44 GOLDEN DAYS 



forget the magic words of imprecation. 

 Then, if he meets a black-faced quadruped 

 when dayhght falls (no need to take un- 

 necessary chances) he stands, he firmly 

 grips the relic, or, failing that, the handle 

 of his landing-net; he loudly shouts : "To 

 hell, vile stinkard !" If nothing happens, 

 well, then it's not the Gabino but only a 

 browsing goat. 



For the most part we have only touched 

 on the larger rivers within our semicircle, 

 but there are endless smaller streams which 

 are well worth fishing. We shall find 

 plenty of them from Chateauneuf-du-Faou 

 right across to Noyal and La Vraie Croix, 

 and here, moreover, apart from the fishing, 

 the very beasts are said to have the power 

 of speech. Apparently the Noyal oxen are 

 the direct descendants of one which lived 

 in Bethlehem at the time that the saints 

 were arriving to prepare the manger. In 

 fact, these good folk were somewhat per- 

 turbed at finding this great beast taking 

 up all the room, and sore put to it to 

 know how best to get rid of him. The 

 old ox, however, realised the situation at 

 once — not only was he delighted to give 



