CHAPTER VI 



THE SWALLOW IN FOLK SONGS 



Where can we find a more charming in- 

 spiration to song than the little swallow, with 

 whom the children of many lands live the 

 long summer through in close companion- 

 ship ? To her who brings them, as they be- 

 lieve, the sunshine and the rain, and who 

 sets them the example of her cheerfulness 

 and her industry, they turn with pretty songs 

 of welcome, of entreaty, and of longing ; but 

 when the hateful sparrow appears, then the 

 bird herself tells us in mournful cadences the 

 sad tale of thievery and destruction. 



As soon as they hear the twitter of the 

 first swallow upon her arrival from over 

 the desert, the children of Greece arise at 

 the peep of dawn and call upon the hills 

 and the flowers to rejoice with them at the 



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