Endnotes

1. Boston, U.S.A., Roberts Bros., 1872. ↩

2. Lotus Farm, or Falabrego Mas. The word mas, meaning a farm or homestead, is used in the arrondissement of Arles and in Languedoc. Every mas has a distinctive name⁠—Mas de la Font, Fountain Farm; Mas de l’Oste, Host Farm; etc. The falabrego is the fruit of a species of lotus, called in French micoculier. (It is the Celtis australis of Linnaeus; and nearly related to, if not identical with, Celtis occidentalis, the sugar-berry of our Northern woods, remarkable for the delicate texture of its foliage, and singularly rich crimson color of its tiny fruit. —⁠Am. Tr.) ↩

3. La Crau, from the Greek κρᾶνρος, arid, is a vast stony plain, bounded on the north by the Alpines (Lower Alps), on the east by the meres of Martigue, west by the Rhône, and south by the sea. It is the Arabia Petraea of France. ↩

4. Magalouno. Of this city, formerly a Greek colony, nothing now remains but a single church in ruins. ↩

5. Li Baus, in French Les Baux, is a ruined town, formerly the capital of the princely house of Baux. It is three leagues from Arles, on the summit of the Alpines; and, as the name of this poetical locality occurs often in the poem, the following description from Jules Canonge’s History of the town of Baux, in Provence, may interest the reader:⁠—

   “At length there opened out before me a narrow valley. I bowed to the remains of a stone cross that sanctify the way; and, when I raised my eyes, they were riveted in astonishment on a set of towers and walls on the top of a rock, the like of which I had never before seen, save in works in which the genius of painting had been inspired by the most fabulous imaginings of Ariosto. But, if my surprise was great at the first aspect, it was doubly so when I reached an eminence, whence the whole town was displayed to view. It was a spectacle of desolate grandeur, such as a perusal of the Prophets presents to the mind. It was something I had never suspected the existence of⁠—a town almost monolithite. Those who first had the idea of inhabiting the rock had hewn them a shelter out of its sides. This novel mode of architecture was plainly approved of by their successors; for soon from the vast compact mass a town issued, like a statue from a block touched by the wand of Art. An imposing town, with fortifications, chapels, and hospitals⁠—a town in which man seemed to have eternalized his habitation. The dominion of the city was extensive, and brilliant feats of arms have secured for it a noble place in history; but it has proved no more enduring than many others less-solidly constituted.”

   The action of the poem begins at the foot of these ruins. ↩

6. Sheet spread to catch the olives as they are shaken from the trees. ↩

7. Valabrègo, a village on the left bank of the Rhône, between Avignon and Tarascon. ↩

8. Font Vièio (the Old Woman’s Well), a village in one of the valleys of the Alpines near Arles. ↩

9. Martigau, an inhabitant of Martigue, a curious Provençal town inhabited almost solely by fishermen, built on some narrow islands, intersected by salt lakes and channels of the sea, by way of streets, which has occasioned it to be surnamed La Venire Provençale. It was the birthplace of Gerard Tenque (Thom or Tung), the founder of the order of St. John of Jerusalem. ↩

10. “When Martha span,” a proverbial expression signifying, “in the good old days,” and alluding to Martha the hostess of Christ, who, after having, according to the legend, delivered Tarascon from a monster that ravaged its territory, ended her days in these parts. She is said to have inhabited a small house on the banks of the Rhône, at the door of which she used to sit, surrounded by her neophytes, and modestly ply her spinning-wheel. ↩

11. The Aster trifolium, common on the marshes of the South. ↩

12. Li garrigo, swamps or barren lands where only the agarrus, or dwarf-oak, grows. ↩

13. Li Santo is the Provençal name of a small town of 543 inhabitants situated on the island of Camargue, between the mouths of the Rhône. In obedience to a poetical and very venerable tradition, an innumerable host of pilgrims from every part of Provence and lower Languedoc assemble at this place every 25th of May. The tradition⁠—which will be found very fully detailed in the eleventh canto of the poem⁠—is, briefly, as follows: After the crucifixion, the Jews compelled some of the most ardent disciples to enter a dismantled ship, and consigned them to the mercy of the waves. The scene is thus described in an ancient French canticle:⁠—

    Les Juifs

    Entrez, Sara, dans la nacelle,
    Lazare, Marthe, et Maximin,
    Cléon, Trophime, Saturnin,
    Les trois Maries et Marcelle,
    Eutrope et Martial, Sidoine avec Joseph (d’Arimathée)
    Vous peirez dans cette nef.

