28 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



A mother, in another Greek song, poisons her son's wife and he 

 ■ kills himself, 



"And there where buried they the youth, grew up a tall green cypress; 



And there where buried they the maid, a reed grew, tall and slender. 



The pliant reed doth bend its head, and kisses it the cypress. 



Then when the skyla mother saw, whose jealousy had slain them — 

 'Ah see! [said she] the unhappy ones, see those who loved so fondly! , 



If they, when living, never kissed, dead, they may kiss each other!' "^ 



Child (I, 97) cites other Greek songs in which cypresses and reeds 

 spring from graves. In one of these the reeds and trees bend toward 

 one another "and kiss whenever a strong breeze blows. "^ 



In the Portuguese ballad of "Count Nello," the king, who had 

 forbidden the marriage of the count and the Infanta, orders the count 

 to be beheaded. The count is buried near the porch of the church 

 and the Infanta at the foot of the altar. From one springs a cypress, 

 from the other an orange-tree, and their branches join and kiss. 

 The king has the trees cut down, noble blood flows from the cypress, 

 from the orange-tree blood royal, and from one flies forth a dove, 

 from the other a wood-pigeon. They perch before the king at his 

 table, and he cries, "111 luck upon their fondness, ill luck upon their 

 love! Neither in life nor in death have I been able to divide them."^ 



The cypress in Russian ballads is also one of the trees. In one, 

 Vasily, the lover, is laid on the right and Sophia on the left (of the 

 church ?) , and from their graves grow a golden willow and a cypress. 

 The trees are destroyed by the hostile mother.^ 



The same kind of trees occur in a different Russian song; and 

 in another, it is a silver willow and a cypress.^ 



In a Neapolitan-Albanian ballad, a youth is killed and the 

 beloved girl dies. Both are covered up with stones; from the youth 

 comes up a cypress, and from the damsel a vine, which clasps the 

 cypress.^ This also occurs in another song of the same people, 

 "but inappropriately, as Liebrecht has remarked, fidelity in love 

 being wanting in this case."^ 



^ Garnett, op. cit., p. 160. 



2 Child (III, 206). 



^ Puymaigre, op. cit., pp. 47-48; and Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco op. cit. 

 Child (I, 97) cites Almeida-Garrett (Lisbon, 1863), Braga (Coimbra, 1867), and 

 Hartung (Leipzig, 1877). 



* Child (IV, 498) citing Bezsonof (Moscow, 1861^). 



» Ibid., (II, 489) citing Hilferding (St. Petersburg, 1873). 



8 Ibtd., (I, 94, 97) citing de Rada. 



^ Ibid., (I, 97) citing Camarda. 



