Excerpt from Perronik, the 'Innocent', Or the Quest of the Golden Basin and Diamond Lance: One of the Sources of Stories About the Holy Grail, a Breton Legend, After Souvestre So in Brittany, the extreme north-western corner of France, that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, there has been, since time immemorial, a class of simple minded people called idiots, or innocents, who were known by the white wands they carried, and the large horn-buttons on their cloaks. They wandered around the country, in the evenings stopping off at the nearest farm-house, sure of being entertained for the night. At supper, they would tell stories, or retail the news of the country-side. In the morning they would not be driven out to work, but be allowed to help the women, or do light helpful offices that required more grace and judgment than muscular effort. When they died, they were sincerely mourned, perhaps not so much for themselves, as for their being considered messengers and helpers from heaven. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.