316 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



bling"L" and a range of miscellaneous shed-rooms for threshing-floors and 

 for silkworm-culture : the larger part taken up by stabling for the cows and 

 oxen. These, all of the white variety, were amply and comfortably lodged. 

 The stable was very dark, and the silent creatures looked longingly at the 

 light of the open door ; there was no ventilation ; the air was so heavy with 

 their sugary breath that it soon made me giddy. They, however, seemed to 

 be in a perfect state of health. I fancy animals do not have the same im- 

 perative need of fresh air that men do, for they are not obliged to be making 

 nervous force while they are in the house as we are. 



The upper story was entered by an external stone stairway, which led 

 to a spacious, low-roofed kitchen. At one end was a large fireplace ; on either 

 side of the fire was a space for the old to sit in, with their faces towards the 

 room. An old crone was seated in one, with the additional consolation of 

 a scaldino in her withered hands. The bedrooms, like all the other rooms, had 

 stone floors, and were furnished with large, well-made, clean beds, old presses 

 for the clothes, and long boxes of ancient but unbeautiful forms. These con- 

 tadini are admirably lodged and are well fed ; certainly no other peasantry 

 of Europe are so well off. There was not a bad bed in the house, nor an un- 

 wholesome sleeping den, such as one finds in the equivalent class in Germany, 

 France, or England. 



I looked over the man's store of fossils, and spent an hour in making a 

 bad trade with him; these fellows are as shrewd as can be in such work. 

 When this was over we were invited to have a meal, but time pressed too 

 much. Our host then insisted that we should wash our hands, which we did 

 while he held the bowl with greatest civility. 



We then went across the country to some mines of lignite that have 

 recently been opened on these lake deposits. The deposit is wonderfully 

 thick, being in many places as much as eighty feet deep straight through 

 the bed. . . . When this lignite is removed from the bed it coheres in large 

 blocks, which have, in fact, to be chiselled out of the mass; it is then full 

 of water and must be stacked in long heaps until it dries. The burning quality 

 of the material is equal to that of good pine wood. 



Here, as elsewhere in Italy, one is struck with the absence of all the 

 machinery which in America is used in such heavy work. Everything is 

 done by hand with the simplest tools. In this pit there were no appliances 

 that might not have been in use at the building of the Pyramids. The trouble 

 is that the price of labor is so low that there does not seem to be the same 

 temptation here to save it that there is in other countries. All the work is 

 done by the piece, and the best laborers earn only about two francs a day. 

 Yet this gives them a fairly good subsistence. Their housing has been pro- 

 vided by the labor of other centuries, their clothing is nearly all homespun. 



