Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/90

 80 used to throw it back into the water. One day he was visited by Le Roi Grallon, and the fish provided a scrap of its flesh for dinner. The cook laughed at the smallness of the supply, but it was miraculously increased until enough for the whole party was provided. St. Corentin in time became Bishop of Quimper, and the King removed his court to Caer-Is. The town stood at a level lower than that of the sea, and a strong dike was built, the key of which was always kept by the King. He had a daughter, Dehut, who fell in love with a dastardly enemy of the King. He persuaded her to steal the key, and then he opened the dike. The King, with his daughter behind him, tried to escape on horseback. But the water gained on them, and the spirit of St. Guenole appeared and shouted to the King to abandon the demon he carried behind him. So he flung her into the water, and the place where she was drowned is known as the Pool of Dahut. Some say she became a mermaid.

On St. Cecilia's Day the choristers sing on the roof of the cathedral, and when the hymn is ended a goblet is thrown down into the square. Any one who can catch it unbroken gains a prize.

Folk-healing.

At the village of Lanncanon, about 12 miles from Morlaize, I was told that when a peasant injures his hand he goes to a wise woman at Guerlesquin. He brings with him a worm from his own garden, which the woman places on the injured spot, and repeats the names of certain saints to whom Breton churches have been dedicated. The worm soon dies, and the woman directs the patient to make a pilgrimage to that saint whose name she happened to mention at the time of its death. When he comes to the place he mixes some earth from the churchyard with water and applies it to the wound, which rapidly heals.

Holy Wells.

There is a holy well in the parish of Lanncanon to which women bring their children who are slow in learning to walk. The child's shirt is dipped in the well, and put wet on the child. Similar cures are effected by placing children on a stone known