nal sentiments of the wearer.

The women of Morlaix are also partial to the tight-fitting _coiffe_.
This consists of five broad folds, forming a base from which a
fan-like fall of stiffened calico spreads out from ear to ear,
completely shading the nape of the neck and reaching down the back
below the shoulders. Many of the women wear calico tippets, while the
more elderly affect a sort of mob-cap with turned-up edges, from which
to the middle of the head are stretched two wide straps of calico,
joined together at the ends with a pin. Most of the youths of Morlaix
wear the big, flapping hat, but very often a black cloth cap is also
seen. This is ridiculous rather than picturesque, for so long is it
that with almost every movement it tips over the wearer's nose. The
tunic accompanying either hat or cap is of blue flannel, and over it
is worn a black waistcoat. The porters of the market-places wear a
sort of smock. The young boys of Morlaix dress very like their elders,
and nearly all of them wear the long loose cap, with the difference
that a tasselled end dangles down the back.

[Illustration: MODERN BRITTANY]

On religious festivals the gala dress is always donned in all
vicinities of Brittany, and the costume informs the initiated at once
in what capacity the Breton is present. For instance, the _porteuses_,
or banner-bearers, of certain saints are dressed in white; others may
be more gorgeously or vividly attired in gowns of bright-coloured silk
trimmed with gold lace, scarves of silver thread, aprons of gold
tissue or brocade, and lace _coiffes_ over caps of gold or silver
tissue; while some, though in national gala dress, will have flags or
crosses to distinguish them from the more commonplace worshipper.

_Religious Festivals_

This dressing for the part and the occasion is interwoven with the
Breton's existence as unalterably as sacred and profane elements are
into the occasions of his religious festivals. A feast day well and
piously begun is interspersed and concluded with a gaiety and abandon
which by contrast strikes a note of profanity. Yet Brittany is quite
the most devotedly religious of all the French provinces, and one may
see the great cathedrals filled to their uttermost with congregations
including as many men as women. Nowhere else, perhaps, will one find
such great masses of people so completely lost in religious fervour
during the usual Church services and the grander and more impressive
fe