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cheerless grey, but under any sky it is dispiriting to note the changes
in Naples. Lo sventramento (the disembowelling) goes on, and regions
are transformed. It is a good thing, I suppose, that the broad Corso
Umberto I. should cut a way through the old Pendino; but what a
contrast between that native picturesqueness and the cosmopolitan
vulgarity which has usurped its place! “Napoli se ne va!” I pass the
Santa Lucia with downcast eyes, my memories of ten years ago striving
against the dulness of to-day. The harbour, whence one used to start
for Capri, is filled up; the sea has been driven to a hopeless distance
beyond a wilderness of dust-heaps. They are going to make a long,
straight embankment from the Castel dell’Ovo to the Great Port, and
before long the Santa Lucia will be an ordinary street, shut in among
huge houses, with no view at all. Ah, the nights that one lingered
here, watching the crimson glow upon Vesuvius, tracing the dark line of
the Sorrento promontory, or waiting for moonlight to cast its magic
upon floating Capri! The odours remain; the stalls of sea-fruit are as
yet undisturbed, and the jars of the water-sellers; women still comb
and bind each other’s hair by the wayside, and meals are cooked and
eaten al fresco as of old. But one can see these things elsewhere,
and Santa Lucia was unique. It has become squalid. In the grey light of
this sad billowy sky, only its ancient foulness is manifest; there
needs the golden sunlight to bring out a suggestion of its ancient
charm.
Has Naples grown less noisy, or does it only seem so to me? The men
with bullock carts are strangely quiet; their shouts have nothing like
the frequency and spirit of former days. In the narrow and thronged
Strada di Chiaia I find little tumult; it used to be deafening. Ten
years ago a foreigner could not walk here without being assailed by the
clamour of cocchieri; nay, he was pursued from street to street,
until the driver had spent every phrase of importunate invitation; now,
one may saunter as one will, with little disturbance. Down on the
Piliero, whither I have been to take my passage for Paola, I catch but
an echo of the jubilant uproar which used to amaze me. Is Naples really
so much quieter? If I had time I would go out to Fuorigrotta, once, it
seemed to me, the noisiest village on earth, and see if there also I
observed a change. It would not be surprising if the modernization of
the city, together with the state of things throughout Italy, had a
subduing effect upon Neapolitan manners. In one respect the streets are
assuredly less gay. When I first knew Naples one was never, literally
never, out of hearing of a hand-organ; and these organs, which in
general had a peculiarly dulcet note, played the brightest of melodies;
trivial, vulgar if you will, but none the less melodious, and dear to
Naples. Now the sound of street music is rare, and I understand that
some police provision long since interfered with the soft-tongued
instruments. I miss them; for, in the matter of music, it is with me as
with Sir Thomas Browne. For Italy the change is significant enough; in
a few more years spontaneous melody will be as rare at Naples or Venice
as on the banks of the Thames.
Happily, the musicians errant still strum their mandoline as you dine.
The old trattoria in the Toledo is as good as ever, as bright, as
comfortable. I have found my old corner in one of the little rooms, and
something of the old gusto for zuppa di vongole. The homely wine of
Posillipo smacks as in days gone by, and is commended to one’s lips by
a song of the South. . . .
Last night the wind changed and the sky began to clear; this morning I
awoke in sunshine, and with a feeling of eagerness for my journey. I
shall look upon the Ionian Sea, not merely from a train or a steamboat
as before, but at long leisure: I shall see the shores where once were
Tarentum and Sybaris, Croton and Locri. Every man has his intellectual
desire; mine is to escape life as I know it and dream myself into that
old world which was the imaginative delight of my boyhood. The names of
Greece and Italy draw me as no others; they make me young again, and
restore the keen impressions of that time when every new page of Greek
or Latin was a new perception of things beautiful. The world of the
Greeks and Romans is my land of romance; a quotation in either language
thrills me strangely, and there are passages of Greek and Latin verse
which I cannot read without a dimming of the eyes, which I cannot
repeat aloud because my voice fails me. In Magna Graecia the waters of
two fountains mingle and flow together; how exquisite will be the
draught!
I drove with my luggage to the Immacolatella, and a boatman put me
aboard the steamer. Luggage, I say advisedly; it is a rather heavy
portmanteau, and I know it will be a nuisance. But the length of my
wanderings is so uncertain, its conditions are so vaguely anticipated.
I must have books if only for rainy days; I must have clothing against
a change of season. At one time I thought of taking a mere wallet, and
now I am half sorry that I altered my mind. But----
We were not more than an hour after time in starting. Perfect weather.
I sang to myself with joy upon the sunny deck as we steamed along the
Bay, past Portici, and Torre del Greco, and into the harbour of Torre
Annunziata, where we had to take on cargo. I was the only cabin
passenger, and solitude suits me. All through the warm and cloudless
afternoon I sat looking at the mountains, trying not to see that
cluster of factory chimneys which rolled black fumes above the
many-coloured houses. They reminded me of the same abomination on a
shore more sacred; from the harbour of Piraeus one looks to Athens
through trails of coal-smoke. By a contrast pleasant enough, Vesuvius
to-day sent forth vapours of a delicate rose-tint, floating far and
breaking seaward into soft little fleeces of cirrus. The cone, covered
with sulphur, gleamed bright yellow against cloudless blue.
The voyage was resumed at dinner-time; when I came upon deck again,
night had fallen. We were somewhere near Sorrento; behind us lay the
long curve of faint-glimmering lights on the Naples shore; ahead was
Capri. In profound gloom, though under a sky all set with stars, we
passed between the island and Cape Minerva; the haven of Capri showed
but a faint glimmer; over it towered mighty crags, an awful blackness,
a void amid constellations. From my seat near the stern of the vessel I
could discern no human form; it was as though I voyaged quite alone in
the silence of this magic sea. Silence so all-possessing that the sound
of the ship’s engine could not reach my ear, but was blended with the
water-splash into a lulling murmur. The stillness of a dead world laid
its spell on all that lived. To-day seemed an unreality, an idle
impertinence; the real was that long-buried past which gave its meaning
to all around me, touching the night with infinite pathos. Best of all,
one’s own being became lost to consciousness; the mind knew only the
phantasmal forms it shaped, and was at peace in vision.
CHAPTER II
PAOLA
I slept little, and was very early on deck, scanning by the light of
dawn a mountainous coast. At sunrise I learnt that we were in sight of
Paola; as day spread gloriously over earth and sky, the vessel hove to
and prepared to land cargo. There, indeed, was the yellowish little
town which I had so long pictured; it stood at a considerable height
above the shore; harbour there was none at all, only a broad beach of
shingle on which waves were breaking, and where a cluster of men, women
and children stood gazing at the steamer. It gave me pleasure to find
the place so small and primitive. In no hurry to land, I watched the
unloading of merchandise (with a great deal of shouting and
gesticulation) into boats which had rowed out for the purpose;
speculated on the resources of Paola in the matter of food (for I was
hungry); and at moments cast an eye towards the mountain barrier which
it was probable I should cross to-day.
At last my portmanteau was dropped down on to the laden boat; I, as
best I could, managed to follow it; and on the top of a pile of rope
and empty flour-sacks we rolled landward. The surf was high; it cost
much yelling, leaping, and splashing to gain the dry beach. Meanwhile,
not without apprehension, I had eyed the group awaiting our arrival;
that they had their eyes on me was obvious, and I knew enough of
southern Italians to foresee my reception. I sprang into the midst of a
clamorous conflict; half a dozen men were quarreling for possession of
me. No sooner was my luggage on shore than they flung themselves upon
it. By what force of authority I know not, one of the fellows
triumphed; he turned to me with a satisfied smile, and—presented his
wife.
“Mia sposa, signore!”
Wondering, and trying to look pleased, I saw the woman seize the
portmanteau (a frightful weight), fling it on to her head, and march
away at a good speed. The crowd and I followed to the dogana, close
by, where as vigorous a search was made as I have ever had to undergo.
I puzzled the people; my arrival was an unwonted thing, and they felt
sure I was a trader of some sort. Dismissed under suspicion, I allowed
the lady to whom I had been introduced to guide me townwards. Again she
bore the portmanteau on her head, and evidently thought it a trifle,
but as the climbing road lengthened, and as I myself began to perspire
in the warm sunshine, I looked at my attendant with uncomfortable
feelings. It was a long and winding way, but the woman continued to
talk and laugh so cheerfully that I tried to forget her toil. At length
we reached a cabin where the dazio (town dues) officer presented
himself, and this conscientious person insisted on making a fresh
examination of my baggage; again I explained myself, again I was eyed
suspiciously; but he released me, and on we went. I had bidden my guide
take me to the best inn; it was the Leone, a little place which
looked from the outside like an ill-kept stable, but was decent enough
within. The room into which they showed me had a delightful prospect.
Deep beneath the window lay a wild, leafy garden, and lower on the
hillside a lemon orchard shining with yellow fruit; beyond, the broad
pebbly beach, far seen to north and south, with its white foam edging
the blue expanse of sea. There I descried the steamer from which I had
landed, just under way for Sicily. The beauty of this view, and the
calm splendour of the early morning, put me into happiest mood. After
little delay a tolerable breakfast was set before me, with a good rough
wine; I ate and drank by the window, exulting in what I saw and all I
hoped to see.
Guide-books had informed me that the corriere (mail-diligence) from
Paola to Cosenza corresponded with the arrival of the Naples steamer,
and, after the combat on the beach, my first care was to inquire about
this. All and sundry made eager reply that the corriere had long
since gone; that it started, in fact, at 5 A.M., and that the only
possible mode of reaching Cosenza that day was to hire a vehicle.
Experience of Italian travel made me suspicious, but it afterwards
appeared that I had been told the truth. Clearly, if I wished to
proceed at once, I must open negotiations at my inn, and, after a
leisurely meal, I did so. Very soon a man presented himself who was
willing to drive me over the mountains—at a charge which I saw to be
absurd; the twinkle in his eye as he named the sum sufficiently
enlightened me. By the book it was no more than a journey of four
hours; my driver declared that it would take from seven to eight. After
a little discussion he accepted half the original demand, and went off
very cheerfully to put in his horses.
For an hour I rambled about the town’s one street, very picturesque and
rich in colour, with rushing fountains where women drew fair water in
jugs and jars of antique beauty. Whilst I was thus loitering in the
sunshine, two well-dressed men approached me, and with somewhat
excessive courtesy began conversation. They understood that I was about
to drive to Cosenza. A delightful day, and a magnificent country! They
too thought of journeying to Cosenza, and, in short, would I allow them
to share my carriage? Now this was annoying; I much preferred to be
alone with my thoughts; but it seemed ungracious to refuse. After a
glance at their smiling faces, I answered that whatever room remained
in the vehicle was at their service—on the natural understanding that
they shared the expense; and to this, with the best grace in the world,
they at once agreed. We took momentary leave of each other, with much
bowing and flourishing of hats, and the amusing thing was that I never
beheld those gentlemen again.
Fortunately—as the carriage proved to be a very small one, and the sun
was getting very hot; with two companions I should have had an
uncomfortable day. In front of the Leone a considerable number of
loafers had assembled to see me off, and of these some half-dozen were
persevering mendicants. It disappointed me that I saw no interesting
costume; all wore the common, colourless garb of our destroying age.
The only vivid memory of these people which remains with me is the
cadence of their speech. Whilst I was breakfasting, two women stood at
gossip on a near balcony, and their utterance was a curious
exaggeration of the Neapolitan accent; every sentence rose to a high
note, and fell away in a long curve of sound, sometimes a musical wail,
more often a mere whining. The protraction of the last word or two was
really astonishing; again and again I fancied that the speaker had
broken into song. I cannot say that the effect was altogether pleasant;
in the end such talk would tell severely on civilized nerves, but it
harmonized with the coloured houses, the luxuriant vegetation, the
strange odours, the romantic landscape.
In front of the vehicle were three little horses; behind it was hitched
an old shabby two-wheeled thing, which we were to leave somewhere for
repairs. With whip-cracking and vociferation, amid good-natured
farewells from the crowd, we started away. It was just ten o’clock.
At once the road began to climb, and nearly three hours were spent in
reaching the highest point of the mountain barrier. Incessantly
winding, often doubling upon itself, the road crept up the sides of
profound gorges, and skirted many a precipice; bridges innumerable
spanned the dry ravines which at another season are filled with furious
torrents. From the zone of orange and olive and cactus we passed that
of beech and oak, noble trees now shedding their rich-hued foliage on
bracken crisped and brown; here I noticed the feathery bowers of wild
clematis (“old man’s beard”), and many a spike of the great mullein,
strange to me because so familiar in English lanes. Through mists that
floated far below I looked over miles of shore, and outward to the
ever-rising limit of sea and sky. Very lovely were the effects of
light, the gradations of colour; from the blue-black abysses, where no
shape could be distinguished, to those violet hues upon the furrowed
heights which had a transparency, a softness, an indefiniteness, unlike
anything to be seen in northern landscape.
The driver was accompanied by a half-naked lad, who, at certain points,
suddenly disappeared, and came into view again after a few minutes,
having made a short cut up some rugged footway between the loops of the
road. Perspiring, even as I sat, in the blaze of the sun, I envied the
boy his breath and muscle. Now and then he slaked his thirst at a stone
fountain by the wayside, not without reverencing the blue-hooded
Madonna painted over it. A few lean, brown peasants, bending under
faggots, and one or two carts, passed us before we gained the top, and
half-way up there was a hovel where drink could be bought; but with
these exceptions nothing broke the loneliness of the long, wild ascent.
My man was not talkative, but answered inquiries civilly; only on one
subject was he very curt—that of the two wooden crosses which we
passed just before arriving at the summit; they meant murders. At the
moment when I spoke of them I was stretching my legs in a walk beside
the carriage, the driver walking just in front of me; and something
then happened which is still a puzzle when I recall it. Whether the
thought of crimes had made the man nervous, or whether just then I wore
a peculiarly truculent face, or had made some alarming gesture, all of
a sudden he turned upon me, grasped my arm and asked sharply: “What
have you got in your hand?” I had a bit of fern, plucked a few minutes
before, and with surprise I showed it; whereupon he murmured an
apology, said something about making haste, and jumped to his seat. An
odd little incident.
