322 THE FISHWIVES OF PARIS. 



difference bring that our Scottish fishwives wear comfortable 

 shoes and stockings. We can see too the dripping nets hung 

 up to dry from the windows of the tumble-down-like houses, 

 and the gamins of Boulogne lounge about the gutters, squat on 

 the large side stones, or run up and down the long series of 

 steps, just the same as the fisher-folks' children do at home. . 



It is only, however, by penetratiag into the quaint villages 

 situated on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany, that we can 

 gain a knowledge of the manners and customs of those persons 

 who are daily engaged in prosecuting the fisheries. The 

 clergymen of their districts, as may be supposed, have great 

 power over them, and all along the French coast the fisher- 

 people have churches of their own, and they are constantly 

 praying for " luck," or leaving propitiatory gifts upon the altars, 

 as well as going pilgrimages in order that their wishes may be 

 realised. A dream is thought of such great consequence among 

 these people, that the women will hold a conference, early in 

 the day, in order to its interpretation. Each little village has 

 its storied traditions, many of them of great interest, and some 

 of them very romantic. I can only briefly allude, however, 

 to one of these little stories. Some of my readers may have 

 heard of the Bay of the Departed on the coast of Brittany, 

 where, in the dead hour of night, the boatmen are summoned 

 by some unseen power to launch their boats send ferry over to 

 a sacred island the souls of men who had been drowned in the 

 surging waters. The fishermen tell that, on the occasion of 

 those midnight freights, the boat is so crowded with invisible 

 -passengers as to sink quite low in the water, and the wails and 

 cries of the shipwrecked are heard as the melancholy voyage 

 progresses. On their arrival at the Island of Sein, invisible 

 beings are said to number the invisible passengers, and the 

 wondering awe-struck crew then return to await the next super- 

 natural summons to boat over the ghosts to the storied isle, 

 which was in long back days the chief haunt of the Druidesses 

 in Brittany. A similar story may be heard at GuUdo on the 

 same coast. Small skifis, phantom ones it is currently believed, 

 may be seen when the moon is bright darting out from under 

 the castle cliffs, manned by phantom figures, ferrying over the 

 treacherous sands the spirits whose bodies lie engulphed in the 

 neighbourhood. Not one of the native population, so strong is 

 the dread of the scene, will pass the spot after nightfall, and 

 strange stories are told of phantom lights and woftd demons 

 that lure the unsuspecting wayfarer to a treacherous death. 



