important
religious festivals people flock to them in hundreds.

_Weddings_

In many of their religious observances the Bretons are prone to
confuse the sacred with the profane, and chief among these is the
wedding ceremony--the customs attendant on which in some ostensibly
Christian countries are yet a disgrace to the intellect as well as the
good feeling of man. In rural Brittany, however, the revelry which
ensues as soon as the church door closes on the newly wedded pair is
more like that associated with a children's party than the recreation
of older people. Should the marriage be celebrated in the morning,
tables laid out with cakes are ranged outside the church door, and
when the bridal procession files out of the church the bride and
bridegroom each take a cake from the table and leave a coin in its
stead for the poor. The guests follow suit, and then the whole party
repairs to the nearest meadow, where endless _ronds_ are begun.

The _rond_ is a sort of dance in which the whole assembly joins
hands and revolves slowly with a hop-skip-and-a-jump step to the
accompaniment of a most wearisome and unvarying chant, the music for
which is provided by the _biniou_, or bagpipe, and the flageolet
or hautboy, both being occasionally augmented by the drum. Before
the ceremony begins the musicians who are responsible for this
primitive harmony are dispatched to summon the guests, who, of
course, arrive in the full splendour of the national gala costume. As
soon as the _ronds_ are completed to the satisfaction of everybody
the custom common to so many countries of stealing the bride away
is celebrated. At a given signal she speeds away from the party,
hotly pursued by the young gallants present, and when she is
overtaken she presents the successful swain with a cup of coffee at a
public _cafe_. This interlude is followed by dinner, and after that
the _ronds_ are resumed. These festivities, in the case of prosperous
people, sometimes last three days, during which time the guests are
entertained at their host's expense. If the wedding happens to be held
in the evening, dancing is about the only amusement indulged in, and
this follows an elaborate wedding supper. The _biniou_ and its
companions are decidedly _en evidence_, while sometimes the monotony
of the _ronds_ is varied by the _grand rond_, a much more graceful
and intricate affair, containing many elaborate and difficult steps;
but the more ordinary dance is the f