At an unexpected turn of the road there spread before me a vast
prospect; I looked down upon inland Calabria. It was a valley broad
enough to be called a plain, dotted with white villages, and backed by
the mass of mountains which now, as in old time, bear the name of Great
Sila. Through this landscape flowed the river Crati—the ancient
Crathis; northward it curved, and eastward, to fall at length into the
Ionian Sea, far beyond my vision. The river Crathis, which flowed by
the walls of Sybaris. I stopped the horses to gaze and wonder; gladly I
would have stood there for hours. Less interested, and impatient to get
on, the driver pointed out to me the direction of Cosenza, still at a
great distance. He added the information that, in summer, the
well-to-do folk of Cosenza go to Paola for sea-bathing, and that they
always perform the journey by night. I, listening carelessly amid my
dream, tried to imagine the crossing of those Calabrian hills under a
summer sun! By summer moonlight it must be wonderful.
We descended at a sharp pace, all the way through a forest of
chestnuts, the fruit already gathered, the golden leaves rustling in
their fall. At the foot lies the village of San Fili, and here we left
the crazy old cart which we had dragged so far. A little further, and
before us lay a long, level road, a true Roman highway, straight for
mile after mile. By this road the Visigoths must have marched after the
sack of Rome. In approaching Cosenza I was drawing near to the grave of
Alaric. Along this road the barbarian bore in triumph those spoils of
the Eternal City which were to enrich his tomb.
By this road, six hundred years before the Goth, marched Hannibal on
his sullen retreat from Italy, passing through Cosentia to embark at
Croton.
CHAPTER III
THE GRAVE OF ALARIC
It would have been prudent to consult with my driver as to the inns of
Cosenza. But, with a pardonable desire not to seem helpless in his
hands, I had from the first directed him to the Due Lionetti, relying
upon my guide-book. Even at Cosenza there is progress, and guide-books
to little-known parts of Europe are easily allowed to fall out of date.
On my arrival----
But, first of all, the dazio. This time it was a serious business;
impossible to convince the rather surly officer that certain of the
contents of my portmanteau were not for sale. What in the world was I
doing with tanti libri? Of course I was a commercial traveller;
ridiculous to pretend anything else. After much strain of courtesy, I
clapped to my luggage, locked it up, and with a resolute face cried
“Avanti!” And there was an end of it. In this case, as so often, I have
no doubt that simple curiosity went for much in the man’s pertinacious
questioning. Of course the whole dazio business is ludicrous and
contemptible; I scarce know a baser spectacle than that of uniformed
officials groping in the poor little bundles of starved peasant women,
mauling a handful of onions, or prodding with long irons a cartload of
straw. Did any one ever compare the expenses with the results?
A glance shows the situation of Cosenza. The town is built on a steep
hillside, above the point where two rivers, flowing from the valleys on
either side, mingle their waters under one name, that of the Crati. We
drove over a bridge which spans the united current, and entered a
narrow street, climbing abruptly between houses so high and so close
together as to make a gloom amid sunshine. It was four o’clock; I felt
tired and half choked with dust; the thought of rest and a meal was
very pleasant. As I searched for the sign of my inn, we suddenly drew
up, midway in the dark street, before a darker portal, which seemed the
entrance to some dirty warehouse. The driver jumped down—”Ecco
l’albergo!”
I had seen a good many Italian hostelries, and nourished no
unreasonable expectations. The Lion at Paola would have seemed to any
untravelled Englishman a squalid and comfortless hole, incredible as a
place of public entertainment; the Two Little Lions of Cosenza made a
decidedly worse impression. Over sloppy stones, in an atmosphere heavy
with indescribable stenches, I felt rather than saw my way to the foot
of a stone staircase; this I ascended, and on the floor above found a
dusky room, where tablecloths and an odour of frying oil afforded some
suggestion of refreshment. My arrival interested nobody; with a good
deal of trouble I persuaded an untidy fellow, who seemed to be a
waiter, to come down with me and secure my luggage. More trouble before
I could find a bedroom; hunting for keys, wandering up and down stone
stairs and along pitch-black corridors, sounds of voices in quarrel.
The room itself was utterly depressing—so bare, so grimy, so dark.
Quickly I examined the bed, and was rewarded. It is the good point of
Italian inns; be the house and the room howsoever sordid, the bed is
almost invariably clean and dry and comfortable.
I ate, not amiss; I drank copiously to the memory of Alaric, and felt
equal to any fortune. When night had fallen I walked a little about the
scarce-lighted streets and came to an open place, dark and solitary and
silent, where I could hear the voices of the two streams as they
mingled below the hill. Presently I passed an open office of some kind,
where a pleasant-looking man sat at a table writing; on an impulse I
entered, and made bold to ask whether Cosenza had no better inn than
the Due Lionetti. Great was this gentleman’s courtesy; he laid down
his pen, as if for ever, and gave himself wholly to my concerns. His
discourse delighted me, so flowing were the phrases, so rounded the
periods. Yes, there were other inns; one at the top of the town—the
Vetere—in a very good position; and they doubtless excelled my own
in modern comfort. As a matter of fact, it might be avowed that the
Lionetti, from the point of view of the great centres of
civilization, left something to be desired—something to be desired;
but it was a good old inn, a reputable old inn, and probably on further
acquaintance----
Further acquaintance did not increase my respect for the Lionetti; it
would not be easy to describe those features in which, most notably, it
fell short of all that might be desired. But I proposed no long stay at
Cosenza, where malarial fever is endemic, and it did not seem worth
while to change my quarters. I slept very well.
I had come here to think about Alaric, and with my own eyes to behold
the place of his burial. Ever since the first boyish reading of Gibbon,
my imagination has loved to play upon that scene of Alaric’s death.
Thinking to conquer Sicily, the Visigoth marched as far as to the
capital of the Bruttii, those mountain tribes which Rome herself never
really subdued; at Consentia he fell sick and died. How often had I
longed to see this river Busento, which the “labour of a captive
multitude” turned aside, that its flood might cover and conceal for all
time the tomb of the Conqueror! I saw it in the light of sunrise,
flowing amid low, brown, olive-planted hills; at this time of the year
it is a narrow, but rapid stream, running through a wide, waste bed of
yellow sand and stones. The Crati, which here has only just started
upon its long seaward way from some glen of Sila, presents much the
same appearance, the track which it has worn in flood being many times
as broad as the actual current. They flow, these historic waters, with
a pleasant sound, overborne at moments by the clapping noise of
Cosenza’s washerwomen, who cleanse their linen by beating it, then
leave it to dry on the river-bed. Along the banks stood tall poplars,
each a spire of burnished gold, blazing against the dark olive foliage
on the slopes behind them; plane trees, also, very rich of colour, and
fig trees shedding their latest leaves. Now, tradition has it that
Alaric was buried close to the confluence of the Busento and the Crati.
If so, he lay in full view of the town. But the Goths are said to have
slain all their prisoners who took part in the work, to ensure secrecy.
Are we to suppose that Consentia was depopulated? On any other
supposition the story must be incorrect, and Alaric’s tomb would have
to be sought at least half a mile away, where the Busento is hidden in
its deep valley.
Gibbon, by the way, calls it Busentinus; the true Latin was Buxentius.
To make sure of the present name, I questioned some half a dozen
peasants, who all named the river Basenzio or Basenz’; a countryman of
more intelligent appearance assured me that this was only a dialectical
form, the true one being Busento. At a bookseller’s shop (Cosenza had
one, a very little one) I found the same opinion to prevail.
It is difficult to walk much in this climate; lassitude and feverish
symptoms follow on the slightest exertion; but—if one can disregard
the evil smells which everywhere catch one’s breath—Cosenza has
wonders and delights which tempt to day-long rambling. To call the town
picturesque is to use an inadequate word; at every step, from the
opening of the main street at the hill-foot up to the stern mediaeval
castle crowning its height, one marvels and admires. So narrow are the
ways that a cart drives the pedestrian into shop or alley; two vehicles
(but perhaps the thing never happened) would with difficulty pass each
other. As in all towns of Southern Italy, the number of hair-dressers
is astonishing, and they hang out the barber’s basin—the very basin
(of shining brass and with a semicircle cut out of the rim) which the
Knight of La Mancha took as substitute for his damaged helmet. Through
the gloom of high balconied houses, one climbs to a sunny piazza, where
there are several fine buildings; beyond it lies the public garden, a
lovely spot, set with alleys of acacia and groups of palm and
flower-beds and fountains; marble busts of Garibaldi, Mazzini, and
Cavour gleam among the trees. Here one looks down upon the yellow gorge
of the Crati, and sees it widen northward into a vast green plain, in
which the track of the river is soon lost. On the other side of the
Crati valley, in full view of this garden, begins the mountain region
of many-folded Sila—a noble sight at any time of the day, but most of
all when the mists of morning cling about its summits, or when the
sunset clothes its broad flanks with purple. Turn westward, and you
behold the long range which hides the Mediterranean so high and wild
from this distance, that I could scarce believe I had driven over it.
Sila—locally the Black Mountain, because dark with climbing
forests—held my gaze through a long afternoon. From the grassy
table-land of its heights, pasturage for numberless flocks and herds
when the long snows have melted, one might look over the shore of the
Ionian Sea where Greek craftsmen built ships of timber cut upon the
mountain’s side. Not so long ago it was a haunt of brigands; now there
is no risk for the rare traveller who penetrates that wilderness; but
he must needs depend upon the hospitality of labourers and shepherds. I
dream of sunny glades, never touched, perhaps, by the foot of man since
the Greek herdsman wandered there with his sheep or goats. Somewhere on
Sila rises the Neaithos (now Neto) mentioned by Theocritus; one would
like to sit by its source in the woodland solitude, and let fancy have
her way.
In these garden walks I met a group of peasants, evidently strange to
Cosenza, and wondering at all they saw. The women wore a very striking
costume: a short petticoat of scarlet, much embroidered, and over it a
blue skirt, rolled up in front and gathered in a sort of knot behind
the waist; a bodice adorned with needlework and metal; elaborate
glistening head-gear, and bare feet. The town-folk have no peculiarity
of dress. I observed among them a grave, intelligent type of
countenance, handsome and full of character, which may be that of their
brave ancestors the Bruttii. With pleasure I saw that they behaved
gently to their beasts, the mules being very sleek and
contented-looking. There is much difference between these people and
the Neapolitans; they seem to have no liking for noise, talk with a
certain repose, and allow the stranger to go about among them
unmolested, unimportuned. Women above the poorest class are not seen in
the streets; there prevails an Oriental system of seclusion.
I was glad to come upon the pot market; in the south of Italy it is
always a beautiful and interesting sight. Pottery for commonest use
among Calabrian peasants has a grace of line, a charm of colour, far
beyond anything native to our most pretentious china-shops. Here still
lingers a trace of the old civilization. There must be a great good in
a people which has preserved this need of beauty through ages of
servitude and suffering. Compare such domestic utensils—these oil-jugs
and water-jars—with those in the house of an English labourer. Is it
really so certain that all virtues of race dwell with those who can
rest amid the ugly and know it not for ugliness?
The new age declares itself here and there at Cosenza. A squalid
railway station, a hideous railway bridge, have brought the town into
the European network; and the craze for building, which has disfigured
and half ruined Italy, shows itself in an immense new theatre—Teatro
Garibaldi—just being finished. The old one, which stands ruinous close
by, struck me as, if anything, too large for the town; possibly it had
been damaged by an earthquake, the commonest sort of disaster at
Cosenza. On the front of the new edifice I found two inscriptions, both
exulting over the fall of the papal power; one was interesting enough
to copy:—
“20
SEPT
., 1870.
QUESTA
DATA
POLITICA
DICE
FINITA
LA
TEOCRAZIA
NEGLI
ORDINAMENTI
CIVILI
. IL DI
CHE
LA
DIRA
FINITA
MORALMENTE
SARA
LA
DATA
UMANA
.”
which signifies: “This political date marks the end of theocracy in
civil life. The day which ends its moral rule will begin the epoch of
humanity.” A remarkable utterance anywhere; not least so within the
hearing of the stream which flows over the grave of Alaric.
One goes to bed early at Cosenza; the night air is dangerous,
and—Teatro Garibaldi still incomplete—darkness brings with it no sort
of pastime. I did manage to read a little in my miserable room by an
antique lamp, but the effort was dispiriting; better to lie in the dark
and think of Goth and Roman.
Do the rivers Busento and Crati still keep the secret of that “royal
sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils and trophies of Rome”? It
seems improbable that the grave was ever disturbed; to this day there
exists somewhere near Cosenza a treasure-house more alluring than any
pictured in Arabian tale. It is not easy to conjecture what “spoils and
trophies” the Goths buried with their king; if they sacrificed masses
of precious metal, then perchance there still lies in the river-bed
some portion of that golden statue of Virtus, which the Romans melted
down to eke out the ransom claimed by Alaric. The year 410 A.D. was no
unfitting moment to break into bullion the figure personifying Manly
Worth. “After that,” says an old historian, “all bravery and honour
perished out of Rome.”
CHAPTER IV
TARANTO
Cosenza is on a line of railway which runs northward up the Crati
valley, and joins the long seashore line from Taranto to Reggio. As it
was my wish to see the whole of that coast, I had the choice of
beginning my expedition either at the northern or the southern end; for
several reasons I decided to make straight for Taranto.
The train started about seven o’clock in the morning. I rose at six in
chill darkness, the discomfort of my room seeming worse than ever at
this featureless hour. The waiter—perhaps he was the landlord, I left
this doubt unsolved—brought me a cup of coffee; dirtier and more
shabbily apparelled man I have never looked upon; viler coffee I never
drank. Then I descended into the gloom of the street. The familiar
odours breathed upon me with pungent freshness, wafted hither and
thither on a mountain breeze. A glance upwards at the narrow strip of
sky showed a grey-coloured dawn, prelude, I feared, of a dull day.
