The Devil made some difficulty in acceding to these terms, but the schoolmaster, determined, if possible, to save his unfortunate pupil, was firm, and not to be influenced either by the threats or cajoleries of the arch-fiend. He caught up a peck-measure containing peas, and scattered them on the floor, handing at the same time a three-pronged pitch-fork to the Devil, and ordering him with that instrument to throw the peas over the door-hatch into the court-yard. Satan took the fork and set to work with right good will, but soon found that it was labour in vain. Not one pea could he raise from the floor. The sun was fast sinking below the horizon. As the last portion of its orb disappeared beneath the western wave, the enraged and disappointed demon wrenched the door-hatch off its hinges and cast it far away in the direction of Les Landes. There it was found the next morning on a thorn-bush, which had been green and flourishing the day before, but which, since that time, is blasted and flattened almost to the level of the ground, though it still lives and is pointed out as a proof of the truth of this history.[139] [139] From Sieur Henry Bisson. This incident is found in a Breton legend, as told by Dr. Alfred Fouquet in his work _Légendes, Contes, et Chansons Populaires du Morbihan_, apropos of the first occupant of the lands on which the Château de Herlean was afterwards built. Satan undertook to be the servant of a peasant as long as work could be found for him to do. He accomplished the most difficult tasks with the greatest ease. At last the peasant emptied a sack of millet into the court-yard and ordered Satan to pitch it up to him in the granary with a hay-fork. He acknowledged his inability and was ignominiously dismissed. A somewhat similar story is also told in _Notes and Queries_. The Vicar of a certain Devonshire parish was a diligent student of the black art, and possessed a large collection of mysterious books and MSS. During his absence at church, one of his servants entered his study, and, finding a large volume open on the desk, imprudently began to read it aloud. He had scarcely read half a page when the sky became dark and a great wind shook the house violently. Still he read on, and in the midst of the storm the doors flew open and a black hen and chickens came into the room. They were of the ordinary size when they first appeared, but gradually became larger and larger, until the hen was of the bigness of a good-size ox. At this point, the Vicar (in the church) suddenly closed his discourse and dismissed his congregation, saying he was wanted at home and hoped he might arrive there in time. When he entered the chamber, the hen was already touching the ceiling. But he threw down a bag of rice which stood ready in the corner, and, whilst the hen and chickens were busily picking up the grains, the Vicar had time to reverse the spell. EDITOR’S NOTE.--This story is still believed. It was told me by Miss Falla in 1896.