Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/140

---

Strange, airy things, they used to flit about
Dimly, 'twixt form and substance, in and out:
Half-earthly made, to be the visible
Spirit of Nature; female made as well,
To tame the savagery of primal men.
But these were fair in fairies' eyes, and then

They loved: and so, infatuate, lifted not
Mortals unto their own celestial lot;
But, lusting, fell into bur low estate,
As birds fall, whom a snake doth fascinate,
From their high places. But, while thus I write,
The bearers have borne Vincen up the height.

A dim, straight passage led the cavern toward,
A rocky funnel where they gently lowered
The sufferer; and he did not go alone,—
Yet was Mirèio's self the only one
Who dared to follow down that awesome road,
Commending, as she went, his soul to God.

The bottom gained, they found a grotto cold
And vast; midway whereof a beldam old,
The witch Taven, sat silent, cronching lowly
As lost in thought and utter melancholy,
Holding a sprig of brome, and muttering,
"Some call thee devil's wheat, poor little thing,