Evidently I was not the only traveller departing; on the truck just
laden I saw somebody else’s luggage, and at the same moment there came
forth a man heavily muffled against the air, who, like myself, began to
look about for the porter. We exchanged greetings, and on our walk to
the station I learned that my companion, also bound for Taranto, had
been detained by illness for several days at the Lionetti, where, he
bitterly complained, the people showed him no sort of attention. He was
a commercial traveller, representing a firm of drug merchants in North
Italy, and for his sins (as he put it) had to make the southern journey
every year; he invariably suffered from fever, and at certain
places—of course, the least civilized—had attacks which delayed him
from three days to a week. He loathed the South, finding no
compensation whatever for the miseries of travel below Naples; the
inhabitants he reviled with exceeding animosity. Interested by the
doleful predicament of this vendor of drugs (who dosed himself very
vigorously), I found him a pleasant companion during the day; after our
lunch he seemed to shake off the last shivers of his malady, and was as
sprightly an Italian as one could wish to meet—young, sharp-witted,
well-mannered, and with a pleasing softness of character.
We lunched at Sybaris; that is to say, at the railway station now so
called, though till recently it bore the humbler name of Buffaloria.
The Italians are doing their best to revive the classical place-names,
where they have been lost, and occasionally the incautious traveller is
much misled. Of Sybaris no stone remains above ground; five hundred
years before Christ it was destroyed by the people of Croton, who
turned the course of the river Crathis so as to whelm the city’s ruins.
Francois Lenormant, whose delightful book, La Grande Grece, was my
companion on this journey, believed that a discovery far more wonderful
and important than that of Pompeii awaits the excavator on this site;
he held it certain that here, beneath some fifteen feet of alluvial
mud, lay the temples and the streets of Sybaris, as on the day when
Crathis first flowed over them. A little digging has recently been
done, and things of interest have been found; but discovery on a wide
scale is still to be attempted.
Lenormant praises the landscape hereabouts as of “incomparable beauty”;
unfortunately I saw it in a sunless day, and at unfavourable moments I
was strongly reminded of the Essex coast—grey, scrubby fiats, crossed
by small streams, spreading wearily seaward. One had only to turn
inland to correct this mood; the Calabrian mountains, even without
sunshine, had their wonted grace. Moreover, cactus and agave, frequent
in the foreground, preserved the southern character of the scene. The
great plain between the hills and the sea grows very impressive; so
silent it is, so mournfully desolate, so haunted with memories of
vanished glory. I looked at the Crathis—the Crati of Cosenza—here
beginning to spread into a sea-marsh; the waters which used to flow
over golden sands, which made white the oxen, and sunny-haired the
children, that bathed in them, are now lost amid a wilderness poisoned
by their own vapours.
The railway station, like all in this region, was set about with
eucalyptus. Great bushes of flowering rosemary scented the air, and a
fine cassia tree, from which I plucked blossoms, yielded a subtler
perfume. Our lunch was not luxurious; I remember only, as at all worthy
of Sybaris, a palatable white wine called Muscato dei Saraceni.
Appropriate enough amid this vast silence to turn one’s thoughts to the
Saracens, who are so largely answerable for the ages of desolation that
have passed by the Ionian Sea.
Then on for Taranto, where we arrived in the afternoon. Meaning to stay
for a week or two I sought a pleasant room in a well-situated hotel,
and I found one with a good view of town and harbour. The Taranto of
old days, when it was called Taras, or later Tarentum, stood on a long
peninsula, which divides a little inland sea from the great sea
without. In the Middle Ages the town occupied only the point of this
neck of land, which, by the cutting of an artificial channel, had been
made into an island: now again it is spreading over the whole of the
ancient site; great buildings of yellowish-white stone, as ugly as
modern architect can make them, and plainly far in excess of the actual
demand for habitations, rise where Phoenicians and Greeks and Romans
built after the nobler fashion of their times. One of my windows looked
towards the old town, with its long sea-wall where fishermen’s nets
hung drying, the dome of its Cathedral, the high, squeezed houses,
often with gardens on the roofs, and the swing-bridge which links it to
the mainland; the other gave me a view across the Mare Piccolo, the
Little Sea (it is some twelve miles round about), dotted in many parts
with crossed stakes which mark the oyster-beds, and lined on this side
with a variety of shipping moored at quays. From some of these vessels,
early next morning, sounded suddenly a furious cannonade, which
threatened to shatter the windows of the hotel; I found it was in
honour of the Queen of Italy, whose festa fell on that day. This
barbarous uproar must have sounded even to the Calabrian heights; it
struck me as more meaningless in its deafening volley of noise than any
note of joy or triumph that could ever have been heard in old Tarentum.
I walked all round the island part of the town; lost myself amid its
maze of streets, or alleys rather, for in many places one could touch
both sides with outstretched arms, and rested in the Cathedral of S.
Cataldo, who, by the bye, was an Irishman. All is strange, but too
close-packed to be very striking or beautiful; I found it best to
linger on the sea-wall, looking at the two islands in the offing, and
over the great gulf with its mountain shore stretching beyond sight. On
the rocks below stood fishermen hauling in a great net, whilst a boy
splashed the water to drive the fish back until they were safely
enveloped in the last meshes; admirable figures, consummate in graceful
strength, their bare legs and arms the tone of terra cotta. What slight
clothing they wore became them perfectly, as is always the case with a
costume well adapted to the natural life of its wearers. Their slow,
patient effort speaks of immemorial usage, and it is in harmony with
time itself. These fishermen are the primitives of Taranto; who shall
say for how many centuries they have hauled their nets upon the rock?
When Plato visited the Schools of Taras, he saw the same brown-legged
figures, in much the same garb, gathering their sea-harvest. When
Hannibal, beset by the Romans, drew his ships across the peninsula and
so escaped from the inner sea, fishermen of Tarentum went forth as
ever, seeking their daily food. A thousand years passed, and the fury
of the Saracens, when it had laid the city low, spared some humble
Tarentine and the net by which he lived. To-day the fisher-folk form a
colony apart; they speak a dialect which retains many Greek words
unknown to the rest of the population. I could not gaze at them long
enough; their lithe limbs, their attitudes at work or in repose, their
wild, black hair, perpetually reminded me of shapes pictured on a
classic vase.
Later in the day I came upon a figure scarcely less impressive. Beyond
the new quarter of the town, on the ragged edge of its wide,
half-peopled streets, lies a tract of olive orchards and of seed-land;
there, alone amid great bare fields, a countryman was ploughing. The
wooden plough, as regards its form, might have been thousands of years
old; it was drawn by a little donkey, and traced in the soil—the
generous southern soil—the merest scratch of a furrow. I could not but
approach the man and exchange words with him; his rude but gentle face,
his gnarled hands, his rough and scanty vesture, moved me to a deep
respect, and when his speech fell upon my ear, it was as though I
listened to one of the ancestors of our kind. Stopping in his work, he
answered my inquiries with careful civility; certain phrases escaped
me, but on the whole he made himself quite intelligible, and was glad,
I could see, when my words proved that I understood him. I drew apart,
and watched him again. Never have I seen man so utterly patient, so
primaevally deliberate. The donkey’s method of ploughing was to pull
for one minute, and then rest for two; it excited in the ploughman not
the least surprise or resentment. Though he held a long stick in his
hand, he never made use of it; at each stoppage he contemplated the
ass, and then gave utterance to a long “Ah-h-h!” in a note of the most
affectionate remonstrance. They were not driver and beast, but comrades
in labour. It reposed the mind to look upon them.
Walking onward in the same direction, one approaches a great wall, with
gateway sentry-guarded; it is the new Arsenal, the pride of Taranto,
and the source of its prosperity. On special as well as on general
grounds, I have a grudge against this mass of ugly masonry. I had
learnt from Lenormant that at a certain spot, Fontanella, by the shore
of the Little Sea, were observable great ancient heaps of murex
shells—the murex precious for its purple, that of Tarentum yielding in
glory only to the purple of Tyre. I hoped to see these shells, perhaps
to carry one away. But Fontanella had vanished, swallowed up, with all
remnants of antiquity, by the graceless Arsenal. It matters to no one
save the few fantastics who hold a memory of the ancient world dearer
than any mechanic triumph of to-day. If only one could believe that the
Arsenal signified substantial good to Italy! Too plainly it means
nothing but the exhaustion of her people in the service of a base ideal.
The confines of this new town being so vague, much trouble is given to
that noble institution, the dazio. Scattered far and wide in a dusty
wilderness, stand the little huts of the officers, vigilant on every
road or by-way to wring the wretched soldi from toilsome hands. As
became their service, I found these gentry anything but amiable; they
had commonly an air of ennui, and regarded a stranger with surly
suspicion.
When I was back again among the high new houses, my eye, wandering in
search of any smallest point of interest, fell on a fresh-painted
inscription:—
“
ALLA
MAGNA
GRAECIA
.
STABILIMENTO
IDROELETTROPATICO
.”
was well meant. At the sign of “Magna Graecia” one is willing to accept
“hydroelectropathic” as a late echo of Hellenic speech.
CHAPTER V
DULCE GALAESI FLUMEN
Taranto has a very interesting Museum. I went there with an
introduction to the curator, who spared no trouble in pointing out to
me all that was best worth seeing. He and I were alone in the little
galleries; at a second or third visit I had the Museum to myself, save
for an attendant who seemed to regard a visitor as a pleasant novelty,
and bestirred himself for my comfort when I wanted to make sketches.
Nothing is charged for admission, yet no one enters. Presumably, all
the Tarentines who care for archaeology have already been here, and
strangers are few.
Upon the shelves are seen innumerable miniature busts, carved in some
kind of stone; thought to be simply portraits of private persons. One
peers into the faces of men, women, and children, vaguely conjecturing
their date, their circumstances; some of them may have dwelt in the old
time on this very spot of ground now covered by the Museum. Like other
people who grow too rich and comfortable, the citizens of Tarentum
loved mirth and mockery; their Greek theatre was remarkable for
irreverent farce, for parodies of the great drama of Athens. And here
is testimony to the fact: all manner of comic masks, of grotesque
visages; mouths distorted into impossible grins, eyes leering and
goggling, noses extravagant. I sketched a caricature of Medusa, the
anguished features and snaky locks travestied with satiric grimness.
You remember a story which illustrates this scoffing habit: how the
Roman Ambassador, whose Greek left something to be desired, excited the
uproarious derision of the assembled Tarentines—with results that were
no laughing matter.
I used the opportunity of my conversation with the Director of the
Museum to ask his aid in discovering the river Galaesus. Who could find
himself at Taranto without turning in thought to the Galaesus, and
wishing to walk along its banks? Unhappily, one cannot be quite sure of
its position. A stream there is, flowing into the Little Sea, which by
some is called Galeso; but the country-folk commonly give it the name
of Gialtrezze. Of course I turned my steps in that direction, to see
and judge for myself.
To skirt the western shore of the Mare Piccolo I had to pass the
railway station, and there I made a few inquiries; the official with
whom I spoke knew not the name Galeso, but informed me that the
Gialtrezze entered the sea at a distance of some three kilometres. That
I purposed walking such a distance to see an insignificant stream
excited the surprise, even the friendly concern, of my interlocutor;
again and again he assured me it was not worth while, repeating
emphatically, “Non c’e novita.” But I went my foolish way. Of two or
three peasants or fishermen on the road I asked the name of the little
river I was approaching; they answered, “Gialtrezze.” Then came a man
carrying a gun, whose smile and greeting invited question. “Can you
tell me the name of the stream which flows into the sea just beyond
here?” “Signore, it is the Galeso.”
My pulse quickened with delight; all the more when I found that my
informant had no tincture of the classics, and that he supported Galeso
against Gialtrezze simply as a question of local interest. Joyously I
took leave of him, and very soon I was in sight of the river itself.
The river? It is barely half a mile long; it rises amid a bed of great
reeds, which quite conceal the water, and flows with an average breadth
of some ten feet down to the seashore, on either side of it bare, dusty
fields, and a few hoary olives.
The Galaesus?—the river beloved by Horace; its banks pasturing a
famous breed of sheep, with fleece so precious that it was protected by
a garment of skins? Certain it is that all the waters of Magna Graecia
have much diminished since classic times, but (unless there have been
great local changes, due, for example, to an earthquake) this brook had
always the same length, and it is hard to think of the Galaesus as so
insignificant. Disappointed, brooding, I followed the current seaward,
and upon the shore, amid scents of mint and rosemary, sat down to rest.
There was a good view of Taranto across the water; the old town on its
little island, compact of white houses, contrasting with the yellowish
tints of the great new buildings which spread over the peninsula. With
half-closed eyes, one could imagine the true Tarentum. Wavelets lapped
upon the sand before me, their music the same as two thousand years
ago. A goatherd came along, his flock straggling behind him; man and
goats were as much of the old world as of the new. Far away, the boats
of fishermen floated silently. I heard a rustle as an old fig tree hard
by dropped its latest leaves. On the sea-bank of yellow crumbling earth
lizards flashed about me in the sunshine. After a dull morning, the day
had passed into golden serenity; a stillness as of eternal peace held
earth and sky.
“Dearest of all to me is that nook of earth which yields not to
Hymettus for its honey, nor for its olive to green Venafrum; where
heaven grants a long springtime and warmth in winter, and in the sunny
hollows Bacchus fosters a vintage noble as the Falernian----” The lines
of Horace sang in my head; I thought, too, of the praise of Virgil,
who, tradition has it, wrote his Eclogues hereabouts. Of course, the
country has another aspect, in spring and early summer; I saw it at a
sad moment; but, all allowance made for seasons, it is still with
wonder that one recalls the rapture of the poets. A change beyond
conception must have come upon these shores of the Ionian Sea. The
scent of rosemary seemed to be wafted across the ages from a vanished
world.
