When the bride comes to her husband's house, she finds at the door a broom; or, if he takes possession of her's, a ploughshare is placed there: both allegorical of their duties. The distaff of the bride is carried by an old woman throughout the ceremonies.
The Landais, altogether, both as to habits, manners, and general appearance, form a singular feature in the aspect of this part of France.
[CHAPTER XV.]
ports—divona—bordeaux—quinconces—allées—first impression—chartrons—bahutier—bacalan—quays—white guide—ste croix—st. michel—st. andré—pretty figure—pretty women—palais gallien—black prince's son edward.
Tavernier has said, in speaking of the most celebrated ports, "three only can enter into comparison, one with the other, for their beauty of situation and their form of a rainbow, viz., Constantinople, Goa, and Bordeaux." The poet, Chapelle, thus names this celebrated city:—
Nous vîmes au milieu des eaux
Devant nous paraître Bordeaux,
Dont le port en croissant resserre
Plus de barques et de vaisseaux
Qu'aucun autre port de la terre.
The commendatory address to his native city, by the poet, Ausonius, is often quoted; and has been finely rendered by M. Jouannet, whom I venture to translate.
I was to blame; my silence far too long
Has done thy fame, my noble country, wrong:
Thou, Bacchus-loved, whose gifts are great and high,
Thy gen'rous sons, thy senate, and thy sky,
Thy genius and thy grace shall Mem'ry well
Above all cities, to thy glory, tell.
And shall I coldly from thy arms remove,
Blush for my birth-place, and disown my love?
As tho' thy son, in Scythian climes forlorn,
Beneath the Bear with all its snows was born.
No, thy Ausonius, Bordeaux! hails thee yet;
Nor, as his cradle, can thy claims forget.
Dear to the gods thou art, who freely gave
Their blessings to thy meads, thy clime, thy wave:
Gave thee thy flow'rs that bloom the whole year through,
Thy hills of shade, thy prospects ever new,
Thy verdant fields, where Winter shuns to be,
And thy swift river, rival of the sea.