Market-day
The Breton peasant is not always the sad and superstitious individual he has been pictured, though both men and women think nothing of embracing the opportunity of saying a “Hail Mary” in the Chapel of St. Barbara, or before the great cross of stone beside the main road, as they go into town, taking to market a small calf or a brace or two of ducks, led at the end of a cord by their sides.
The Chapel of St. Barbara occupies an extraordinary position three hundred metres or more above the bed of the Elle, which bathes the lower walls of the town.
After tradition, the Sieur de Toulbodon was one day hunting in the valley of the Elle, when a terrific storm broke overhead, and a rock falling at his feet barred the way. He made a vow to St. Barbara to erect a chapel here, because of his merciful preservation from death. The rock exists to-day, and is shown to the credulous,—at least, a rock is shown which the credulous believe is the identical one, and accordingly it is venerated; though why it is not reviled, no one seems to know.
Near Faouët is the Abbey of Our Lady of Langonnet, founded in 1136 by Conan III. of Brittany. Its fortunes have been various; in Revolutionary times it served as quarters for a stud, but has since been turned over to religious uses again, and is now occupied by a congregation of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost.
The church, the chapter-room, and some other details still remain, admirably preserved, to illustrate the excellence of the early Gothic period of the buildings.
On the way to Rosporden, one passes the principal town of Bannalec, whose original name was Balaneck, meaning the place for planting the broom. It has not much interest for the stranger, unless perchance he happens to pass through it on the day of some local feast or celebration, when he will most likely see the young peasant-folk, men and women, dancing in the middle of the roadway, as they do in the operas. Brittany indeed is about the only place where one is likely to see such a phenomenon, and, if by chance it happen to be a wedding celebration, the diversion will be doubly interesting.
On the particular occasion when the builders of this book passed that way, a wedding dance was actually in progress, and so edifying was the ceremony that the bride and groom were invited into the tonneau of our motor-car, and whirled away to Rosporden for a little excursion, which was unpremeditated and unexpected to all concerned, and was probably also a unique experience.