After all, who knows whether I have seen the Galaesus? Perhaps, as some
hold, it is quite another river, flowing far to the west of Taranto
into the open gulf. Gialtrezze may have become Galeso merely because of
the desire in scholars to believe that it was the classic stream; in
other parts of Italy names have been so imposed. But I shall not give
ear to such discouraging argument. It is little likely that my search
will ever be renewed, and for me the Galaesus—”dulce Galaesi
flumen”—is the stream I found and tracked, whose waters I heard mingle
with the Little Sea. The memory has no sense of disappointment. Those
reeds which rustle about the hidden source seem to me fit shelter of a
Naiad; I am glad I could not see the water bubbling in its spring, for
there remains a mystery. Whilst I live, the Galaesus purls and glistens
in the light of that golden afternoon, and there beyond, across the
blue still depths, glimmers a vision of Tarentum.
Let Taranto try as it will to be modern and progressive, there is a
retarding force which shows little sign of being overcome—the profound
superstition of the people. A striking episode of street life reminded
me how near akin were the southern Italians of to-day to their
predecessors in what are called the dark ages; nay, to those more
illustrious ancestors who were so ready to believe that an ox had
uttered an oracle, or that a stone had shed blood. Somewhere near the
swing-bridge, where undeniable steamships go and come between the inner
and the outer sea, I saw a crowd gathered about a man who was
exhibiting a picture and expounding its purport; every other minute the
male listeners doffed their hats, and the females bowed and crossed
themselves. When I had pressed near enough to hear the speaker, I found
he was just finishing a wonderful story, in which he himself might or
might not have faith, but which plainly commanded the credit of his
auditors. Having closed his narrative, the fellow began to sell it in
printed form—little pamphlets with a rude illustration on the cover. I
bought the thing for a soldo, and read it as I walked away.
A few days ago—thus, after a pious exordium, the relation began—in
that part of Italy called Marca, there came into a railway station a
Capuchin friar of grave, thoughtful, melancholy aspect, who besought
the station-master to allow him to go without ticket by the train just
starting, as he greatly desired to reach the Sanctuary of Loreto that
day, and had no money to pay his fare The official gave a contemptuous
refusal, and paid no heed to the entreaties of the friar, who urged all
manner of religious motives for the granting of his request. The two
engines on the train (which was a very long one) seemed about to steam
away—but, behold, con grande stupore di tutti, the waggons moved not
at all! Presently a third engine was put on, but still all efforts to
start the train proved useless. Alone of the people who viewed this
inexplicable event, the friar showed no astonishment; he remarked
calmly, that so long as he was refused permission to travel by it, the
train would not stir. At length un ricco signore found a way out of
the difficulty by purchasing the friar a third-class ticket; with a
grave reproof to the station-master, the friar took his seat, and the
train went its way.
But the matter, of course, did not end here. Indignant and amazed, and
wishing to be revenged upon that frataccio, the station-master
telegraphed to Loreto, that in a certain carriage of a certain train
was travelling a friar, whom it behoved the authorities to arrest for
having hindered the departure of the said train for fifteen minutes,
and also for the offense of mendicancy within a railway station.
Accordingly, the Loreto police sought the offender, but, in the
compartment where he had travelled, found no person; there, however,
lay a letter couched in these terms: “He who was in this waggon under
the guise of a humble friar, has now ascended into the arms of his
Santissima Madre Maria. He wished to make known to the world how easy
it is for him to crush the pride of unbelievers, or to reward those who
respect religion.”
Nothing more was discoverable; wherefore the learned of the Church—_i
dotti della chiesa_—came to the conclusion that under the guise of a
friar there had actually appeared “N. S. G. C.” The Supreme Pontiff
and his prelates had not yet delivered a judgment in the matter, but
there could be no sort of doubt that they would pronounce the
authenticity of the miracle. With a general assurance that the good
Christian will be saved and the unrepentant will be damned, this
remarkable little pamphlet came to an end. Much verbiage I have
omitted, but the translation, as far as it goes, is literal. Doubtless
many a humble Tarentine spelt it through that evening, with boundless
wonder, and thought such an intervention of Providence worthy of being
talked about, until the next stabbing case in his street provided a
more interesting topic.
Possibly some malevolent rationalist might note that the name of the
railway station where this miracle befell was nowhere mentioned. Was it
not open to him to go and make inquiries at Loreto?
CHAPTER VI
THE TABLE OF THE PALADINS
For two or three days a roaring north wind whitened the sea with foam;
it kept the sky clear, and from morning to night there was magnificent
sunshine, but, none the less, one suffered a good deal from cold. The
streets were barer than ever; only in the old town, where high, close
walls afforded a good deal of shelter, was there a semblance of active
life. But even here most of the shops seemed to have little, if any,
business; frequently I saw the tradesman asleep in a chair, at any hour
of daylight. Indeed, it must be very difficult to make the day pass at
Taranto. I noticed that, as one goes southward in Italy, the later do
ordinary people dine; appetite comes slowly in this climate. Between
colazione at midday and pranzo at eight, or even half-past, what an
abysm of time! Of course, the Tarantine never reads; the only bookshop
I could discover made a poorer display than even that at Cosenza—it
was not truly a bookseller’s at all, but a fancy stationer’s. How the
women spend their lives one may vainly conjecture. Only on Sunday did I
see a few of them about the street; they walked to and from Mass, with
eyes on the ground, and all the better-dressed of them wore black.
When the weather fell calm again, and there was pleasure in walking, I
chanced upon a trace of the old civilization which interested me more
than objects ranged in a museum. Rambling eastward along the outer
shore, in the wilderness which begins as soon as the town has
disappeared, I came to a spot as uninviting as could be imagined, great
mounds of dry rubbish, evidently deposited here by the dust-carts of
Taranto; luckily, I continued my walk beyond this obstacle, and after a
while became aware that I had entered upon a road—a short piece of
well-marked road, which began and ended in the mere waste. A moment’s
examination, and I saw that it was no modern by-way. The track was
clean-cut in living rock, its smooth, hard surface lined with two
parallel ruts nearly a foot deep; it extended for some twenty yards
without a break, and further on I discovered less perfect bits. Here,
manifestly, was the seaside approach to Tarentum, to Taras, perhaps to
the Phoenician city which came before them. Ages must have passed since
vehicles used this way; the modern high road is at some distance
inland, and one sees at a glance that this witness of ancient traffic
has remained by Time’s sufferance in a desert region. Wonderful was the
preservation of the surface: the angles at the sides, where the road
had been cut down a little below the rock-level, were sharp and clean
as if carved yesterday, and the profound ruts, worn, perhaps, before
Rome had come to her power, showed the grinding of wheels with strange
distinctness. From this point there is an admirable view of Taranto,
the sea, and the mountains behind.
Of the ancient town there remains hardly anything worthy of being
called a ruin. Near the shore, however, one can see a few remnants of a
theatre—perhaps that theatre where the Tarentines were sitting when
they saw Roman galleys, in scorn of treaty, sailing up the Gulf.
My last evenings were brightened by very beautiful sunsets; one in
particular remains with me; I watched it for an hour or more from the
terrace-road of the island town. An exquisite after-glow seemed as if
it would never pass away. Above thin, grey clouds stretching along the
horizon a purple flush melted insensibly into the dark blue of the
zenith. Eastward the sky was piled with lurid rack, sullen-tinted folds
edged with the hue of sulphur. The sea had a strange aspect, curved
tracts of pale blue lying motionless upon a dark expanse rippled by the
wind. Below me, as I leaned on the sea-wall, a fisherman’s boat crept
duskily along the rocks, a splash of oars soft-sounding in the
stillness. I looked to the far Calabrian hills, now scarce
distinguishable from horizon cloud, and wondered what chances might
await me in the unknown scenes of my further travel.
The long shore of the Ionian Sea suggested many a halting-place. Best
of all, I should have liked to swing a wallet on my shoulder and make
the whole journey on foot; but this for many reasons was impossible. I
could only mark points of the railway where some sort of food or
lodging might be hoped for, and the first of these stoppages was
Metaponto.
Official time-bills of the month marked a train for Metaponto at 4.56
A.M., and this I decided to take, as it seemed probable that I might
find a stay of some hours sufficient, and so be able to resume my
journey before night. I asked the waiter to call me at a quarter to
four. In the middle of the night (as it seemed to me) I was aroused by
a knocking, and the waiter’s voice called to me that, if I wished to
leave early for Metaponto, I had better get up at once, as the
departure of the train had been changed to 4.15—it was now half-past
three. There ensued an argument, sustained, on my side, rather by the
desire to stay in bed this cold morning than by any faith in the
reasonableness of the railway company. There must be a mistake! The
orario for the month gave 4.56, and how could the time of a train be
changed without public notice? Changed it was, insisted the waiter; it
had happened a few days ago, and they had only heard of it at the hotel
this very morning. Angry and uncomfortable, I got my clothes on, and
drove to the station, where I found that a sudden change in the
time-table, without any regard for persons relying upon the official
guide, was taken as a matter of course. In chilly darkness I bade
farewell to Taranto.
At a little after six, when palest dawn was shimmering on the sea, I
found myself at Metaponto, with no possibility of doing anything for a
couple of hours. Metaponto is a railway station, that and nothing more,
and, as a station also calls itself a hotel, I straightway asked for a
room, and there dozed until sunshine improved my humour and stirred my
appetite. The guidebook had assured me of two things: that a vehicle
could be had here for surveying the district, and that, under cover
behind the station, one would find a little collection of antiquities
unearthed hereabout. On inquiry, I found that no vehicle, and no animal
capable of being ridden, existed at Metaponto; also that the little
museum had been transferred to Naples. It did not pay to keep the
horse, they told me; a stranger asked for it only “once in a hundred
years.” However, a lad was forthcoming who would guide me to the ruins.
I breakfasted (the only thing tolerable being the wine), and we set
forth.
It was a walk of some two or three miles, by a cart road, through
fields just being ploughed for grain. All about lay a level or slightly
rolling country, which in winter becomes a wilderness of mud; dry
traces of vast slough and occasional stagnant pools showed what the
state of things would be a couple of months hence. The properties were
divided by hedges of agave—huge growths, grandly curving their
sword-pointed leaves. Its companion, the spiny cactus, writhed here and
there among juniper bushes and tamarisks. Along the wayside rose tall,
dead thistles, white with age, their great cluster of seed-vessels
showing how fine the flower had been. Above our heads, peewits were
wheeling and crying, and lizards swarmed on the hard, cracked ground.
We passed a few ploughmen, with white oxen yoked to labour. Ploughing
was a fit sight at Metapontum, famous of old for the richness of its
soil; in token whereof the city dedicated at Delphi its famous Golden
Sheaf. It is all that remains of life on this part of the coast; the
city had sunk into ruin before the Christian era, and was never
rebuilt. Later, the shore was too dangerous for habitation. Of all the
cities upon the Ionian Sea, only Tarentum and Croton continued to exist
through the Middle Ages, for they alone occupied a position strong for
defence against pirates and invaders. A memory of the Saracen wars
lingers in the name borne by the one important relic of Metapontum, the
Tavola de’ Paladini; to this my guide was conducting me.
It is the ruin of a temple to an unknown god, which stood at some
distance north of the ancient city; two parallel rows of columns, ten
on one side, five on the other, with architrave all but entire, and a
basement shattered. The fine Doric capitals are well preserved; the
pillars themselves, crumbling under the tooth of time, seem to support
with difficulty their noble heads. This monument must formerly have
been very impressive amid the wide landscape; but, a few years ago, for
protection against peasant depredators, a wall ten feet high was built
close around the columns, so that no good view of them is any longer
obtainable. To the enclosure admission is obtained through an iron
gateway with a lock. I may add, as a picturesque detail, that the lock
has long been useless; my guide simply pushed the gate open. Thus, the
ugly wall serves no purpose whatever save to detract from the beauty of
the scene.
Vegetation is thick within the temple precincts; a flowering rose bush
made contrast of its fresh and graceful loveliness with the age-worn
strength of these great carved stones. About their base grew
luxuriantly a plant which turned my thoughts for a moment to rural
England, the round-leaved pennywort. As I lingered here, there stirred
in me something of that deep emotion which I felt years ago amid the
temples of Paestum. Of course, this obstructed fragment holds no claim
to comparison with Paestum’s unique glory, but here, as there, one is
possessed by the pathos of immemorial desolation; amid a silence which
the voice has no power to break, nature’s eternal vitality triumphs
over the greatness of forgotten men.
At a distance of some three miles from this temple there lies a little
lake, or a large pond, which would empty itself into the sea but for a
piled barrier of sand and shingle. This was the harbour of Metapontum.
I passed the day in rambling and idling, and returned for a meal at the
station just before train-time. The weather could not have been more
enjoyable; a soft breeze and cloudless blue. For the last half-hour I
lay in a hidden corner of the eucalyptus grove—trying to shape in
fancy some figure of old Pythagoras. He died here (says story) in 497
B.C.—broken-hearted at the failure of his efforts to make mankind
gentle and reasonable. In 1897 A.D. that hope had not come much nearer
to its realization. Italians are yet familiar with the name of the
philosopher, for it is attached to the multiplication table, which they
call tavola pitagorica. What, in truth, do we know of him? He is a
type of aspiring humanity; a sweet and noble figure, moving as a dim
radiance through legendary Hellas. The English reader hears his name
with a smile, recalling only the mention of him, in mellow mirth, by
England’s greatest spirit. “What is the opinion of Pythagoras
concerning wild fowl?” Whereto replies the much-offended Malvolio:
“That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.” He of the
crossed garters disdains such fantasy. “I think nobly of the soul, and
no way approve his opinion.”
I took my ticket for Cotrone, which once was Croton. At Croton,
Pythagoras enjoyed his moment’s triumph, ruling men to their own
behoof. At Croton grew up a school of medicine which glorified Magna
Graecia. “Healthier than Croton,” said a proverb; for the spot was
unsurpassed in salubrity; beauty and strength distinguished its
inhabitants, who boasted their champion Milon. After the fall of
Sybaris, Croton became so populous that its walls encircled twelve
miles. Hither came Zeuxis, to adorn with paintings the great temple of
Hera on the Lacinian promontory; here he made his picture of Helen,
with models chosen from the loveliest maidens of the city. I was
light-hearted with curious anticipation as I entered the train for
Cotrone.
