202 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



nine English, three American, two French, and six 

 Genoese vessels (not to mention some small craft 

 from the Adriatic), all waiting in the port of Gallipoli 

 for entire or partial cargoes of it. When the oil is to 

 be shipped it is drawn off from the cisterne into uteri, 

 or skins, and so carried on men's shoulders down to 

 a small house on the sea-shore. In that house there 

 is a large open basin capable of containing a given 

 quantity and of measuring the liquid, and into that 

 the porters empty their skins as they arrive. A 

 tube communicates from the basin to a large cock at 

 the outside of the house. When the basin is full, 

 well made casks of various sizes for the convenience 

 of stowage are placed under the cock, which is then 

 turned and the casks are filled. As the casks are 

 closed up by the cooper the porters roll them down to 

 the brink of the sea, where the sailors secure several 

 of them together with a rope, and taking the end of 

 the cord into the boat they row off to the vessel 

 towing the oil casks through the water after them. 



"Each porter being able to carry but a small quan- 

 tity at a time, the number of men and boys employed 

 to load a ship is very considerable ; and as these are 

 an active fine-limbed set of fellows, going with their 

 legs and arms entirely bare, and running up and 

 down and crossing each other with their oil-skins on 

 their way to and from the town with great rapidity, 

 and as they delight in singing as they work, and 

 moreover, frequently sing very well in parts and con- 

 cert, the scene presented on such occasions is often 

 very animating and pleasing. 



"The hilarity of the Gallipolitans when I first 

 became acquainted with them might have been 

 heightened by an agreeable contrast, for it was 

 shortly after the fall of Bonaparte, whose system, 

 whatever good parts of it may have done in the 

 rest of Italy, was certainly most ruinous to the 