    Allez sans voile et sans cordage,
    Sans mât, sans ancre, sans timon,
    Sans aliment, sans aviron;
    Allez, faire un triste naufrage!
    Retirez-vous d’ici, laissez-nous en repoz,
    Allez, crever parmi les flots.

    Guided by Providence, the bark at length stranded on the isle of Camargue, in Provence; and the exiles, thus miraculously delivered from the perils of the sea, dispersed over Gaul, and became its first evangelists. Mary Magdalene retired to the desert of La Sainte Baume, to weep over her sins. The other two Maries⁠—the mother of St. James the Less, and Mary Salome, mother of St. John the Evangelist and St. James the Great⁠—accompanied by their maid Sara, converted to the new faith some of the neighboring people, and then returned to the place of their landing to die. (See Canto XI.)

    “It is reported that a prince whose name is unknown, learning that the bodies of the holy Maries were interred on this spot, built a church over it in the form of a citadel, that it might be safe from piratical invasion. He also built houses round the church and ramparts, for the safety of the inhabitants. The buildings that remain bear out this tradition.” ↩

14. The choir of the church presents the peculiarity of being composed of three stories⁠—a crypt, which is pointed out as the very site of the ancient oratory of the saints; a sanctuary, raised higher than usual; and a chapel above, where the reliquaries are exposed. A chain is attached to the latter, so that, by the unwinding of a capstan, they may be let down into the church. The moment when they descend is the one propitious to miracles, like that which Vincen describes. ↩

15. John of Cossa, a Neapolitan noble who had followed King René. He was Grand Seneschal of Provence, and died in 1476. John of Cossa is very popular at Tarascon, where the people ascribe to him the building of St. Martha’s steeple. He is interred in the crypt of that church; and his statue, in a recumbent attitude, surmounts the tomb. ↩

16. The chivaus-frus, or painted cardboard horses, used in Provence at public rejoicings, and particularly at Aix in the Fête Dieu. The seeming riders attach them to the waist, and prance the streets to the sound of the tambourine. ↩

17. Magnarello are women silkworm rearers. Magnan are silkworms. ↩

18. Silkworms live in the larva state about thirty-four days; and, in this interval, moult, or shed their skin, four times. At the approach of each of these periods, they become, as it were, paralyzed, and cease eating⁠—dormon. They say in Provençal dourmi de la proumiero, di doz, di tres, di quatre, which means, literally, sleeping the first, second, third, fourth (moult). ↩

19. A gray-crested lark⁠—the Alauda cristata. ↩

20. “The muslin of thy cap.” The Crau women wear their hair tightly enveloped in a kerchief of fine, transparent linen or muslin, around which is passed a band of velvet, usually of a blue-black, at a distance of about one-third from the top of the muslin, leaving, therefore, so much of it visible. Another turn is then passed immediately below the first, and then another, until two-thirds of the muslin are concealed. The black band is finally fastened at the back of the head with a large gold pin; while the other end, to the length of about a foot, is left pendant. On either side of the forehead, the hair is suffered to fall as low as the cheekbone, where it is gracefully curved back, and gathered under the muslin. ↩

21. “Cooked wine.” The grape-juice, on being removed from the press, is boiled in a cauldron, and, after one year’s bottle, has the color and flavor of the best Spanish wines. The Provençaux drink it at feasts, galas, and always at Christmas. ↩

