WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 87 



having been duly offered to the innocent recreation of body 

 and mind ; their creed being, doubtless, that " the Sabbath was 

 made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." You may break, 

 in some countries Christian so called every law, human and 

 divine, without a throb of indignation or a Word of remonstrance 

 from the bystanders ; but if you just whistle a lively tune on a 

 Sabbath day, the woe, woe, of a coming doom is pronounced with 

 pitiless horror on your profane head. 



But a short time ago a friend, possessing an extensive moor in 

 Scotland, told me the following anecdote : He was walking, he 

 said, one Sunday morning, near some of his best breeding-ground, 

 in company with a gillie and a wild young setter, the latter ranging 

 a-head and disturbing the grouse in every direction. After sundry 

 growls and angry expressions on the part of the gillie, he turned 

 round abruptly, and said, "Wull ye whustle the dog, Sir Greville?" 

 His master, not exactly catching what he said, and making no 

 immediate response, he exclaimed impatiently, " Wull ye whustle 

 the dog, Sir Greville ? for 'tis the Saubbuth day, and I mauna 

 whustle mysel'." And yet this man, who, to save himself and 

 the birds, had no objection to Sir Greville's going to perdition, 

 was the most immoral, dissolute fellow on the whole estate ; his 

 Sunday evenings being especially devoted to the whisky bottle 

 and other excesses. 



But to return to Carhaix. The hubbub in the town about day- 

 break on a Sunday morning was more than I can adequately 

 describe. Horns sounded the most discordant notes, dogs yelled, 

 and men shouted and sacristied across the street, from window to 

 window, arranging their plans for the campaign, and deciding who 

 should, and who should not, accompany them to the chase. 

 Sometimes parties of even fifteen or twenty in number clubbed 

 together, and, with guns, hounds, and dogs of every description, 

 fell upon some ill-fated district, and literally combed it clean of 

 every living thing bigger than a Jenny wren or a cock-mouse. 



