My love, I wish thee well; so lullaby! Thy little eyes are like the cloudless sky, My little lovely girl, my pretty one, Mother will make of thee a little nun: A sister of the Saviour's Priory Where noble dames and ladies great there be. Sleep, moon-faced treasure, sleep, the while I sing: Thou hadst thy cradle from the Spanish king. When thou hast slept, I'll love thee better still. (Sleep to my daughter comes and goes at will And in her slumber she is made to smile By certain ladies whom I dare not style.) Breath of my body, thou, my love, my care, Thou art without a flaw, so wondrous fair. Sleep then, thy mother's breath, sleep, sleep, and rest, For thee my very soul forsakes my breast. My very soul goes forth, and sore my heart: Thou criest; words of comfort I impart. Daughter, my flame, lie still and take repose, Thou art a nosegay culled from off the rose. At Palermo, mothers dazzled their little girls with the prospect of entering the convent of Santa Zita or Santa Chiara. In announcing the birth of his child, a Sicilian peasant commonly says, "My wife has a daughter-abbess." "What! has your wife a daughter old enough to be an abbess?" has sometimes been the innocent rejoinder of a traveller from the mainland. The Convent of the Saviour, which is the destination of the paragon of beauty described in the above lullaby, was one of the wealthiest, and what is still more to the point, one of the most aristocratic religious houses in the island. To have a relation among its members was a distinction ardently coveted by the citizens of Noto; a town which once rejoiced in thirty-three noble families, one loftier than the other. The number is now cut down, but according to Signor Avolio such as remain are regarded with undiminished reverence. There are households in which the whole conversation runs on the _Barone_ and _Baronessa_, when not absorbed by the _Baronello_ and the _Baronessella_. It is just possible that the same phenomenon might be observed without going to Noto. _Tutto il mondo e paese_: a proverb which would serve as an excellent motto for the Folk-lore Society.