WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 313 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



THE people inhabiting Pleyben and the surrounding district are 

 probably as purely Breton as any in Lower Brittany for there the 

 old Celtic ballads of the sixth century may still be heard at their 

 festive meetings, and there many a legend and many a quaint 

 custom, half pagan and half Christian, traceable even to an earlier 

 period, is still retained by the descendants of the ancient race with 

 singular tenacity and devotion. The manly game of wrestling, 

 too, of long standing in the country, is still to the fore; and 

 although they have had no Homer to chronicle the achieve- 

 ments of their antique heroes, long passed away, the names of 

 many such are still handed down from generation to generation, 

 and their prowess in the ring recorded with just pride throughout 

 the region of Cornouaille. 



The very name of Ar Gourren, which is the Breton term for a 

 wrestling-match, indicates its classic origin, that being also the 

 Breton for the crown or prize awarded to the successful wrestler. 

 In the " Testamant Nevez," however, the word, as used by St. 

 Paul in reference to the Isthmian Games so well-known to the 

 Corinthians, is spelt Gunmen, which of course is a corruption of 

 corona, the crown bestowed on the victor in the athletic sports of 

 old Rome at a subsequent period, the translation being doubtless 

 made from a Latin rather than the Greek text into the Breton 

 language. 



