and yet not so original as to
demand study; it must also contain echoes of other tunes previously
popular, and yet they must be so indefinite that no one can tell for
certain where they come from, which is what we mean when we say it is a
wise tune that knows its own father. Similarly, the framers of the
foregoing legend had to compose an entirely Christian story, as original
as was compatible with the use of the forms of Christian legend, and yet
they could not neglect all the pagan traditions with which their public
had been impregnated for generations. In the first place the picture
must come over the sea--everything that arrives in an island does so; one
of the most effective of the common forms in legend is the arrival of a
boat with a precious cargo from a distant land, often bringing corn to
stay a famine, and every one is now familiar with the opening of
Lohengrin. Tunis would not do for the point of departure, not only
because it is where pagan Astarte came from when she arrived in Sicily,
but also because it had been Moslem since the seventh century and could
not have been accepted by the people as a Christian seaport. It is quite
likely that the popularity of the St. Mark legend determined the
selection of Alexandria, which had the advantage also of being on the
coast of the same continent as Tunis. The storm, the vow and the oxen
are as much common form in legend as the ship; and the next thing that
strikes one is the curious similarity between the alternate domiciles of
the Madonna on the mountain and at Custonaci, and the flittings of Venus
Erycina to and fro between the mountain and Carthage. If we look upon
the arrival of the picture at Custonaci as involving the transplanting of
a piece of Africa into Sicily, much as an ambassador's house is regarded
as being part of his own country transplanted into a foreign land, we may
then consider that the Madonna, to all intents and purposes, still
travels between the Mountain and Africa, only she now has an easier
journey and avoids actually dwelling among heretics. In this view the
transporting of her picture backwards and forwards should be looked upon
as the modern version of the feasts of Anagogia and Catagogia.

It is admitted that the picture has, more than once, been placed in the
hands of skilful modern painters whose services have been called in
merely to repair any damage it may have sustained in its
journeyings--they have had nothing to do there