BRETON TROUT STREAMS 51 



which was composed during the epidemic 

 somewhere about 1867. The priests had 

 placards printed and pasted up on the 

 graveyard walls and doors of each village. 

 These notices bore the stamp of authority. 

 They explained at some length what the 

 people ought and what they ought not to 

 do to avoid the cholera. All water must 

 be flavoured with vinegar. No fruit must 

 be eaten, and so on and so forth. The 

 Bretons did not see them ! Even those 

 who could read realised that printed 

 matter was a dangerous thing, not to be 

 meddled with, least of all to be looked at. 

 They tilted their broad-brimmed hats 

 over their eyes and passed by on the other 

 side. Then fortunately the priesthood be- 

 thought them of a better plan. They sent 

 for the local maker of sones, and he pared 

 down their printed placard into a couple 

 of verses, and set them to a well-known 

 tune. Within the week this warning 

 had reached the most lonely and out-of- 

 the-way farmhouses. The beggars sang 

 " The Cholera Song " from end to end of 

 Brittany. 



The guerz is fast dying out in this land, 



