IN LEGEND AND FABLE 3 1 



he likened his cry to the voice of the swal- 

 low : " Like a crane or a swallow, so did 

 I chatter." Dante caught in the swallow's 

 note the echo of far-off mourning, and he 

 has passed it on to us in the exquisite lines 

 with which he prefaced the description of 

 his awakening in the Flowery Valley on 

 the Mountain of Purgatory: — 



Just at the hour when her sad lay begins 

 The little swallow, near unto t}ie morning, 

 Perchance in memory of her former woes, — 



But this old tale of pagan Greece does not 

 suffice for the people of later times, when 

 they wish to relate the origin of their favor- 

 ite bird. The devout folk of Spain tell 

 the following pretty legend, in which the 

 Boy Jesus is said to have fashioned the first 

 swallows with his own hands : — 



The Creation of the Swallow 



A Spanish Legend 



It was on a Saturday, and Jesus, then a 

 little boy, went out to play with his compan- 



