Soria.]

[Footnote 3: Álamos. The choice of a grove of poplars as setting to
the enchanted fount is peculiarly appropriate, as this tree belongs
to the large list of those believed to have magical properties. In
the south of Europe the poplar seems to have held sometimes the
mythological place reserved in the north for the birch, and the
people of Andalusia believe that the poplar is the most ancient of
trees. (See de Gubernatis, Za _Mythologie des plantes_, Paris,
Reinwald, 1882, p. 285.) In classical superstition the black poplar
was consecrated to the goddess Proserpine, and the white poplar to
Hercules. "The White Poplar was also dedicated to Time, because its
leaves were constantly in motion, and, being dark on one side and
light on the other, they were emblematic of night and day.... There
is a tradition that the Cross of Christ was made of the wood of the
White Poplar, and throughout Christendom there is a belief that the
tree trembles and shivers mystically in sympathy with the ancestral
tree which became accursed.... Mrs. Hemans, in her 'Wood Walk,' thus
alludes to one of these old traditions:

FATHER.--Hast thou heard, my boy,
The peasant's legend of that quivering tree?

CHILD.--No, father; doth he say the fairies dance
Amidst its branches?

FATHER.--Oh! a cause more deep,
More solemn far, the rustic doth assign
To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves.
The Cross he deems--the blessed Cross, whereon