Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/144

 128 Folklore of the Azores.

with the people and their language. She collected these materials while resident there, but she has not in every case kept note of the name of her informant. The stories relating to the Lagoa das Furnas were told her by a mule- teer named Antonio Tavares, known as Rabica, or 'Pigtail,' because his grandfather wore a pigtail. The Legends of the Virgin Mary were told by the Condessa de Praia e Monforte, a lady of St. Michael's. I have arranged Mrs. Seemann's stories under the following heads :

Local Legends.

Legends of the Virgin Mary.

Festivals, &c.

Customs and Superstitions.

Songs, dances, &c. It will be noted that these materials are of a different character from most of those in Braga's collection, which consists mainly of niarchen proper.^ Braga has published another volume dealing with the metrical romances pre- served in the island of Santa Maria,^ the first discovered of the Azores. These well deserve translation, but T have not attempted to deal with them as yet.

M. LoNGWORTH Dames.

Local Legends.

Legends of the Furnas.

a. Centuries ago there was no lake in this place, but a valley, in which stood a convent ; while the neighbouring valley of Lagoa Secca (Dry Lake) was tilled with water. During some great earthquake or similar disturbance the

' The only collections of Portuguese Folklore hitherto available in English are that of Pedroso, translated by Miss H. Monteiro, and edited for the Folk-Lore Society in 1882 by iNIr. Ralston, and a selection from F. A. Coelho's collection {Cotitos populares Portiigiiezes, por F. A. Coelho, Lisbon, 1879) translated by Miss Monteiro under the title Tales of Old Lnsitatiia (Swan Sonnenschein, 1888). Neither of these contain any material from the Azores.

- Cantos populares do Archipelago Acoriaiio, por T. Braga, Porto, 1S69.