88 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



own possession, and resent its use by any impertinent 

 stranger. It is, as will be seen, a simple compound 

 of the last syllable of si<jnor with the universal .-/, 

 according to the Italian usage of pronouncing the 

 respectful title first ; but the result is a response of 

 the most distinct and uncompromising sound, more 

 like a defiant negative than a soft and gentle Yes. 

 Those kind people of whom we have been speaking 

 are not badly off in their way, though there are not 

 above four or five families in the community, accord- 

 ing to Feliciello, who have meat on their table except 

 twice in the year at Easter and Christmas. Even 

 maccaroni is food for festas. The common fare is 

 wholesome brown bread, polenta, beans, and vege- 

 tables ; but a family table well supplied with these 

 substantial comestiUli satisfies bountifully the require- 

 ments of nature in Capri, where life exists Tinder 

 primitive conditions. Manufacture of any shape has 

 not begun as yet ; but there cannot be any doubt 

 as to the patient and painstaking industry which has 

 brought under cultivation, up to the very summits, 

 the steep hillsides. To pass along those terraced 

 heights, where corn and wine and oil are being pro- 

 duced upon tiny shelves of soil sometimes no broader 

 than an ordinary table, gives an impression of cheerful, 

 steady, well-rewarded labour, which I do not remem- 

 ber to have derived from agriculture on a grander 

 scale. It is impossible to lose your way on these 

 hills, for every little plateau has of necessity its 



