nature, Of the stars and of the moon, And of all fate or fortune! Thou who rulest the tide, Who shinest by night on the sea, Casting light upon the waters; Thou who art mistress of the ocean In thy boat made like a crescent, Crescent moon bark brightly gleaming, Ever smiling high in heaven, Sailing too on earth, reflected In the ocean, on its water; We implore thee give this sleeper, Give unto this good Melambo The great gift of understanding What all creatures say while talking! This legend contains much that is very curious; among other things an invocation to the firefly, one to Mefitia, the goddess of malaria, anda long poetic prophecy relative to the hero. It is evidently full of oldLatin mythologic lore of a very marked character. The whole of it may befound in a forthcoming work by the writer of this book, entitled "The Unpublished Legends of Virgil."DIANA AS GIVING BEAUTY AND RESTORING STRENGTH Diana hath the power to do all things, to give glory to the lowly, wealth to the poor, joy to the afflicted, beauty to the ugly. Be not in grief, if you are her follower; though you be in prison and in darkness,she will bring light - many there are whom she sinks that they may rise thehigher. There was of old in Monteroni a young man so ugly that when a strangerwas passing through the town he was shown this Gianni, as one of the sightsof the place. Yet, hideous as he was, because he was rich, though of no family, he had confidence, and hoped boldly to win and wed some beautiful young lady of rank. Now there came to dwell in Monteroni a wonderfully beautiful blonde young lady of culture and condition, to whom Gianni, with his usual impudence, boldly made love, getting, as was also usual, a round No for his reply. But this time, being more than usually fascinated in good truth, fo...
