SONGS OF MODERN GREECE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Six.,—Your issue for November 3rd contains a notice of my work, "Songs of Modern Greece." The critic, in his other- wise very sympathetic and appreciative review, quotes one of my songs (" The Bridesmaid," Part II. 35) with the following remarks:— " We have quoted this partly because Mr. Abbott, by a rare exception, leaves us in the dark on two points. He does not ex- plain the significance of stamping on the walnut ; and he thinks that the isos is a bird, which he cannot identify. It seems obvious that, whatever the isos is, it cannot, in such amazing company, be anything so commonplace as a bird. Would it be outdoing too far the extravagance of the context to suggest that the right reading is not TOF., reOU TaIrrepo, but TOO sompti ? 2' To this last query I respectfully beg to answer "Yes," and the sequel will show that I am right. The criticism refers to line 23. On the walnut I have no explanation to offer beyond that it forms part of the strange machinery of this fantastic story, and, so far as I know, has no connection with any generally held superstition. But with regard to the isos, my subsequent investigations have only confirmed me in my original opinion. When I wrote down the word from the lips of my blind bard, I did not understand it—and frankly con- fessed as much in my book—yet I instinctively felt that it stood for the name of some kind of bird. Since then I have learned that what I took to be (rev was really voiaaoto (gen. of yijaaof), " drake," a word used in some parts of, Macedonia (e.g., Cassandra) as the masculine for the classic sikaa. This explanation finally disposes of all necessity for conjectural emendation, but, as though it was not sufficient, fortune has recently led me to the discovery of a fuller and more correct version of the song, in which the line in question is given as follows :—
"Kal roDocopcbcou rb Preps sayE,
"And the raven's feather she puts on as a curved eyebrow."
This shows that the " obvious " is not always true, and that even popular imagination recognises certain limits in its extravagance,—a moderation which critics would do well to respect and imitate at times.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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