Ora tu, Signora mia. 
  Che sei piena di cortesia,
  Mostramelo per favore
  Lo tuo Figlio Redentore!

  And now, O Lady mine, that art full of courtesy, grant
  me to look upon thy Son, the Redeemer!

The Virgin takes him from the arms of Joseph—­

  Datemi, o caro sposo,
  Lo mio Figlio grazioso! 
  Quando il vide sta meschina
  Zingarella, che indovina!

  Give me, dear husband, my lovely boy, that this poor
  gypsy, who is a prophetess, may look upon him.

The gypsy responds with becoming admiration and humility, praises the beauty of the Child, and then proceeds to examine his palm:  which having done, she breaks forth into a prophecy of all the awful future, tells how he would be baptized, and tempted, scourged, and finally hung upon a cross—­

  Questo Figlio accarezzato
  Tu lo vedrai ammazzato
  Sopra d’una dura croce,
  Figlio bello!  Figlio dolce!

but consoles the disconsolate Mother, doomed to honour for the sake of us sinners—­

  Sei arrivata a tanti onori
  Per noi altri Peccatori!

and ends by begging an alms—­

  Non ti vo’ piu infastidire,
  Bella Signora; so chi hai a fare. 
  Dona la limosinella
  A sta povera Zingarella
true repentance and eternal life.

  Vo’ una vera contrizione
  Per la tua intercezione,
  Accio st’ alma dopo morte
  Tragga alle celesti porte!

And so the story ends.

There can be no doubt, I think, that we have here the original theme of Giorgione’s picture, and perhaps of others.

In the Provencal ballad, there are three gypsies, men, not women, introduced, who tell the fortune of the Virgin and Joseph, as well as that of the Child, and end by begging alms “to wet their thirsty throats.”  Of this version there is a very spirited and characteristic translation by Mr. Kenyon, under the title of “a Gypsy Carol."[1]

[Footnote 1:  A Day at Tivoli, with other Verses, by John Kenyon, p. 149.]

THE RETURN FROM EGYPT.

According to some authorities, the Holy Family sojourned in Egypt during a period of seven years, but others assert that they returned to Judea at the end of two years.

In general the painters have expressed the Return from Egypt by exhibiting Jesus as no longer an infant sustained in his mother’s arms, but as a boy walking at her side.  In a picture by Francesco Vanni, he is a boy about two or three years old, and carries a little basket full of carpenter’s tools.  The occasion of the Flight and Return is indicated by three or four of the martyred Innocents, who are lying on the ground.  In a picture by Domenico Feti two of the Innocents are lying dead on the roadside.  In a very graceful, animated picture by Rubens, Mary and Joseph lead the young Christ between them, and the Virgin wears a large straw hat.