CAMARGUK, COWBOY COUNTRY OF SOUTHERN FRANCE 



on an average, one day in every two. One 

 might well picture Camargue as the setting 

 for the well-known contest between the 

 blustering wind and the genial sun, to see 

 which could first force the traveler to re- 

 move his cloak. 



The mistral's power is such that the 

 roofs of the humbler homes and cowboy 

 shelters hang low to withstand the force 

 of the dry, cold wind, often cyclonic in 

 power, and a cross is fixed to the wall as 

 additional protection. But, cold as the 

 mistral is, it is a blessing, for the malarial 

 mosquitoes and miasmic vapors of the 

 land cannot withstand its blasts, and the 

 muddy morasses dry up before its cleans- 

 ing breath. For this reason it is called 

 the "great mud-eater." 



The mistral is perhaps the main factor 

 in the environment of the land ; and, by a 

 strange coincidence, a newer force which 

 has influenced the region bears the same 

 name. One might well call this part of 

 Provence the land of the two mistrals. 

 So simply and beautifully have the poems 

 of Frederic Mistral described the herds- 

 man's land and life that one of them, 

 Mireio, won for him the Nobel prize for 

 literature in 1904 and the lasting love of 

 his people. Before the great poet of 

 Provence died, in 19 14, he had the satis- 

 faction of knowing that his art had given 

 new life to his land and new pride to its 

 people. 



a mother's tears inspired the REBIRTH 



OE A LANGUAGE 



Frederic Mistral had a great teacher, 

 Joseph Roumanille, a gardener and poet, 

 whose love of his native tongue was 

 stirred by a trifling incident. Roumanille 

 was once reading one of his own poems 

 in French to some friends who were 

 gathered in his home. Praise came to 

 the lips of his fellow-artists, but to his 

 mother's eyes came tears, because she 

 could not understand this strange tongue, 

 although she was a native of France. 



Roumanille then decided to work for 

 the reestablishment of the language of the 

 Troubadours. The finest flowering of 

 modern Provengal is Mireio, in which his 

 pupil, Mistral, describes the simple coun- 

 try life and the love of a basket-weaver's 

 son for the daughter of one of the rich 

 farmers of Provence. Thus was the 

 recent renaissance of Provengal literature 

 mothered by a tear and sired by a song. 



Mistral, thrilled by Homer and the Ec- 

 logues of Virgil, awakened anew the na- 

 tive speech of Provence, changed the pro- 

 vincial patois of St. Remy into the proud 

 Provengal of the Avignon School, mended 

 the rifted lutes of the Troubadours and 

 made their muted strings respond again 

 to the rich sonority of the native tongue. 



NATIVE DANCES, SPORTS, AND COSTUMES 

 CONSERVED 



Master of phrases that he was, Mistral 

 was also a master of psychology. He saw 

 dances, sports, and costumes as the unify- 

 ing factors in a native life which was 

 threatened by the melting pot of cosmo- 

 politan civilization, and he sought in 

 every way to conserve all such native ele- 

 ments as would make for happiness and 

 patriotism, for race expression and for 

 individual glory. 



Hence when one watches the people of 

 Camargue, gathered to witness bull- 

 fights in which the beast has an equal 

 chance with the unarmed man, or sees the 

 horsewomen dashing side by side with 

 their husbands, fathers, and lovers in the 

 abrivado, he is witnessing not alone a 

 holiday spirit exulting in comradeship 

 and excitement after the solitude of the 

 endless plains, but also the fusing of a 

 freedom-loving folk into a unit which has 

 recently won official recognition from the 

 France of which it is so unusual a part. 



When the visitor gazes at the village 

 maidens, whose colorful costumes add 

 zest to the "Feast of the Virgins," he is 

 noting one phase in a cultural renaissance 

 whose importance cannot be realized until 

 history has shown what fruit develops 

 from this bright flower of beauty and 

 unsophisticated charm. 



THE CAMARGUE HERDSMAN 



The herdsman of the Camargue is a 

 picturesque figure. Living a lonely life 

 among herds of black cattle and wild 

 horses, he has developed the same manly 

 traits that distinguish your Western cow- 

 boy. Courage, chivalry, determination, 

 endurance — all are his. But individualism 

 and self-reliance left small place for 

 patriotism, and it was here that the poet 

 hoped to round out the character of the 

 fearless desert rider. 



Hence the rodeo, or round-up, has be- 

 come a cultural conference, during which 



