hold the
midnight revels of the nains, and if he entered the charmed circle and
danced along with them his death was certain to ensue before the year
was out. Wednesday was the nains' high-day, or rather night, and their
great _nuit festale_ was the first Wednesday in May. That they should
have possessed a fixed festival at such a period, full of religious
significance for most primitive peoples, would seem to show that they
must at one time have been held in considerable esteem.

But although the nains while away their time in such simple fashion as
dancing to the repetition of the names of the days of the week, they
have a less innocent side to their characters, for they are forgers of
false money, which they fabricate in the recesses of caverns. We all
recall stories of fairy gold and its perishable nature. A simple youth
sells something on market day to a fairy, and later on turning over in
his pocket the money he has received he finds that it has been
transformed into beans. The housewife receives gold from a fairy for
services rendered, and carefully places it in a drawer. A day when she
requires it arrives, but, alas! when she opens the cabinet to take it
out she finds nothing but a small heap of withered leaves. It is such
money that the nains manufacture in their subterranean mints--coin
which bears the fairy impress of glamourie for a space, but on later
examination proves to be merely dross.

The nains are also regarded as the originators of a cabalistic
alphabet, the letters of which are engraved on several of the
megalithic monuments of Morbihan, and especially those of Gavr'inis.
He who is able to decipher this magic script, says tradition, will be
able to tell where hidden treasure is to be found in any part of the
country. Lest any needy folk be of a mind to fare to Brittany to try
their luck in this respect it is only right to warn them that in all
probability they will find the treasure formula in ogham characters or
serpentine markings, and that as the first has long ago been
deciphered and the second is pure symbolism they will waste their time
and money in any event.

Sorcery hangs about the nain like a garment. Here he is a prophet and
a diviner as well as an enchanter, and as much of his magic power is
employed for ill, small wonder that the Breton peasant shudders and
frowns when the name of the fearsome tribe is spoken and gives the
dolmens they are supposed to haunt the widest of wide berths