La Chasse-galerie

On New Year's Eve, lumberjacks isolated in a winter logging camp long to see their sweethearts. A pact with the devil lets their canoe fly through the night sky — but only under strict conditions: they must not speak the name of God, must not touch the cross of any church steeple, and must not get drunk. If a single condition is broken, the devil claims their souls.

The tale braids Christian fear with older European 'wild hunt' motifs, carried to New France and reshaped by the realities of the forest camps. It circulated orally for generations before Honoré Beaugrand fixed a written version in 1892 — which is itself only one telling among many.