WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 26$ 



Endymion among the satyrs, and, if he had known it, would 

 doubtless have felt thoroughly ashamed of the low company into 

 which he had fallen. 



The ouvriers and peasants, with three or four small shop- 

 keepers who joined the party, amounted, all told, to fourteen 

 men, but of these not more than eight carried their guns openly; 

 the remainder, not possessing the qualification of a permis de 

 c/iasse, were nevertheless equally well provided with a gun apiece 

 necessary for that purpose. These were the braconniers, or 

 poachers, who, in defiance of the law, followed the chase, early 

 and late, far more keenly than their licensed neighbours ; but, 

 till fairly afield and clear of the gendarmes, each man carried his 

 gun snugly doubled up within the folds of his outside wrapper,, 

 a skin garment one could scarcely dignify with the name of coat. 

 The appearance of the men was wild and picturesque in the 

 extreme; but, though clad for the most part in sheep and goats' 

 skins of various colours, it would be a libel on Defoe's hero to 

 say their accoutrements were equally well-fashioned with those 

 of the castaway sailor, manufactured by his own hands. He, at. 

 least, was dressed en suite in goat-skin from head to foot, and, as- 

 his biographer represents him, must have looked, as he was, the 

 king of that desert isle ; whereas the ragged, parti-coloured attire 

 of these men, torn as it was by the brambles, and patched with 

 the coarsest sackcloth, gave them the appearance of a set of 

 brigands, whose trade had been unproductive for many a long 

 day. Then their heavy broad-brimmed hats and long curly hair,, 

 depending over both shoulders, added not a little to their savage 

 aspect, though, to give them their due, a race generally less, 

 savage in nature than those Breton peasants it would be difficult 

 to find in many countries boasting more culture and a higher 

 civilisation. 



But enough of the men ; and now for their mode of chase. 

 On turning from the high road into the broomy waste about a 



