And well it was for this bold mariner that he did not take up the Devil's offer, for everybody knows that those who have signed away their souls to the Devil turn black in the moment of dying, and are borne, black and horrible, to the sepulchre.
In this northwestern corner of Spain are many mountain-songs as well as sea-songs. One of the sweetest tells how the blue-robed Virgin met a young shepherdess upon the hills and was so pleased with the maiden's courtesy that she straightway bore her thence to Paradise, not forgetting, this tender Mary of Bethlehem, to lead the flock safely back to the sheepfold. The love of the Galician peasantry for "Our Lady" blends childlike familiarity with impassioned devotion.
"As I was telling my beads,
While the dawn was red,
The Virgin came to greet me
With her arms outspread."
Her rank in their affections is well suggested by another of the popular coplas.
"In the porch of Bethlehem,
Sun, Moon, and Star,
The Virgin, St. Joseph,