As to the _Concordance_, that was a very important and very necessary work. It was based, in great measure, upon the authority of the _Black Book_. That Latin work, preserved in the archives of Saintes-Maries, was written, in 1521, by Vincent Philippon, who signed himself: 2000 Philippon![3] (Jesus himself did not disdain the pun.) There is a French translation of the _Black Book_. It was published in 1682, and begins thus: "Au nom de Dieu mon oeuvre comancée Par Jésus-Christ soit toujours advancée. Le Saint-Esprit conduise sagement Ma main, ma plume, et mon entendement."[4] Here follows the true version of the story of the patron saints of Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer. Marie Jacobé, mother of Saint James the Less, Marie Salomé, mother of Saint James the Greater and of Saint John the Evangelist, came not alone to the shores of Camargue. The boat without sail or oars contained also their servants Marcella and Sara, Lazarus and all his family, and several of the Christ's disciples. Monsieur le curé would prove, with documents to sustain him, that Mary Magdalen was not in the boat. She came to Provence by some other means, no one can say by what miracle. With the exception of the two Maries and Sara, all the passengers upon the miraculous craft dispersed in different directions, preaching and making converts. The holy women did not leave Camargue, the island in the Rhône, divided at that time into a great number of small islands by the ponds--a veritable archipelago, called _Sticados_ and inhabited by heathens. In those days, all these small islands, formed by the swamps, were covered with forests and filled with wild beasts. And this delta of the Rhône was infested with crocodiles. Now, a long, long time after the death of the holy women, a hunter, followed by his dogs, was passing over the spot where they lay buried in unknown graves; he fell in with a hermit there, beside a spring. "My lord," said the hermit, "I had a revelation in a dream last night. In the sand beside this spring repose the bodies of three sainted women!" The hunter was a Comte de Provence. His palace was at Arles, and the curé had every reason to believe that he was Guillaume I., son of Boson I., famous for his liberality to the church. It was in 981. This Guillaume had overcome the Saracens, and Conrad I., King of Bourgogne, his suzerain, loved and respected him. The prince, having listened to the hermit's tale, rode away musing deeply; not long after, he returned and caused a church in the form of a citadel to be built at that point of the coast, in the very centre of a spacious enclosure surrounded by moats. Then he made known throughout Provence that special privileges would be accorded to all those who should build houses between the church and the moat. Thus was founded the Villa-de-la-Mar--which is in fact a town (_ville_), although it is too often spoken of as a village, under its other name of Saintes-Maries.