_L'Enchantement Impossible_ is an amusing story with one blemish, which
I have ventured to correct by the omission of half a dozen lines, and
the suppression of an unnecessary indelicacy. Unlike the last, this
is a mere work of fancy, without any particular object--a sort of
illustration of the old song and saying, _Love will find out the way_.
The Mer-man and his sister would seem to point out a Breton origin for
this story, as the belief in these marine marvels is strong upon the
coast of Brittany, where the females are called Morgan (sea-women),
or Morver'de (sea-daughters), and are supposed to draw down to their
palaces of gold and crystal, at the bottom of the ocean, those who
venture imprudently too near the edge of the water; but the Count de
Caylus was too well acquainted with the classical Tritons and Syrens to
render it necessary for him to draw upon the legends of Armorica for
such materials, and it is probable the story is entirely of his own
invention.
The absurd fashions in hair-dressing, glanced at in this story,
by the introduction of a fairy with her hair dressed _en chien
fou_, are commented upon in a little volume called _Histoires des
Modes Française_; Amsterdam and Paris, 1773. "The number of these
_frisures_," says the writer, "is almost infinite. Every year, every
month, produces new ones. We have seen, in succession, hair dressed _en
bequille_ (crutch fashion), _en graine d'epinards_ (spinach fashion!),
_en baton rompu_ (broken stick!); yesterday it was _en aile de pigeon_,
to-day it is _en débacle_."