Page:The Kiss and its History.djvu/185

Rh

Apoĭ cloanza ear ridea,

Cu zilele purcedea,

Si voĭnicul mort cădea.

Even a spectre's kiss brings death. In an English variant of the ballad of Leonora, Margaret says to her dead bridegroom, who is knocking at her door at night: "Come and kiss me on the cheek and chin."—"Perhaps I shall come to thee," he replies, but:

I shall also call your attention, in connection with the foregoing, to a curious old story of the venomous girl.

A young maiden had from her tenderest years been reared on all the most deadly poisons. Her beauty was marvellous, but her breath was so poisonous that it killed everybody who came near her. She was sent to the palace of Alexander the Great, as the king's enemies reckoned on his falling in love with her and dying in her arms. When the king saw her he at once wanted to make