THE OWL AND THE BAKER'S DAUGHTER.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "Sescrwrott."] SIR,—In the review of hooks on " Popular Natural History " in your number of May 20th is the following sentence with reference to the owl :—" There is a mysterious line in Shakespeare which runs : The owl is said to have been the baker's daughter.' " The correct quotation is : " They say the owl was a baker's daughter," and I would add to the explana- tion which follows—that the allusion is to the legend that our Lord begged bread of a baker, who was about to give it, when his daughter demurred, and as a punishment she was turned into an owl—that the Romany phrase for "owlet" is Iffaro- viengro's chavi, which means "the baker's daughter." Is it not possible that the legend is one of the many which have been brought to us from the East by the gipsies, and that Shakespeare heard it during his early Warwickshire days ? At any rate, the coincidence is interesting.—I am, Sir, &c., Kennington Hall, Ashford, Kent. FRANCIS ABELL.
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