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rebels). One of these Frenchmen was visited by a former teacher of French who had lived in the country, he said, for many years. He was an Alsatian, and was accompanied by his wife. He had little respect for the Norman French that is the language of the Channel. He once remarked, on entering a room:
“J’ai pien de la beine à leur
abrendre le vranzais. On barle ici badois.”
(“I have great difficulty in teaching them French. Here they speak a patois.”)
    â€œComment badois?”
(“What do you mean,
badois
?”), said someone.
    â€œOui, badois.”
    â€œAh! Patois?”
    â€œC’est ça, badois.”
    The professor continued his complaints about the Norman
badois.
When his wife spoke to him he turned to her, saying:
“Ne me vaites bas
ici te zènes gonchigales.” (“Don’t let us have any conjugal scenes here.”) 44

XVI
    ANTIQUITIES AND ANTIQUES; CUSTOMS, LAWS, AND MANNERS
    Nowadays, let us remark at the outset, the Norman islands, which have each their college and numerous schools, have excellent teachers, some of them French, others natives of Guernsey and Jersey.
    As for the patois denounced by the Alsatian professor, it is a true language and by no means to be despised. This patois is a complete idiom, extremely rich and very distinctive. It throws an obscure but profound light on the origins of the French language. A number of scholars have devoted themselves to the patois, among them the translator of the Bible into the language of Guernsey, Monsieur Métivier, who is to the Celto-Norman language what Abbé Eliçagaray was to the Hispano-Basque language. On the island of Guernsey there are a stone-roofed chapel of the eighth century and a Gallic statue of the sixth century, now serving as a jamb to the gateway of a cemetery; both are probably unique. Another unique specimen is a descendant of Rollo, a very worthy gentleman of whom we have already spoken. He consents to regard Queen Victoria as his cousin. His pedigree seems to be proven, and it is not at all improbable.
    In the islands, as we have said, people are much attached to their coats of arms. We once heard a lady of the M family complaining about the Gs: “They have taken our coat of arms to put it on their tombs.”
    Fleurs-de-lys abound. England likes to take over fashions that France has discarded. Few members of the middle class with handsome houses and gardens are without railings ornamented with fleursde-lys.
    People are very touchy, too, about misalliances. On one of the islands—Alderney, I think—when the son of a very ancient dynasty of wine merchants misallied himself with the daughter of a hatter of recent origin, there was universal indignation. The whole island cried out against the son, and a venerable dame exclaimed: “What a cup for parents to sup!” The Princess Palatine was not more tragically vexed when she reproached a cousin of hers who had married Prince de Tingry with lowering herself to wed a Montmorency. 45
    On Guernsey if a man offers his arm to a woman it indicates that they are engaged. A new bride does not leave her house for a week after her marriage except to go to church: a taste of prison adds spice to the honeymoon. Besides, a certain modesty is in order. Marriage involves so few formalities that it is easily concealed. Cahaigne, 46 on Jersey, once heard this exchange of question and answer between a mother, an old woman, and her daughter, a girl of fourteen: “Why do you not marry this Stevens?”—“Do you want me to get married twice, then, Mother?”—“What do you mean?”—“We were married four months ago.”
    On Guernsey, in October 1863, a girl was sentenced to six weeks in prison “for annoying her father.”

XVII
    PECULIARITIES (CONTINUED)
    The Channel Islands have as yet only two statues, one on Guernsey of the Prince Consort and one on Jersey known as the Golden King,