Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/360

 340 Miscellanea,

told the gardener to put the salt in and keep an eye on the pot while they went away to amuse themselves. The gardener, having seen that all was right, went away to water his garden, when the laurel opened and out came a girl. She took three large handfuls of salt, which she threw into the pot, and then went back into the laurel. When the three young men came back and found their meat so salt that they could not eat it, they were very angry with the gardener, but he assured them he had put just the right amount of salt in. They went away and got another lamb and set it on to cook. This time the gardener said, " Salt it yourselves, and I will come away with you, that you may be sure I am not to blame." When the meat had had time to cook, they came back, but this time it was still salter. The two eldest went away in disgust, but the youngest got another lamb for himself and set it on to cook, and hid himself in a bush. In a little while he heard a voice inside the laurel saying, "Open, laurel, for the girl to come out," and the laurel opened, and out stepped a beautiful girl. He ran quickly, and caught and kissed her. Then she said, " Open, laurel, for the girl to go in," but the laurel answered :

" Kissed and cuddled may not win, Ever to the laurel in,"

and he took her home with him.

Now, he was engaged to be married, and his marriage was to be next day. When the laurel-maiden lay down at night and went to sleep, he went out and picked a basketful of roses and put it by her side, and started off to his bride's house, which was in a village a few miles off. The girl when she woke up put out her arms hoping to clasp her lover, but instead found only the basket of roses.

" O roses white, O roses red, and O my basil, you ! Why did ye gar me go to sleep, and lose my bonny doo ? "

she said, and started off to find him. (She changes clothes with a monk and goes to the marriage, and runs off with the young man at night.)

XII. The Gorgon i (Calymnos).

There was once a queen who had a son and a daughter. Her

' The word "gorgona" in common parlance means a mermaid. Hence, I presume, the name of the Italian island Gorgona, near Leghorn. The gorgon

in this story has nothing marine about her.