Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/162

154 They take with them a wooden swallow which they spin round and round to the song:

Or perhaps to the following variant, given by Mr. Lewis Sergeant in New Greece:—

These little swallow-songs are worth the attention of the Folk-Lore student, since they are of a greater antiquity than can be proved on written evidence in the case, so far as we know, of any other folk-song still current. More than two thousand years ago they existed in the form quoted from Theognis by Athenæus as "an excellent song sung by the children of Rhodes."