22. Vultures. The Vultur percnoptus. ↩

23. Gregali, gregau, and gre are all words used to signify the Grelk, or northeast wind. ↩

24. “The golden goat,” la cabro d’or, is a phrase used to signify some treasure or talisman, that the people imagine to have been buried by the Saracens, under some one or other of the antique monuments of Provence. Some allege that it lies under the Mausoleum of Saint Rémy; others, under the Baux rocks. “This tradition,” says George Sand (in Les Visions de la Nuit dans les Campagnes), “is universal. There are few ruins, castles, or monasteries, few Celtic monuments, that have not their treasure hidden away somewhere, and guarded by some diabolic animal. M. Jules Canonge, in a charming collection of Southern tales, has rendered graceful and beneficent the poetical apparition of the golden goat, the guardian of the riches hidden in the bosom of the earth.” ↩

25. The cocooning, or gathering of the cocoons, described in the seventh stanza of this canto. ↩

26. The Ferigoulet is an excellent wine grown on one of the hillsides of Graveson. Ferigoulo is thyme, and the wine recalls the perfume of that plant. ↩

27. “The Baume Muscat.” Baume is a village in the department of Vaucluse. The environs produce a Muscat that is much esteemed. ↩

28. “Turned white.” The canela, or whitening, is the term used to describe the silkworms suffering from the terrible disease called the muscardine, due to the development of a sort of mouldiness, and which gives them a plaster-like appearance. ↩

29. “You’ve still your caul on,”⁠—as ta crespino. Crespino, a cap, is also used for the membrane some children have upon their heads at birth, and which is supposed to be a sign of good luck. ↩

30. “Ventour.” A high mountain to the northeast of Avignon, abruptly rising 6,440 feet above the level of the sea, isolated, steep, visible forty leagues off, and for six months of the year capped with snow. ↩

31. “Notre Dame des Doms.” The cathedral church at Avignon, where the Popes formerly officiated. ↩

32. “Faneto de Gautèume.” Janette, abridged from Estèfanette, of the noble family of Gautèume, or Gautelme, presided, about the year 1340, over the Court of Love at Roumanin. Courts of Love are known to have been poetical assizes, at which the noblest, most beautiful, and most learned ladies in Gay-saber decided on questions of gallantry and love, and awarded prizes for Provençal poetry. The celebrated and lovely Laura was niece to Fanette de Gautelme, and a member of her graceful areopagus. The ruins of the Castle of Roumanin may still be seen, not far from St. Rémy, at the foot of the northern slope of the Lower Alps. ↩

33. “Countess Dio.” A celebrated poetess of the middle of the twelfth century. Such of her poems as have come down to us contain strains more impassioned, and occasionally more voluptuous, than those of Sappho. ↩

34. The vampire, or roumeso, is thus described in the Castagnados of the Marquis Lafare Alais:⁠—

    “Sus vint arpo d’aragno
    S’ecasso soun cars brun.
    Soun ventre que regagno
    Di fèbre e de magagno
    Suso l’arre frescun.”

    That is, “On twenty spider-legs its brown body, as on stilts, is mounted; its belly swelled with fever and rottenness; the horrid odor thereof exudes.” ↩

35. The Luberon, or Luberoun, is a mountain-chain in the department of Vaucluse. ↩

36. The Vaumasco (from Vau and Masco, Valley of Sorcerers) is a valley of the Luberoun, formerly inhabited by the Vaudois. ↩

37. The song of Magali belongs to the class of poems called aubado⁠—music performed under a window in early morning, as a serenade is in the evening. ↩

38. A portico. Within half an hour’s walk from St. Rémy, at the foot of the Alpines, arise side by side two fine Roman monuments. One is a triumphal arch; the other, a magnificent mausoleum, of three stories, adorned with rich bas-reliefs and surmounted by a graceful cupola, supported by ten Corinthian pillars, through which are discerned two statues in a standing attitude. They are the last vestiges of Glanum, a Marseilles colony destroyed by the Barbarians. ↩

39. Sambu, a hamlet in the territory of Arles, in the isle of Camargue. ↩

40. Camargue is a vast delta, formed by the bifurcation of the Rhône. The island extends from Arles to the sea, and comprises 184,482¼ acres. The immensity of its horizon, the awful silence of its level plain, its strange vegetation, meres, swarms of mosquitos, large herds of oxen and wild horses, amaze the traveller, and remind him of the Pampas of South America. ↩

