THE IDOL'S BIRTH. 253 



People have renounced for ever the old immortal gods, and 

 have imagined themselves an idol which they make for the 

 wants of every day; an all-powerful idol in the morning, 

 which meets with some incredulous votaries at mid-day, and 

 impious ones at three o'clock. 



This is the manner in which he is made : — Towards the 

 end of March, the seed of flax is sown in light ground, and 

 the seed of hemp in ground that has been well manured. 



In the month of July the hemp puts forth some insignifi- 

 cant greenish flowers, and shortly its grey round seeds, of 

 which birds are so fond, and which they come and steal, 

 follow : it may truly be said of it, — 



" Aux petits des oiseaux il donne la pSture." 

 (To the young of birds he gives food.) 



In the month of June the fields of flax are covered with 

 little blue flowers upon slender stalks, which bend and roll 

 with the wind like the waves of the sea. 



When they both begin to get yellow, they are pulled up 

 and put to steep, that is to say, they are plunged into water. 

 There the terrible power they are destined to wield begins to 

 manifest itself; the fish that inhabit the waters in which they 

 are immersed either fly or perish ; the men who are employed 

 in this part of the preparation of them, are afiepted with a 

 dry cough, and seldom live beyond the age of fifty years. 



Both hemp and flax are metamorphosed into thread. 



Hemp becomes cordage to moor vessels and boats in rivers, 

 and string for tops and boys' kites. 



But what curious and eager crowd is that rushing through 

 the streets ? A man, pale and with his eyes fixed, is escorted 

 by soldiers towards the most public place in the city; he is 

 given up to the hangman, who passes a hempen cord round 

 his neck and launches him into eternity. 



And here, as from time to time, some believers recognise 

 the idol ; and it is well known with what avidity the good 

 women contend for the smallest bits of the cord with which 

 the man has been hung. 



Numerous vessels glide over the bosom of the sea like 

 great swans with extended wings. These white wings are 

 still hemp transformed into cloth. 



