the same name. Our driver tried without success to
procure for us some of the little double crystals, intersecting each other
at right angles, called "pierre de croix"--by mineralogists grenatite--found
in the Coatdry, a small affluent of the Aven, washed out of the mica slaty
rocks in which they abound. The peasants assign to them a miraculous
origin, and wear them in little bags round the neck as charms against
headache, blindness, shipwreck, and hydrophobia, being, as they allege,
signed with the cross. According to tradition, a pagan chief, having, in
his impious rage, thrown down the cross in the chapel of Coatdry, Heaven,
in memorial of the outrage, placed the sacred symbol upon the stones of
the river.

At Le Faouet we again entered the department of the Morbihan. This pretty
little town is situated between the Sterlaer and the Elle. We first walked
to see the chapel of Ste. Barbe, perched, in the most singular manner, in
the cleft of a high rock, about a mile from the town.

After a steep climb we reached the plateau of the hill, where is the
monument of a M. Berenger, who desired to be buried in this elevated spot,
which commands a charming view of the surrounding country, the silvery
waters of the Elle winding at the base of the mountain. We then descended,
by a flight of handsome, broad, granite steps, with balustrades, to the
chapel, placed on so narrow a space that it was impossible to give it the
usual inclination to the east. The entrance-porch is to the southwest, and
the high altar opposite, against the walls of the chapel, to the
north-east. On the top of the steps is the belfry, consisting of a roof,
supported by four columns. The day of the Pardon each pilgrim rings the
bell. The chapel was built in this singular spot, according to tradition,
by a knight, who was overtaken by a storm in the valley of the Elle
beneath. He saw an enormous mass of detached rock on the point of falling
down and crushing him, when he invoked the intercession of Sainte Barbe,
the guardian saint against thunder, promising to build her a chapel, if
delivered from the danger. His prayer was heard; the rock was stayed in
its descent and rested on the cleft, where, next day, the grateful knight
began building the chapel, as a thank-offering for his escape. Above Ste.
Barbe, stationed on an insulated rock, one of the highest peaks in
Brittany, is a small chapel, dedicated to St. Michael, also approached by
a flight of stone ste