The Christmas Kalends of Provence Part 10

[1] _Recipe for Poumpo_: Flour, 10 oz.; brown sugar, 3 oz.; virgin olive oil (probably b.u.t.ter would answer), 3 oz.; the white and the yolk of one egg. Knead with enough water to make a firm paste. Fold in three and set to rise for eight or ten hours. Shape for baking, gas.h.i.+ng the top. Bake in a slow oven.

[2] _Vin cue_, literally cooked wine, is made at the time of the vintage by the following recipe: Boil unfermented grape-juice in a well scoured cauldron [or porcelain-lined vessel] for a quarter of an hour, skimming thoroughly. Pour into earthen pans, and let it stand until the following day. Pour again into the cauldron, carefully, so as to leave the dregs, and boil until reduced to one-half--or less, or more, according to the sweetness desired. A good rule is to boil in the wine a quince stuck full of cloves--the thorough cooking of the quince shows that the wine is cooked too. Set to cool in earthen pans, and when cold bottle and cork and seal. The Provencal cooked-wine goes back to Roman times. Martial speaks of "Cocta fumis musta Ma.s.siliensis."

[3] The admirable edition of Saboly's noels, text and music, published at Avignon in the year 1856 by Francois Seguin has been reissued by the same publisher in definitive form. It can be obtained through the Librarie Roumanille, Avignon.

[4] As yet (1902) these high hopes have not been fully realized. In the past eight years dramatic performances repeatedly have been given in the Orange theatre, and always with a brilliant success; but their establishment as fixtures, to come off at regular intervals, still is to be accomplished.

[5] The dimensions of the theatre are: width, 338 feet; depth, 254 feet; height of facade and of rear wall of stage, 120 feet; radius of auditorium, 182 feet.

[6] The conventions of the Greek theatre--and, later, of the Roman theatre--prescribed that through the great central portal kings should enter; through the smaller side portals, queens or princesses (on the left) and guests (on the right); from the portals in the wings, natives of the country (on the left) and strangers (on the right). The conventional entrances from the wings arose from the fact that the spectators in the Dionysiac theatre, on the Acropolis, saw beyond the stage on the one side the white houses of Athens and on the other the plains of Attica: and so to them the actors coming from the Athenian side were their own people, while those entering from the side toward Attica were strangers. In the modern French theatre the "court" and "garden" entrances still preserve this ancient tradition.