“Alas, I see it but too well,” replied Guilcher.
“And you have dared, unhappy man, to touch these bags, the property of the accursed.”
“I thought I should find something better in them,” exclaimed Benead piteously.
“Nothing good can come from good-for-nothings,” replied the old woman. “What you have got there will bring an evil spell upon our house. Heavens! if only I have a drop of holy water left.”
She ran to her bed, and taking from the wall a little earthen holy water-stoup, she steeped in it a branch of box; but scarcely had the dew of God been sprinkled on the bags, when the horsehair changed at once to necklaces of pearls, the dead leaves into gold, and the sand to diamonds. The enchantment was destroyed, and the wealth that the Korigans would fain have hidden from a Christian eye was forced to reassume its proper form.
Guilcher repaid Balibouzik his five crowns. He gave to every poor person in the parish a bushel of wheat, with six ells of cloth; and he paid the rector handsomely for fifty Masses; then he set out with his wife for Josselin, where they bought a mansion, and where they reared a family who now are gentlefolks.
[1] The song of the Korigans runs thus: Di-lun, di-meurs, di-merc’her. The conclusion of this tale will explain the reason of their keeping only to these first three days.
[2] Cry of encouragement amongst the Bretons. In the same sense they use also the word hardi! but the Celtic origin of this last word seems rather doubtful.
[3] Mettre en foire. Breton expression, signifying a sale at the house of a debtor.