ties," there was attached to this myth far more than meets the eye. And just inthe degree to which Diana was believed to be Queen of the emancipated witches and of Night, or the nocturnal Venus-Astarte herself, so far wouldthe love for sleeping Endymion be understood as sensual, yet sacred and allegorical. And it is entirely in this sense that the witches in Italy,who may claim with some right to be its true inheritors, have preserved and understood the myth. It is a realization of forbidden or secret love, with attraction to the dimly seen beautiful-by-moonlight, with the fairy or witch-like charmof the supernatural - a romance combined in a single strange form - the spell of Night! "There is a dangerous silence in that hour A stillness which leaves room for the full soul To open all itself, without the power Of calling wholly back its self-control; The silver light which, hallowing tree and flower, Sheds beauty and deep softness o'er the whole, Breathes also to the heart, and o'er it throws A loving languor which is not repose." This is what is meant by the myth of Diana and Endymion. It is the making divine or aesthetic (which to the Greeks was one and the same) thatwhich is impassioned, secret, and forbidden. It was the charm of the stolen waters which are sweet, intensified to poetry. And it is remarkablethat it has been so strangely preserved in Italian Witch traditionsCHAPTER X MADONNA DIANA Once there was, in the very old time in Cettardo Alto, a girl of astonishing beauty, and she was betrothed to a young man who was as remarkable for good looks as herself; but though well born and bred, thefortune or misfortunes of war or fate had made them both extremely poor.And if the young lady had one fault, it was her great pride, nor would shewillingly be married unless in good style, with luxury and festivity, in afine garment, with many bridesmaids ...
