ASIA MINOR, GREECE 315

of helpless old age. The klepht must say farewell to the mountains;
the trees, twigs, springs, and dens mourn for the captured outlaw,
and he dies in the midst of cruel enemies or on a naked hillside.
The happiest death was that which came sword in hand; and lest
dishonour should come even after death, klepht and Turk struggled
over the corpses in the Homeric fashion:

Androutsos cried a bitter cry, a bitter cry, empoisoned:
'Come, children, grip your trusty blades, and cast away your muskets,
lest Turkish dogs should carry off the head of our own Machos,
an outlaw old and gray was he, among the klephts a captain/

(Politis 52.)

The Akritic and klephtic poems embrace all the historical ele-
ment in Greek 'tragoudia', together with fictions and occupational
songs of a certain kind. There remain for discussion the adventure
ballads of a more modern type and other occupational or occasional
ditties. Some of these show foreign influence. Maw-tanas' Sister
(Politis 81) belongs to the cycle of Mariansoris Rings and the
betrayal of Imogen. The Greek text shows a number of latinisms
(mandata, foro, furca, kadena) which, though common enough, are
pointers towards the Italian origin of the ballad. In handling the
story the Greek ballad stands closer to The Twa Knights (Child 268)
than to any other version. The Sicilian legend of Cola Pesce
appears in Greek dress as The Diver (Politis 90); and The Infanti-
cide (Politis 91) is a horrid tale of adultery* and murder which is cur-
rent in Sicily (Pitre 910), but might as well be Greek as Sicilian.
The process of commingling Italian and Greek ballads is most
thoroughly carried out in the Greek-speaking townships of
Southern Italy. Greek 'tragoudia' are current there and as far
west as Corsica,1 but the majority of pieces are improvisations
in the South Italian style of 'canziuni' and 'ciuri', though in the
Greek language. One may follow more exactly the course taken
by The Girl who went to War. It is a folk-song of Venice, as well as
other parts of Italy, and crossed with Venetians to Dalmatia. There
it was taken up by the Yugoslavs, who fashioned a ballad of Old
Ceivaris Daughter', and by the Greeks, who formed the folk-tale of
The Princess who went to War. The Albanian Silver-tooth2 is a

1 Professor W. Starkie has encountered Greek gipsies who relate the Bridge
of Arta legend in Morocco. The singer, however, was a Rumanian by birth,,
and her source seems to have been the Rumanian ballad of Master Manole.

2 J. G. von Harm, Gmchische und albanesische Marchen, Leipzig, 1864, 10
(Greek), 101 (Albanian); cf. A. Dozon, Conies albanais, Paris, 1881, No. 14.