The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-04-22
Literary Notes.

The real name of Edward Strahan, who
wrote the illustrated travels entitled ''The New
Hyperion which have appeared in Lippin-
colts Magazine, is said to be Earl Shinn.
The June Atlantic will contain several nota-
BILE contributions, including long poem for
Decoration Day by Mr.. Aldrich, two sonnets
by Mr Lowell, and curious bit of Secret
History by Mr.. Owen, entitled political Re.
suits from the Varioloid."
Mr.. Tyler, in his primitive Culture" thus
applies to the children's "Song of Sixpence,"
the law of the Interpretation of myths: Obvi-
ously, the four and twenty blackbirds are four
and twenty hours, and the pie that holds is the
underlying earth, covered with the overarching
sky. How true a touch of nature it is that
when the pie is opened-that is, when the day
breaks-the birds begin to sing! The king Is
the sun, and his counting out his money is
pouring out the sunshine, the golden shower
of Danae. The queen is the moon, and her
transparent honey the moonlight The maid is
the rosy fingered dawn, who rises before the sun
her master, and hangs out the clouds, his
clothes, across the sky. The particular black
bird who so tragicaly ends the tale by snip
ping off her nose is the hour Of sunrise.
Admirers of pathological and mythical litera-
ture may be directed to the little volume,
under the title of LIE Petit Poucet ct la Grande
Curse, which NJ. CASTOR Paris has recently
published on the story of Tom Thumb, tale
to be traced in slightly altered forms through
almost every branch of the Aryan family of
nations. M. Paris tells us that he was first led
to the proper solution of the myth by a passage
In Grandgagnage's dictionary of the Walloon
dialect of Belgium, which explains the local
name Cbaur-Poce (Char- Poucet), given to the
Great Bear constellation by the Ardennes
peasants, by saying that the seven well known
stars represent for them the four wheels of the
chaur or cart, while the eighth smaller one
close to the middle horse, they believe to be the
driver of the cart, and name IT Poce. This led
him to the examination of the various versions
of the legend of Poucet or Tom Thumb; and
he found two points of universal resemblance
the semi-miraculous birth of the hero, and
his employment in driving horses or cattle, he
being usually represented as sitting in or on
the ear of one for this purpose. The story is,
in fact, framed directly from the close conjunc-
ton of the small star with the single one of
the seven large ones which all over the world
have stood for either a herd Of as many cattle,
or a .four-wheeled carriage drawn by three.
The very incident that is usually introduced OF
Tom being swallowed up for time accident
ally by COW or horse, is but legendary way
of expressing the wel[known fact that in
duff sky the small lstar, the guide ior Poce.
often disappears suddenly while the others
remain visible.
Thackeray regarded Charles Bernard as the
most thoroughly representative French writer
of fiction, ranking him above Dumas, Soulie or
Balzac.
The London Academy says that Mr.. Ban
croft's History of the United States" though
it will not place him in the front rank of histo-
rans, even among those of his own country,
will remain standard one, by its fulness and
workmanlike character.
M. Hucher's edition of what he regards as
the earliest version of the legend of the Holy
Grail, lie Petit Saint Graal." is the prose ver-
sion of the old French poem printed by M.
Francisque Michel and reprinted by Mr.. Furni-
vail, which, though called saint Grsal' by
some, is named "Joseph PArithmie" by 9TH
ers, inasmuch as it tells Joseph's adventures,
his collecting the blood in the dish of the Last
Supper, his journey with it to England, etc.