La Chasse-galerie

The flying canoe. In the classic Quebec telling, lumberjacks stuck in a winter camp far from home make a pact with the devil so their canoe will fly them back for New Year, on conditions: do not speak God’s name, do not touch a church steeple, and be back before dawn, or he takes their souls. Someone always drinks too much and steers badly. It is the best-known story in French-Canadian folklore, printed by Honore Beaugrand in 1892, and it is everywhere in Quebec art, beer labels and song.