Words full of meaning, which hold the key to all this pious tenderness for creatures useless in themselves, but precious for His sake by whom they were confided to our care.
[1] This word idiot must not lead to misconception; the idiot of popular tales is the personification of cunning weakness triumphing over strength. Idiotism, in the traditions of Christian nations, plays the same part as physical ugliness in those of the ancients. The latter take the hunchback Æsop to accomplish extraordinary actions; the former Peronnik, or some other lad of weak mind, in order that the contrast between the hero and the action may be more striking, and the result more unexpected.
We refer the reader to the note which follows this story for the more particular examination which it seems to deserve.
[2] On the sea-coast they scrape away the burnt part left in the porridge-kettles with a mussel-shell; in the interior they use for the same purpose a sharp stone, commonly a gun-flint.
[3] The milk of the black cow is considered in Brittany to be at once the daintiest and the most wholesome.
[4] The Bretons attribute to the butter of the White Week and of the Rogation weeks a special delicacy, and even medicinal properties, on account of the excellence of the pastures at this season.
[5] The Bretons believe in a special demon for sending one to sleep in church, and call him ar c’houskezik, from the verb kouska, which signifies to sleep.
[6] Koanta pabaour, a common form of mockery in Brittany.
[7] A proverbial expression, meaning that one has no time to lose.