While daylight lasted, the moving landscape held me attentive. This
part of the coast is more varied, more impressive, than between Taranto
and Metaponto. For the most part a shaggy wilderness, the ground lies
in strangely broken undulations, much hidden with shrub and tangled
boscage. At the falling of dusk we passed a thickly-wooded tract large
enough to be called a forest; the great trees looked hoary with age,
and amid a jungle of undergrowth, myrtle and lentisk, arbutus and
oleander, lay green marshes, dull deep pools, sluggish streams. A spell
which was half fear fell upon the imagination; never till now had I
known an enchanted wood. Nothing human could wander in those pathless
shades, by those dead waters. It was the very approach to the world of
spirits; over this woodland, seen on the verge of twilight, brooded a
silent awe, such as Dante knew in his selva oscura.
Of a sudden the dense foliage was cleft; there opened a broad alley
between drooping boughs, and in the deep hollow, bordered with sand and
stones, a flood rolled eastward. This river is now called Sinno; it was
the ancient Sins, whereon stood the city of the same name. In the
seventh century before Christ, Sins was lauded as the richest city in
the world; for luxury it outrivalled Sybaris.
I had recently been reading Lenormant’s description of the costumes of
Magna Graecia prior to the Persian wars. Sins, a colony from Ionia,
still kept its Oriental style of dress. Picture a man in a long,
close-clinging tunic which descended to his feet, either of fine linen,
starched and pleated, or of wool, falling foldless, enriched with
embroidery and adorned with bands of gay-coloured geometric patterns;
over this a wrap (one may say) of thick wool, tight round the bust and
leaving the right arm uncovered, or else a more ample garment,
elaborately decorated like the long tunic. Complete the picture with a
head ornately dressed, on the brow a fringe of ringlets; the long hair
behind held together by gold wire spirally wound; above, a crowning
fillet, with a jewel set in the front; the beard cut to a point, and
the upper lip shaven. You behold the citizen of these Hellenic colonies
in their stately prime.
Somewhere in that enchanted forest, where the wild vine trails from
tree to tree, where birds and creatures of the marshy solitude haunt
their ancient home, lie buried the stones of Sins.
CHAPTER VII
COTRONE
Night hid from me the scenes that followed. Darkling, I passed again
through the station called Sybaris, and on and on by the sea-shore, the
sound of breakers often audible. From time to time I discerned black
mountain masses against a patch of grey sky, or caught a glimpse of
blanching wave, or felt my fancy thrill as a stray gleam from the
engine fire revealed for a moment another trackless wood. Often the
hollow rumbling of the train told me that we were crossing a bridge;
the stream beneath it bore, perhaps, a name in legend or in history. A
wind was rising; at the dim little stations I heard it moan and buffet,
and my carriage, where all through the journey I sat alone, seemed the
more comfortable. Rain began to fall, and when, about ten o’clock, I
alighted at Cotrone, the night was loud with storm.
There was but one vehicle at the station, a shabby, creaking,
mud-plastered sort of coach, into which I bundled together with two
travellers of the kind called commercial—almost the only species of
traveller I came across during these southern wanderings. A long time
was spent in stowing freightage which, after all, amounted to very
little; twice, thrice, four, and perhaps five times did we make a false
start, followed by uproarious vociferation, and a jerk which tumbled us
passengers all together. The gentlemen of commerce rose to wild
excitement, and roundly abused the driver; as soon as we really
started, their wrath changed to boisterous gaiety. On we rolled,
pitching and tossing, mid darkness and tempest, until, through the
broken window, a sorry illumination of oil-lamps showed us one side of
a colonnaded street. “Bologna! Bologna!” cried my companions, mocking
at this feeble reminiscence of their fat northern town. The next moment
we pulled up, our bruised bodies colliding vigorously for the last
time; it was the Albergo Concordia.
A dark stone staircase, yawning under the colonnade; on the first
landing an open doorway; within, a long corridor, doors of bedrooms on
either side, and in a room at the far end a glimpse of a tablecloth.
This was the hotel, the whole of it. As soon as I grasped the
situation, it was clear to me why my fellow travellers had entered with
a rush and flung themselves into rooms; there might, perchance, be only
one or two chambers vacant, and I knew already that Cotrone offered no
other decent harbourage. Happily I did not suffer for my lack of
experience; after trying one or two doors in vain, I found a
sleeping-place which seemed to be unoccupied, and straightway took
possession of it. No one appeared to receive the arriving guests.
Feeling very hungry, I went into the room at the end of the passage,
where I had seen a tablecloth; a wretched lamp burned on the wall, but
only after knocking, stamping, and calling did I attract attention;
then issued from some mysterious region a stout, slatternly, sleepy
woman, who seemed surprised at my demand for food, but at length
complied with it. I was to have better acquaintance with my hostess of
the Concordia before I quitted Cotrone.
Next morning the wind still blew, but the rain was over; I could begin
my rambles. Like the old town of Taranto, Cotrone occupies the site of
the ancient acropolis, a little headland jutting into the sea; above,
and in front of the town itself, stands the castle built by Charles V.,
with immense battlements looking over the harbour. From a road skirting
the shore around the base of the fortress one views a wide bay, bounded
to the north by the dark flanks of Sila (I was in sight of the Black
Mountain once more), and southwards by a long low promontory, its level
slowly declining to the far-off point where it ends amid the waves. On
this Cape I fixed my eyes, straining them until it seemed to me that I
distinguished something, a jutting speck against the sky, at its
farthest point. Then I used my field-glass, and at once the doubtful
speck became a clearly visible projection, much like a lighthouse. It
is a Doric column, some five-and-twenty feet high; the one pillar that
remains of the great temple of Hera, renowned through all the Hellenic
world, and sacred still when the goddess had for centuries borne a
Latin name. “Colonna” is the ordinary name of the Cape; but it is also
known as Capo di Nau, a name which preserves the Greek word naos
(temple).
I planned for the morrow a visit to this spot, which is best reached by
sea. To-day great breakers were rolling upon the strand, and all the
blue of the bay was dashed with white foam; another night would, I
hoped, bring calm, and then the voyage! Dis aliter visum.
A little fleet of sailing vessels and coasting steamers had taken
refuge within the harbour, which is protected by a great mole. A good
haven; the only one, indeed, between Taranto and Reggio, but it grieves
one to remember that the mighty blocks built into the sea-barrier came
from that fallen temple. We are told that as late as the sixteenth
century the building remained all but perfect, with eight-and-forty
pillars, rising there above the Ionian Sea; a guide to sailors, even as
when AEneas marked it on his storm-tossed galley. Then it was assailed,
cast down, ravaged by a Bishop of Cotrone, one Antonio Lucifero, to
build his episcopal palace. Nearly three hundred years later, after the
terrible earthquake of 1783, Cotrone strengthened her harbour with the
great stones of the temple basement. It was a more legitimate pillage.
Driven inland by the gale, I wandered among low hills which overlook
the town. Their aspect is very strange, for they consist entirely—on
the surface, at all events—of a yellowish-grey mud, dried hard, and as
bare as the high road. A few yellow hawkweeds, a few camomiles, grew in
hollows here and there; but of grass not a blade. It is easy to make a
model of these Crotonian hills. Shape a solid mound of hard-pressed
sand, and then, from the height of a foot or two, let water trickle
down upon it; the perpendicular ridges and furrows thus formed upon the
miniature hill represent exactly what I saw here on a larger scale.
Moreover, all the face of the ground is minutely cracked and wrinkled;
a square foot includes an incalculable multitude of such meshes.
Evidently this is the work of hot sun on moisture; but when was it
done? For they tell me that it rains very little at Cotrone, and only a
deluge could moisten this iron soil. Here and there I came upon yet
more striking evidence of waterpower; great holes on the hillside,
generally funnel-shaped, and often deep enough to be dangerous to the
careless walker. The hills are round-topped, and parted one from
another by gully or ravine, shaped, one cannot but think, by furious
torrents. A desolate landscape, and scarcely bettered when one turned
to look over the level which spreads north of the town; one discovers
patches of foliage, indeed, the dark perennial verdure of the south;
but no kindly herb clothes the soil. In springtime, it seems, there is
a growth of grass, very brief, but luxuriant. That can only be on the
lower ground; these furrowed heights declare a perpetual sterility.
What has become of the ruins of Croton? This squalid little town of
to-day has nothing left from antiquity. Yet a city bounded with a wall
of twelve miles circumference is not easily swept from the face of the
earth. Bishop Lucifer, wanting stones for his palace, had to go as far
as the Cape Colonna; then, as now, no block of Croton remained. Nearly
two hundred years before Christ the place was forsaken. Rome colonized
it anew, and it recovered an obscure life as a place of embarkation for
Greece, its houses occupying only the rock of the ancient citadel. Were
there at that date any remnants of the great Greek city?—still great
only two centuries before. Did all go to the building of Roman
dwellings and temples and walls, which since have crumbled or been
buried?
We are told that the river AEsarus flowed through the heart of the city
at its prime. I looked over the plain, and yonder, towards the distant
railway station, I descried a green track, the course of the all but
stagnant and wholly pestilential stream, still called Esaro. Near its
marshy mouth are wide orange orchards. Could one but see in vision the
harbour, the streets, the vast encompassing wall! From the eminence
where I stood, how many a friend and foe of Croton has looked down upon
its shining ways, peopled with strength and beauty and wisdom! Here
Pythagoras may have walked, glancing afar at the Lacinian sanctuary,
then new built.
Lenormant is eloquent on the orange groves of Cotrone. In order to
visit them, permission was necessary, and presently I made my way to
the town hall, to speak with the Sindaco (Mayor) and request his aid in
this matter. Without difficulty I was admitted. In a well-furnished
office sat two stout gentlemen, smoking cigars, very much at their
ease; the Sindaco bade me take a chair, and scrutinized me with
doubtful curiosity as I declared my business. Yes, to be sure he could
admit me to see his own orchard; but why did I wish to see it? My reply
that I had no interest save in the natural beauty of the place did not
convince him; he saw in me a speculator of some kind. That was natural
enough. In all the south of Italy, money is the one subject of men’s
thoughts; intellectual life does not exist; there is little even of
what we should call common education. Those who have wealth cling to it
fiercely; the majority have neither time nor inclination to occupy
themselves with anything but the earning of a livelihood which for
multitudes signifies the bare appeasing of hunger.
Seeing the Sindaco’s embarrassment, his portly friend began to question
me; good-humouredly enough, but in such a fat bubbling voice (made more
indistinct by the cigar he kept in his mouth) that with difficulty I
understood him. What was I doing at Cotrone? I endeavoured to explain
that Cotrone greatly interested me. Ha! Cotrone interested me? Really?
Now what did I find interesting at Cotrone? I spoke of historic
associations. The Sindaco and his friend exchanged glances, smiled in a
puzzled, tolerant, half-pitying way, and decided that my request might
be granted. In another minute I withdrew, carrying half a sheet of
note-paper on which were scrawled in pencil a few words, followed by
the proud signature “Berlinghieri.” When I had deciphered the scrawl, I
found it was an injunction to allow me to view a certain estate “_senza
nulla toccare_”—without touching anything. So a doubt still lingered
in the dignitary’s mind.
Cotrone has no vehicle plying for hire—save that in which I arrived at
the hotel. I had to walk in search of the orange orchard, all along the
straight dusty road leading to the station. For a considerable distance
this road is bordered on both sides by warehouses of singular
appearance. They have only a ground floor, and the front wall is not
more than ten feet high, but their low roofs, sloping to the ridge at
an angle of about thirty degrees, cover a great space. The windows are
strongly barred, and the doors show immense padlocks of elaborate
construction. The goods warehoused here are chiefly wine and oil,
oranges and liquorice. (A great deal of liquorice grows around the
southern gulf.) At certain moments, indicated by the markets at home or
abroad, these stores are conveyed to the harbour, and shipped away. For
the greater part of the year the houses stand as I saw them, locked,
barred, and forsaken: a street where any sign of life is exceptional;
an odd suggestion of the English Sunday in a land that knows not such
observance.
Crossing the Esaro, I lingered on the bridge to gaze at its green,
muddy water, not visibly flowing at all. The high reeds which half
concealed it carried my thoughts back to the Galaesus. But the
comparison is all in favour of the Tarentine stream. Here one could
feel nothing but a comfortless melancholy; the scene is too squalid,
the degradation too complete.
Of course, no one looked at the permesso with which I presented
myself at the entrance to the orchard. From a tumbling house, which we
should call the lodge, came forth (after much shouting on my part) an
aged woman, who laughed at the idea that she should be asked to read
anything, and bade me walk wherever I liked. I strayed at pleasure,
meeting only a lean dog, which ran fearfully away. The plantation was
very picturesque; orange trees by no means occupied all the ground, but
mingled with pomegranates and tamarisks and many evergreen shrubs of
which I knew not the name; whilst here and there soared a magnificent
stone pine. The walks were bordered with giant cactus, now and again so
fantastic in their growth that I stood to wonder; and in an open space
upon the bank of the Esaro (which stagnates through the orchard) rose a
majestic palm, its leaves stirring heavily in the wind which swept
above. Picturesque, abundantly; but these beautiful tree-names, which
waft a perfume of romance, are like to convey a false impression to
readers who have never seen the far south; it is natural to think of
lovely nooks, where one might lie down to rest and dream; there comes a
vision of soft turf under the golden-fruited boughs—”places of
nestling green for poets made.” Alas! the soil is bare and lumpy as a
ploughed field, and all the leafage that hangs low is thick with a
clayey dust. One cannot rest or loiter or drowse; no spot in all the
groves where by any possibility one could sit down. After rambling as
long as I chose, I found that a view of the orchard from outside was
more striking than the picture amid the trees themselves. _Senza nulla
toccare_, I went my way.
CHAPTER VIII
FACES BY THE WAY
The wind could not roar itself out. Through the night it kept awaking
me, and on the morrow I found a sea foamier than ever; impossible to
reach the Colonna by boat, and almost so, I was assured, to make the
journey by land in such weather as this. Perforce I waited.
