[377] "Quand il le tint, se mit à rire de tout son cœur. E il l'étouffa, et le jeta dans le blanc giron de la pauvre dame. Tenez, tenez, ma jeune épouse, voici votre joli rossignol; c'est pour vous que je l'ai attrapé; je suppose, ma belle, qu'il vous fera plaisir;" Villemarqué, Barzaz Breiz, p. 154.
[378] iii. 5.
[379] Dixon, Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England; cfr. also on the traditions relating to the cuckoo and the nightingale in Russia, Ralston, The Songs of the Russian People.
[380] Currum Deæ prosequentes, gannitu constrepenti lasciviunt Passeres; De Asino Aureo, vi.
[381] A woman of Antignano, near Leghorn, once told me the story of a beautiful princess who stayed upon a tree till her husband returned, who had gone in quest of robes for her. Whilst she is waiting, up comes a negress to wash clothes, and sees in the water the reflection of the beautiful princess. She induces her to come down by offering to comb her hair for her, and puts a pin into her head, so that she becomes a swallow. The negress then takes the maiden's place by her husband. The swallow, however, finds means of letting herself be caught by her husband, who, stroking her head, finds the pin, and draws it out; then the swallow becomes again a beautiful princess. The same story is narrated more at length in Piedmont, in other parts of Tuscany, in Calabria, and in other places; but instead of the swallow we have the dove, as in the Tuti-Name.
[382] Pra yâ ǵigâti khargaleva naktam apa druhâ tanvaṁ gûhamânâ; Ṛigv. vii. 104, 17.
[383] Yad ulûko vadati mogham etad yat kapotaḥ padam agnâu kṛiṇoti, yasya dûtaḥ prahita esha etat tasmâi yamâya namo astu mṛityave; Ṛigv. i. 165, 4.
[384] iii. 73.
[385] iii. 15, 128, and Hitopadeças, iv. 47.
[386] iii. 308, x. 38.