Monotonous enough must be the lives of these poor people, for months together, alone, in a solitary waste, where not a tree can grow, with nothing but a wide extent of marshy land around, and only their sheep and dogs as companions; but they are accustomed to it from infancy, and probably are comparatively insensible to their hardships, at least it is so to be hoped.

Seated on his elevated seat, the shepherd of the Landes occupies himself in knitting or spinning, having a contrivance for the latter peculiar to this part of the country.

Their appearance, thus occupied, is most singular and startling.
A dignitary of Bordeaux is said once to have prepared a fete to an Infanta of Spain, the destined bride of a French prince, in the Landes; in which he engaged a party of these mounted shepherds, dressed in skins, and covered with their white mantles and hoods, to figure, accompanied by a band of music, and passing under triumphal arches formed of garlands of flowers: a strange scene in such a desert, but scarcely so imposing to a stranger as the unexpected apparition of these beings in the midst of their native desolation.
The Landais seldom live to an advanced age: they marry early, are very jealous, and are said to enjoy but little of the domestic happiness attributed to the poor as a possession; they are accused of being indifferent to their families, and of taking more care of their flocks and herds than of their relations: they are docile and obedient to authority; honest, and neither revengeful nor deceitful.
Whether from affection or habit, they show great sensibility on the death of neighbours or friends.

The women cover their heads, in the funeral procession, with black veils or aprons, and the men with the pointed hood and cloak.

During the whole year, after the decease of a father or mother, all the kitchen utensils _are covered with a veil_, and _placed in an opposite direction to that in which they stood before_; so that every time anything is wanted the memory of the dead is revived.
The Landais, on the sea-coast, are, like the Cornish people, reproached, perhaps falsely, with being _wreckers_; and their cry of "Avarech! Avarech!" is said to be the signal of inhumanity and plunder.
Their marriages are attended with somewhat singular ceremonies, and their method of making love is equally strange: after church, on a fete day, a number of young people, of both sexes, dance together to a monotouous tune, while others sit round in a circle on their heels, watching them.