Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/183

Rh Among the Sicilian are many of a similar character. The Sicilian on the whole have more singularities than any other province; we have only space to note the fact without pursuing it. The following, of which for some reason Miss Busk gives only an unrhymed translation, strikes us as a very peculiar bit of folk-lore. One day when God the Father was feeling pleased, as He walked in heaven among the saints, He thought He would bestow a fair gift upon the earth. Then from His crown he took a diamond. He dowered it with all the seven elements. And He laid it down over against the rising sun. All nations call it Sicilia. But it is the Eternal Father's own diamond.

We must give one other specimen of a more general character, and we choose the following because it combines both the tenderness and the playfulness which mark the Italian peasant's character. It is from Umbria:—

The word-for-word translations are all printed to face the originals in order to enable students both of folk-lore and of language to follow the original and make it out for themselves.

We understand that Miss Busk has a very large number more of these songs in hand, and we hope to be called ere long to welcome another instalment of them.