The "laundresses" in other regions of France
In the exhibition catalog Lavandières de la Nuit Les in Présentation Jean Berthou notes that the belief in the legend of "laundresses" in France is "one of the most popular 'nell'Alvernia is to be found in the Limousin, in' Autunois in Nivernese, in Berry, which is different in the central regions of France, but also in Normandy. Potendosene not occupy more than once in a publication on the UK, Berthou engages Breton folklore documents two significant examples from, respectively, by Berry and Normandy.
The first part of a collection of twelve legends, published in 1858 the title of Legends Rustiques , composed of George Sand by bringing together texts that have already appeared between 1851 and 1852 in the magazine "L'Illustration". It tells of
Laveuses Lavandières ou de Nuit, "souls of infanticide mothers' and night flying non-stop and twist the bodies of little children have their own side that just killed - this is therefore a very grave sin in the history Jeannic of C. (Cadiz), you can "read between the lines." It was possible to meet them in ponds, springs and fountains, you should not see any problem, to avoid being caught, beaten and squeezed.
George Sand report having heard many times the night shots of ladles laundry, and discovered that it was actually the noise made by a particular species of frog, not the "terribles sorcières [→ 5 ª part ] . This writer uses the name again - "sorcières des lavoirs" - in reporting the story made him a friend, an encounter with a "washerwoman" occurred around eleven at night: it was an old woman, unknown, who did not respond to his words , who washed and wrung from a source of ice, the bright light of the moon [1] .
is certain that it is damned souls with corporeality: the very term "sorcière 'refers to a female evil in connection with the devil (like the expression, encountered more than once," de la part du diable). Further confirmation of the text is from the brief, said the legend, written by his son George, Maurice Sand (whose real surname was Dudevant) [2] , text in which 'laveuses "are called" ghosts of bad mothers who have been ordered to wash, until the final decision, the bands and the corpses of their victims. "
The second witness, the legend Les Norman Lavandières de Nuit, is a story adapted for young people from Madame de Witt (nee Guizot) and published for the first time, apparently, by Amélie Bosquet in 1845, in his work La Normandie romanesque et merveilleuse. Traditions, superstitions et Legends.
It tells the story of a girl who, overcome the resistance of the dying mother, which, however, promises to return by midnight, he went to the feast of Saint-Loup at Crevecoeur, accompanied by her servant, Tranquille. In the pleasure of the dance, however, does not notice the passage of time, until at some point you realize that midnight has gone for a while '. Then the two go away in a hurry and take a short cut through fields and woods. All of a sudden, come the end of a ditch near a wood: see here some laundresses intent to beat (presumably linen) with a ladle, and led by Mademoiselle de Plénefort 'tireless dancer, for pleasure, everything was sacrificed' .
So this is a group of ghosts that can see the two and then drag the "funeral dance" the girl. Fortunately Tranquille know the "magic formula": "In the name of the Holy Trinity, let me spend my promise." So those ghosts disappear and the story can end with a happy ending, that is, with the announcement of the marriage of two young men. Otherwise, you can hypothesize that it would end badly for the girl, perhaps with his own death, since it seems to me permissible to see in those "ghosts" of women's lost souls.
Other items of information relating to the beliefs Norman "laundresses" refers, in Présentation , Jean Berthou, which uses the writings of Amélie Bosquet and A. Madelaine (an author later), the evidence shows that oscillate between two poles, one of the "do" and that of 'revenants'. In some cases, these "Femmes Blanches" and "Dames Blanches", "ghosts" that surprised looking female at night travelers smarritisi, but spare the women giving birth - it is worth highlighting the importance of this reason (combined with that of "mothers of large families) that contrasts somewhat to the severity of the suppression of unwanted children -, 'can be regarded as witches do [ Fées magiciennes ] of which are not that great of degeneration. " In other cases it is 'revenants' typical, that is, the souls in purgatory, "it will be recognized here - Berthou notes - a common trait with the version of Souvestre" [3] .
With regard to other areas of France, as hath been mentioned in the " 5 ª part ", are on the news '' laundry night, "he The folk-lore de France Sébillot Paul, who took over a fortnight [4] examples in Chapter Volume II of V ( Les eaux dormantes ) [5] examples that reproduce below.
• "At a laundry at Oberbronn, Alsace", the laundresses who attended at night could see a 'white lady', which, in silence, washing of the shirts that were believed to be those of dead, "his appearance presaged the death of a member of the family of one of the laundresses '[' Aug. Stoeber. Die Sagen des Elsasses , n º 260 '] - cf. The intersigne de "l'Étang" (Le Braz) [→ 7 ª parte ].
