A RIDE TO MAGNESIA. 137 



were uttered in the speech of the old man. We had 

 nothing for it but to go ahead and trust to the 

 chance of falling in with some one better skilled in 

 the language of signs. Oh, thought we, had it been 

 anywhere near Naples that this escapade had con- 

 ducted us, we might have done welL Among those 

 pantomimic people the language of the lips becomes 

 an unimaginative and lazy expedient, by no means 

 necessary to the uses of communication. Mature, 

 whose voice is one to all, has given to them such 

 force of gesture, that it must be a very long and 

 difficult story that they could not tell or understand 

 without words. But poor old John Turk is a different 

 animal, and can be dealt with only by dialectic pre- 

 cision. Never had we seen such an exemplification 

 of their incurious, impassible diathesis as they now 

 presented to our cost. "\Ve turned back a long and 

 admiring gaze at the group as we passed onwards, for 

 truly it was a most picturesque position. But we 

 had to revert to the present necessity of finding some 

 lodging, more perhaps on account of the horses than 

 of ourselves. For us it would have been no great 

 hardship to pass the night, should need be, on the dry 

 soft turf beneath the clear sky, which shone so purely 

 above us that we absolved the neighbourhood from 

 all suspicion of marshes, which are the only objection 

 to sleeping in the open air in this country. All 

 looked dry, and clear, and pure. But our poor horses, 

 who had been beguiled into an effort by the sight of 