A cloudless sky; broad sunshine, warm as in an English summer; but the
roaring tramontana was disagreeably chill. No weather could be more
perilous to health. The people of Cotrone, those few of them who did
not stay at home or shelter in the porticoes, went about heavily
cloaked, and I wondered at their ability to wear such garments under so
hot a sun. Theoretically aware of the danger I was running, but, in
fact, thinking little about it, I braved the wind and the sunshine all
day long; my sketch-book gained by it, and my store of memories. First
of all, I looked into the Cathedral, an ugly edifice, as uninteresting
within as without. Like all the churches in Calabria, it is
white-washed from door to altar, pillars no less than walls—a cold and
depressing interior. I could see no picture of the least merit; one, a
figure of Christ with hideous wounds, was well-nigh as repulsive as
painting could be. This vile realism seems to indicate Spanish
influence. There is a miniature copy in bronze of the statue of the
chief Apostle in St. Peter’s at Rome, and beneath it an inscription
making known to the faithful that, by order of Leo XIII. in 1896, an
Indulgence of three hundred days is granted to whosoever kisses the
bronze toe and says a prayer. Familiar enough this unpretentious
announcement, yet it never fails of its little shock to the heretic
mind. Whilst I was standing near, a peasant went through the mystic
rite; to judge from his poor malaria-stricken countenance, he prayed
very earnestly, and I hope his Indulgence benefited him. Probably he
repeated a mere formula learnt by heart. I wished he could have prayed
spontaneously for three hundred days of wholesome and sufficient food,
and for as many years of honest, capable government in his
heavy-burdened country.
When travelling, I always visit the burial-ground; I like to see how a
people commemorates its dead, for tombstones have much significance.
The cemetery of Cotrone lies by the sea-shore, at some distance beyond
the port, far away from habitations; a bare hillside looks down upon
its graves, and the road which goes by is that leading to Cape Colonna.
On the way I passed a little ruined church, shattered, I was told, by
an earthquake three years before; its lonely position made it
interesting, and the cupola of coloured tiles (like that of the
Cathedral at Amalfi) remained intact, a bright spot against the grey
hills behind. A high enclosing wall signalled the cemetery; I rang a
bell at the gate and was admitted by a man of behaviour and language
much more refined than is common among the people of this region; I
felt sorry, indeed, that I had not found him seated in the Sindaco’s
chair that morning. But as guide to the burial-ground he was
delightful. Nine years, he told me, he had held the post of custodian,
in which time, working with his own hands, and unaided, he had turned
the enclosure from a wretched wilderness into a beautiful garden.
Unaffectedly I admired the results of his labour, and my praise
rejoiced him greatly. He specially requested me to observe the
geraniums; there were ten species, many of them of extraordinary size
and with magnificent blossoms. Roses I saw, too, in great abundance;
and tall snapdragons, and bushes of rosemary, and many flowers unknown
to me. As our talk proceeded the gardener gave me a little light on his
own history; formerly he was valet to a gentleman of Cotrone, with whom
he had travelled far and wide over Europe; yes, even to London, of
which he spoke with expressively wide eyes, and equally expressive
shaking of the head. That any one should journey from Calabria to
England seemed to him intelligible enough; but he marvelled that I had
thought it worth while to come from England to Calabria. Very rarely
indeed could he show his garden to one from a far-off country; no, the
place was too poor, accommodation too rough; there needed a certain
courage, and he laughed, again shaking his head.
The ordinary graves were marked with a small wooden cross; where a
head-stone had been raised, it generally presented a skull and crossed
bones. Round the enclosure stood a number of mortuary chapels, gloomy
and ugly. An exception to this dull magnificence in death was a marble
slab, newly set against the wall, in memory of a Lucifero—one of that
family, still eminent, to which belonged the sacrilegious bishop. The
design was a good imitation of those noble sepulchral tablets which
abound in the museum at Athens; a figure taking leave of others as if
going on a journey. The Lucifers had shown good taste in their choice
of the old Greek symbol; no better adornment of a tomb has ever been
devised, nor one that is half so moving. At the foot of the slab was
carved a little owl (civetta), a bird, my friend informed me, very
common about here.
When I took leave, the kindly fellow gave me a large bunch of flowers,
carefully culled, with many regrets that the lateness of the season
forbade his offering choicer blossoms. His simple good-nature and
intelligence greatly won upon me. I like to think of him as still
quietly happy amid his garden walls, tending flowers that grow over the
dead at Cotrone.
On my way back again to the town, I took a nearer view of the ruined
little church, and, whilst I was so engaged, two lads driving a herd of
goats stopped to look at me. As I came out into the road again, the
younger of these modestly approached and begged me to give him a
flower—by choice, a rose. I did so, much to his satisfaction and no
less to mine; it was a pleasant thing to find a wayside lad asking for
anything but soldi. The Calabrians, however, are distinguished by their
self-respect; they contrast remarkedly with the natives of the
Neapolitan district. Presently, I saw that the boy’s elder companion
had appropriated the flower, which he kept at his nose as he plodded
along; after useless remonstrance, the other drew near to me again,
shamefaced; would I make him another present; not a rose this time, he
would not venture to ask it, but “questo piccolo“; and he pointed to
a sprig of geranium. There was a grace about the lad which led me to
talk to him, though I found his dialect very difficult. Seeing us on
good terms, the elder boy drew near, and at once asked a puzzling
question: When was the ruined church on the hillside to be rebuilt? I
answered, of course, that I knew nothing about it, but this reply was
taken as merely evasive; in a minute or two the lad again questioned
me. Was the rebuilding to be next year? Then I began to understand;
having seen me examining the ruins, the boy took it for granted that I
was an architect here on business, and I don’t think I succeeded in
setting him right. When he had said good-bye he turned to look after me
with a mischievous smile, as much as to say that I had naturally
refused to talk to him about so important a matter as the building of a
church, but he was not to be deceived.
The common type of face at Cotrone is coarse and bumpkinish; ruder, it
seemed to me, than faces seen at any point of my journey hitherto. A
photographer had hung out a lot of portraits, and it was a hideous
exhibition; some of the visages attained an incredible degree of vulgar
ugliness. This in the town which still bears the name of Croton. The
people are all more or less unhealthy; one meets peasants horribly
disfigured with life-long malaria. There is an agreeable cordiality in
the middle classes; business men from whom I sought casual information,
even if we only exchanged a few words in the street, shook hands with
me at parting. I found no one who had much good to say of his native
place; every one complained of a lack of water. Indeed, Cotrone has as
good as no water supply. One or two wells I saw, jealously guarded: the
water they yield is not really fit for drinking, and people who can
afford it purchase water which comes from a distance in earthenware
jars. One of these jars I had found in my bedroom; its secure corking
much puzzled me until I made inquiries. The river Esaro is all but
useless for any purpose, and as no other stream flows in the
neighbourhood, Cotrone’s washerwomen take their work down to the beach;
even during the gale I saw them washing there in pools which they had
made to hold the sea water; now and then one of them ventured into the
surf, wading with legs of limitless nudity and plunging linen as the
waves broke about her.
It was unfortunate that I brought no letter of introduction to Cotrone;
I should much have liked to visit one of the better houses. Well-to-do
people live here, and I was told that, in fine weather, “at least half
a dozen” private carriages might be seen making the fashionable drive
on the Strada Regina Margherita. But it is not easy to imagine luxury
or refinement in these dreary, close-packed streets. Judging from our
table at the Concordia, the town is miserably provisioned; the dishes
were poor and monotonous and infamously cooked. Almost the only
palatable thing offered was an enormous radish. Such radishes I never
saw: they were from six to eight inches long, and more than an inch
thick, at the same time thoroughly crisp and sweet. The wine of the
country had nothing to recommend it. It was very heady, and smacked of
drugs rather than of grape juice.
But men must eat, and the Concordia, being the only restaurant, daily
entertained several citizens, besides guests staying in the house. One
of these visitants excited my curiosity; he was a middle-aged man of
austere countenance; shabby in attire, but with the bearing of one
accustomed to command. Arriving always at exactly the same moment, he
seated himself in his accustomed place, drew his hat over his brows,
and began to munch bread. No word did I hear him speak. As soon as he
appeared in the doorway, the waiter called out, with respectful hurry,
“Don Ferdinando!” and in a minute his first course was served. Bent
like a hunchback over the table, his hat dropping ever lower, until it
almost hid his eyes, the Don ate voraciously. His dishes seemed to be
always the same, and as soon as he had finished the last mouthful, he
rose and strode from the room.
Don is a common title of respect in Southern Italy; it dates of course
from the time of Spanish rule. At a favourable moment I ventured to
inquire of the waiter who Don Ferdinando might be; the only answer,
given with extreme discretion, was “A proprietor.” If in easy
circumstances, the Don must have been miserly, his diet was wretched
beyond description. And in the manner of his feeding he differed
strangely from the ordinary Italian who frequents restaurants.
Wonderful to observe, the representative diner. He always seems to know
exactly what his appetite demands; he addresses the waiter in a
preliminary discourse, sketching out his meal, and then proceeds to
fill in the minutiae. If he orders a common dish, he describes with
exquisite detail how it is to be prepared; in demanding something out
of the way he glows with culinary enthusiasm. An ordinary bill of fare
never satisfies him; he plays variations upon the theme suggested,
divides or combines, introduces novelties of the most unexpected kind.
As a rule, he eats enormously (I speak only of dinner), a piled dish of
macaroni is but the prelude to his meal, a whetting of his appetite.
Throughout he grumbles, nothing is quite as it should be, and when the
bill is presented he grumbles still more vigorously, seldom paying the
sum as it stands. He rarely appears content with his entertainment, and
often indulges in unbounded abuse of those who serve him. These
characteristics, which I have noted more or less in every part of
Italy, were strongly illustrated at the Concordia. In general, they
consist with a fundamental good humour, but at Cotrone the tone of the
dining-room was decidedly morose. One man—he seemed to be a sort of
clerk—came only to quarrel. I am convinced that he ordered things
which he knew the people could not cook just for the sake of reviling
their handiwork when it was presented. Therewith he spent incredibly
small sums; after growling and remonstrating and eating for more than
an hour, his bill would amount to seventy or eighty centesimi, wine
included. Every day he threatened to withdraw his custom; every day he
sent for the landlady, pointed out to her how vilely he was treated,
and asked how she could expect him to recommend the Concordia to his
acquaintances. On one occasion I saw him push away a plate of
something, plant his elbows on the table, and hide his face in his
hands; thus he sat for ten minutes, an image of indignant misery, and
when at last his countenance was again visible, it showed traces of
tears.
I dwell upon the question of food because it was on this day that I
began to feel a loss of appetite and found myself disgusted with the
dishes set before me. In ordinary health I have the happiest
qualification of the traveller, an ability to eat and enjoy the
familiar dishes of any quasi-civilized country; it was a bad sign when
I grew fastidious. After a mere pretence of dinner, I lay down in my
room to rest and read. But I could do neither; it grew plain to me that
I was feverish. Through a sleepless night, the fever manifestly
increasing, I wished that illness had fallen on me anywhere rather than
at Cotrone.
CHAPTER IX
MY FRIEND THE DOCTOR
In the morning I arose as usual, though with difficulty. I tried to
persuade myself that I was merely suffering from a violent attack of
dyspepsia, the natural result of Concordia diet. When the waiter
brought my breakfast I regarded it with resentful eye, feeling for the
moment very much like my grumbling acquaintance of the dinner hour. It
may be as well to explain that the breakfast consisted of very bad
coffee, with goat’s milk, hard, coarse bread, and goat’s butter, which
tasted exactly like indifferent lard. The so-called butter, by a
strange custom of Cotrone, was served in the emptied rind of a
spherical cheese—the small caccio cavallo, horse cheese, which one
sees everywhere in the South. I should not have liked to inquire where,
how, when, or by whom the substance of the cheese had been consumed.
Possibly this receptacle is supposed to communicate a subtle flavour to
the butter; I only know that, even to a healthy palate, the stuff was
rather horrible. Cow’s milk could be obtained in very small quantities,
but it was of evil flavour; butter, in the septentrional sense of the
word, did not exist.
It surprises me to remember that I went out, walked down to the shore,
and watched the great waves breaking over the harbour mole. There was a
lull in the storm, but as yet no sign of improving weather; clouds
drove swiftly across a lowering sky. My eyes turned to the Lacinian
promontory, dark upon the turbid sea. Should I ever stand by the sacred
column? It seemed to me hopelessly remote; the voyage an impossible
effort.
I talked with a man, of whom I remember nothing but his piercing eyes
steadily fixed upon me; he said there had been a wreck in the night, a
ship carrying live pigs had gone to pieces, and the shore was sprinkled
with porcine corpses.
Presently I found myself back at the Concordia, not knowing exactly
how I had returned. The dyspepsia—I clung to this hypothesis—was
growing so violent that I had difficulty in breathing: before long I
found it impossible to stand.
My hostess was summoned, and she told me that Cotrone had “a great
physician,” by name “Dr. Scurco.” Translating this name from dialect
into Italian, I presumed that the physician’s real name was Sculco, and
this proved to be the case. Dr. Riccardo Sculco was a youngish man,
with an open, friendly countenance. At once I liked him. After an
examination, of which I quite understood the result, he remarked in his
amiable, airy manner that I had “a touch of rheumatism”; as a simple
matter of precaution, I had better go to bed for the rest of the day,
and, just for the form of the thing, he would send some medicine.
Having listened to this with as pleasant a smile as I could command, I
caught the Doctor’s eye, and asked quietly, “Is there much congestion?”
His manner at once changed; he became businesslike and confidential.
The right lung; yes, the right lung. Mustn’t worry; get to bed and take
my quinine in dosi forti, and he would look in again at night.
