[1] Limestra, mantle of some special material, which is highly valued
by the Bretons.
[2] Aiguilles ailées. The fly commonly called demoiselle in French,
in Brittany is nadoz-aër; literally, "needle of the air."
[3] A proverbial expression in Brittany to designate folly and
impertinence.
[4] The song of the Korigans runs thus: Di-lun, di-meurs,
di-merc'her. The conclusion of this tale will explain the reason of
their keeping only to these first three days.
[5] Cry of encouragement amongst the Bretons. In the same sense they
use also the word hardi! but the Celtic origin of this last word
seems rather doubtful.
[6] Mettre en foire. Breton expression, signifying a sale at the
house of a debtor.
[7] Breton expression, derived from an old custom of parading all
insolvents about the parish with a girdle of straw.
[8] Equivalent to the French proverb, "One must not sell the bear-skin
till the bear is killed."
[9] In many farms there is a small threshing-floor reserved especially
for black wheat.
[10] This is the exact distance at which the Bretons define Hell
to lie.
[11] Good or bad, these etymologies of Ahèz and Par-is are accepted
by the Bretons. The last word is even treasured in a proverb,
"Since the town of Is was drowned,
The like of Paris is not found."
[12] See the Korigans of Plauden, p. 31.
[13] This legend still finds credence. The spot is shown, not far
from Carhaix, whence Grallon's daughter caused her lovers' bodies to
be thrown; and some antiquaries are also of opinion that Dahut often
visited this town, which has received from her its name of Ker-Ahèz
(town of Ahèz); at any rate, the old paved road which leads from the
Bay of Douarnénèz to Carhaix proves beyond a doubt that there was
frequent intercourse between Keris and this city.
[14] All that follows is more properly ascribed to St. Corentin's
disciple Gwenolé.
[15] The peasantry still show the marks.
[16] There appears to exist incontestable evidence of a city named
Is lying buried beneath the Bay of Douarnénèz; and the relics which
have been discovered from time to time prove beyond all doubt that
art had been brought to very high perfection in those early times. It
was supposed to date about the fourth century.
[17] The pigs in Brittany are called, no one knows why, mab-rohan,
sons of Rohan.
[18] Easter Sunday. So called because blessed laurel is distributed
at church upon this day.
[19] Gobelinn. None other than the loup-garou, or were-wolf.
[20] 'Rozennik' is the diminutive of Rosenn; so 'Guilcherik,'
"Korils of Plauden," p. 43.
[21] Literally 'will-o'-the-wisp.'
[22] A number of petticoats is considered a mark of great elegance
amongst the Breton peasant-girls around Morlaix.
[23] A proverbial expression, denoting some suspicion that people have
been acquiring wealth somewhat unfairly. There is an old tradition
among the country people, that if you take a black hen to some
cross-road, and there use certain incantations, you can summon the
devil, who will pay you handsomely for your hen.
[24] Heubeul-Pontréau, a Breton form of reproach to young rustics of
ill address.
[25] All European nations have admitted two races of dwarfs, the one
mischievous and impious, the other benevolent to man. The first is
represented in Brittany by the Korigans, the second by the Teuz. The
Teuz is just the same as the elf or fairy of the Scotch and Irish,
aiding the labourers in their toil, and resembles the mountain spirit
of Germany.
[26] In Brittany they reckon by reals; the Breton real is not worth
one franc eight centimes, as in Spain, but only twenty-five centimes.
[27] Miz-du, Breton name of November.
[28] A name given to All Saints.
[29] L'Ankou, literally, "the agony;" a name generally given to the
spectre of death.
[30] M. de Ker-Gwen. A joke on the paleness of death; gwen signifying
white.
[31] The allusion is to a proverbial Breton verse, in which the
inhabitants of the four dioceses are facetiously characterised as
thievish, false, stupid, and brutal.
[32] Douez signifies in Breton the moat of a fortified town; but as
these moats were formerly full of water, and served the purposes of
the washerwomen, the name douez has gradually been appropriated to
the washing-places.
[33] Spern-gwenn ("l'épine blanche"), to this day a family name
in Brittany.
[34] All the Breton shepherds make these crosses with twigs of furze,
on the thorns of which they stick daisies and broom-blossoms; whole
rows of these flowery crosses may often be seen along the ditches.
[35] Shend, 'subdue.'
[36] This form of exorcism is supposed to originate in a story related
of St. Hervé. A wolf having devoured an ass belonging to his uncle,
the saint compelled the savage beast to dwell peaceably thenceforward
in the same shed with the sheep, and to perform all the duties of the
defunct ass. A similar story is told of St. Malo, another Breton saint.
[37] The legend of the gold-herb (which must be gathered, according
to common credence, barefooted, en chemise, without the aid of any
iron tool, and whilst one is in a state of grace) comes evidently
from the Druids. It is the selage of the ancients, spoken of by Pliny
(lib. xiv.), and is said by the Bretons to glitter like gold before
the eyes of those who at the moment may fulfil the conditions for
perceiving it, and who, by touching it with the foot, are instantly
enabled to understand the language of all animals, and to converse
with them.
