108 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



village. Steadily up and down, without an additional 

 shade of colour or a quickening respiration, they march 

 with those great bundles on their heads, fagots of 

 wood or bales of roba, underneath which the faces 

 glance maliciosa, as Feliciello says ; not beautiful 

 faces in general, though sometimes a straight and 

 sullen Grecian profile strikes out against the back- 

 ground of rock, perfect in form, though not so attrac- 

 tive as the commoner type, which, radiant in deep 

 colour, bright eyes, crisp hair, and pearly teeth, goes 

 into developments of nose and chin less regular than 

 the classic ideal. When you have reached the top of 

 the stair, here is the table-land of Anacapri, probably 

 the most fertile part of the island, though, but for 

 that stair, no traveller arriving in a legitimate manner 

 at the Marina could so much as guess at the existence 

 of the soft and fruitful slope which embosoms the 

 white village in foliage more luxuriant than anything 

 below. Here the corn, the wine, and oil grow 

 together, emblems of plenty ; and any wild bit of 

 soil that the thrifty cultivators may have suffered to 

 escape them, is blue with rough bright borage, dear to 

 the bees. It is difficult to imagine anything more 

 oriental than our Capri cottages, both above and 

 below, which are almost without exception flat- 

 roofed, and eschew windows to the best of their 

 ability, standing mildly blank in a peaceful white- 

 ness among their luxuriant terraces, admitting little 

 light save by the open door ; and the narrow village 



