Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/93

 NOTES TO CANTO III.

$1$ cocooning, or gathering of tbe cocoons, described in the seventh stanza of this canto.

$2$ The Ferigoulet is an excellent wine grown on one of the hillsides of Graveson. Ferigoulo is thyme, and the wine recalls the perfume of that plant.

$3$ "The Baume Muscat." Baume is a village in the department of Vaucluse. The environs produce a Muscat that sa much esteemed.

$4$ "Turned white." The canela, or whitening, is the term used to describe the silk-worms suffering from the terrible disease called the muscardine, due to the development of a sort of mouldiness, and which gives them a plaster-like appearance.

$5$ "You 've still your caul on,"—''as ta crespino. Crespino'', a cap, is also used for the membrane some children have upon their heads at birth, and which is supposed to be a sign of good luck.

$6$ "Ventour." A high mountain to the north-east of Avignon, abruptly rising 6,440 feet above the level of the sea, isolated, steep, visible forty leagues off, and for six months of the year capped with snow.

$7$ "Notre Dame des Dom." The cathedral church st Avignon, where the Popes formeriy officiated.

$8$ "Faneto de Gautèume." Janette, abridged from Estèfanette, of the noble family of Gautèume, or Gautelme, presided, about the year 1340, over the Court of Love at Roumanin. Courts of Love are known to have been poetical assizes, at which the noblest, most beautiful, and most learned ladies in Gay-saber decided on