Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/50

24 $11$ Li garrigo, swamps or barren lands where only the agarrus, or dwarf-oak, grows.

$12$ Li Santo is the Provençal name of a small town of 548 inhabitants situated on the island of Camargue, between the mouths of the Rhone. In obedience to a poetical and very venerable tradition, an innumerable host of pilgrims from every part of Provence and lower Languedoc assemble at this place every 25th of May. The tradition—which will be found very fully detailed in the eleventh canto of the poem—is, briefly, as follows: After the crucifixion, the Jews compelled some of the most ardent disciples to enter a dismantled ship, and consigned them to the mercy of the waves. The scene is thus described in an ancient French canticle;— LES JUIFS.

Guided by Providence, the bark at length stranded on the isle of Camargue, in Provence; and the exiles, thus miraculously delivered from the perils of the sea, dispersed over Gaul, and became its first evangelists. Mary Magdalene retired to the desert of La Sainte Baume, to weep over her sins. The other two Maries,— the mother of St. James the Less, and Mary Salome, mother of St. John the Evangelist and St. James the Great,—accompanied by their maid Sara, converted to the new faith some of the