A GERMAN AND AN ITALIAN. 337 



" Take care what you say or I'll knock you out 

 of the wagen," said the Italian. 



" I'll strangle you," said one, holding his fist 

 to the other's throat. 



" I'll scratch your eyes out,'' said the other, 

 suiting the action to the word, by exhibiting the 

 sharpness of a pair of nails bent upon mischief. 



" I'll pull your hair." 



" I'll kick you." 



" I'll murder you." 



And so they went on for about two minutes, 

 threatening each other with every description of 

 injury human ingenuity could imagine, and con- 

 signing each other to places it would not be 

 polite to mention, calling each other at the same 

 time the most opprobrious names that the Ger- 

 man and Italian languages afford, until at last 

 their threats became worked up into a kind of 

 scream, or screach, or yell, which acting as a 

 signal for battle, the German, who was sitting on 

 the left of the Italian, and on the same seat with 

 him in the foremost part of the wagen, and which 

 had a low back qr bar to lean against, the seats 

 being portmanteaux and arranged by twos and 

 facing the horses, the German, I say, jumped up 

 Q 



