they took the small
salmon, called glesils, in nets (_poches_) for that purpose. Salmon now is
very dear. At the mouth of the Pontaven river was a castle, whose
proprietor had the privilege of firing upon the fishing-boats which
returned up the river without giving to the castellan their finest fish,
which his steward went down to select. Pontaven is seven and a half miles
from Bannalec, the nearest railway station. After remaining a few hours we
drove on to Quimperle--in Breton, Kemper (confluence) Elle--so called,
because it is at the confluence of two rivers, the Elle and Isole:--

"Vous reverrai-je encore, o fleuve de l'Elle,
Vous, Izole, ou mon coeur est toujours rappelle!
Les eaux sombres de l'Elle, claire ceux de l'Izole;
De ces bords enchantes je dirais chaque saule."
BRIZEUX.

Quimperle is a great resort for fishing, the Quimperle salmon and trout
being renowned throughout Brittany, and even at Paris. This town is
beautifully situated, surrounded by high hills, in a valley, watered by
these bright rivers, the hills covered with gardens, orchards, the
Ursuline, Capucine, and other convents, and crowned by the steeples of the
Gothic church of St. Michael. Its principal building is the church of St.
Croix, formerly that of a Benedictine abbey, celebrated for its riches.
The island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer then belonged to it. It is a most singular
edifice, built in the eleventh century, after the model of the church of
the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. In 1862 it fell down, but is at present
in course of restoration, after its original plan. The old abbey buildings
are now occupied by the Prefecture. We were given permission to pass
through the convent garden--the workmen and building materials having
blocked up the other entrances--to see the crypt in which is the tomb of
Saint Gurloes, first abbot of Quimperle. His effigy, with crosier in hand,
his feet resting on a dragon, lies upon a monument, about three feet high,
with an opening in the lower part. The saint--Saint Urlose, as the Bretons
call him--is invoked principally for the gout, and persons so afflicted
crawl through the hole under the tomb, where, suspended by chains, is an
iron hook. They twist a lock of their hair round this hook, and tear it
off with violence, hoping to propitiate the saint by this
mortification--evidently a remnant of heathen times, when hair was
sacrificed to deities or to the memory of departed