New-York daily tribune., 1845-05-20

wreck, but it is asserted that they often cause it,
Often, i. is sad, COW, led about with q lighted
lantern al It's horns has ured vessels on .r rocks.
God alone knows the nIsht-scenes that then take
place. A man has been known 10 knaW of I'M
ger with his teeth, in order 10 get at ring on the
finger of drowned woman.
On this coast, man is hard. The accused sen Of
creation, a true Cam, wherefore should he spare
Abel2 Nature spares not hun. Does the wave
spare him, when in the fearful nights of winter he
rGams the shoals 10 gather the floating sea-weed
which IS TO fertilize Ills sterile iied-Then the bill
low which bears the plant so often carries of the
man? Does IL spare him when he tremblingly
edes beneath Cape Raj, by the red rocks, where
the hell of Ptogof yearps tor lis prey; or along
Deadman'S Buy, whose currents nave .or go many
centuries swept conses with them :! The Breton
proverb says, None pass the Raz without hurt or
iright;" another, Help me, great God, al Cape
Raz,-my ship is small and the is SO great -
Here Nature expires; humanity becomes mourn
tul and cold. There Is no poetry, llttle religion
and Christianity dates but from yesterday, Michel
Noblet was the apostle of Baz 10 l64S. In the is
lands of Seln, Batz, and Uehant, the wedding fes-
val itself is sad and severe. The very senses seem
dead and there is nor love, nor shame nor Jealou-
sy, The girls unbluShlngly make the marriage
proposals Woman laborS there harder than man.
and in the Ushant isles she is taller and stronger
She tllIs the land while The man remains seated
in his boat, rocked and Graded by the sea, his
rough nurse The animals also degenerate, and
seem to change their nature. Horses and rabbits
are wonderfully diminutlve in these islands.
Let us seat ourselves on this formidable Cape
RaZ, upon this ovcrhanglng rock, three hundred
feet above The sea, and hence we descry seven
leagues of coas-!ine This is, in some sort, the
sanctuary ot the Celtic world The dot you dis
Germ beyond Dcadman'S Bay is the island of Sem,
desoale, treeless. and all but unsheltered sand
bank, the abode of some poor and compassionate
families. who yearly save the shpwrecked marin
ers. This island was the abode OF the sacred VIZ
gins who gave the Celts fine weather or shipwreck
There they celebrated their gloomy and murderous
orgies; and the seamen heard with terror, lar OIL
al sea, the clash OF barbara cymbals Thus island
is the tradIonary birth place OF Myrddyn, the Mer-
lin Of the middle age. His tomb Is on the other
side OF Brittany in tha forest OF Broceliande, I'M
der the fatal stone where his Vyvyan has enchan-
I'd him. All these rocks around us are towns
which have been swallowed np-hs is Douarn-
enez, that is, the Breton Sodom those two ravens
you see, ever flying heavily on the shore, are. the
souls of King Grallo and his daughter; and those
shr whistllngs, which one would take Tor the
voice of the tempest, the Cicrie't, the ghosts OF
the shipwrecked clamorng for burial
AT T.anvay near Brest, there rises, AS II to mark
the limit of'thc continent, large unhewn stone
From this spot as far as Lorlent, and from Lorent
again as far as Quiberon and Carnac, you cannot
walk along the southern coast OF Brittany wlthout
meeting al every step ot those shaPeless monu-
ments which are called Druidical. You often des-
crv them from the road on landcs covered with brl-
ars and thistles. They consist OF hinge low stones,
placed upright, and often lte rounded at top; or
else of stone laid fiat on three or tour standing
stones. Whether we see in them atars, tombs, or
mere memorials OF events, these monuments are
exceedingly imposing. Yet is the impression they
make saddenlng one, there beng something SIN
gularly repuslvs and rude IN their erect. lhey
seem 10 be the first essays in art OF hand already
intelligent but as hard and as little human as the
rock which it has fashioned Neither inscription
nor sign is visible on them, if we except some
marks under those Stones OF Loc Maria ker that
have been thrown down, so udistinct as to induce
belief that they are merely accidental, Question
the people of the country, and they will briefly re-
ply that they are the houses of the Iorrigdns, the
Comils wanton dwars, who at night bar your
road, and force you 10 dance with them until you
die of fatigue In other paris they are aries, who,
descending from the mountains, spinning, nave
brought away these rocks in their aprons. Those
scattered rocks are whole wedding party petri-
ned. One solitary stone, near Morlalx, bears wit
ness 10 the miserable fate OF a peasant, who was
swallowed up by the moon for blasphemy,
Never shall forget the day on which set out,
early in the morning, from Auray. the sacred city
ofthe Chouans, to visit the great Druidical monu-
ments of Loc Maria ker, and OF Carnac, which are
some leagues distant The first of these villages
lies at the mouth of the filthy and fetid river OF the
Auray, ,cih lis islands Of Nort'han, onfrumbellnS
the days Of Inc gear, ano iooks across siii"n cay
10 the fatal shore of Quheron There was fog,
such an envclops these coasts one halt OF the year.
Sorry bridges lead across the marshes; at one point
you meet with the low and sombre manor-house,
with lis long avenue of oaks-a feature relsiously
preserved in Brittany AT another, you encounter
peasant, who passes without looking at you. but he
has scanned you aslance with his nlsh-brd eye;
"a look which explains elrstame'is war-cry, and
The name of ChouanS (owls) given them by the bfeS.
There are no houses on the roadside; the peasants
return nightly TO their villages On every SIDE are
vast ldndes sadly set off by purple heath and goers
The eve is rather distressed than refreshed by this
summersnow. and those dull and faded-looklng
colers-resemblpg Opheiia's coronet OF straw and
flowers As you proceed 10 Carnac, the coantry
saddens. The plains arc all rock, with few black
sheep browsing on the flint, In the midst OF this
multitude of stones, many Of which stand upright
of themselves, the lines OF Carnac inspire no as,
tonishment although there are several hundred
stones still standing, the highest Of which is four
teen feet"