NAPLES BAT AND FISH-MARKET. 105 



peering from the bottom of a deep well. The balconies 

 appear to approach overhead : long lean stockings, and 

 burly forms of inflated shirts, are frequently blown across 

 from one window to another ; hands might be shaken 

 by opposite neighbours, and even sotto voce conversa- 

 tions carried on, if Neapolitan signorinas ever spoke 

 sotto voce. A flapping cotton sheet, with a print of the 

 Madonna del Mare, commences the Strada del Mer- 

 cato, where curious trades are carried on. One shop 

 displays a large assortment of squibs, delft, and distafis ; 

 at the next door, two men and their wives are making 

 reed pipes, by clipping the stalks to a proper length, 

 muzzling one end with a pewter ring, and inserting into 

 it the upper part, previously bent, to form the mouth- 

 piece : there stands a grain merchant, keeping a sharp 

 look-out on his twenty sacks of pulse, aU with their 

 mouths open, to tell if anythiag be filched from them : 

 next comes a frittura booth, with caldrons smelling 

 strong and savouiy ; whence, for a grano, a saucerfiil of 

 tomatas is served out, with a few snails, or an egg in 

 purgatory,* in the centre : then comes a stall of soiled 

 Punches, and gaily dressed marcheses in wood, with 

 pictures of St. Anthony delivering his sermon to the 

 fish, and a number of other piscatorial prints — such as 

 St. Peter paying the tribute-money, the multitude fed 

 in the wilderness, etc. ; then nobili albergi, two once 

 noble inns, now in pitiable plight, the ' Dolphin ' and 

 the ' Bay, ' announcing on squalid sign-boards that 

 they are kept — ^we beg pardon, esercitati — conducted — 

 by rival Dons Ferdinando and Stephano. If anything 

 be wanted in iron, from a bedstead to a bar, from an 

 eel-spear to a Jew's harp, see the place that can furnish 



* Hard-boiled eggs, smotLered in tomata sauce, are oaEed, in 

 allusion to the fieiy red of the vegetable, 'eggs in purgatory,' 

 Many of the lazzaroni make this their morning meal. 



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