• He felt at times in some places the spoon of "laundresses in the night" by nature "rather ill-defined" and that could not be seen: on the shores of the Sea Branlante to NERC (Franche-Comté), at the pond Haye [ Brie] and to Maillebois (not far from Dreux [in the Centre region] ['Ch Thuriet. Trad de la Haute-Saône , p. 256; "Ladoucette. Usages de the Brie, p. 448 ',' Felix Chapiseau. The Folk-lore de la Beauce , t. I, p. 76 "]. • In
Berry Washerwomen and beat constantly twist: they are the mothers of infanticide in the legend which tells George Sand Laveuses Lavandières ou de Nuit ["George Sand. Legends Rustiques , p. 30 '] - cf. maternal infanticide of Ille-et-Vilaine (P. Sébillot) [→ 5 ª part ]. Other laundresses wash something that looks "like a vapor of a pale color, a transparency off," something that assume "some semblance of human form" and it seems weep and wail "under the violent shocks of the ladles 'are believed to have souls of dead children or adults who have died without baptism before being confirmed members [' Laisnel de la Salle. Croyances du Centre , t. I, p. 123-125 "] - cf. the laundresses of the area around Dinan (P. Sébillot) [→ 5 ª part ]. • To wash the
Font-de-Fonds (Indre [in the Centre region]), before dawn, a sharecropper recognized the image of his son, who died the year before falling from a tree, "a bruised and covered impalbabile "a woman in the company of two others, handed him an invitation to twist ['Laisnel de la Salle. Croyances du Centre , t. I, p. 123-125 "].
• In Creuse [Limousin], some laundresses' are doomed to wash, the moonlight and in stagnant pools of linen that looks like the bodies of children, and that will never become white "[" Bonnafoux. Legends de la Creuse, p. 29 '] - cf. the laundresses of the area around Dinan (P. Sébillot) [→ 5 ª part ]. •
in Anjou [Pays de la Loire] a farm and ordered to wash forever be alive in the place where he did the laundry on Sunday ['A. Le Marchand. Une excursion dans le pays des Mauges , P. 12 '] - if not we call day or night, cf. women who have washed on Sunday in Upper Brittany (P. Sébillot) [→ 5 ª part ].
• In Touraine who washes March 25 ("jour de la Notre-Dame) will be forced to go do it every year at the same time and at the same wash-up at first light [" Léon Pineau, in Rev. des Trad pop. , t. XIX, p. 430 '].
• In Berry, albeit relatively rarely (as usually do their work in silence), the "du revenantes lavoir 'make you feel" a dull and monotonous song, sad as a De Profundis ['Laisnel de la Salle. Croyances du Centre , t. I, p. 123 '].
• In Lower Normandy include the Mille-Lorraines (or Villes-Lorraines), "Women-Fairy dressed in white, and night singing" kneeling on the polished stone wash ',' stop at the steps of the wanderer lingered going into the meadow where there is the laundry that they attend, and force him to wring their laundry, and if it hurts, break the arms "[" Barbey d'Aurevilly. Old Mistress Une , Paris, 1857, in-18, p. 266 '].
• In Poitou, a woman visited the washroom before dawn, I found a "laundry of the other world," for which he escaped before it could speak to her ['Léo Desaivre. Le Monde fantastique , p. 10 '] - cf. the story of Jeannic C. of Brennilis (Cadiz) [→ 4th part ] Lavandières de Nuit Les and The Lavandière des Noes Gourdais (P. Sébillot) [→ 5 ª part ].
• A boy, going 'round in a ditch near a field of Indre [Région Centre], a meeting of "laundresses at night," he turned to a woman who thought it was washed an old neighbor, "just like a big reddish black woman threw herself on him wrapping cloths bloody" - cf. the story of Jeannic C. of Brennilis (Cadiz) [→ 4th part ], the particular role of the conflict. In other cases, these laundresses - adds P. Sébillot - "seize the imprudent and struck the water and twisted it, neither more nor less than a pair of socks" ["Maurice Sand, in Rev. des Trad pop. , t. II, p. 524; George Sand. Legends Rustiques , p. 31 '].
• In Vendee, who along an embankment of the pond on the evening of Friday saint stops to listen to "black laundresses," fascinated and terrified at the same time by beating a regular spoon. When suddenly the noise stops, three women around him, tell him: "Your sheet is waiting for you!" And thrown into the pond. "Three days after the sheet wraps '[' G. de Launay. in Rev. des Trad pop. , t. V, p. 353 '] [6] - these "laundresses" are thus (also) announced the death.
