Note 186 — 112 THE BAFFLED KNIGHT
Reading edition
It has been contended that malato signifies a peasant of low condition: see Braga, C. p. do Arch. açor., p. 399; but, on the other hand, Amador de los Rios, as above, VII, 433. Sense requires, if not the specific meaning leprous, at least something contagious, and sufficiently serious to make the knight tremble in his saddle, as he does in Portuguese A. Hardung aptly cites from Spanish B: "Fija soy de un malato que tiene la malatia." Compare the French ballads.