which may be translated
“Andriou, watch all,” or “over all,”
and the fishermen and pilots who frequent these parts of the coast show their respect by taking off their hats when passing the point, and are careful to insist on the observance being complied with by any stranger who may chance to be in their company. Formerly it was not unusual with them, before setting sail, to offer a biscuit or a libation of wine or cider to “Le Bon Homme,” and, if an old garment past use chanced to be in the boat, this was also cast into the sea.[69]
There are other rocks on the coast which the fishermen are in the habit of saluting without being able to give any reason why they do so; and it is not impossible that the honour paid to the little island of Lihou,[70] on the western coast of Guernsey, by the small craft, in lowering their topmasts while passing, may have originated in the same superstition, although it is generally supposed that they do it out of reverence to the Blessed Virgin, the ruins of whose Chapel and Priory are still to be seen on the isle. The circumnavigation of a certain rock by the fishermen of the parish of St. John, in Jersey, on Midsummer Day, may, perhaps, be traceable to the same source.
[67] Editor’s Note.—“Moulin Luet,” according to Mr. Métivier—“Vier Port”—still in the mouths of the old country people.
[68] (Par la même raison que le vent d’ouest est le vent d’aval, le vent qui vient de la partie la plus haute, la plus montueuse de France, est le vent d’amont.—Métivier’s Dictionary, page 36).
[69] Editor’s Notes.
There are several legends still repeated by the country people about “Le Petit Bon Homme Andriou.”
One is that he was a man searching for hidden treasure among the rocks of the Tas de Pois and that the guardian spirit of the treasure appeared and turned him into stone for his sacrilege.—Collected by Mr. J. Linwood Pitts, of the Guille-Allès Library.