THE SUNNY SOUTH. 377 



attitude of the " Discobolus ; " but the statue is 

 absolutely accurate : this is the proper position for a 

 man " pointing " at the game of bowls. Nearly every 

 one can play billiards, for the game is cheap and is 

 not disreputable. The passion for cards is character- 

 istic of the south of Europe ; these people are so 

 constituted that they can sit half the day at cards. 

 They will even begin before dinner. To the people 

 of the North there is something incomprehensible 

 about this almost Eastern sluggishness. 



On the eastern Riviera the Italian national game 

 of Pallone or hand-ball may be seen. It is played 

 here without any regular court on the ciassa or piazza 

 in the middle of the village. 



The various Provencal Dialects are popularly 

 supposed to be either a corruption of French or else 

 a mixture of French and Italian. They are rather to 

 be regarded as remnants of the old " Langue d'Oc," 

 a Romance language parallel with French, Italian, 

 Spanish, and Portuguese. All these were equally 

 derived from Latin. The " Langue d'Oil," or northern 

 French was spoken by men more warlike and more 

 barbarous ; the southern dialect, " sounding of sweet 

 Provencal song and sunburnt mirth," as sings the poet 

 Keats, by a race more refined and more effeminate. 

 In the smiling plains of Provence, says Demogeot, 

 the new language which took the place of Latin was 

 perfumed with the dying odours of Roman art and 

 civilization, and resonant with the soft echo of 

 melodious sounds. Provencal, now a despised patois, 

 was at one time the most polished dialect in Europe, 

 fashionable in courts and made famous by the love 

 songs of the Troubadours. 



