96 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Pas de série pour le nombre un ; 

 La Nécessité unique, 

 Le Trépas, père de la Douleur ; 

 Rien avant, rien de plus. 



" La Nécessité iiniquo'" is identitied with Death — the Breton " Ankou," 

 the forgetting of all, not unlike the Nirvana of the Buddhists. " Les 

 deux bœufs " are those of Hu-Cxadaru, an ancient Breton god. In the 

 "Quatre pierres à aiguiser ' we have a Breton variant of the Welsh 

 whctting-stone, which sharpened the swords of the brave, so that they 

 killed an enemy with a single stroke, but reduced the swords of cowards 

 to dust. The "Six enfants de cire" refer to the ancient and universal 

 practice of witchcraft, not j^et extinct, by which an enemy is made to fall 

 sick and die through the melting of his waxen image. The connection of 

 this Avith our modern hal)it of burning unpo^îular public characters in 

 effigy is obvious. The number seven, like three and twelve, was peculiarly 

 sacred : here we have seven elements, seven suns and seven moons ; three 

 beginnings and three endings, alike for man and for the sacred oak ; 

 twelve months in the year and twelve signs in the Zodiac. The '• Huit 

 feux, avec le grand feu " refer to the seven sacred fires perpetually burn- 

 ing in the temples and to the great fire, the Bel-tan, which the ancient 

 Irish lit in May in honour of the 8un-god. Here again Ave have a modern 

 variant in the Feux de St. Jean, which were lit on the Island of Orleans 

 as late as 1810.^" In the " Dix vaisseaux ennemis" and the "onze prêtres 

 armés" we may have a reference to the naval war in Armorica, when 

 Ctcsar put the Senators and Druids to the sword.^" The respective ages 

 of these tAVO rounds cannot be determined ; but the Christian must be 

 later than the conversion of Armorica in the sixth century, and the 

 Druidic somewhat earlier, and both must have their origin in a Pagan 

 past so dimly remote that Ave cannot noAv discern a single feature of it 

 clearly. 



I give Yillemarqué's notes as they stand for what they are worth, 

 not supposing it necessary to Avarn my readers that the Barzaz-Breiz has 

 fallen from its high estate of authenticity. If we Avant authentic Breton 

 folksongs. Ave must go to the Giverziou and Sonniou of M. Litzel, Avhere 

 Ave shall find a scrupulous exactitude, not excelled CA^en in Professor Child's 

 monumental collection of the English and Scottish ballads. The Barzaz- 

 Breiz is something quite different from these : it is not a faithful col- 

 lection of folksongs edited from unpublished manuscripts ; still less one 

 that is faithful to oral tradition, for the Bretons repudiate all knowledge 

 of its texts ; nor yet is it a trustAvorthy literary history. But it is not to 

 be thrown aside as completely useless, because it is no longer found to be 

 what it Avas once taken for by everyone. It is a store-house of infor- 

 mation, ^picturesquely rearranged for literary effect; in fact, a sort of 

 historical novel on a large scale — belonging to the same class of Celtic 



