Breton Legends Part 9

Then the beggar flew towards the common, followed by Bernez; and there, in the very spots where just before huge stones had reared themselves, they now saw large holes piled to the brim with gold, with silver, and with precious stones.

Bernez uttered a cry of admiration, and made the sign of the cross; but the sorcerer made haste to cram all his wallets, turning meanwhile an attentive ear towards the river's bank.

He had just finished lading the third bag, whilst the young man stuffed the pockets of his linen vest, when a dull sound like that of an approaching storm was audible in the distance.

The stones had finished drinking, and were coming back once more.

They rushed, stooping forwards like runners in a race, and bore down all before them.

When the youth perceived them, he started upright, and exclaimed,

"Ah, Blessed Virgin, we are lost!"

"I am not," said the sorcerer, taking in his hand the cross-wort and the five-leaved clover, "for I have that here which will secure my safety; but a Christian must be sacrificed to make good all these treasures, and the bad angel put thee in my way. So give up Rozenn, and prepare to die."

While yet he spoke the stony army was at hand; but holding forth his magic nosegay, they turned aside to right and left to fall upon Bernez. He, feeling sure that all was over for him, sank down upon his knees and closed his eyes; when the great stone that led the troop stopped all at once, and barring the way, set itself before him as a protecting rampart.

Bernez, astonished, raised his head, and recognised the stone on which his hand had traced a cross. Being thenceforward a baptised stone, it could have no power to harm a Christian.

Remaining motionless before the young man until all its fellows had regained their places, it then rushed forwards like a sea-bird to retake its own, and met upon its way the beggar hampered with his three ponderous bags of gold.

Seeing it advance, he would have defied it with his magic plants; but the stone, become Christian, was no longer subject to the witchery of the demon, and hurrying onwards, crushed the sorcerer like an insect.

Bernez had not only all his own collection, but the three full wallets of the mendicant, and became thus rich enough to wed his Rozenn, to bring up a numerous family, and to succour his relations, as well as the poor of the whole country around, to the end of his long life.

TEUZ-A-POULIET; [21] OR, THE DWARF.

The vale of Pinard is a pleasant slope which lies behind the city of Morlaix. There are plenty of gardens, houses, shops, and bakers to be found there, besides many farms that boast their ample cowsheds and full barns.

Now, in olden times, when there was neither conscription nor general taxation, there dwelt in the largest of these farms an honest man, called Jalm Riou, who had a comely daughter, Barbaik. Not only was she fair and well-fas.h.i.+oned, but she was the best dancer, and also the best drest, in all those parts. When she set off on Sunday to hear Ma.s.s at St. Mathieu's church, she used to wear an embroidered coif, a gay neckerchief, five petticoats one over the other, [22] and silver buckles in her shoes; so that the very butchers' wives were jealous, and tossing their heads as she went by, they asked her whether she had been selling the devil her black hen. [23] But Barbaik troubled herself not at all for all they said, so long as she continued to be the best-dressed damsel, and the most attractive at the fair of the patron saint.

Barbaik had many suitors, and among them was one who really loved her more than all the rest; and this was the lad who worked upon her father's farm, a good labourer and a worthy Christian, but rough and ungainly in appearance. So Barbaik would have nothing to say to him, in spite of his good qualities, and always declared, when speaking of him, that he was a colt of Pontrieux. [24]

Jegu, who loved her with all his heart, was deeply wounded, and fretted sorely at being so ill-used by the only creature that could give him either joy or trouble.

One morning, when bringing home the horses from the field, he stopped to let them drink at the pond; and as he stood holding the smallest one, with his head sunk upon his breast, and uttering every now and then the heaviest sighs, for he was thinking of Barbaik, he heard suddenly a voice proceeding from the reeds, which said to him,

"Why are you so miserable, Jegu? things are not yet quite so desperate."

The farmer's boy raised his head astonished, and asked who was there.

"It is I, the Teuz-a-pouliet," said the same voice.

"I do not see you," replied Jegu.

"Look closely, and you will see me in the midst of the reeds, under the form of a beautiful green frog. I take successively whatever form I like, unless I prefer making myself invisible."

"But can you not show yourself under the usual appearance of your kind?"

"No doubt, if that will please you."

With these words the frog leaped on one of the horses' backs, and changed himself suddenly into a little dwarf, with bright green dress and smart polished gaiters, like a leather-merchant of Landivisiau.

Jegu, a little scared, drew back a step or two; but the Teuz told him not to be afraid, for that, far from wis.h.i.+ng him harm, he was ready to do him good.

