Luzel, Cadiz
It The Lavandière de nuit, a story recorded by François-Marie Luzel , the heroine-victim, Kerbernès Marianna, is a a mother who liked to spin it so at least until often up to midnight and at daybreak, getting a fair amount of line on Saturday was going to sell at the market of Morlaix.
One Sunday evening, out in the yard around half past eleven to stock other lint, he met a woman - not known - that in his opinion, having regard to the light in the house, had planned to enter the time to ask. Marianna, evidently without suspicious, her inside and answered questions posed by the woman to learn about its habits and in your home. Then the stranger offered to stay with her to spin up at dawn and Marianna accepted.
left their work and soon realized that Marianna the guest spinning "with the speed of a steam engine." Guardatala carefully, only then noticed that his partner was very old and had a unique aspect for a moment that caused a shudder, but prefer not to say anything and continued his work.
quickly finished the raw material, Marianna thought it well to take advantage of the situation: therefore suggested to proceed with the cleaning and washing of the wire. They went to the washroom when performed so far beating the breath, and thereafter returned into the house, lit a fire over which put a big pot, and then each went out with a jug to fill it with water from the fountain.
Everything bustle came to wake her husband, who saw the unknown at work. The woman approached the bed so
[1] and stared at the man with eyes like two burning coals, so that those with fear drove her head under the sheets and stood in silence.
The host then went out again while Marianna was returning, then her husband, having recognized the woman jumped out of bed and turned to his wife these words:
- wretch! So you did not see into the house a laundry night, and that this woman is not from God but from the devil! We close the door first, so that it can not fall, then we change position or inversion of everything he touched.
So they did: they threw the other end of the spinning wheel house and the fortress used by the laundress, overthrew the pot and poured water on the fire.
The woman, found the door locked, knocked and called out a couple of times in Marianna that opened, but the latter, warned by her husband, remained silent.
The washerwoman - that the narrator is also called 'witch', "the reprit sorcière (car elle était aussi sorcière)" - then turned to the things she used before, but none was able to open them: the spinning wheel had been "put down and thrown in the house ', the fortress had undergone the same treatment, the pot had been "turned over and thrown on the floor"
[2] , the water had been poured on the fire, and finally the coals, wet from the water, they no longer had that "a surplus of life" that was dying.
At that point the witch cast a horrible cry, before he left he said to Maria:
- You were lucky to find a wiser of you to give advice, because otherwise, at daybreak found t'avrebbero cooked in the pot, along with your son ... From that day
Kerbernès Marianna 'lay down a proper hour, as everyone must do "
[3] .
François Thépaut Luzel told in a second story called The Lavandière de nuit, which instead starring a girl Soezic ar Floc'h.
This was coming home one evening in April, around nine, after bringing the milk to the farm Loguellou (Botsorhel in Finistère), when a little 'before you get near a pond used as a wash, it heard himself called a couple of times but saw no one. Therefore hastened the pace, came to the pond and as he was jumping "the brook that flows," he heard three shots ladle on the stones of the wash, so violent as to make it resonate throughout the valley.
Soezic Then he remembered the many stories of villagers who claimed to have seen to that pool of laundresses at night. Beside himself with fear, ran breathlessly up to seek shelter in the first house encountered along the way, but here "fell as if dead, crossing the threshold." The girl fell seriously ill as a result
to death [4] .
This can be approached another story Luzel harvest,
Lavandière de La nuit du douet de Plougonven [5] , where it is said that three young men, returning home around two or three of a December night, after playing cards for several hours, they saw a "washerwoman in the night" who washed the laundry at the wash of Plougonven. One of them asked her if she wanted to be helped to twist, but the woman did not answer, got up and looked in the direction from which came the question. The three, in panic, they ran away "as if the devil was at their heels" and lost in the mad rush and threw hats and clogs. Achieved
chaumière [6] that went along the road, went back inside, while the laundress was about to reach them with the intention of killing them with the spoon. Not being able to enter the house, the woman threw her tool against the door to the violent coup fell apart, "and before leaving they shouted:
" You may feel lucky, because if I had taken, I would have taught her to spend the night playing cards and find the street so late no need '"
The three young were waiting for daylight to go out and retrieve their hooves and hats. These were, however, found, broken and torn, "the stone of the pond where the washerwoman washing her laundry at night, by moonlight."
On seeing the 'lavandières de minuit, "who wash their sheets in the moonlight, also recalls Laouic Mihiac during a night vigil at the manoir
of Keramborgne (the birthplace of Luzel), as narrated by Luzel in "Alan Kouri '
[7] .
If an unwary traveler as laundresses to help wring out the cloth turning them in the same direction, they twist the arms first, then the whole body. That's what happened, "the unfortunate Kloarec tank, at Pont-ar-Goazcan, a night that had lingered to drink in the village of Plouaret.