The second visit I but dimly recollect. There was a colloquy between
the Doctor and my hostess, and the word cataplasma sounded
repeatedly; also I heard again “dosi forti.” The night that followed
was perhaps the most horrible I ever passed. Crushed with a sense of
uttermost fatigue, I could get no rest. From time to time a sort of
doze crept upon me, and I said to myself, “Now I shall sleep”; but on
the very edge of slumber, at the moment when I was falling into
oblivion, a hand seemed to pluck me back into consciousness. In the
same instant there gleamed before my eyes a little circle of fire,
which blazed and expanded into immensity, until its many-coloured glare
beat upon my brain and thrilled me with torture. No sooner was the
intolerable light extinguished than I burst into a cold sweat; an icy
river poured about me; I shook, and my teeth chattered, and so for some
minutes I lay in anguish, until the heat of fever re-asserted itself,
and I began once more to toss and roll. A score of times was this
torment repeated. The sense of personal agency forbidding me to sleep
grew so strong that I waited in angry dread for that shock which
aroused me; I felt myself haunted by a malevolent power, and rebelled
against its cruelty.
Through the night no one visited me. At eight in the morning a knock
sounded at the door, and there entered the waiter, carrying a tray with
my ordinary breakfast. “The Signore is not well?” he remarked, standing
to gaze at me. I replied that I was not quite well; would he give me
the milk, and remove from my sight as quickly as possible all the other
things on the tray. A glimpse of butter in its cheese-rind had given me
an unpleasant sensation. The goat’s milk I swallowed thankfully, and,
glad of the daylight, lay somewhat more at my ease awaiting Dr. Sculco.
He arrived about half-past nine, and was agreeably surprised to find me
no worse. But the way in which his directions had been carried out did
not altogether please him. He called the landlady, and soundly rated
her. This scene was interesting, it had a fine flavour of the Middle
Ages. The Doctor addressed mine hostess of the Concordia as “thou,”
and with magnificent disdain refused to hear her excuses; she, the
stout, noisy woman, who ruled her own underlings with contemptuous
rigour, was all subservience before this social superior, and whined to
him for pardon. “What water is this?” asked Dr. Sculco, sternly, taking
up the corked jar that stood on the floor. The hostess replied that it
was drinking water, purchased with good money. Thereupon he poured out
a little, held it up to the light, and remarked in a matter-of-fact
tone, “I don’t believe you.”
However, in a few minutes peace was restored, and the Doctor prescribed
anew. After he had talked about quinine and cataplasms, he asked me
whether I had any appetite. A vision of the dining-room came before me,
and I shook my head. “Still,” he urged, “it would be well to eat
something.” And, turning to the hostess, “He had better have a
beefsteak and a glass of Marsala.” The look of amazement with which I
heard this caught the Doctor’s eye. “Don’t you like bistecca?” he
inquired. I suggested that, for one in a very high fever, with a good
deal of lung congestion, beefsteak seemed a trifle solid, and Marsala
somewhat heating. “Oh!” cried he, “but we must keep the machine going.”
And thereupon he took his genial leave.
I had some fear that my hostess might visit upon me her resentment of
the Doctor’s reproaches; but nothing of the kind. When we were alone,
she sat down by me, and asked what I should really like to eat. If I
did not care for a beefsteak of veal, could I eat a beefsteak of
mutton? It was not the first time that such a choice had been offered
me, for, in the South, bistecca commonly means a slice of meat done
on the grill or in the oven. Never have I sat down to a bistecca
which was fit for man’s consumption, and, of course, at the Concordia
it would be rather worse than anywhere else. I persuaded the good woman
to supply me with a little broth. Then I lay looking at the patch of
cloudy sky which showed above the houses opposite, and wondering
whether I should have a second fearsome night. I wondered, too, how
long it would be before I could quit Cotrone. The delay here was
particularly unfortunate, as my letters were addressed to Catanzaro,
the next stopping-place, and among them I expected papers which would
need prompt attention. The thought of trying to get my correspondence
forwarded to Cotrone was too disturbing; it would have involved an
enormous amount of trouble, and I could not have felt the least
assurance that things would arrive safely. So I worried through the
hours of daylight, and worried still more when, at nightfall, the fever
returned upon me as badly as ever.
Dr. Sculco had paid his evening visit, and the first horror of
ineffectual drowsing had passed over me, when my door was flung
violently open, and in rushed a man (plainly of the commercial
species), hat on head and bag in hand. I perceived that the diligenza
had just arrived, and that travellers were seizing upon their bedrooms.
The invader, aware of his mistake, discharged a volley of apologies,
and rushed out again. Five minutes later the door again banged open,
and there entered a tall lad with an armful of newspapers; after
regarding me curiously, he asked whether I wanted a paper. I took one
with the hope of reading it next morning. Then he began conversation. I
had the fever? Ah! everybody had fever at Cotrone. He himself would be
laid up with it in a day or two. If I liked, he would look in with a
paper each evening—till fever prevented him. When I accepted this
suggestion, he smiled encouragingly, cried “Speriamo!” and clumped
out of the room.
I had as little sleep as on the night before, but my suffering was
mitigated in a very strange way. After I had put out the candle, I
tormented myself for a long time with the thought that I should never
see La Colonna. As soon as I could rise from bed, I must flee Cotrone,
and think myself fortunate in escaping alive; but to turn my back on
the Lacinian promontory, leaving the cape unvisited, the ruin of the
temple unseen, seemed to me a miserable necessity which I should lament
as long as I lived. I felt as one involved in a moral disaster; working
in spite of reason, my brain regarded the matter from many points of
view, and found no shadow of solace. The sense that so short a distance
separated me from the place I desired to see, added exasperation to my
distress. Half-delirious, I at times seemed to be in a boat, tossing on
wild waters, the Column visible afar, but only when I strained my eyes
to discover it. In a description of the approach by land, I had read of
a great precipice which had to be skirted, and this, too, haunted me
with its terrors: I found myself toiling on a perilous road, which all
at once crumbled into fearful depths just before me. A violent
shivering fit roused me from this gloomy dreaming, and I soon after
fell into a visionary state which, whilst it lasted, gave me such
placid happiness as I have never known when in my perfect mind. Lying
still and calm, and perfectly awake, I watched a succession of
wonderful pictures. First of all I saw great vases, rich with ornament
and figures; then sepulchral marbles, carved more exquisitely than the
most beautiful I had ever known. The vision grew in extent, in
multiplicity of detail; presently I was regarding scenes of ancient
life—thronged streets, processions triumphal or religious, halls of
feasting, fields of battle. What most impressed me at the time was the
marvellously bright yet delicate colouring of everything I saw. I can
give no idea in words of the pure radiance which shone from every
object, which illumined every scene. More remarkable, when I thought of
it next day, was the minute finish of these pictures, the definiteness
of every point on which my eye fell. Things which I could not know,
which my imagination, working in the service of the will, could never
have bodied forth, were before me as in life itself. I consciously
wondered at peculiarities of costume such as I had never read of; at
features of architecture entirely new to me; at insignificant
characteristics of that by-gone world, which by no possibility could
have been gathered from books. I recall a succession of faces, the
loveliest conceivable; and I remember, I feel to this moment the pang
of regret with which I lost sight of each when it faded into darkness.
As an example of the more elaborate visions that passed before me, I
will mention the only one which I clearly recollect. It was a glimpse
of history. When Hannibal, at the end of the second Punic War, was
confined to the south of Italy, he made Croton his head-quarters, and
when, in reluctant obedience to Carthage, he withdrew from Roman soil,
it was at Croton that he embarked. He then had with him a contingent of
Italian mercenaries, and, unwilling that these soldiers should go over
to the enemy, he bade them accompany him to Africa. The Italians
refused. Thereupon Hannibal had them led down to the shore of the sea,
where he slaughtered one and all. This event I beheld. I saw the strand
by Croton; the promontory with its temple; not as I know the scene
to-day, but as it must have looked to those eyes more than two thousand
years ago. The soldiers of Hannibal doing massacre, the perishing
mercenaries, supported my closest gaze, and left no curiosity
unsatisfied. (Alas! could I but see it again, or remember clearly what
was shown tome!) And over all lay a glory of sunshine, an indescribable
brilliancy which puts light and warmth into my mind whenever I try to
recall it. The delight of these phantasms was well worth the ten days’
illness which paid for them. After this night they never returned; I
hoped for their renewal, but in vain. When I spoke of the experience to
Dr. Sculco, he was much amused, and afterwards he often asked me
whether I had had any more visioni. That gate of dreams was closed,
but I shall always feel that, for an hour, it was granted to me to see
the vanished life so dear to my imagination. If the picture
corresponded to nothing real, tell me who can, by what power I
reconstructed, to the last perfection of intimacy, a world known to me
only in ruined fragments.
Daylight again, but no gleam of sun. I longed for the sunshine; it
seemed to me a miserable chance that I should lie ill by the Ionian Sea
and behold no better sky than the far north might have shown me. That
grey obstruction of heaven’s light always weighs upon my spirit; on a
summer’s day, there has but to pass a floating cloud, which for a
moment veils the sun, and I am touched with chill discouragement; heart
and hope fail me, until the golden radiance is restored.
About noon, when I had just laid down the newspaper bought the night
before—the Roman Tribuna, which was full of dreary politics—a
sudden clamour in the street drew my attention. I heard the angry
shouting of many voices, not in the piazza before the hotel, but at
some little distance; it was impossible to distinguish any meaning in
the tumultuous cries. This went on for a long time, swelling at moments
into a roar of frenzied rage, then sinking to an uneven growl, broken
by spasmodic yells. On asking what it meant, I was told that a crowd of
poor folk had gathered before the Municipio to demonstrate against an
oppressive tax called the fuocatico. This is simply hearth-money, an
impost on each fireplace where food is cooked; the same tax which made
trouble in old England, and was happily got rid of long ago. But the
hungry plebs of Cotrone lacked vigour for any effective self-assertion;
they merely exhausted themselves with shouting “Abbass’ ‘o sindaco!”
and dispersed to the hearths which paid for an all but imaginary
service. I wondered whether the Sindaco and his portly friend sat in
their comfortable room whilst the roaring went on; whether they smoked
their cigars as usual, and continued to chat at their ease. Very
likely. The privileged classes in Italy are slow to move, and may well
believe in the boundless endurance of those below them. Some day, no
doubt, they will have a disagreeable surprise. When Lombardy begins in
earnest to shout “Abbasso!” it will be an uneasy moment for the heavy
syndics of Calabria.
CHAPTER X
CHILDREN OF THE SOIL
Any northern person who passed a day or two at the Concordia as an
ordinary traveller would carry away a strong impression. The people of
the house would seem to him little short of savages, filthy in person
and in habits, utterly uncouth in their demeanour, perpetual wranglers
and railers, lacking every qualification for the duties they pretended
to discharge. In England their mere appearance would revolt decent
folk. With my better opportunity of judging them, I overcame the first
natural antipathy; I saw their good side, and learnt to forgive the
faults natural to a state of frank barbarism. It took two or three days
before their rough and ready behaviour softened to a really human
friendliness, but this came about at last, and when it was known that I
should not give much more trouble, that I needed only a little care in
the matter of diet, goodwill did its best to aid hopeless incapacity.
Whilst my fever was high, little groups of people often came into the
room, to stand and stare at me, exchanging, in a low voice, remarks
which they supposed I did not hear, or, hearing, could not understand;
as a matter of fact, their dialect was now intelligible enough to me,
and I knew that they discussed my chances of surviving. Their natures
were not sanguine. A result, doubtless, of the unhealthy climate, every
one at Cotrone seemed in a more or less gloomy state of mind. The
hostess went about uttering ceaseless moans and groans; when she was in
my room I heard her constantly sighing, “Ah, Signore! Ah,
Cristo!”—exclamations which, perhaps, had some reference to my
illness, but which did not cease when I recovered. Whether she had any
private reason for depression I could not learn; I fancy not; it was
only the whimpering and querulous habit due to low health. A female
servant, who occasionally brought me food (I found that she also cooked
it), bore herself in much the same way. This domestic was the most
primitive figure of the household. Picture a woman of middle age,
wrapped at all times in dirty rags (not to be called clothing), obese,
grimy, with dishevelled black hair, and hands so scarred, so deformed
by labour and neglect, as to be scarcely human. She had the darkest and
fiercest eyes I ever saw. Between her and her mistress went on an
unceasing quarrel: they quarrelled in my room, in the corridor, and, as
I knew by their shrill voices, in places remote; yet I am sure they did
not dislike each other, and probably neither of them ever thought of
parting. Unexpectedly, one evening, this woman entered, stood by the
bedside, and began to talk with such fierce energy, with such flashing
of her black eyes, and such distortion of her features, that I could
only suppose that she was attacking me for the trouble I caused her. A
minute or two passed before I could even hit the drift of her furious
speech; she was always the most difficult of the natives to understand,
and in rage she became quite unintelligible. Little by little, by dint
of questioning, I got at what she meant. There had been guai, worse
than usual; the mistress had reviled her unendurably for some fault or
other, and was it not hard that she should be used like this after
having tanto, tanto lavorato! In fact, she was appealing for my
sympathy, not abusing me at all. When she went on to say that she was
alone in the world, that all her kith and kin were freddi morti
(stone dead), a pathos in her aspect and her words took hold upon me;
it was much as if some heavy-laden beast of burden had suddenly found
tongue, and protested in the rude beginnings of articulate utterance
against its hard lot. If only one could have learnt, in intimate
detail, the life of this domestic serf! How interesting, and how
sordidly picturesque against the background of romantic landscape, of
scenic history! I looked long into her sallow, wrinkled face, trying to
imagine the thoughts that ruled its expression. In some measure my
efforts at kindly speech succeeded, and her “Ah, Cristo!” as she turned
to go away, was not without a touch of solace.
Another time my hostess fell foul of the waiter, because he had brought
me goat’s milk which was very sour. There ensued the most comical
scene. In an access of fury the stout woman raged and stormed; the
waiter, a lank young fellow, with a simple, good-natured face, after
trying to explain that he had committed the fault by inadvertence,
suddenly raised his hand, like one about to exhort a congregation, and
exclaimed in a tone of injured remonstrance, “_Un po’ di calma! Un po’
di calma!_” My explosion of laughter at this inimitable utterance put
an end to the strife. The youth laughed with me; his mistress bustled
him out of the room, and then began to inform me that he was weak in
his head. Ah! she exclaimed, her life with these people! what it cost
her to keep them in anything like order! When she retired, I heard her
expectorating violently in the corridor; a habit with every inmate of
this genial hostelry.
