Costume _and_ Head-dress
+
+  WOOD OF CHESTNUTS. Mentioned in a story of Morvan, 217
+
+  Y
+
+  YEUN, THE. A morass of evil repute, 102-103;
+    a story of, 103-105
+
+  YORK. The city, in England;
+    St Samson ordained at, 349
+
+  YOUDIC, THE. A part of the Yeun peat-bog, 103;
+    a story of, 103-105
+
+  YOUGHAL. A town in Ireland;
+    Azénor and the infant Budoc washed ashore at, 355;
+    Budoc becomes abbot of the monastery at, 356
+
+  YOUGHAL, ABBOT OF. In the legend of St Budoc, 355, 356
+
+  YOUTH WHO DID NOT KNOW. The story of, 106-115
+
+  YS, or IS. A submerged city of legend;
+    the legend of, 184-188;
+    such a legend common to several Celtic races, 187;
+    Giraldus Cambrensis and the legend of, 187-188
+
+  YSEULT. _See_ Ysonde
+
+  YSONDE, or YSEULT. Daughter of the King of Ireland;
+    some incidents in her story paralleled in the ballad of Bran,
+        228;
+    the story of Tristrem and, 257-274;
+    the story of Tristrem and, claimed as a sun-myth, 274-275
+
+  YSONDE OF THE WHITE HAND. Daughter of Hoel I, Duke of Brittany;
+    in the story of Tristrem and Ysonde, 271, 273
+
+  YVES. Husband of Azénor the Pale, 361-363
+
+  YVON. A youth;
+    in the story of the Castle of the Sun, 131-137
+
+  YVONNE. A maiden;
+    in the story of the Castle of the Sun, 131-137
+
+
+  ZIMMER, H. Cited, 278
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber Notes
+
+Typographical inconsistencies have been changed and are listed below.
+
+Hyphenation has been standardized.
+
+Otherwise, archaic spelling and the author's punctuation style have
+been preserved.
+
+Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
+
+The macrons over the a's in Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata and R[=a]m[=a]yana are
+indicated by [=a].
+
+
+Transcriber Changes
+
+The following changes were made to the original text:
+
+  Page 113: Added quote ("What do you desire? You have only to speak
+            and it shall be =brought."=)
+
+  Page 121: Was 'litle' (You can restore me permanently to my human
+            shape if you choose to show only a =little= perseverance
+            and courage.)
+
+  Page 206: Added apostrophe (in Octave =Feuillet's= _Roman d'un jeune
+            Homme pauvre_)
+
+  Page 227: Added quote (for when you die you will at least end your
+            days in =Brittany."=)
+
+  Page 267: Was 'attendent' (her passion for Tristrem moved her to
+            induce her =attendant= Brengwain to take her place)
+
+  Page 357: Was 'Eufeurien' (Thenaw met Ewen, the son of =Eufuerien=,
+            King of Cumbria, and fell deeply in love with him)
+
+  Footnote 38: Was 'Legende' (_La =Légende= de la Mort_)
+
+  Index: Was 'bulit' (the chapel of St Barbe =built= on, 335)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Legends & Romances of Brittany, by Lewis Spence
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