[Illustration: ST. THEGONNEC.]
On the churchyard walls sat some of the village girls knitting; and as
we took them with our instantaneous cameras, some rushed shyly across
the road and disappeared in the small houses; whilst others, made of
bolder material, placed themselves in becoming attitudes, and looked the
very image of conscious vanity. The men came and talked to us
freely--an exception amongst Breton folk; but it was often difficult to
understand their mixture of languages. They were rather less rough and
sturdy-looking than the ordinary type of Breton, and had somewhat the
look of having descended from the mediaeval days of their village,
becoming pale and long drawn out in the process. Probably the sheltered
position of the village has much to do with it.
[Illustration: ST. JEAN-DU-DOIGT.]
St. Jean-du-Doigt takes its name from the fact of the church possessing
the index finger of the right hand of St. John the Baptist, carefully
preserved in a sheath of gold, silver and enamel, a work of art executed
in 1429. The church considers it its greatest possession, and it has
been the object of many a pilgrimage.
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