78 HOW BALLADS SPREAD

show the migration of ballads, and it would be criss-crossed by-
lines in every direction; but there would be some emphatic foci:
France, Germany, Denmark, Greece, Serbia. Peripheral nations
export less than those at the centre of the Continent, but even at
the centre there are peoples who more often borrow than lend.

Owing to the nature of its 'romancero' Spain has comparatively
little to put into the common stock. The predominantly historical
trend, admirable as it is as an education for the national conscience,
is not suited to carry the ballads beyond the limits within which
this sort of historical information is interesting. The Spanish
'romances5, therefore, circulate among peoples of Hispanic stock
and language. An exceptional case is provided by the ballad of
Guarinos, in the Carolingian series, which chanced to begin:

An evil fate befell you, Frenchmen,

at the Chase of Roncesvaux;

Charlemagne there lost his honour,

died the dozen Peers also.

The ballad was translated by Karamzin into Russian in 1789, and
in 1834 Baron Erdman encountered it as far afield as Siberia. It
has the honour of being the first literary ballad in the Russian
tongue.

Catalonia, Provence, France, and north Italy form one area with
a common store of 'chansons populaires', and it is not easy to
assign a particular piece to one division rather than to another. The
Samaritan Woman has been reckoned to the credit of Catalonia in
particular. The woman of Samaria became confused with the
Magdalene, and her meeting with Christ led to her repentance,
and works of penitence. Passing through France as The Penance
of the Magdalene, the omission of the proper identifications led to
the English Maid and Palmer, which has no obvious biblical con-
nexion. A ballad on the Magdalene is found in Denmark and
Sweden also. Crossing Germany the ballad tended to paint the
sinnerJs^life in ever blacker colours; she was guilty not merely of
carnal sins, but of wholesale infanticide to hide her guilt. This is
the legend as it appears in Aria the infanticide in Lusatia, the
Sinner (Hrisnice] in Czechoslovakia, and in Poland. The un-
pardonable sinner is swallowed by the floor of the church, un-
shriven. From Provence spreads the ballad called La Escriveta.
The story is older, since it has been plausibly connected with the
epic of Walther of Aquitaine, who escaped with his bride from