CANNY NORMANS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 256, 10 August 1933, Page 8

CANNY NORMANS

THE SCOTS OF FRANCE. 1 BUTTS OF MANY JOKES. Fetes were recently held in the old town of Coutances to celebrate the ( thousand years' history of the Duchy of Normandy, which attained its settled territorial limits ini 1933 by the acquisition of the Cotentin and the Avranchin. As there are "Scotch" stories in England, so there are "Norman" stories in France (says a writer in the "Manchester Guardian"). For the rest of the French nation the Normans are the traditional target of a jocular hostility. Stories, proverbs and epithets accumulated through the centuries hit off their characteristics and particularly their alleged shortcomings. Nobody seriously believes, of course, that the Normans are as "Norman" as they are made out to be. Old tales and proverbs about people are nearly always the work of an enemy. The Norman of legend though not without his points of resemblance to the real Norman, is a caricature. He is a man who never answers "Yes" or "No" to a plain question. He is wily in dealing. You must beware of his apparent humility. His spoken word is not his bond. He is an inveterate litigant who goes to law on the smallest provocation. He is acquisitive, not to say rapacious. Finally, according to his most ancient and most malignant accusers, he is a thief born to be hanged—or was when stealing was a hanging matter. The Fox's Answer. The classic, instance of evasiveness in reply to a question is the answer of a, Norman farmer who was asked whether the year was a good one for apples: "For a year when there are apples there are no apples; for a year when there am no apples there are apples." Jn this manner the Norman reputation is confirmed by La Fontaine. In the fable of the Lion's Court the Bear incurs disgrace because he dislikes the odour of the royal den, while the Monkey suffers the same fate because he declares he likes the stench, but the Fox triumphantly gets out of an embarrassing situation! by saying that he has a bad cold and cannot smell. La Fontaine's moral is that if you wish to please at Court you must try sometimes to "reply like a Norman." Anyone who has had dealings with farmers or business men in Normandy must have encountered this caution in speech. Probably the foundation of it is a natural reserve but the 'suspicion of canny calculation must not be entirely excluded.

To this day the Norman has a reputation, not unmerited, for loving legal dispute. A quarrel with a neighbour about a fence of a family differonce Oyer an inheritance readily finds its way into the Courts. CUrious evidence of this is furnished by the large number of tablets in churches bearing some such inscription as "Gratitude for a law case won." At Bcyeaux seventy years ago victorious litigants used to parade the streets carrying branches of laurel decorated with ribbons. His profession. The stories about litigation have a particularly humorous savour. A Norman asked to state his profession replied blandly, "I. am a witness." The popularity of this "profession" is indicated by an old saying that "when a Norman's right arm is paralysed there is nothing left for him to do but to die." (In France a witness taking the oath holds up his right arm). Another story tells of a Norman who had made some fantastic assertion. "Will you bet on it?" he was asked. "No," he replied, "but I will swear to it." As for the grasping nature of the Norman, the old sayings are again pointed. "A Norman is bom with his lingers crooked." If the Normans do not practise piracy at sea they practise it on land." Them there is the malicious story of the Norman who prayed, not for any wealth, but "to be put near somebody who has some." Pel's, haps the grain of truth in these charges is the fact that the maligned race has the virtues of prudence, caution and industry with the determination to "get on." However much a caricature, the legend is a proof that after seven: centuries of absorption in the French nation the Normans have preserved the;-- type. Even physically they have the marks of their origin in spite of innumerable marriages with other race~. Travelling in Normandy you may chance any day to see some big, blond man whose contour is unmistakably that of a "Northman." Firm Frontiers. In manners also there are signs of Hie inheritance. The peasants speak in the low tones which are more characteristic of English conversation than of French. Their reserve is Northern, and perhaps the legend which readily takes it for secretiveness and cunning is one more instance of the mutual misunderstanding of North and South. If the Normans have maintained their character and. tradition one rea--Bon is that since their ancestors first swept up the Seine they have always occupied the same region. Except for momentary expansions and contractions following successful and unsuccessful wars their frontiers have been firm. It was remarked no more than twenty years ago that the inhabitants of Nomancourt, one of the old frontier towns, might bo heard to say "Let us go into France" when they crossed the River Acre. This long occupation has created that kind of association between people and land which makes it difficult, to think of one apart from the other. Nowhere els-o in France is there any landscape exactly like that of Normandy. And for those who believe in forming the character of peoples it may be remarked that Normandy has many resemblances to the (South of England.