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 rôle conceded to the weaker sex by Italian social usage and custom. The only other part of Italy where the women play an active part in social life is amongst the riveral population of East Liguria, where it has earned for them and their region amongst other Italians the cynical saying that Liguria is a region where the mountains are without woods, the seas without fish, and the women without shame. Several facts of folk-lore, and more of language and place-names, seem to point to some close connection in early times between the peoples of the northwest mountain district of the Venetian province and those of isolated Liguria.

It is worth noting, finally, that in this story the enchanted maiden is invariably styled not “princess,” but queen, and this is the case generally in the Venetian stories in which a king’s daughter is the heroine. She is spoken of as a queen and not as a princess.