• On the banks of the pond of Roc-Reu (Calvados [Lower Normandy]), at around midnight moaning washed one or more "great ghosts wrapped in sheets." If the miller turned their word, saying, 'Walk your way, I forgive you. " But if it becomes bothersome, frightened his mules. One evening the miller wanted revenge to life and grabbed one of the spectra, but this was drowned in the pool ['A. Madelaine, in Rev. des Trad pop. , t. XVII, p. 136-137 "] - cf. For the drowning, the step of Cambry [→ part 2].
• The laundresses that invite travelers to help them are rare in Berry. Instead you knew nell'Autunois laundresses who washed the sheets of the dead and "forced the peasants to twist them together with them": the unlucky were found the next morning and passed out with their arms crooked [distorted?], but not all survived the adventure ['Léon Marillier, in Le Braz. La Légende de la Mort , 1 king édition, p. 380, notes'] - cf. text Erwan Berthou [→ 8 ª parte ]. • In western Switzerland
the Gollières Noz à , laundresses at night looking for pretty girls, but evil, do laundry by moonlight in solitary fountains and ponds, "invite travelers to help them, but if, for distraction, twist the other way around, they twist the neck "[" A. Ceresole. Legends des Saanenland , p. 72 "] [7] - cf. Les lavandiéres de nuit de Pont-ar-Goazcan (Luzel) [→ 4th part ] and Les Lavandières de nuit (E. de Cerny) [→ 8 ª parte ].
• In a village of Vaucluse [Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur], it was said that in a certain place you could see the laundresses at night. The policeman went there and saw "two white forms that casts the laundry," which ordered him to cease their work. But a washerwoman called out to help her, while the other took by the collar and told him: "Twist." He did it until dawn, when they left the laundresses. During the day we learned a big theft committed in a castle near the laundry because it was dirty, the thieves had started to wash after he disguised with a white robe, "relying on the superstition of the country not to be disturbed ' ['H. Vaschalde. Croyances et du Vivarais superstitions, p. 14 '].
These examples should be added that of 'lessives merveilleuses "made at night along the rivers [8] . This is in some cases the laundry night revenantes :
• Souterraine the [Limousin] o'clock in the morning of Corpus Domini he heard a knock on the banks of the river of ladles, attributed to young people for full annegatesi sudden ['A. de Chesnel. Dict. des superstitions, col. 541-545 "] - cf. testimony on Calorguen (P. Sébillot) [→ 5 ª part ]
• Vosges [Lorraine] of women who die wash their sheets in the streams: it is believed that those who speak them will die during the year [9] ["Charles Sadoul, in Rev. des Trad pop. , t. XIX, p. 89 '];
• each seven years, at midnight, a "white lady" was washing his clothes in the Saar to Abreschwiller (Meuse) [Moselle in Lorraine] ['Ph. Salmon. Dict. Arch. de l'Aube , p. 48 '].
In other regions or countries also appear as laundresses night do [10] :
• fairies of the Pyrenees, Poitou, the country of the Hague, the Norman Bocage [Lower Normandy ] (and of the Ill-et-Vilaine) did the laundry at night, those that spread the sheets on a flat stone in the middle of the bed of Druance, felt but not seen beat ["Vidal. Guide des Pyrénées orientales, p. 505; Rev. des Trad pop. , t. VI, p. 570, P. Bezier. Mégalithes de l'Ille-et-Vilaine , p. 239; J. Fleury. Litt. Oral de la Basse-Normandie , p. 55; J. Lecoeur. Esquisses du Bocage normand , t. II, p. 427 '];
• a stream of Vivarais [Région Rhône-Alpes], in Montreal, has named Fly Lou de los Fados ' fairy stream '; of them at midnight you can hear the sound of ladles and see the laundry hung out to dry in the moonlight ['H. Vaschalde. Sup du Vivarais , p. 15 '].
In several places instead of Provence (on the banks of rivers like Gapeau the Argens, Var) "talking about witches or witches that looked pretty girls who do laundry at night, laugh, sing and seek to attract the travelers stayed too, to make them dance to the death or push them into the water ['Bérenger-Féraud. Superstitions et survivances , t. II, p. 7 ']. It is perhaps - assumed P. Sébillot - demonized fairy [11] .
[1] Perhaps the episode took place during the fall season: remembering his own experiences, Sande paints a misty landscape of the month of November as the background of the apparitions of the "terrible witch."
[2] Probably Maurice, who presented the collection with drawings and other works of his mother, had written this short text as a caption to the drawing (and lithography trattane) chosen for de Les Laveuses Nuit .