"And what makes you take this interest in me?" inquired the peasant, with a suspicious air.

"A service which you rendered to me the last winter," said the Teuz-a-pouliet. "You doubtless are aware that the Korigans of the White-Wheat country and of Cornouaille declared war against our race, because they say we are too favourably disposed to man. [25] We were obliged to flee into the bishopric of Leon, where at first we concealed ourselves under divers animal forms. Since then, from habit or fancy, we have continued to a.s.sume them, and I became acquainted with you through one of these transformations."

"And how was that?"

"Do you remember, three months ago, whilst working in the alder-park, finding a robin caught in a snare?"

"Yes," interrupted Jegu; "and I remember also that I let it fly, saying, 'As for thee, thou dost not eat the bread of Christians: take thy flight, thou bird of the good G.o.d.'"

"Ah, well, that robin was myself. Ever since then I vowed to be your faithful friend, and I will prove it too by causing you to marry Barbaik, since you love her so well."

"Ah, Teuz-a-pouliet, could you but succeed in that," cried Jegu, "there is nothing in this world, except my soul, that I would not bestow upon you."

"Let me alone," replied the dwarf; "yet a few months from this time, and I will see you are the master of that farm and of the maiden too."

"And how can you undertake that?" asked the youth.

"You shall know all in time; all you have to do just now is to smoke your pipe, eat, drink, and take no trouble about any thing."

Jegu declared that nothing could be easier than that, and he would conform exactly to the Teuz's orders; then, thanking him, and taking off his hat as he would have done to the cure or the magistrate, he went homewards to the farm.

The following day happened to be Sunday. Barbaik rose earlier than usual, and went to the stables, which were under her sole charge; but to her great surprise she found them already freshly littered, the racks garnished, the cows milked, and the cream churned. Now, as she recollected having said before Jegu, on the preceding night, that she wanted to be ready in good time to go to the feast of St. Nicholas, she very naturally concluded that it was he who had done all this for her, and she told him she was much obliged. Jegu, however, replied in a peevish tone, that he did not know what she meant; but this only confirmed Barbaik in her belief.

The same good service was rendered to her now every day. Never had the stable been so cleanly, nor the cows so fat. Barbaik found her earthen pans full of milk at morning and at evening, and a pound of fresh-churned b.u.t.ter decked with blackberry-leaves. So in a few weeks'

time she got into the habit of never rising till broad daylight, to prepare breakfast and set about her household duties.

But even this labour was soon spared her; for one morning, on getting out of bed, she found the house already swept, the furniture polished, the soup on the fire, and the bread cut into the bowls; so that she had nothing to do but go to the courtyard, and call the labourers from the fields. She still thought it was an attention shown to her by Jegu, and she could not help considering what a very convenient husband he would be for a woman who liked to have her time to herself.

And it was a fact that Barbaik never uttered a wish before him that was not immediately fulfilled. If the wind was cold, or if the sun shone hot, and she was afraid of injuring her complexion by going to the spring, she had only to say low, "I should like to see my buckets filled, and my tub full of washed linen." Then she would go and gossip with a neighbour, and on her return she would find tub and buckets just as she had desired them to be, standing on the stone. If she found the rye-dough too hard to bake, or the oven too long in heating, she had only to say, "I should like to see my six fifteen-pound loaves all ranged upon the board above the kneading-trough," and two hours later the six loaves were there. If she found the market too far off, and the road too bad, she had only to say over-night, "Why am I not already come back from Morlaix, with my milk-can empty, my tub of b.u.t.ter sold out, a pound of black cherries in my wooden platter, and six reals [26] at the bottom of my ap.r.o.n-pocket?" and the next morning, when she rose, she would discover at the foot of her bed the empty milk-can and b.u.t.ter-tub, the pound of cherries in her wooden plate, and six reals in her ap.r.o.n-pocket.

But the good offices that were rendered to her did not stop here. Did she wish to make an appointment with another damsel at some fair, to buy a ribbon in the town, or to find out the hour at which the procession at the church was to begin, Jegu was always at hand; all she had to do was to mention her wish before him, and the thing was done.

When things were thus advanced, the Teuz advised the youth to ask Barbaik now in marriage; and this time she listened to all he had to say. She thought Jegu very plain and unmannerly; but yet, as a husband, he was just what she wanted. Jegu would wake for her, work for her, save for her. Jegu would be the shaft-horse, forced to draw the whole weight of the wagon; and she, the farmer's wife, seated on a heap of clover, and driving him with the whip.

After having well considered all this, she answered the young man, as a well-conducted damsel should, that she would refer the matter to her father.