d also gone down into shadowy Hades, and returned
to be sacrificed by the heathen, unto whose rites he would not conform.

Miss Roma Lister found traces of Orpheus among the peasantry about Rome,
in a pretty tradition. They say that there is a spirit who, when he
plays the _zufolo_ or flageolet to flocks, attracts them by his music and
keeps them quiet.

"Now there were certain shepherd families and their flocks together
in a place, and it was agreed that every night by turns, each family
should guard the flocks of all the rest. But it was observed that
one mysterious family all turned in and went to sleep when their turn
came to watch, and yet every morning every sheep was in its place.
Then it was found that this family had a spirit who played the
_zufolo_, and herded the flock by means of his music."

The name is wanting, but Orpheus was there. The survival of the soul of
Orpheus in the _zufolo_ or pipe, and in the sprite, reveals the mystic
legend which indicates his existing to other times. In this it is said
that his head after death predicted to Cyrus the Persian monarch that he
too would be killed by a woman (_Consule Leonic_, _de var. histor._, lib.
i. cap. 17; _de Orphei Tumulo in monte Olympo_, &c., cited by _Kornmann
de Miraculis Mortuorum_, cap. 19). The legend of Orpheus, or of a living
wife returning from another world to visit an afflicted husband, passed
to other lands, as may be seen in a book by Georgius Sabinus, _in Notis
ad Metamorp_. _Ovidii_, lib. x. _de descensu Orphei ad Inferos_, in
which he tells how a Bavarian lady, after being buried, was so moved by
her husband's grief that she came to life again, and lived with him for
many years, _semper tamen fuisse tristem ac pallidem_--but was always sad
and pale. However, they got on very well together for a long time, till
one evening _post vesperi potum_--after he had taken his evening
drink--being somewhat angry at the housemaid, he scolded her with
unseemly words. Now it was the condition of his wife's coming back to
life and remaining with him that he was never to utter an improper
expression (_ut que deinceps ipse abstineret blasphemis conviciandi
verbis_). And when the wife heard her husband swear, she disappeared,
soul and body, and that in such a hurry that her dress (which was
certainly of fine old stiff brocade) was found standing up, and her shoes
under it. A similar legend, equally authentic, may be