CAVE DWELLINGS OF MEN. 



43 



" If we desire to visit these grottoes, we may descend from one 

 of the windmills by a winding path to the one called Femme 

 neuve, because it is the newest of the group. We are welcomed 

 with the best the proprietor has to offer. The women are busy 

 with their washing. The smoke escapes freely through the loose 

 planks of the sea-wall. A second chamber serves as a sleeping- 



Fig. 14. Interior View of the Grotto La Femme Neuve, Meschers. 



room and is furnished with two beds, a commode, and, opposite 

 the beds, the fireplace, back to the sea, between two small glass 

 windows. During high southwest winds the spray leaps up to the 

 height of the caves, the rain dashes against the planks, the grottoes 

 are inundated and made uninhabitable, and it becomes necessary 

 to seek shelter in some of the cottages of the village. 



"Another path from the windmills leads to a second grotto, 

 where lives Father Lavigne, a bright and sprightly man of about 

 eighty years, who makes a weekly trip to Royau and back in the 

 same day. He receives his visitor with great courtesy, hat in hand, 

 and shows him his two rooms, nearly bare, but commanding a fine 

 view over the gulf and the sea. His furniture is simple but neat ; 

 and the old gentleman, who has lived here more than forty years, 

 declares that he is quite happy, for health is left to him. His 

 cave-life has never given him rheumatism. 



" A locksmith and knife-grinder has recently established him- 

 self in a third cave, and has the love of a hermit for it. His door 

 and window are open, showing a single room with a bed of straw 

 on four legs, a wall-table, a few utensils, and a chair, as all the fur- 



