Some confound her with “Habunde,” who may have been a white lady, or one of those “genii” whom the Celts call “dusi.” Chronique de Philippe Mouskés, Tome II. Introduction p. 139.

Some also think that Herodias will, if anyone dances at harvest time, bring shipwreck and disasters at sea.—From Mr. Isaac Le Patourel.

“Le Barboue.”[120]

This was a demon used by old Guernsey nurses to frighten their infant charges. “Le Barboue t’attrappera” was quite threat enough to make the naughtiest child repent of his misdeeds. According to Mr. Métivier (See Dictionary, p. 51. Barboue), this name “Barboue” is a corruption of bared meleu, the spectre which personifies the plague among the Cymri. According to the legends, “Barbaou Hervé” was the wolf who accompanied St. Hervé, a sainted hermit of the country of Léon, 560. He was evidently related to the French “Loup-Garou.”

[120] May not this be a corruption of Barbe Bleue—the Blue Beard who has frightened so many children both in France and England?

Spectral Appearances.

Many places have the reputation of being haunted by phantoms which make their appearance at the dead of night, not always in a human form, as the spirits of the departed are wont to do when they revisit “the glimpses of the moon,” but in the more fearful shapes of beasts and nondescript monsters. “La Bête de la Tour,” “Le Cheval de St. George,” which has already been spoken of in connection with the well, and “Le Chien Bôdu,” are among these.

The “devises,” or boundary stones, which served in olden times to mark the limits of some of the principal “fiefs” or manors, but which have now disappeared, leaving only a name to the locality, appear to have been the particular resort of these spectres; and it is not improbable that the superstition may have arisen from the custom, of which traces are to be found in many nations, of sacrificing a victim and burying it where the stone of demarcation was to be set up. It was not, however, these places only which became the haunt of spectres; other spots came in also for their share of these nocturnal and frightful visitors. A lonely dwelling, especially if uninhabited, a dark lane far from any friendly cottage, cromlechs, or spots where these mysterious erections once stood—all these either had, or were likely to acquire, an evil reputation in this respect, and more especially if tradition pointed to any deed of horror, such as murder or suicide, connected with the place or its neighbourhood.

The headless dog which haunts the Ville-au-Roi, and which will be spoken of in the legend attached to that ancient domain, is an instance of these spectres. The best known of them is “Tchi-cô,” or the “Bête de la Tour,”—but there are also “La Bête de la Devise de Sausmarez à Saint Martin,” which is a black dog supposed to haunt the avenue by Sausmarez Manor.[121]

[121] Editor’s Note.—Then there is the “Rue de la Bête” at St. Andrew’s, on the borders of the Fief Rohais. Near this lane there was formerly a prison, so that it is probably full of associations of crime and malefactors. There is also a “Rue de la Bête” near L’Erée, between “Claire Mare” and the Rouvets, where, to this day, people will not go alone after dark, and they still tell the story (so wrote Miss Le Pelley, who lived in that neighbourhood), of a man, a M. Vaucourt, who, driving down that lane in the dark, the “Bête” got up into the cart, which so scared the unfortunate man that he died the next day. There was also a black dog which haunted the Forest Road, clanking its chains. The father of one old woman who told the story, saw and was followed by this beast one night when walking home from St. Martin’s to his house near the Forest Church. He was so frightened that he took to his bed and died of the shock very shortly afterwards. There is also “La Bête de la Rue Mase,” on the western limits of the Town parish, the “Coin de la Biche,” at St. Martin’s, between Saints’ and La Villette, and in the cross lane running from the “Carrefour David” to the “Profonds Camps,” past the house now called “St. Hilda,” a small white hare was supposed to be seen on stormy nights, accompanied by “Le Faeu Bélengier.”