When the worst of my fever had subsided, the difficulty was to obtain
any nourishment suitable to my state. The good doctor, who had
suggested beefsteak and Marsala when I was incapable of taking anything
at all, ruled me severely in the matter of diet now that I really began
to feel hungry. I hope I may never again be obliged to drink goat’s
milk; in these days it became so unutterably loathsome to me that I
had, at length, to give it up altogether, and I cannot think of it now
without a qualm. The broth offered me was infamous, mere coloured water
beneath half an inch of floating grease. Once there was a promise of a
fowl, and I looked forward to it eagerly; but, alas! this miserable
bird had undergone a process of seething for the extraction of soup. I
would have defied anyone to distinguish between the substance remaining
and two or three old kid gloves boiled into a lump. With a pleased air,
the hostess one day suggested a pigeon, a roasted pigeon, and I
welcomed the idea joyously. Indeed, the appearance of the dish, when it
was borne in, had nothing to discourage my appetite—the odour was
savoury; I prepared myself for a treat. Out of pure kindness, for she
saw me tremble in my weakness, the good woman offered her aid in the
carving; she took hold of the bird by the two legs, rent it asunder,
tore off the wings in the same way, and then, with a smile of
satisfaction, wiped her hands upon her skirt. If her hands had known
water (to say nothing of soap) during the past twelve months I am much
mistaken. It was a pity, for I found that my teeth could just masticate
a portion of the flesh which hunger compelled me to assail.
Of course I suffered much from thirst, and Dr. Sculco startled me one
day by asking if I liked tea. Tea? Was it really procurable? The
Doctor assured me that it could be supplied by the chemist; though,
considering how rarely the exotic was demanded, it might have lost
something of its finer flavour whilst stored at the pharmacy. An order
was despatched. Presently the waiter brought me a very small paper
packet, such as might have contained a couple of Seidlitz powders; on
opening it I discovered something black and triturated, a crumbling
substance rather like ground charcoal. I smelt it, but there was no
perceptible odour; I put a little of it to my tongue, but the effect
was merely that of dust. Proceeding to treat it as if it were veritable
tea, I succeeded in imparting a yellowish tinge to the hot water, and,
so thirsty was I, this beverage tempted me to a long draught. There
followed no ill result that I know of, but the paper packet lay
thenceforth untouched, and, on leaving, I made a present of it to my
landlady.
To complete the domestic group, I must make mention of the
“chambermaid.” This was a lively little fellow of about twelve years
old, son of the landlady, who gave me much amusement. I don’t know
whether he performed chambermaid duty in all the rooms; probably the
fierce-eyed cook did the heavier work elsewhere, but upon me his
attendance was constant. At an uncertain hour of the evening he entered
(of course, without knocking), doffed his cap in salutation, and began
by asking how I found myself. The question could not have been more
deliberately and thoughtfully put by the Doctor himself. When I replied
that I was better, the little man expressed his satisfaction, and went
on to make a few remarks about the pessimo tempo. Finally, with a
gesture of politeness, he inquired whether I would permit him “_di fare
un po’ di pulizia_”—to clean up a little, and this he proceeded to do
with much briskness. Excepting the good Sculco, my chambermaid was
altogether the most civilized person I met at Cotrone. He had a
singular amiability of nature, and his boyish spirits were not yet
subdued by the pestilent climate. If I thanked him for anything, he
took off his cap, bowed with comical dignity, and answered “_Grazie a
voi, Signore_.” Of course these people never used the third person
feminine of polite Italian. Dr. Sculco did so, for I had begun by
addressing him in that manner, but plainly it was not familiar to his
lips. At the same time there prevailed certain forms of civility, which
seemed a trifle excessive. For instance, when the Doctor entered my
room, and I gave him “Buon giorno,” he was wont to reply, “_Troppo
gentile_!”—too kind of you!
My newspaper boy came regularly for a few days, always complaining of
feverish symptoms, then ceased to appear. I made inquiry: he was down
with illness, and as no one took his place I suppose the regular
distribution of newspapers in Cotrone was suspended. When the poor
fellow again showed himself, he had a sorry visage; he sat down by my
bedside (rain dripping from his hat, and mud, very thick, upon his
boots) to give an account of his sufferings. I pictured the sort of
retreat in which he had lain during those miserable hours. My own
chamber contained merely the barest necessaries, and, as the gentleman
of Cosenza would have said, “left something to be desired” in point of
cleanliness. Conceive the places into which Cotrone’s poorest have to
crawl when they are stricken with disease. I admit, however, that the
thought was worse to me at that moment than it is now. After all, the
native of Cotrone has advantages over the native of a city slum; and it
is better to die in a hovel by the Ionian Sea than in a cellar at
Shoreditch.
The position of my room, which looked upon the piazza, enabled me to
hear a great deal of what went on in the town. The life of Cotrone
began about three in the morning; at that hour I heard the first
voices, upon which there soon followed the bleating of goats and the
tinkling of ox-bells. No doubt the greater part of the poor people were
in bed by eight o’clock every evening; only those who had dealings in
the outer world were stirring when the diligenza arrived about ten,
and I suspect that some of these snatched a nap before that late hour.
Throughout the day there sounded from the piazza a ceaseless clamour of
voices, such a noise as in England would only rise from some excited
crowd on a rare occasion; it was increased by reverberations from the
colonnade which runs all round in front of the shops. When the
north-east gale had passed over, there ensued a few days of sullen
calm, permitting the people to lead their ordinary life in open air. I
grew to recognize certain voices, those of men who seemingly had
nothing to do but to talk all day long. Only the sound reached me; I
wish I could have gathered the sense of these interminable harangues
and dialogues. In every country and every age those talk most who have
least to say that is worth saying. These tonguesters of Cotrone had
their predecessors in the public place of Croton, who began to gossip
before dawn, and gabbled unceasingly till after nightfall; with their
voices must often have mingled the bleating of goats or the lowing of
oxen, just as I heard the sounds to-day.
One day came a street organ, accompanied by singing, and how glad I
was! The first note of music, this, that I had heard at Cotrone. The
instrument played only two or three airs, and one of them became a
great favourite with the populace; very soon, numerous voices joined
with that of the singer, and all this and the following day the melody
sounded, near or far. It had the true characteristics of southern song;
rising tremolos, and cadences that swept upon a wail of passion; high
falsetto notes, and deep tum-tum of infinite melancholy. Scorned by the
musician, yet how expressive of a people’s temper, how suggestive of
its history! At the moment when this strain broke upon my ear, I was
thinking ill of Cotrone and its inhabitants; in the first pause of the
music I reproached myself bitterly for narrowness and ingratitude. All
the faults of the Italian people are whelmed in forgiveness as soon as
their music sounds under the Italian sky. One remembers all they have
suffered, all they have achieved in spite of wrong. Brute races have
flung themselves, one after another, upon this sweet and glorious land;
conquest and slavery, from age to age, have been the people’s lot.
Tread where one will, the soil has been drenched with blood. An
immemorial woe sounds even through the lilting notes of Italian gaiety.
It is a country wearied and regretful, looking ever backward to the
things of old; trivial in its latter life, and unable to hope sincerely
for the future. Moved by these voices singing over the dust of Croton,
I asked pardon for all my foolish irritation, my impertinent
fault-finding. Why had I come hither, if it was not that I loved land
and people? And had I not richly known the recompense of my love?
Legitimately enough one may condemn the rulers of Italy, those who take
upon themselves to shape her political life, and recklessly load her
with burdens insupportable. But among the simple on Italian soil a
wandering stranger has no right to nurse national superiorities, to
indulge a contemptuous impatience. It is the touch of tourist
vulgarity. Listen to a Calabrian peasant singing as he follows his oxen
along the furrow, or as he shakes the branches of his olive tree. That
wailing voice amid the ancient silence, that long lament solacing
ill-rewarded toil, comes from the heart of Italy herself, and wakes the
memory of mankind.
CHAPTER XI
THE MOUNT OF REFUGE
My thoughts turned continually to Catanzaro. It is a city set upon a
hill, overlooking the Gulf of Squillace, and I felt that if I could but
escape thither, I should regain health and strength. Here at Cotrone
the air oppressed and enfeebled me; the neighbourhood of the sea
brought no freshness. From time to time the fever seemed to be
overcome, but it lingered still in my blood and made my nights
restless. I must away to Catanzaro.
When first I spoke of this purpose to Dr. Sculco, he indulged my fancy,
saying “Presently, presently!” A few days later, when I seriously asked
him how soon I might with safety travel, his face expressed misgiving.
Why go to Catanzaro? It was on the top of a mountain, and had a most
severe climate; the winds at this season were terrible. In conscience
he could not advise me to take such a step: the results might be very
grave after my lung trouble. Far better wait at Cotrone for a week or
two longer, and then go on to Reggio, crossing perhaps to Sicily to
complete my cure. The more Dr. Sculco talked of windy altitudes, the
stronger grew my desire for such a change of climate, and the more
intolerable seemed my state of languishment. The weather was again
stormy, but this time blew sirocco; I felt its evil breath waste my
muscles, clog my veins, set all my nerves a-tremble. If I stayed here
much longer, I should never get away at all. A superstitious fear crept
upon me; I remembered that my last visit had been to the cemetery.
One thing was certain: I should never see the column of Hera’s temple.
I made my lament on this subject to Dr. Sculco, and he did his best to
describe to me the scenery of the Cape. Certain white spots which I had
discovered at the end of the promontory were little villas, occupied in
summer by the well-to-do citizens of Cotrone; the Doctor himself owned
one, which had belonged to his father before him. Some of the earliest
memories of his boyhood were connected with the Cape: when he had
lessons to learn by heart, he often used to recite them walking round
and round the great column. In the garden of his villa he at times
amused himself with digging, and a very few turns of the spade sufficed
to throw out some relic of antiquity. Certain Americans, he said,
obtained permission not long ago from the proprietor of the ground on
which the temple stood to make serious excavations, but as soon as the
Italians heard of it, they claimed the site as a national monument; the
work was forbidden, and the soil had to be returned to its former
state. Hard by the ancient sanctuary is a chapel, consecrated to the
Madonna del Capo; thither the people of Cotrone make pilgrimages, and
hold upon the Cape a rude festival, which often ends in orgiastic riot.
All the surface of the promontory is bare; not a tree, not a bush, save
for a little wooded hollow called Fossa del Lupo—the wolf’s den.
There, says legend, armed folk of Cotrone used to lie in wait to attack
the corsairs who occasionally landed for water.
When I led him to talk of Cotrone and its people, the Doctor could but
confirm my observations. He contrasted the present with the past; this
fever-stricken and waterless village with the great city which was
called the healthiest in the world. In his opinion the physical change
had resulted from the destruction of forests, which brought with it a
diminution of the rainfall. “At Cotrone,” he said, “we have practically
no rain. A shower now and then, but never a wholesome downpour.” He had
no doubt that, in ancient times, all the hills of the coast were
wooded, as Sila still is, and all the rivers abundantly supplied with
water. To-day there was scarce a healthy man in Cotrone: no one had
strength to resist a serious illness. This state of things he took very
philosophically; I noticed once more the frankly mediaeval spirit in
which he regarded the populace. Talking on, he interested me by
enlarging upon the difference between southern Italians and those of
the north. Beyond Rome a Calabrian never cared to go; he found himself
in a foreign country, where his tongue betrayed him, and where his
manners were too noticeably at variance with those prevailing. Italian
unity, I am sure, meant little to the good Doctor, and appealed but
coldly to his imagination.
I declared to him at length that I could endure no longer this dreary
life of the sick-room; I must get into the open air, and, if no harm
came of the experiment, I should leave for Catanzaro. “I cannot prevent
you,” was the Doctor’s reply, “but I am obliged to point out that you
act on your own responsibility. It is pericoloso, it is
pericolosissimo! The terrible climate of the mountains!” However, I
won his permission to leave the house, and acted upon it that same
afternoon. Shaking and palpitating, I slowly descended the stairs to
the colonnade; then, with a step like that of an old, old man, tottered
across the piazza, my object being to reach the chemist’s shop, where I
wished to pay for the drugs that I had had and for the tea. When I
entered, sweat was streaming from my forehead; I dropped into a chair,
and for a minute or two could do nothing but recover nerve and breath.
Never in my life had I suffered such a wretched sense of feebleness.
The pharmacist looked at me with gravely compassionate eyes; when I
told him I was the Englishman who had been ill, and that I wanted to
leave to-morrow for Catanzaro, his compassion indulged itself more
freely, and I could see quite well that he thought my plan of travel
visionary. True, he said, the climate of Cotrone was trying to a
stranger. He understood my desire to get away; but—Catanzaro! Was I
aware that at Catanzaro I should suddenly find myself in a season of
most rigorous winter? And the winds! One needed to be very strong even
to stand on one’s feet at Catanzaro. For all this I returned thanks,
and, having paid my bill, tottered back to the Concordia. It seemed
to me more than doubtful whether I should start on the morrow.
That evening I tried to dine. Don Ferdinando entered as usual, and sat
mute through his unchanging meal; the grumbler grumbled and ate, as
perchance he does to this day. I forced myself to believe that the food
had a savour for me, and that the wine did not taste of drugs. As I sat
over my pretended meal, I heard the sirocco moaning without, and at
times a splash of rain against the window. Near me, two military men
were exchanging severe comments on Calabria and its people. “_Che
paese_!”—”What a country!” exclaimed one of them finally in disgust.
Of course they came from the north, and I thought that their
conversation was not likely to knit closer the bond between the
extremes of Italy.
To my delight I looked forth next morning on a sunny and calm sky, such
as I had not seen during all my stay at Cotrone. I felt better, and
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