The text entitled Les Lavandières de Nuit, taken from Nouveaux Contes et Legends de Bretagne (1922) by François Cadiz , Contained in J. Berthou (1993): 58, is a witness to the most composite and singular traits, divided into three parts.
The first paragraph speaks briefly of laundresses and sentenced to hard time beating their laundry at night for his work, to live, Sunday, and appoint a couple of resorts in the Morbihan, where it was believed there was one, at least in the years before the publication of the work of Cadiz. Here, then, is mentioned in the presence Poul-er-Pont (Trinité-sur-Mer) of "a man who washed ', that one evening a crew tried in vain to capture the country in vain, as the" fuller "is moved from one stone to another with a speed surprising (and the trees waved as the storm, despite the weather).
In the second part, a few lines, refers to the "penitents of laundresses Brennilis" which "seem quite happily accept their punishment," because they sing sweetly on the banks of the river Ellez.
last part (of four paragraphs), next to a category of "ghosts in the night" considered male by the people - of whom I have spoken Cadiz in the previous paragraph - is placed a kind of female ghosts, the
Kannerézed -Noz, and as the family of
Hoper and
Iannic-an-od [8] , should be considered
esprits malfaisants or
revenants. These women "who, when alive, were laundresses gossips, working without conscience; wear to the plot" the washing of the poor, rubbing it with stones to save the soap "[" le linge des pauvres, avec des pierres en the frottant économiser savon pour leur "]." Here, as is evident, Cadiz cites Le Men, but then uses J. Cambry, mentioning the key step on
kannerezed "" Elles vous invitent tordre à leur linge, Cambry dit, vous les vous Cassenti the bras you aidez, vous vous les refusez noient you. "
[9] is then told the story of Jeannic C. of Brennilis, one Saturday evening after sunset, went to the river to wash clothes because the children were "decent clothes," the next day, Sunday. On the stone suddenly knelt down beside her "a woman of gigantic size, a Kannérez-Noz, huge teeth ed'una scary skinny."
Jeannic While washing sheets and blankets [ couettes 'feather bed', 'quilts, comforters'],' the laundress of the night "washing small things, but - what was even more unusual -" every time the Kannérez -Noz wringing a cloth in his hands, he sprang a gush of blood. Soon the river it was red. "
Jeannic, full of fear, she dared not get up, fearing they would be squeezed in turn. Meanwhile had appeared two laundresses, which put the laundry out to dry. "Their hands will also leave a trail of blood."
Jeannic at that point, no longer able to resist, fled to the village: his fortune for the laundresses not pursued because "the mothers of many children have not no power. "
[1] I assume it was a typical
lit clos Breton swing that close.
[2] In J. Berthou (1993): 48 [F.-M.Luzel (1995): 170], reads: "- Je ne puis pas, répondit the marble on the renversée et m'a aussi sur l'aire de la Jetée maison. " L 'aire
the soil is clay which forms the floor of the house of Maria, as I was explained by Jean Berthou same (in a letter dated 02/13/1994).
[3] J. Berthou (1993): 47-8;-M.Luzel F. (1995): 167-70.
[4] The story, narrated February 20, 1890, can be found on pp. 175-6-M.Luzel F. (1995), with the subtitle
Soezic , and pp. 223-4-M.Luzel F. (2007), under the title The
Lavandière de nuit et Soëzic ar Floc'h.
[5] It is located in F. -M.Luzel,
Contes Inédits II. Texte établi et présent par Françoise Morvan, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes / Terre de Brume, 1995, and in-M.Luzel F. (2007): 215-7.
[6] Small farm house with a thatched roof.
[7] In Nouvelles Veillées Breton . Texte établi et présent par Françoise Morvan, Rennes, PUR / Terre de Brume, 1995, repeated in-M.Luzel F. (2007): 225, under the title Les
lavandiéres de nuit de Pont-ar-Goazcan .
[8] The Hoper or
noz-hopper, 'screamer Night' (so named for its cry
Ho ho! , which is not the answer), and
Iannic or-an-od-od-ann
Yannic ('John of the coast', a drowned man screaming, which comes to break the neck of those who are so imprudent as to meet three times) are "malevolent spirits' confused with
revenants [cf. A. Le Braz (1990): t. I, pp. LIV, 404 ff., And t II, pp. 222 ff., 239; Gw. The Scouëzec (1986b): 126].
[9] The step Cambry, as it shows J. Berthou [(1993): 9] - as seen [→
part 2] - 's a bit more extended. The term "de mauvaise grâce ', omitted from Cadiz, but this is the 1835 edition is curated by Souvestre [p. 20 cf. http://books.google.it/books?id=Rm32310wpkIC] and in that of 1836 [J. Cambry (1993): 40].
