reverse of what one might suppose the right order of things, was that the
women advanced in life wore white veils as they knelt at the altar rails,
while those worn by the young, whose troubles were still to come, were
black. These veils were carried in the hand during the earlier part of the
rite. Throughout a very wide region of Southern France the custom prevails.
The church belonged to different ages. Upon the exterior of the Romanesque
apse were uncouth carvings in relief of strange animal figures. They were
more like lions than any other beasts, but their outlines were such as
children might have drawn.

I returned to the inn. The baker had come back, and was preparing to heat
his oven with dry broom. I learned that he had not only to bake the bread
that he sold, but also the coarser rye loaves which were brought in by
those who had their own flour, but no oven. Three francs was the charge for
my dinner, bed, and breakfast. The score settled and civilities exchanged,
I walked out of Messeix, expecting to strike the valley of the Dordogne not
very far to the south. The landscape was again that of the moorland. On
each side of the long, dusty line called a road spread the brown turf,
spangled with the pea-flowers of the broom or stained purple with heather.
There were no trees, but two wooden crosses standing against the gray sky
looked as high as lofty pines. I met little bands of peasants hurrying
to church, and I reached the village of Savennes just before the _grand
messe_. Many people were sitting or standing outside the church--even
sitting on the cemetery wall. When the bell stopped and they entered,
literally like a flock of sheep into a fold, all could not find room
inside, so the late-comers sat upon the ground in the doorway, or as near
as they could get to it. As the people inside knelt or stood, so did they
who had been left, not out in the cold, but in the heat, for the sun had
broken through the mist, and the weather was sultry. As I walked round the
church I found women sitting with open books and rosaries in their hands