wolves and boars, the old women spinning, the lawsuit of centuries over the fruit of an orange-tree, the sexton Coruja and his dog Coisa (in _Vingança do morto_ and _O Enterro de um Cão_), and especially some old familiar country-house, with Dona Maria and her preserves and _receios infernaes_, in _Amor Divino_ and _Amores, Amores_ (1897), Minho and the Minhotos are presented with naturalness and skill. Many of these scenes are from the short stories of _Contos_, _Novos Contos_ (1887), _A Nossa Gente_ (1900),[688] and _A Cantadeira_ (1913),[689] some of which have been collected in an attractive volume, _Arvoredos_ (1895). Snr. MANUEL DA SILVA GAYO (born in 1860), poet and novelist, wrote in _Peccado Antigo_ (1893) a short _novela_ as it calls itself, or rather a _conto_, remarkable for its combination of colour and restraint. It describes country scenes and customs in a style that may not be spontaneous but is well subservient to the matter in hand, and has a vigour, purity, and concision too often lacking in modern Portuguese prose. Some of his early stories were collected in _A Dama de Ribadalva_ (1904). In his later novels this style is not maintained. We will not quarrel with its abruptness in _Ultimos Crentes_ (1904), a remarkable story of nineteenth-century _Sebastianistas_ in a fishing village to the extreme north of Estremadura, but it is more slovenly in _Os Torturados_ (1911), in which a certain originality of thought seems to have damaged the form in which it was expressed. There is a welcome Spanish directness in the work of the able journalist Snr. CARLOS MALHEIRO DIAS (deputy for Vianna do Castello in 1903-5) in his novels _O Filho das Hervas_ (1900), _Os Telles de Albergaria_ (1901), and _A Paixão de Maria do Ceo_ (1902). Frankly sensational in _O Grande Cagliostro_ (1905), he displays his gift for the short story in _A Vencida_ (1907), a volume of dramatic tales, of which _A Consoada_ is especially effective. Snr. JOÃO GRAVE (born in 1872) carefully elaborates his prose in _A Eterna Mentira_ (1904) and _Jornada Romantica_ (1913). It turns to marble in the musings of the marble faun in _O Ultimo Fauno_ (1906), but loses this unreality in studies of the poor in country, _Gente Pobre_ (1912), and town, _Os Famintos_ (1903), a tragic story of a workman’s family at Oporto. More recently he has treated historical themes with success in _Parsifal_ (1919) and _A Vida e Paixão da Infanta_ (1921). In the historical novel Snr. FRANCISCO DE ROCHA MARTINS has won a special place by picturesque works such as _Os Tavoras_ (1917). He has an eye for dramatic episodes and has composed many a living picture of the past.