WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 47 



marked the kilometres of the road, and was engaged in vigorously 

 rubbing his back and shoulders against it ; and then, to cool 

 the irritation produced as well by this process as by the 

 parasitical company of which' he was endeavouring to rid him- 

 self, he rolled fiercely in the crisp, wet grass, to allay the feverish 

 pain that seemed to madden him. Had his skin been less thick 

 than that of a badger, he must have torn it into strips against the 

 surface of that rugged stone, as again and again he rose from 

 the ground and applied himself with renewed vigour to the 

 disgusting labour in which he was engaged. As Kergoorlas, 

 hearing my exclamation of horror, slackened his horses' pace, 

 we all recognised the man who in Carhaix was well known as "Le 

 Grand Loup," a huge, sturdy vagrant who never had done an 

 hour's work in his life, but subsisted on plunder and the misplaced 

 charity of strangers, who, seeing him in the garb of Lazarus, lying 

 from morning to night at the doorpost of the hotel, soliciting alms 

 or tobacco from all who entered, only encouraged by their gifts 

 the idleness and vagrancy he had so long practised, and which 

 was so prevalent in that country. Keryfan tossed him a few sous, 

 telling him to buy a piece of soap, and that its application to his 

 skin would do him far more service than all the menhir of 

 Carnac. 



As he rolled from the grass and clutched at the coin in the 

 dirty road, he poured forth a string of blessings, long as that of an 

 Italian mendicant monk, and probably quite as beneficial ; then, 

 looking up with the expression of a hungry wolf, he said : " Ay, 

 but the soap won't fill my empty stomach ; that is my first want." 

 Keryfan's sympathy was touched again, and so unmistakably 

 earnest was the vagrant's appeal, that a loaf and sausage were at 

 once pitched into his upraised hands. 



Locrist lies in a valley, and is charmingly situated at the 

 confluence of a small stream with the Carhaix river, the fine 

 overhanging woods rendering it one of the most picturesque 



