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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



truck, but I suspect that the cart is 

 constructed primarily for the accom- 

 modation of barrels of cider — a product 

 extensively made in the country districts 

 and extensively consumed in the villages 

 and towns. 



The Breton women are very industri- 

 ous and are seldom seen idle, even when 

 not at their vocation. While resting at 

 home, while waiting about the wharves 

 or farms, and even while walking along 

 the streets and roads, they may usually 

 be seen busy knitting jackets, socks, caps, 

 etc., with most nimble fingers. 



The elderly women are particularly 

 fond of impromptu knitting bees, at 

 which conversation never lags. The ve- 

 hemence with which they then dissect 

 their neighbors, exchange gossip, and 

 discuss village affairs is astonishing, and 

 the language then used is very much 

 coarser than is sanctioned by Parisian 

 etiquette or is employed in their ordinary 

 conversation. Favorite places for their 

 gatherings are the sunny side of a church 

 and about the base of a calvary. As one 

 passes along a country road or a path 

 overlooking the sea, he often comes upon 

 groups of knitting, talking women. 



It was always a source of wonder to 

 me to see how scrupulously clean were 

 the caps and collars of the women and 

 girls even when they were engaged in 

 the dirty work about the sardine can- 

 neries, and it was likewise a source of 

 wonder that during the fishing season 

 they should have any time in which to 

 attend to their laundry work. I do not 

 know whether in the coast towns there 

 are large numbers of professional laun- 

 dresses or whether each woman or girl is 

 her own laundress on occasion, but I do 

 know that one meets a surprising number 

 of washerwomen on the country and sub- 

 urban roads and often comes upon large 

 parties of such women at work. 



Washing is done in the open air, on 

 the edges of brooks and ponds, some- 

 times under the cover of a shed which 

 has probably been erected by the village 

 or town, but more frequently under the 

 sky. Each woman kneels in a little three- 

 sided box resembling the body of a child's 



wheelbarrow, and has as a washboard a 

 piece of flat stone between the box and 

 the water's edge. The actual work of 

 washing is allowed to interfere but little 

 with conversation, and hence it often hap- 

 pens that one's ears rather than one's 

 eyes first detect the presence of these 

 parties. In the wild moorlands and other 

 places where other facilities are lacking 

 the washing may be carried on in mere 

 ditches, the women standing in the water. 



Round the town of Concarneau are 

 numerous curious Druidical remains, in- 

 cluding many upright monoliths, or men- 

 hirs, in a large tract of country known as 

 "The Place of Grief and Mourning." 

 There are also dolmens, as the horizontal 

 monuments or prostrate menhirs are 

 called. Both of these words are Armori- 

 can, and the syllable men in each means 

 stone. 



It is hardly necessary to say that the 

 Breton peasants and fishermen regard 

 these stones as of supernatural origin, 

 and their childish imaginations ascribe to 

 them all kinds of occult influences. Many 

 a Breton fisherman has satisfied the anxi- 

 ety of his wife at his failure to appear 

 until the morning after by relating how, 

 on his way home the night before, he sat 

 down to rest at the base of a menhir, and, 

 having fallen into a gentle sleep, he 

 awoke to find that a curious dwarf had 

 taken him inside the stone and kept him 

 there until the sun rose. One of the 

 fishermen told me that to have this inter- 

 esting experience it was necessary for a 

 man to imbibe a certain amount of liquor, 

 as the dwarf could hardly be expected to 

 appear to a perfectly sober person. 



In the vicinity of the village having the 

 suggestive name of Carnac, there is an 

 area thickly strewn with gigantic stone 

 monuments in eleven long lines. The 

 church and most of the houses in Carnac 

 are constructed of these mysterious 

 stones. In the contiguous district, nearly 

 forty miles wide, dolmens and menhirs 

 may be met with everywhere, and one 

 prostrate menhir is sixty-four feet long. 



All of the stones were erected in con- 

 nection with burial and the subsequent 

 worship of the dead, and in this cardinal 



