DANCING AND REFRESHMENTS.

221

average price of a good head of hair, when cleaned, is eleven shillings.

A Pardon without dancing would be wanting in one of the chief features of pleasure. Accordingly, when the procession was over, the excited peasants formed a vast ring and whirled round in the same fashion as I witnessed in the ronde at Châtelaudren. At the conclusion of each dance a general rush was made towards the refreshment booths, where strong drinks were in great request; with these, cakes called crêpe were eaten, consisting of flour, sugar, and milk, rolled out to the consistency of a wafer and baked; they were sold in sheets about three feet square, and extensively patronized by young Breton gallants, who presented them to their partners, folding them with their brawny hands for convenient stowage within the mouths of their sweethearts. The price of the cakes was one sou per sheet, so, as may be supposed, though superficially large, one was not a pièce de résistance to the jaws of a Breton girl, accustomed to the severe discipline of hard black bread.

As the evening fell the mirth and jollity partook more of a boisterous character, and scenes were enacted which showed that the proverb respecting the moral distance between God and Church holds good in Brittany; for the grey walls of St. Kerdevot, within which so many prayers had been muttered in

the morning, looked down, as the moon silvered the exquisite finials of the lofty spire, on broken vows and wild revelry, which, regardless of the sanctity of the church, desecrated the walls of the building. But such is a Breton Pardon,-commenced by penitence, groans, and tears, concluding in shouts, imprecations, and debauchery; and as evidence that this description is not exaggerated, hear Émile Souvestre's testimony in his account of a Pardon at Guingamp :-"La sainte cérémonie finit le plus souvent par une orgie. A peine le cantique est-il achevé, que les rangs des pélerins se rompent; des cris de joie, des appels, des rires éclatants succèdent au recueillement de la procession. La foule des pénitents se rassemble sur la place, où tous doivent coucher pêle-mêle sur la terre nue. Femmes et garçons se mêlent, se rencontrent, se prennent au bras, s'agaçent, se poursuivent à travers les rues obscures; et le lendemain, quand le jour se lève, bien des jeunes filles égarées rejoignent leurs mères le front rouge et les yeux honteux, avec un péché de plus à avouer au recteur de la paroisse."* written twenty years ago, and if the Pardon of St. Kerdevot be a fair example of these ceremonies in Brittany, Souvestre's description requires no modification; and as I withdrew from the strange scene which I have attempted to portray, I came to the

*Les Derniers Bretons.

This was

INFLUENCE OF BALLADS.

223

conclusion that while the Breton has retained the costume of his forefathers, he has also retained their love for intoxication and boisterous merriment.

Villemarqué and other writers declare that the clergy in Brittany have long endeavoured to curb the excessive license prevalent at Pardons. If this be true, it must be conceded that their influence is very slight. Ballad-makers appear to have been more successful. It is related that some of these rude poets, shocked by the scenes which they witnessed, composed ballads reproving drunkards and showing the fatal effects of intoxication. These were sung in the Communes prior to fêtes with such good effect, that the number of drunken peasants was greatly diminished.

AGRÉMENS OF QUIMPER.-THE RED MONKS.-STRANGE LEGEND.DRIVE TO QUIMPERLE.-PARDON OF ST. BANNALEC.-EXTRAORDINARY HEAD-DRESS.-ABBEY OF ST. CROIX.-THE ABBOT'S ROOM.-A TROUTY STREAM. THE ABBEY GARDENS.-EXQUISITE SKETCHING SUBJECTS.-OLD ABBEY CHURCH.-ST. GURLOT, HIS CURATIVE POWERS.-THE CARTULARY.-GREAT EXCITEMENT.FOREST OF CARNOET.-PARDON DES OISEAUX.-DRIVE TO L'ORIENT.-MODERN CHARACTER OF THE TOWN.-GENERAL SINCLAIR. -THE VIRGIN'S PROTECTION.-NOTRE DAME DE L'ARMOR.-BLESSING THE SARDINE FISHERY.-DRIVE TO HENNEBON.-JEANNE LA FLAMME. HER VALIANT DEEDS.-BRETON BALLAD.-NOTRE DAME DE LA JOIE. THE IRON WOMAN.-THE VENUS OF QUIMPILI.-DRIVE TO AURAY.

THE charming scenery around Quimper, and the numerous agrémens of the town, have led several English families to make that place their home; and to

those fond of shooting and fishing, the surrounding woods and numerous rivers afford additional attractions. The sketcher will be tempted to pause in the town for a day by the old buildings, which yield many delightful bits. Unfortunately the march of so-called improvement has swept away the ruins of the Church of the Cordeliers, which were extremely picturesque, and I was informed that the fragment of a very ancient house near the town, formerly inhabited by a society of Templars, is also marked for destruction.

These Templars, or Red Monks as they are called in Brittany, form the burden of a curious Breton legend, transmitted from generation to generation in the form of a popular ballad.

According to the story, certain Red Monks were in the habit of abducting beautiful girls, secreting them in their monastery, and, at the expiration of some weeks or months, burying them alive beneath crucifixes in their chapel.

Their crimes being at length discovered, a terrible example was made of three of the fraternity, who being detected in the act of burying a girl and her infant, were burned alive, and their ashes cast to the wind. And now imaginative Bretons see on certain nights three monks clothed in white mantles, with a large red cross on their breast, riding furiously