from French Canada and the St. Lawrence, 1913

(page 307, Traditions, Folk-Lore and Ballads)

He was on his way home at a late hour when, suddenly, "it seemed to him as if the Isle d'Orléans was on fire. He stared with all his might and saw at last that the flames were dancing up and down the shore as if all the will-o'-the-wisps, all the damned souls of Canada, were gathered there to hold the witches' sabbath. Then he saw a curious sight; you would have said they were a kind of men, a queer breed altogether. They had a head big as a peck measure topped off with a pointed cap a yard long; then they had arms, legs, feet and hands armed with long claws, but no body to speak of."