and departing, This authcrizes us to 
conjecture, that in the lefs favoured parts 
of France, as for inftance in Poitou, or at 
the foot of the Pyrenees and Cevennes, 
the progrefs of mental culture and illumi- 
nation has not been greater among the 
lower clafles of the people. 
Before the Revolution the priefts were 
venerated like Gods; and recent events 
prove how great an influence they ftill pof- 
fefs. The peafants eafily have forgot their 
king and ‘their nobles, but for the lofs of 
their priefts they were inconfolable, No 
child could rejoice more on finding a loft 
toy, than they when their priefts were re- 
ftored to them :—their fadnefs has vanifh- 
ed—their courage has revived. The the- 
Ocratic government of the Druids, the 
millions of genii with which they peopled 
the air, the veneration of trees, the fairy- 
tribes, were not deftroyed by the apoftles 
of Catholicifm: the miracles attributed to 
. thefe imaginary beings were transferred to 
the modern faints: they pacify the raging 
elements ; divide the waves of the ocean ; 
walk through the fea without wetting their 
feet ; metamorphofe their faffs into trees ; 
under their feet frefh water {prings forth; 
wherever they appear, the air becomes bal- 
famic ; the univerfe is fubjeé to their con- 
troul! 
The following are fome of the oral and 
written traditions, which sare current 
among the Bretagners. At the Caftle 
Roche Maurice, a dragon devoursmen and 
animals : King Briflonus pacifies him, by 
delivering to him every Sunday one unfor- 
tunate victim on whom the lot has fallen. 
— The celebrated Saint Gueurlé takes his 
fifter’s eye from the ftomach of a goofe, 
which had fwallowed it, and replaces it in 
its focket, without its beauty or luftre 
being diminifhed.—The necklace of Saint 
Sané ftrangles on the {pot thofe who are 
guilty of perjury.—St. Vincent Ferrier, 
who is faying mafs at Vannes, fearches 
for his gloves and his parapleu in Rome, 
without his abfence being obferved.— A 
wolf had devoured the afs of a poor man. 
St. Malo forces the glutton to perform the 
work of the animal which he had eaten, — 
Jon Gaut Y T’an (John and his Fire) isa 
kind of demon, who in the night carries 
five lighted candles on his five fingers, and 
whirls them about with great rapidity,— 
The repeated cry of the cuckoo indicates 
the year of marriage.—They dip the 
fhirts of children into certain wells - if 
the fhirt finks to the bottom, the child in- 
Bly dies before the expiration of a year; 
fit fwims, it isa fign that the child wil 
live a long time; and the wet fhirt is put 
On the poor creature to preferye it from 
oa 
1801.) ‘Account of the Department of Finiflerre in France. 
135 
every kind of evil.—In one place a num- 
ber of ftories are told about a (mall ttaff, 
which is changed into a black dog, an 
eagle, or a lion; in another they believe 
that eagles, by the command of a genius, 
carry men-up into the air.—A fudden 
noife, three times repeated, foretells an 
impending misfortune: the nocturnal 
howling of a dog is acertain foretoken of 
death.—In the roaring of the diftant main 
by night, and’ in the whiftling of the wind, 
they hear the voice of drowned perfons de- 
manding a grave.—-Subterraneous trea- 
fures are guarded by giants, ghofts, and 
fairies. Some of thefe hobgoblins are 
cailed Teufs. The Teuffarpouliet appears 
in the fhape of dog, a cow; or fome other 
domeftic animal, and performs al! menial 
fervices.—The blood freezes at hearing 
the dreadful tales about the Car of Death 
(Carique’ Aucou), which is covered with 
a winding-fheet, and drawn by fkeletons. 
The rumbling of its wheels is heard when 
a perfon is on the point of dying. Under 
the Cafile of Morlaix there are a number 
of little mannikins, net above a foot high, 
who from time to time dry a large quanti-’ 
ty of gold in the fun. Whoever modeftly 
approaches them receives as much as he 
can hold in one hand: but he who comes 
with a fack to fill it with gold, is ill. 
treated, and fent away empty-handed. 
All Bretagne is full of holy places, and 
miraculous images. Here the devotees 
conteis their fins, diftribute alms, obferve 
fome fuperftitious cultoms, purchafe rofa- 
ries, imaages, and crofles, which have 
touched the miraculous image.—In fome 
places they rub the forehead, the knee, or 
a lame arm, ona wonder-working ftone; 
or they throw fmall pieces of money or 
needles into a facred fountain; and the 
fick who {prinkle themfelves with the was 
ter are reftored to health, and mothers 
bring forth their children without pain! 
The inhabitants of Morlaix, however, 
are a good, honeft, and hofpitable people. 
But no artift, no poet, no writer of emi- 
nence, has {prung up from among them, 
_Morlaix is at too great a diftance from 
Paris, the feat and focus of learning and 
the artsin France. The kings, and like- 
wife the parliament of Bretagne, did every 
thing in their power to keep the inhabi- 
tants of this country in a ftate of ftupid 
ignorance, falfely imagining, that isno- 
rance is a firmer fupport of government 
than Knowledge and reafon, Our author, 
on the contrary, is of opinion, and expe- 
rience proves, ‘é que le plus deteflable des 
Souvernemens eff celui, qu'on établit fur la 
fatyfe.” 
in Finiflerre the iky is obfcured by a 
continual 
