P. 7. Printed in Bullen's Carols and Poems, 1886, p. 49, with Sandys's text, a.
Legend of the Sower. I omitted to mention 'La Fuito en Egypto,' in Arbaud, I, 33 ff. The legend of the sower is the subject of a carol in the Bible des Noëls, printed at Caen: Beaurepaire in Le Héricher, Litterature pop. de Normandie, p. 81 f. Also, of a Dutch carol, J.A. and L.J. Alberdingk-Thijm, Oude en nieuwere Kerstliederen, p. 138, No 70.
Victor Smith gives two copies in Noëls du Velay et du Forez, Romania, VIII, 420 f. R. Köhler. In the second the quail plays the part of the partridge, the swallow befriends the Virgin. V. Smith refers also to Eugene Muller, Chansons de mon Village, journal Le Mémorial de la Loire du 23 septembre, 1867.
Dr. R. Köhler has furnished me with these additional references.
A French Life of the Virgin, cited from a Manuscript of the thirteenth century, by Reinsch, Pseudo-Evangelien, pp. 60-64.
Ferdinand Wolf, Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur, III, 73, cites from Didron, Annales Archéologiques, XVI, 315, 1856, a mystery of The Flight into Egypt, which has the legend of the Sower, in Noëls dramatiques des Flamands de France, publiés par l'abbé Carnel. This mystery was apparently written in the eighteenth century, for representation by a charity-school.
The legend is popularly preserved in Ireland, and a species of beetle is the Virgin's enemy, in place of the partridge or quail (p. 8, note †): E. Adams in Transactions of the London Philological Society, cited by Holland, Faune populaire de la France, III, 326. The same story in Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, X, 183.
The miraculous harvest is the subject of a Catalan popular tale, 'La Menta y 'l Gaitx,' Maspons y Labrós, Lo Rondallayre, II, 28. A hawk seconds the mint in calling out, Under the sheaf! Again, simply, without the trait of the malicious plant or bird, in Leite de Vasconcellos, Tradições pop. de Portugal, p. 106. (Juniper, according to Italian tradition, saves the Virgin during her flight, when broom and chick-pea are on the point of revealing her whereabouts by their noise: De Gubernatis, Mythologie des Planter, II, 153.)
The legend has been transferred by tradition to St. Radegund, Acta Sanctorum Augusti, III, 66; to St. Macrina, pursued by Gargantua, Sébillot, Gargantua dans les Traditions populaires, p. 173; and even to Luther, von Schulenburg, Wendische Volkssagen, p. 47. It is cited from the 145th book of the works of Bernard de Bluet d'Arberes, by P.L. Jacob, Dissertations Bibliographiques, p. 195.
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