rument of
western and southern France. How it came to be introduced into Scotland
and expel the harp--which was as much the original music of Scotland as of
Wales and Ireland--is a mystery. But, as in the sixteenth century the harp
went out and the bagpipes came into fashion, it may be surmised that it
was brought in, with other French novelties, on the return of Queen Mary,
perhaps by the Queen herself, or, maybe, some itinerant player of the
cornemuse may have accidentally been in her train, and his music set a
fashion which has now become national.

On market-day numbers of the women from Muzillac, a place about ten miles
distant, came in with their fruit. They all wear an enormous plaited black
cap, which looks like the cowl of a friar. The graceful form of the
earthenware pots attracted our attention: probably they came from the
adjacent town of Herbignac. The 15th August, Fete de la Vierge, and also
that of the Emperor, was kept as a general holiday. An immense concourse
of people arrived from the neighbourhood, and attended the six o'clock
mass. We walked to the quay, to see the sports on the water; the
spectators picturesquely grouped on a mass of bare rocks, commanding a
pretty view up and down the river.

The amusements consisted of some races, and a mat de cocagne, or greased
pole, placed horizontally over the river; the feat being to walk safely to
the end, where the prize was fixed, without falling into the water. In the
evening "ronds" were danced, and every house had illuminations, in the
shape of a candle stuck in a potato, and placed on each end of the window
sill.

Next day we left by diligence for Vannes, passing through Muzillac and on
to Auray, where we took the steamer for Belle Isle.

A steamer sails daily from the quay at Auray. The banks of the River Loch
are very picturesque, the pine-trees (_Pinus maritima_) growing to the
water's edge. On the left, the islands of the Morbihan; on the right,
Locmariaker; the view extending to Carnac and Mont St. Michel, over the
whole sweep of the bay formed by the peninsula of Quiberon.

At Port Navalo we emerged from the Morbihan, and, on our right, passed the
little rocky island of Teigneuse, with its lighthouse; and, on the left,
those of Houat and Haedik (the duck and the duckling); the former famous
as the retreat of St. Gildas, who leaped from here with one bound, a
distance of ten miles, to the peninsula of Rhuys, where he built his
monastery. Fro