36 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



peculiarity of the Maltese language, which essen- 

 tially differing from the European, renders it diffi- 

 cult for the stranger to understand the Italian 

 dialect of the common people, and according to the 

 researches of modern philologists, seems evidently 

 to resemble in its elements (both the words and the 

 grammatical forms) the ancient Phoenician, and 

 still more the Arabian.* The inhabitants seem 

 also to resemble in activity and industry that 

 ancient commercial people. The common people 

 are employed in fishery, including the coral fishery, 

 and also in navigation or in agriculture. The 

 whole island is most carefully cultivated ; and the 

 grounds round the city, as well as round the nu- 

 merous villages, bear the appearance of laborious 

 industry. On every side you see fields surrounded 

 with heaps of stones three feet high, on which the 

 American cactus grows abundantly, and between 

 them numerous stone country houses, not distin- 

 guished either for their size or architecture. In 

 the spring the eye dwells with pleasure on the 

 fresh generally diffused verdure ; but in the height 

 of summer, when only the moist valleys remain 

 green, the island is said to have a desolate appear- 

 ance. The ground does not rise into mountains, 

 nor can woods grow in the thin coat of mould upon 



* Bellermann, Phoenicise linguae, vestigiorura in Melitensi 

 Specim. I. Berol. 1809. Gesenius, Essay on the Maltese 

 Language. Leipaig, 1810. 



