ieus of the Mercato Vecchio. I
have often met her when thus employed, always in the old part of the
town, amid towering old buildings bearing shields of the Middle Ages, or
in dusky _vicoli_ and _chiassi_, and when asked what she was doing, 'twas
ever the same reply, "_Ma_, _Signore Carlo_, there's an old woman--or
somebody--lives here who knows a story." And then I knew that there was
going to be a long colloquy in dialect which would appal any one who only
knew choice Italian, the end of which would be the recovery, perhaps from
half-a-dozen _vecchie_, of a legend like the following, of which I would
premise that it was not translated by me, but by Miss Roma Lister, who
knew Maddalena, having taken lessons from her in the sublime art of
_battezare le carte_, or telling fortunes by cards, and other branches of
the black art. And having received the manuscript, which was unusually
illegible and troublesome, I asked Miss Lister to kindly transcribe it,
but with great kindness she translated the whole, only begging me to
mention that it is given with the most scrupulous accuracy, word for
word, from the original, so far as the difference of language permitted.

IL DIAVOLINO DEL CANTO DE' DIAVOLI.
_The Imp of the Devil's Corner and the Pious Fairy_.

"There was once a pious fairy who employed all her time in going about
the streets of Florence in the shape of a woman, preaching moral sermons
for the good of her hearers, and singing so sweetly that all who heard
her voice fell in love with her. Even the women forgot to be jealous, so
charming was her voice, and dames and damsels followed her about, trying
to learn her manner of singing.

"Now the fairy had converted so many folk from their evil ways, that a
certain devil or imp--who also had much business in Florence about that
time--became jealous of the intruder, and swore to avenge himself; but it
appears that there was as much love as hate in the fiend's mind, for the
fairy's beautiful voice had worked its charm even when the hearer was a
devil. Now, besides being an imp of superior intelligence, he was also
an accomplished ventriloquist (or one who could imitate strange voices as
if sounding afar or in any place); so one day while the pious fairy in
the form of a beautiful maiden held forth to an admiring audience, two
voices were heard in the street, one here, another there, and the first
sang:

"'Senti o bella una parola,