“Tout le monde connaît ces exhalaisons de gaz inflammable qui brillent quelquefois dans les endroits marécageux et qui effraient tant les enfants et les vieilles. Ces feux sont appelés dans nos campagnes La Fourlore, le feu follet, ou le feu errant. Ce sont des âmes damnées; et, suivant quelques personnes, ces âmes sont celles de prêtres criminels ou libertins. Elles cherchent à éblouir les voyageurs, à les entrainer dans les précipices, et à les jeter dans l’eau. Quand le feu follet, esprit d’ailleurs fort jovial, est venu à bout de son entreprise il quitte sa victime avec de grands éclats de rire, et il disparait.” _Recherches sur la Normandie_, par Du Bois, 1845, p. 310. See also, Fouquet _Légendes du Morbihan_, p. 140. _Le Meu_--_Revue Celt_, p. 230. A. Bosquet, pp. 135-143. HIDDEN TREASURES. As we have already stated “Le Faeu Bélengier” is supposed to indicate the existence of hidden treasure, and it is well known that when treasures have been hidden for any considerable time the evil spirit acquires a property in them, and does all in his power to prevent their falling into the possession of mortals. Nevertheless the meteor-like form which the Bélengier assumes, frequently betrays their place of concealment as it plays about the spot, and if a person have sufficient courage and perseverance he may become the possessor. The wiles, however, of the demon, and his efforts to retain his own, frequently prove successful, as the following narratives will testify. It appears, however, that the guardian spirit has no power to remove the treasure, unless the adventure have first been attempted by a mortal. A country-woman had often observed flames of fire issuing from and hovering round the earth within the threshold of her house, and, knowing well what they indicated, one day, when all the other inmates of the dwelling were in the fields busied in getting in the harvest, she determined on searching for the treasure. She procured a pick-axe, closed and barred all the doors to secure herself against interruptions, and proceeded to work. She had not dug long, before a violent thunderstorm arose. Though alarmed, she continued her task, but the rain, which now began to fall in torrents, drove the field labourers to seek shelter in the house. By this time the woman had struck on a brazen pan, which, she had no doubt, covered the treasure, and was in no hurry to open to the men who were clamouring at the door for admission. She was at last obliged to yield to their entreaties, and, turning her back on the hole she had dug, unbarred the door. Her dismay was great, when, on looking back on her work, she saw the pan turned up, and the whole treasure abstracted. The demon had seized this opportunity to take possession of his own.