[3] On the two legends J. Berthou (1993): 12-3, 68-72.
[4] On 32 examples found in Chapter V, 24 are from the West region (Lower Britain 8, 9 High Brittany, Poitou 2, 3 Normandy, a Touraine, Anjou 1), 6 Centre (Berry 4, Marche [Creuse, Indre] 2), 2 East (Suisse Romande 1, Lorena Alzazia-1) [P. Sébillot (1968): 431].
[5] P. Sébillot (1968): 424-31.
[6] In an earlier chapter, P. Sébillot reports that "the ponds of the lower parts of the dunes of Noirmoutier [Vendée]," are frequented by the laundresses of the night "which break the arms that help to travelers and" lead them nowhere "[P. Sébillot (1968): 102-3].
[7] On Gollières , cf. As Lopez writes Maria Savi "in the gollières noz , or laundresses at night, beautiful girls are nasty but fascinating. They wash in the moonlight near the fountains isolated. If asking for help to a person who steps, you must use great care to please him and avoid incurring their wrath "[M. Savi Lopez (1889): 337-8].
[8] P. Sébillot (1968): 351-3.
[9] As reported A. Le Braz, in Scotland it was believed that he had spoken to a ghost you could die. Even in Britain it was recommended not to consult the dead [A. Le Braz (1990): t. II, pp. 204, 220 and t. I, p. 416].
[10] The "lessives macabres" are very rare nell'Occitania [P. Sébillot (1968): 431].
[11] are mask, that is to say 'witches', even the legend of The laundress laundresses mill Cossila told by Virginia Majoli I do The spell of midnight [V. I Majoli (1940): 178-80 and (1957): 176-8.].
These "three beautiful young women" who wash clothes at night the '" rôgia " (channel) of the mill Cossila' and 'persuasive', inviting travelers to help them to twist the sheets.
A Summer Night "went very close to the" rôgia "who was a stranger and left because they ignore the importance of the place."
The moon was shining ... Three beautiful young women, kneeling on the edge of grass, washed the channel humming a love song.
The stranger was fascinated by the beauty of youth, stopped to chat:
- Even at night, fine, wait for work? Ambiguouswas the answer:- Even ... even at night is that we "work better .
A young man then asked, with success, to help her squeeze her wet sheet:
She held the sheet from one end to the other man and began to squeeze.- On strength, twist - called on the laundry, while the other two mumbled- Beelzebub, Beelzebub, you will soon get his soul!- You do not have power? But up, so ...- That's what I'm doing, girl, but from hand to hand, I'll give a strizzone, I feel like a hand that gives my neck.
the last squeeze, "the young man felt a powerful and invisible noose around the neck serrarglisi '
- Help! I choke, I die! - Screamed and fell to the ground lifeless. The
I Majoli, in his "transcript" has no doubt repeatedly emphasized the sweetness of voice and charming figure of the three young people and the charm of the place and the summer night [on the legends 'narrated in emphatic style' by the transcriber, see GL Beccaria (1987): 34]. However, the legend is outlined in its folkloric basic components: the beautiful and young laundresses night, to twist the sheet, the murder of the victim by suffocation - through a narrow thanks to the powers possessed by evil witches pass for a kind of analogue, the sheet wrung the neck of the unfortunate traveler.
What is different here in the most obvious is the nature of beings hostile witches are not the souls of the departed; witches whose aim is to bring new souls to Beelzebub.
It is true that the mask , hero of many folk and Piedmont Biella especially, are often indistinguishable from you (as evidenced also in some alternate names: Plans of the Witches, Rocks of the Masks, Fairy Caves, or the presence of males and damned souls in some places), "both belong to the world of magic, both are shady and vindictive" [T. Gatto Chanu (1989): 29 (footnote 34)]. And you must still remember that the sabbat mix too damned souls [cf. T. Gatto Chanu (1989): 32] and that if you do see and hear ghosts in the night, so do the fairies.
Overall, the males of the Mill Cossila as evil beings, similar in some parts to "laundresses" Breton - spectra of the damned - for another witch - Women malignant. They also are not the only figures of laundresses night tradition Biella (Piedmont and Alpine): Possoni mention here is the "evil laundress' of Zumaglia [who stretches out the laundry" in the stormy days, "cf. V. I Majoli (1940): 76-7, M. Savi Lopez (1889): 337], the Arfa of the Susa Valley and the Biellese Jafè [cf. V. I Majoli (1940): 198-9], none of these fantastic figures is a witch, it is instead of fairies or spirits.
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