Joseph and Mary.
The suspicions entertained by Joseph (as indicated in the narrative of St. Matthew i. 19), when the birth of the child of Mary was first announced, have found deep expression in folk-thought. According to one Oriental legend, the infant Christ himself spoke, declaring that "God had created Him by His word, and chosen Him to be His servant and prophet" (547. 254).
Another tradition, cited by Folkard, states that (448. 279): "Before the birth of our Saviour, the Virgin Mary longed extremely to taste of some tempting cherries which hung upon a tree high above her head; so she requested Joseph to pluck them. Joseph, however, not caring to take the trouble, refused to gather the cherries, saying sullenly, 'Let the father of thy child present thee with the cherries if he will!' No sooner had these words escaped his lips, than, as if in reproof, the branch of the cherry-tree bowed spontaneously to the Virgin's hand, and she gathered its fruit and ate it. Hence the cherry is dedicated to the Virgin Mary."
In Finland the white side of the flounder "is said to have been caused by the Virgin Mary's laying her hand upon it," and an Eastern legend states that "the Angel Gabriel restored a sole to life, to assure the Virgin Mary of the truth of the miraculous conception." Ralston cites from the Kherson Government in Russia the following:—
"At the time of the Angelic Salutation, the Blessed Virgin told the Archangel Gabriel that she would give credit to his words, if a fish, one side of which had already been eaten, were to come to life again. That moment the fish came to life, and was put back into the water." This legend, accounting for the shape of the sole, finds perhaps its origin in "the old Lithuanian tradition that the Queen of the Baltic Sea once ate half of it and threw the other half into the sea again"—another example of the transference of older stories to the cycle of the Virgin Mary (520. 334).
De Gubernatis records from Andalusia, in Spain, a legend which tells how the Holy Family, journeying one day, came to an orange-tree guarded by an eagle. The Virgin "begged of it one of the oranges for the Holy Child. The eagle miraculously fell asleep, and the Virgin thereupon plucked not one but three oranges, one of which she gave to the infant Jesus, another to Joseph, and the third she kept for herself. Then, and not till then, the eagle that guarded the orange-tree awoke" (448. 478).
A beautiful pendant to this Spanish tale is found in the Roumanian story cited by Folkard:—
"The infant Jesus, in the arms of the Blessed Virgin, becomes restless, will not go to sleep, and begins to cry. The Virgin, to calm the Holy Child, gives Him two apples. The infant throws one upwards and it becomes the Moon; He then throws the second, and it becomes the Sun. After this exploit, the Virgin Mary addresses Him and foretells that He will become the Lord of Heaven" (448.222).
In his recent book on Childhood in Literature and Art, Mr. Scudder treats of the Christ-Child and the Holy Family in mediaeval and early Christian art and literature (350. 57-65, 83-99), calling special attention to a series of twelve prints executed in the Netherlands, known as The Infancy of our Lord God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, in which we have "a reproduction of the childhood of the Saviour in the terms of a homely Netherland family life, the naturalistic treatment diversified by the use of angelic machinery" (350.91).
Moslem Lore of the Christ.