AN ISLAND OF WOMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 13 December 1907, Page 4

AN ISLAND OF WOMEN.

A visitor to Ouessant, ott the Rrittany coast, will sec few, if any, Ouessantais. 1 " ialit lit- will see arc Ouessautaiseb —women of Oueuunt, harvesting. The men are at sea. The women ilo all the work of the land, and one may see tliera in their quaint short black petticoats, their tight bodices, their black kerchiefs on their heads, binding and carrying on corn and bending in strenuous labour over the flail. The men of Ouossant do no farm work. They belong to the sea, and the nea is a jealous mistress. At fifteen the lads go otf as sailors. Then they servo in the navv. Wii-11 the navy sets them free, they geneially re-enlist, so as to earn a pension when they arc too old to work. Others are in the merchant service, and iill navy men or merchant men are married. A very few are fishermen, but they are at sea nearly always, and you will rarely meet them aliout in the island. When the sea is too rough, they ->it and watch her. They do not know or c.ire aliout the land. The laud is women's business. One >t\4- this idea in the women's costume, and in their hair, which tliey •vrar short, as the men peasants of nl 1 time used to wear it. They are straight, well-built. handsome women, dark, with big brown or big slate-coloured eyes. They are entirely unlike the Breton women of the main land, and look more like 1 Lilian-. They are calm and dignified and kindly to the stianger, and they are afraid of nothing except the photographer. They do not like photographers, for they fear that their pictures may go abroad on post cards, and that hey would not like.

When the news comes of Ins# ,i i sea—and sueh news often eon-.es- th* widow and friends of the dead man hold a wake. In the living room <>f ' h.* iitile cottage, a little waxen cross ci'led tlv "Procila" is put on a cKin in the centre of the table, an 1 round it are placed a few lighted cand c*. The dead man's relatives and fr:e;iils are there, and the nun reads a chapter from the Lives of the Saints and i.nimbles prayers for the dead. The doors and windows of the cottage are left open, so that the spirits which are abroad at night (the Ouessantnis believe in wandering spirits) may stop and listen to the prayer. Those present drink and eat a little of the national pastrv called le gar. The few men there teil of the dangers from which they have escaped at sea. The women tell of dangers which their men have met at sea, and of their dreams at home, and so the night passes. In the morning the priest romw with his incense swingers for the Proella. and gives absolution to the bouse door. The little church bell sounds a glass, or funeral knell. The widow, followed by the priest and her fiends, earriew the Proella down to the church. There, there are pravei\ and everylmdy kisses the small waxen cross, and' on the following ••day of the dead." which is the day after Ai«h Wednesday, the Proella is carried to the cemetery, where it is placed with many others in a special place. All round the resting-place of the Proella are tombstones. And the names on the tombstones are names of women only. For all the Ouessant men have died at sea.