Tuscan folk-lore and sketches, together with some other papers

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Anderton Isabella M.. Tuscan folk-lore and sketches, together with some other papers

TUSCAN FOLK-LORE

A TUSCAN SNOW-WHITE AND THE DWARFS

MONTE ROCHETTINO

TERESINA, LUISA, AND THE BEAR

A TUSCAN BLUEBEARD

TASSA

PADRE ULIVO

THE SOUND AND SONG OF THE LOVELY SIBYL

THE SNAKE’S BOUDOIR

POMO AND THE GOBLIN HORSE

TUSCAN SKETCHES

A TUSCAN COUNTRYSIDE AND THE FESTA AT IL MELO

A WEDDING IN THE PISTOIESE

OLIVE-OIL MAKING NEAR FLORENCE

A TUSCAN FARMHOUSE

THE FLORENTINE CALCIO: GAME OF KICK

ELBA

A MONTH IN ELBA

THE FIRST STEP OF A MIGHTY FALL

FUGITIVE PIECES

A TALE FROM THE BORDERLAND

THE PHANTOM BRIDE

CYPRESSES AND OLIVES: AN INTERLUDE

LOVELORNNESS

AN ESTHONIAN FOLK-TALE: KOIT AND ÄMARIK

TWO TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ITALIAN OF ADA NEGRI

THREE LITERARY STUDIES

GIOSUÉ CARDUCCI

GIOVANNI PASCOLI

THE MAKING OF RELIGION

APPENDIX

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Отрывок из книги

IT was old Clementina – a white-haired, delicate-featured peasant woman, with a brightly-coloured handkerchief tied cornerwise on her head, a big ball of coarse white wool stuck on a little stick in the right-hand side of the band of her big apron, and the sock she was knitting carried in the other hand. My companion had gone down to Pistoia to do some shopping: I was alone in our rooms in the straggling primitive little village that clings to the hill among the chestnut woods above. Clementina thought I must be very lonely; besides, she was anxious to know what sort of things these extraordinary “forestieri” – foreigners – did all by themselves. They wrote, she believed – well, but how did they look when they were writing, and what sort of tools did they use? So she suddenly appeared in the doorway with a bright smile, and: – “Buon giorno a Lei.” It was just lunch time, so I pushed aside my work, glad enough, as it happened, to see her; begged her to sit down and tell me while I ate, one of those nice stories which she, as great-grandmother, must know so well.

My lunch was the “necci” of the country people – a cake of sweet chestnut-flour cooked in leaves of the same tree and eaten with cheese – mountain strawberries, brown bread and country wine. Through the open window of the whitewashed room came the noises of the village street, the fresh mountain breeze and the bright sunlight which lighted up the old woman’s well-cut features and kindling brown eyes, as, seating herself with the grace of any lady, she leaned forward and began: —

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“You’ll eat up all my kingdom. Be off with you.”

Then the woman cracked the walnut, and found a beautiful golden wool-winder, which she sent to the queen.

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