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 Leonore (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 Treguier, 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 Treguier 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 etait 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 Cotes-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 Verite 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.



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 Treguier. 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 Treguier. 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 Azenor, "tall as a palm, bright as a star," but they had not been wedded a year when Azenor'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 Azenor'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 Azenor'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 Azenor 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 Azenor, 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 Azenor and Budoc, but died before he could embark. Azenor 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 Leon. 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 Azenor'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. Danae, 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 Mueller 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 Treguennec. 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.

Azenor the Pale

There is a story of another Azenor, who, according to local history, married Yves, heritor of Kermorvan, in the year 1400. A popular ballad of Cornouaille tells how this Azenor, who was surnamed 'the Pale,' did not love her lord, but gave her heart to another, the Clerk of Mezlean.

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 Mezlean.

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 Mezlean had been true to Azenor for many a day, but he was poor and her parents would have none of him.

One morning as Azenor 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 Azenor 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."

Azenor 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 Azenor when going to the church that day. She set forth with her intended husband, riding on the crupper of his horse. Passing by Mezlean 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 Azenor 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 Azenor, "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, chateaux and broad lands, but the Clerk of Mezlean is poor."

"Poor he may be, Father," murmured Azenor, "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 Azenor 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 chatelaine. "It is next the Chamber of the Black Cavalier. Follow me and I will take you thither."

Once within the chamber, Azenor, 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 Azenor.

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 Mezlean. 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 Mezlean? Too late! Azenor is dead.

"I have seen the fountain beside which Azenor plucked flowers to make a bouquet for her 'sweet Clerk of Mezlean,'" says the Vicomte Hersart de la Villemarque, "when the Seigneur of Kermorvan passed and withered with his glance her happiness and these flowers of love. Mezlean 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 Henan, near Pont-Aven, by the "bard of the old Seigneur," who dictated it to a damsel. "How comes it," asks Villemarque, "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 Leon

St Pol (or Paul) of Leon (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 Leon, 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 Leon 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-Leon 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 Leon, 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 Leon. 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 Leon, 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 Leon, where he retired into a hermitage in the forest of Nevet. 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 creche 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.



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 Quimperle 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 Leon, 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 Landevennec, 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 pieces, 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 piece 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'Abbe 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 piece, 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.



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 Tromenie-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 Clarte, 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 abbe clad in his surplice. The finger is wrapped in the finest of linen, and one by one the congregation files past the abbe 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 Meriadec, 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 Tromenie. Every sixth year there is the 'Grand Tromenie,' 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 Brevelenz. 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 Tremeur, 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 Treguier 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-Thegonnec, 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-Thegonnec 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.



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 cafe. 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 evidence, 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 Leon. 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 Herve, 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

ABELARD. A Breton monk; the story of Heloise 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; Heloise, 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

ALOIDA. 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

ANNAIK. A maiden; in a story of the Marquis of Guerande, 199-202

ANNE. Duchess of Brittany; married to Charles VIII of France, and then to Louis XII, 36; the oratory of, in the chateau of Dinan, 209; gives the chateau of Suscino to John of Chalons, 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'Arree, 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 Caesar in, 16; two British kingdoms in, 19; the first monastery in, founded by Gwennole, 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 Greve, 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 Villemarque'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

AZENOR. Mother of St Budoc of Dol, 354-356

AZENOR 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 Villemarque; 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-FRANCOIS-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 chateau; 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 Penthievre, 32; defeated at Auray, 35; the chateau 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 chateau 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