[38] The tradition of the redbreast, who broke a thorn from the crown
of our Lord, is current throughout Brittany.
[39] Mor Vyoc'h signifies Sea-cow.
[40] The Breton peasants believe that the fountain of Languengar has
the property of promoting the flow of milk in those nurses who drink
of it.
[41] In Brittany, as in England, it takes nine tailors to make a man.
[42] This form of taking possession is extremely ancient. In all the
legislative systems of "the ancient world" transfer of landed property
was effected by symbolical tradition; that is, by the handing over
to the new owner of some visible and palpable portion or symbol of
the land itself. At Rome, the sale of a field takes place standing
on a turf cut from the field itself, which is handed over to the
purchaser as a symbol of his new possession. In an old deed of 828
occurs the following: "I make over the underwritten goods and lands to
the Church of St. Mary. And I make legal cession by straw and knife,
glove and turf, and branch of tree; and so I put myself out, expel,
and make myself absent."--D. Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, Preuves,
p. 524. And as Brittany is the very chosen home of old customs, it
has happened that even quite lately, at a farm near Léon, all these
forms of taking possession were gone through, not as having any legal
efficacy, but in compliance with ancient usage.
[43] The vervain.
[44] Marc'h-Mor, literally, Sea-horse.
[45] The Breton name for Vannes, Gwen-ed, signifies literally White
Wheat.
[46] This form of declaring war, preserved by tradition, is curious,
and, as far as we know, peculiar to Brittany. Amongst the ancient
Romans they cast upon the enemy's territory a javelin scorched
at the fire; in the middle ages the iron gauntlet was thrown, or
the finger was gnawed; the savages of North America sent, like the
Scythians, bundles of arrows, the number of which indicated that of
the combatants; but burning straw flung upon the enemy's land is a
peculiar symbol, which we have never noticed elsewhere.
[47] The Breton name of St. Gildas.
[48] This custom still exists in Brittany.
[49] The name Groac'h, or Grac'h, means literally old woman; and
was given to the Druidesses, who had established themselves in an
island off the south-west coast of Brittany, called thence the isle
of Groac'h; by corruption Groais, or Groix. But the word gradually
lost its original meaning of old woman, and came to signify a woman
endowed with power over the elements, and dwelling amongst the
waves, as did the island Druidesses; in fact, a sort of water-fay,
but of a malevolent nature, like all the Breton fairies. Such of
our readers as are not acquainted with La Motte Fouqué's beautiful
tale of Undine, may require to be reminded that the sprites, sylphs,
gnomes, and fairies of the popular mythologies are not necessarily,
perhaps not even generally, exempt from mortality.
[50] A cluster of islets off the southern coast of Brittany, near the
headland of Penmarc'h. The name signifies literally summer-land. One
of them is called the isle of Lok, or Lock, and contains a fish-pool,
from which it seems to derive its name.
[51] A dwarfish sprite.
[52] Young Breton girls thus address old women from a motive of
respect.
[53] Chanteuse de vérité (Dion ganérez), literally qui chante droit,
a name given in Brittany to fairies who foretell the future.
[54] These are different kinds of cabbages cultivated in Brittany.
[55] A name given by the Bretons to the tricksy sprite Maistr Yan.
[56] The ribbon covered with lace worn by Breton peasant-girls in
their hair.
[57] Negotiators for a wedding, who improvise disputations in verse,
like Virgil's shepherds.
[58] See tale at p. 31.
[59] Dibenn-eost, a name given to autumn in Brittany.
[60] This word idiot must not lead to misconception; the idiot of
popular tales is the personification of cunning weakness triumphing
over strength. Idiotism, in the traditions of Christian nations,
plays the same part as physical ugliness in those of the ancients. The
latter take the hunchback Æsop to accomplish extraordinary actions;
the former Peronnik, or some other lad of weak mind, in order that
the contrast between the hero and the action may be more striking,
and the result more unexpected.
We refer the reader to the note which follows this story for the more
particular examination which it seems to deserve.
[61] On the sea-coast they scrape away the burnt part left in the
porridge-kettles with a mussel-shell; in the interior they use for
the same purpose a sharp stone, commonly a gun-flint.
[62] The milk of the black cow is considered in Brittany to be at
once the daintiest and the most wholesome.
[63] The Bretons attribute to the butter of the White Week and of
the Rogation weeks a special delicacy, and even medicinal properties,
on account of the excellence of the pastures at this season.
[64] The Bretons believe in a special demon for sending one to sleep
in church, and call him ar c'houskezik, from the verb kouska, which
signifies to sleep.
[65] Koanta pabaour, a common form of mockery in Brittany.
[66] A proverbial expression, meaning that one has no time to lose.
[67] The Searcher for the Basin,--Myvyrian, t. i. p. 8. The poem
of Perceval, or the Quest for the Holy Graal, is to be found in the
Royal Library of Paris, Mss. No. 7523, et supp. franc. 450. We give
M. de la Villemarqué's analysis, contenting ourselves with abridging
his labours.