CHAPTER XI
SONG, DANCE, AND LEGEND
"At eventide it delighted him much to sit by the blazing fire of fagots on the hearth and tell us tales of the Reign of Terror, when during the Revolution he had dug a pit and had hidden there many a poor fugitive. Then my mother would sing the sweet old Provençal songs, La Bello Margountoud, L'aucen engabia....
"Ballads and stories would be told by her while I drank in with delight the wild legends of Provence."—Mistral's Account of his Parents.
CHAPTER XI
SONG, DANCE, AND LEGEND
There are so many famous things connected with Provence that one never comes to the end of them. There are dances and festivals and fires on St. John's Eve in honour of Baal (as there are, or were till quite lately, in Scotland). There are rich wines and the far-famed bouillabaisse, a dish of fish of mixed sorts, boiled with saffron, and, to feminine palates, extremely nasty!
Great was our delight to see, in passing a side-road leading to a small hostelry, a sign-board with the mystic word printed in triumphant letters. This was local colour indeed! Our enthusiasm rose to boiling-point; I doubt if even our critical friend could have chilled us at that moment.