[1] Spern-gwenn (“l’épine blanche”), to this day a family name in Brittany.
[2] All the Breton shepherds make these crosses with twigs of furze, on the thorns of which they stick daisies and broom-blossoms; whole rows of these flowery crosses may often be seen along the ditches.
[3] Shend, ‘subdue.’
[4] This form of exorcism is supposed to originate in a story related of St. Hervé. A wolf having devoured an ass belonging to his uncle, the saint compelled the savage beast to dwell peaceably thenceforward in the same shed with the sheep, and to perform all the duties of the defunct ass. A similar story is told of St. Malo, another Breton saint.
[5] The legend of the gold-herb (which must be gathered, according to common credence, barefooted, en chemise, without the aid of any iron tool, and whilst one is in a state of grace) comes evidently from the Druids. It is the selage of the ancients, spoken of by Pliny (lib. xiv.), and is said by the Bretons to glitter like gold before the eyes of those who at the moment may fulfil the conditions for perceiving it, and who, by touching it with the foot, are instantly enabled to understand the language of all animals, and to converse with them.
[6] The tradition of the redbreast, who broke a thorn from the crown of our Lord, is current throughout Brittany.
[7] Mor Vyoc’h signifies Sea-cow.
[8] The Breton peasants believe that the fountain of Languengar has the property of promoting the flow of milk in those nurses who drink of it.
[9] In Brittany, as in England, it takes nine tailors to make a man.