rayerful requests with which he
or she has been assailed.

There are in many of the churches of Brittany wide, old-fashioned
fireplaces, a fact which testifies to a very sensible practice which
prevailed in the latter half of the sixteenth century--that of
warming the baptismal water before applying it to the defenceless head
of the lately born. The most famous of these old fireplaces belong to
the churches of St Bridget in Perguet, Le Moustoir-le-Juch, St Non at
Penmarch, and Brevelenz. In the church at the latter place one of the
pinnacles of the porch forms the chimney to its historic hearth.

_The Venus of Quinipily_

Childless people often pay a visit to some standing stone in their
neighbourhood in the hope that they may thereby be blessed with
offspring. Famous in this respect is the 'Venus,' or _Groabgoard_, of
Quinipily, a rough-hewn stone in the likeness of a goddess. The
letters ...LIT... still remain on it--part of a Latin inscription
which has been thought to have originally read ILITHVIA, "a name in
keeping with the rites still in use before the image," says
MacCulloch.[61]

_Holy Wells_

The holy well is another institution dating from early days, and there
is hardly a church in Brittany which does not boast one or more of
these shrines, which are in most cases dedicated to the saint in whose
honour the church has been raised. So numerous are these wells that to
name them and dwell at any length on the curative powers claimed for
their waters would fill a large volume. Worthy of mention, however, is
the Holy Well of St Bieuzy, as typical of most of such sacred springs.
It is close to the church of the same name in Bieuzy, and flows from a
granite wall. Its waters are said to relieve and cure the mentally
deranged. Some of the wells are large enough to permit the afflicted
to bathe in their waters, and of these the well near the church of
Goezenou is a good example. It is situated in an enclosure surrounded
by stone seats for the convenience of the devotees who may desire to
immerse themselves bodily in it. Several of these shrines bear dates,
but whether they are genuine is a matter for conjecture.

_Reliquaries_

Every Breton churchyard worthy of the name has its reliquary or
bone-house. There may be seen rows of small boxes like dog-kennels
with heart-shaped openings. Round these openings, names, dates, and
pious ejaculations are written. Looking through the aperture, a
glimpse of a skul