41. Vacarès, a large assemblage of salt-ponds, lagoons, and moors in the isle of Camargue. “Vacarès” is formed of the word vaco and the Provençal desinence arés or eirés, indicating union, generality. It means a place where cows abound. ↩

42. Veranet is the diminutive of Veran. ↩

43. Petite Camargue, also called Sóuvage, is bounded on the east by the Petit Rhône, which separates it from Grande Camargue, on the south by the Mediterranean, and on the west and north by the Rhône Mort and the Aigui Morte canal. It is the principal resort of the wild black oxen. ↩

44. Faraman and Ambaroun are hamlets in Camargue. Aigui Morto is in the department of the Gard. It was at the port of this town that St. Louis twice embarked for the Holy Land. Here also Francis I and Charles V had an interview in 1579. ↩

45. Centaury and Salicorne. The Centaurea solstitialis, a species of star-thistle, abounds in the fields of Crau after harvest. Salicornia fructicosa is a species of samphire. ↩

46. Tamarisk, the Tamarix gallica of Linnaeus. ↩

47. Sylvaréal, a forest of parasol-pines in Petite Camargue. ↩

48. “Columbine,” the name of a large and superior sort of grape. ↩

49. Oulympe, or Oulimpe, is a lofty mountain on the boundary-line of the Var and Bouches-du-Rhône. ↩

50. Queiras, a valley of the Upper Alps. ↩

51. Penduline, Motacilla pendulina. ↩

52. Eel-grass, Valisneria spiralis of Linnaeus. ↩

53. “Moon-wheat,” blad de luno. Faire de blad de luno signifies, literally, to rob parents of their wheat by moonlight. Figuratively, it is used for lovemaking on the sly. ↩

54. Goose-foot, Chenopadium fructicum of Linnaeus. ↩

55. Jan de l’Ours is a storybook hero, a kind of Provençal Hercules, to whom many exploits are attributed. He was the son of a shepherdess and a bear, and had for companions in his exploits two adventurers of marvellous strength. The name of the one was Arrache Montagne; that of the other, Pierre de Moulin. ↩

56. This bridge is the Roman antiquity known as the “Pont du Gard.” ↩

57. Green heron, Ardea virides. ↩

58. Sainte Baume, a grotto in the midst of a virgin forest near St. Maximin, to which Ste. Magdalene used to repair, to do penance. ↩

59. Trincataio is a suburb of Arles, in Camargue, united to the town by a bridge of boats. The water-sprites, or trevi, were said to dance on the tips of the waves by the light of the sun or moon. ↩

60. Maussano and Saint Martin are villages in Crau. ↩

61. Nostradamus. Michel de Nostradame, or Nostradamus, was born at Saint Rémy, in 1503, and died at Salon, in 1565. He practised medicine very successfully under the latter Valois, applied himself to mathematics and astrology, and published in 1557, under the title of The Centuries, the prophesies which have rendered his name popular. Charles IX appointed him physician in ordinary, and loaded him with honor. ↩

62. “This cordial,” Agrioutas, a liquor, composed of brandy and sugar, with which is mixed a certain quantity of short-stalked cherry, well bruised. ↩

63. “The Fairies’ Cavern.” The following is Jules Canonge’s description of this locality:⁠—

    “From the bottom of the gorge, aptly named Enfer, I descended into the Fairies’ Grotto. But, instead of the graceful phantoms with which my imagination had peopled it, I saw nothing but low vaults under which I was forced to crawl, blocks of stone heaped up, and gloomy depths. I have just observed that this gorge is aptly called Enfer. Nowhere else have I ever seen rocks so tormented. They stand erect, with cavities in their sides; and their gigantic entablements, covered with aerial gardens, in which a dishevelled sort of vegetation obtains, defile out like the Pyrenean rock cleft by the sword of Roland.”

    On comparing the description of Dante’s Inferno with this tortured Cyclopean, fantastic vista, one is persuaded that the great Florentine poet, who travelled in our parts and even sojourned in Arles, must have visited the town of Baux, sat on the escarpments of the Valoun d’Infer, and, being struck with the grandeur of its desolation, conceived in its midst the outline of his Inferno. Everything leads to this idea, even the name of the gorge itself, its amphitheatrical form, the same given by Dante to Hell, and the large detached rocks forming its escarpments.

