Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/70

 NOTES TO CANTO II.

$1$ Magnarello are women silk-worm rearers. Magnan are silk-worms.

$2$ Silk-worms live in the larva state about thirty-four days; and, in this interval, moult, or shed their skin, four times. At the approach of each of these periods, they become, as it were, paralyzed, and cease eating,—dormon. They saj in Provençal dourmi de la proumiero, di doz, di tres, di quatre, which means, literally, sleeping the first, second, third, fourth (moult).

$3$ A gray-crested lark,—the Alauda cristata.

$4$ "The muslin of thy cap." The Crau women wear their hair tightly enveloped in a kerchief of fine, transparent linen or muslin, around which is passed a band of velvet, usually of a blue-black, at a distance of about one-third from the top of the muslin, leaving, therefore, so much of it visible. Another turn is then passed immediately below the first, and then another, until two-thirds of the muslin are concealed. The black band is finally fastened at the back of the head with a large gold pin; while the other end, to the length of about a foot, is left pendant. On either side of the forehead, the hair is suffered to fall as low as the cheek-bone, where it is gracefully curved back, and gathered under the muslin.

$5$ "Cooked wine." The grape-juice, on being removed from the press, is boiled in a caldron, and, after one year's bottle, has the color and flavor of the best Spanish wines. The Provençaux drink it at feasts, galas, and always at Christmas.

$6$ Vultures. The Vultur percnoptus.

$7$ Gregali, gregau, and gre are all words used to signify the GrelkGreek [sic], or north-east wind.