Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/71

] $8$ "The golden goat," la cabre d'or, is a phrase used to signify some treasure or talisman, that the people imagine to have been buried by the Saracens, under some one or other of the antique monuments of Provence. Some allege that is lies under the Mausoleum of Saint-Rémy; others, under the Baux rocks. "This tradition," says George Sand (in Les Visions de la Nuit dans les Campagnes), "is universal. There are few ruins, castles, or monasteries, few Celtic monuments, that have not their treasure hidden away somewhere, and guarded by some diabolic animal. M. Jules Canonge, in a charming collection of Southern tales, has rendered graceful and beneficent the poetical apparition of the golden goat, the guardian of the riches hidden in the bosom of the earth."