    “In su l’estremita d’un alta ripa
    Che facevan gran pietre rotte in cerchio.”

    And the Provençal name of these same baus, Italianized by ths poet into balzo, was given by him to the escarpments of his own lugubrious funnel. ↩

64. “Sabatori.” Beside its etymological meaning, this word is used to designate a meeting held by sorcerers at night to worship the devil. (The Witches’ Sabbath of our own witchcraft delusion. —⁠Am. Tr.) ↩

65. “Saint Trophime,” the cathedral of Arles, built in the seventh century, by Archbishop St. Virgile, in which Frederic Barbarossa was consecrated emperor in 1178. ↩

66. Peasants in Southern France have remarked that the last three days of February and the first three of March are almost always visited by a renewal of cold; and this is how their poetic imagination accounts for the fact:⁠—

    An old woman was once tending her sheep. It was toward the end of February, which that year had not been severe. The old woman, believing herself clear of winter, began jeering February as follows:⁠—

    “Adieu, Febriè. Mè ta feberado
    M’as fa ni peu ni pelado.”

    (“Farewell, February. With your frost
    Harmed me you have not, and nothing cost.”)

    This jeer enraged February, who went in search of March, and said, “March, do me a favor!”⁠—“Two, if you like,” answered March.⁠—“Lend me three days; and, with the three I have left, I will both harm her and cost her plenty.” The weather immediately afterward became intolerably bad, all the sheep of the old woman were killed by the frost, and she, the peasants say, kicked against it. This inclement period has ever since been known as the reguignado de la Vièio, or kicking of the old woman. ↩

67. The farandoulo is a Provençal dance. ↩

68. Garamaude is the imp of flirtation; Gripet, the demon of influenza, from gripa, to grip. ↩

69. Sambuco’s Path, in the mountains of Sambuco, to the east of Aix, is much dreaded by travellers. ↩

70. The Cordovan Hollow, or Tran de Cordo. To the east of Arles arise two hills, which must originally have formed but one, but are now separated by a morass. Upon the flat, rocky summit of the lower, the Celts had once made an excavation. It is believed that the Saracens once encamped upon this hill, and gave it its name of “Cordo,” in memory of Cordova. Wonderful traditions cluster around this spot. It is the haunt of the Fairy Serpent, or Melusine Provençale; of the golden goat, that enables people to discover hidden treasure. The larger hill bears the almost Roman name of Mont Majour. Upon this hill are the gigantic ruins of the Abbey of Mont Majour. Both the Grotte de Corde and the Grotte des Baus bear the name of “Trau di Fado,” or “Fairies’ Cave,” and the popular belief is that the excavations communicate. ↩

71. The mistral, or northwest wind, which, especially since the removal of the forests at the mouth of the Rhône, blows down the valley with great violence. ↩

72. Tourtihado, a cake baked in the form of a crown, and made of fine paste, sugar, eggs, and anise-seed. ↩

73. “The white hen’s egg,” a proverbial expression for something rare and precious. ↩

74. “Magalouno.” According to the old chivalrous romance, Count Pierre of Provence, having eloped with Magalouno, daughter of the King of Naples, fled with her over hill and vale. One day, as Magalouno was sleeping by the seaside, a bird of prey carried off a jewel that was glittering on her neck. Her lover followed the bird in a boat out to sea; but a storm arose, whereby he was driven to Egypt, where he was received and loaded with honors by the Sultan. After many romantic adventures, they met again in Provence, where Magalouno, having become an abbess, had founded a hospital, around which the town of Magalouno was afterwards built. ↩

75. Santo Vitori, a lofty peak east of Aix. It derives its name from the victory gained by Marius over the Teutons, close by. ↩

