NAPLES. 151 



named. I have forgotten his other name. His father was 

 nicknamed Bomba, and was as poor and troublesome a thing 

 in kings as they make. But the son could beat him and give 

 him long odds. A circumstance floats back to me : — It was 

 at the time of the Crimean War, and Bomba or Bombino, 

 easy enough to determine which, but it really does not matter, 

 wrote to the Emperor of Austria to ask him what attitude he 

 had better assume with regard to that conflict. This came to 

 the ears of the Loudon Times, at that epoch a far more influ- 

 ential journal than now. "Well!" it said. "We wonder 

 what next ! How long is it since this person has professed 

 apprehension ? We advise his Neapolitan majesty to bestir 

 himself and creep under the bed or anywhere else, so only he 

 get out of the way ! ' ' The monarchy in my time was feebly 

 propped by Swiss Guards, just as was that of poor Louis XVI. 



And Naples has the finest aquarium in Europe. 



The beggars, though not first rate as compared with their 

 colleagues farther East, are nevertheless high class beggars. 

 One showed a hideous sore on his afflicted arm. I do not 

 think the worse of him that turned away, sickened, but 

 another member of the party, the tooth man of a few para- 

 graphs ago and the Sporus of the ampitheatre combat, looked 

 more closely, and shouted with delight on seeing a real work 

 of art worthy of place in the gallery of wax work — a horrid, 

 festering, mortal ulcer, made with lard and apple seeds. 



The corribolo deserves to be immortalized in this writing. 

 A one horse cart, with wheels between seven and eight feet in 

 diameter, as I remember. At all events enormously large — 

 and they had need be. On this vehicle is piled a mass of 

 humanity, the constituent individuals of which are in number 

 fourteen or fifteen. The driver sits on the shaft and a bag 

 hangs underneath, into which (as is said) a small boy who 

 must go and can find no place elsewhere, is occasionally 

 inserted. Once (it is said) the bag dropped off and the boy, 

 nearly choked with dust, was rescued by the next corribolo 

 that passed. This is not physically impossible. But Neapolis 



