When the sea had died down, Guénolé the holy
man, helped by old Gradlon, wished to celebrate a mass for the salvation
of the city that had been swallowed up. While he was raising the chalice,
the white chest of a coppery-haired girl with her arm up in the air rose
from the glittering waters. Her body ended in a heavy tail with blue scales.
She was Ahès-Dahut, and she had become Mary-Morgan.
Guénolé's hand trembled so violently that the precious chalice slipped out
and smashed against the rocks. The mass remained unfinished, Is remained
cursed, and Morgan remained a mermaid. Every time Ahès appears, a terrible
storm is about to break.
One day the skipper named Porzmoger had anchored
his small boat in a bay. When he tried to weigh anchor he discovered he
could not unhook it. He took off his clothes and slid down the rope into
the water.
The anchor was caught on the limbs of a golden
cross at the top of a church. Bells started swinging, and he sank down the
tower. He entered a bright nave through a broken window, and there fervent
people were pushing to get in. A priest leaning back against the altar was
waiting for Porzmoger.
The sacristan collector presented to the sailor
a large dish in which there were many gold coins with strange inscriptions
on them saying "For the dear departed". Porzmoger did not have a farthing,
he shook his shoulders, so the priest opened his arms and started singing
"Dominum vobiscum". Then a great moan went up in the nave, and the congregation
became a gathering of livid corpses and white skeletons.
The princess came to the fisherman and said
: "Couldn't you just answer et cum spirit tuo, Porzmoger ! You would have
saved us all."
He immediately recognised Mary-Morgan and knew
he was in Is. He had just the time to swim back up guided by the rope of
the bells and the rope of his anchor. No sooner had he cut the rope and
hoisted the sails than his boat was tossed by the waves of the mermaid's
fantastic storm.
And the city of Is still waits for someone
to finish the redemption mass.
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