76. Juniper, Juniparus phoenicea. ↩

77. Praying mantes, Orthoptera raptoria. ↩

78. St. Gent. A young laborer of Monteux, who, at the beginning of the eleventh century, retired to the gorge of Bausset, near Vaucluse, to live as a hermit. His hermitage, and the miraculous fountain he caused to spring, tradition says, by touching the rock with his finger, are objects of many pilgrimages. ↩

79. Helix hermiculata, Helix exepitum, and Helix algira. ↩

80. August 15, the fête of Napoleon III. ↩

81. The Grand Clar, an immense pond in Crau, between Baux and Arles. ↩

82. “Bouillabaisse,” bouibaisso, a favorite Provençal stew, made of all sorts of fish, and poured, boiling hot, upon pieces of bread. ↩

83. Lunch, a light meal taken by the reapers about ten in the morning. ↩

84. Quercus ilex. ↩

85. Jean Althen, an Arminian adventurer, introduced in 1774 the cultivation of madder into the Comtat Venaissen (department of Vaucluse). In 1850, a statue was erected to him on the rock of Avignon. ↩

86. The Provence cane, Arundo vulgaris, is very common in this region. Cattle-pens and angling-rods are made of it. ↩

87. All the world has heard of La Tarasque, a monster who, according to tradition, ravaged the banks of the Rhône, and was destroyed by Ste. Martha. Every year the people of Tarascon celebrate this deliverance by burning the monster in effigy; and, at intervals of time more or less long, the fête is enhanced by various games⁠—such as that of the pike and flag here mentioned, which consists in gracefully waving, throwing to a great height, and then catching with address, a standard with large folds, or a javelin. Lagadigadèu is the ritournello of a popular song ascribed to King Renè, and sung at Tarascon at this fête. The following is the best known couplet:⁠—

    “Lagadigadèu!
    La Tarasco!
    Lagadigadèu!
    La Tarasco
    De Castèu!
    Leisses la passa,
    La vièio Masco!
    Leisses la passa
    Que nai dansa.”

    Condamino (Campus Domini) is the name of a certain quarter in Tarascon. ↩

88. Moureto is the name of the female, Mouret that of the male animal. In this country, beasts of burden are usually named for their color⁠—Mouret, black; Blanquet, white; Brunen, brown; Falet, gray; Baiard, bay; Roubin, light bay. ↩

89. Durancolo: this name is given to the canals derived from the Durance. ↩

90. Tartanes, the name of a small trading-craft common in the Mediterranean. ↩

91. Birds common in Camargue. The Provençal name Cambet designates several birds of the order of the echassiers, chiefly the large red-legged chevalier, Scolopax celidrix, and the small red-legged chevalier, Tringa gambetta. The hern is the Ardea nycticorax of Linnaeus. ↩

92. The Pancratian maritimus. ↩

93. Atriplex portulacoides and Phylleria latifolia, a large shrub of the jessamine family. ↩

94. Campoustello, in the middle ages Campus Stellae, once the capital of Gallicia, in Spain, now a town of thirty thousand inhabitants, with a fine old cathedral, containing the tomb of St. James the Major, patron saint of Spain. ↩

95. L’Huveaune, a small river that rises in the Sainte Baume mountain (Var), flows past Aubagne, and reaches the sea at Marseilles, near the Prado. A poetical legend ascribes its origin to the tears of Ste. Magdalene. ↩

96. Sambuco, a mountain to the east of Aix. ↩

97. Esterel, a mountain and forest in the Var. ↩

98. Trevaresso, a mountain-chain between the Touloulero and the Durance. ↩

99. It has been seen, in the relation of the holy Maries, that the bark of the proscribed saints was cast upon the extremity of the isle of Camargue. These first apostles to the Gauls ascended the Rhône to Arles, and then dispersed over the South. It is even held that Joseph of Arimathea proceeded as far as England. Such is the Arlesian tradition. That of Baux continues the Odyssey of the holy women. It states that they went and preached the faith in the Alpines; and, to eternalize the memory of their doctrine, they miraculously carved their effigies on a rock. On the eastern side of Baux this mysterious and antique monument may still be seen. It is an enormous upright block, detached, and standing over the brink of a precipice. Upon its eastern side are sculptured three colossal faces, which are objects of veneration to all the people of the region. ↩