unted up, and its contents shared,
and indeed they were so considerable that the maidens one and all soon
married nobly and lived happily."

* * * * *

The written story, with a pleasing instinct of Italian thrift, adds that
the conquering Signore purchased the property, in fact, the whole street,
at a very low figure, before the facts became known, and gave the place
the name of the _Via delle Serve Smarrite_, as it is still called by the
people, despite its new official christening.

"Ye may break, ye may ruin the flask if ye will,
But the scent of the brandy will hang round it still."

THE BRONZE BOAR OF THE MERCATO NUOVO

"Now among the Greeks, as with the Northern races, the boar was the
special type of male generation, even as the frog expressed that of
the female sex. And therefore images of the boar were set in public
places that fertility might be developed among women, for which
reason they also wear, as among the Arabs, necklaces of silver
frogs."--_Notes on Symbolism_.

In front of the Mercato Nuovo, built by Cosimo I., stands a bronze copy
of an ancient boar, now in the Uffizzi Gallery. It was cast by Pietro
Tacca, and is now a fountain. The popular legend in relation to it is as
follows:

"In the market-place of Florence, which is called _Il Porcellino_,
because there is in it a fountain with a swine, there was anciently only
a spring of water and a pool, in which were many frogs, water-lizards,
shell-snails, and slugs. These were round about, but in the spring
itself was a frog who was confined there because she had revealed that
her lover was a boar.

"This boar was the son of a rich lord, who, being married for a very long
time, had no children, and for this reason made his wife very unhappy,
saying that she was a useless creature, and that if she could not bear a
son she had better pack up and be off with herself, which she endured
despairingly and weeping continually, praying to the saints and giving
alms withal, all to bring forth an heir, and all in vain.

"One day she saw a drove of pigs go by her palace, and among them were
many sows and many more very little pigs. Now among these, or at hand,
was a _fata_ or witch-spirit. {47} And the lady seeing this said in the
bitterness of her heart, 'So the very pigs have offspring and I none. I
would I were as they are, and could do as they do, and bring forth as
they