106 PEOSE HALIETTTICS. 



a supply ; the hammer always ringing, and the beUowS 

 always blowing away. Plenty of strong-smeUing shops 

 are here, fiiU of the unsavoury stock of last week's un- 

 sold fish; casks of pickled anchovies and origanized 

 thunny at the door; shark's teeth, inflated diodons, and 

 specimens of rough shagreen dangling from the ceiling. 

 Here, too, are rival druggists, one with a musk-deer and 

 a beaver depicted on his shutters ; the other, showing a 

 serpent and a cock frescoed on the walls : both fill with 

 inconstant customers, who, as they find the nostrum 

 bought behiad one counter fail, make a purchase next 

 week at the other. Rival to both, a simplicista hangs 

 out his dried vipers for broth, onisci or wood-lice, a sove- 

 reign cure at Naples for diarrhoea, mallows, dulcamara, 

 and angelica for catarrhal disorders, mole-skias for sore 

 eyes ; and is not without patrons : and here, as every- 

 where, are kid (capretto) stalls, with a dozen Httle car- 

 cases suspended from each. 



We reach the market just the right time : while vine- 

 leaves are being removed from the figs, sedge from the 

 prawns, and gaping shell-fish are still lively enough in 

 the moist laver to squirt water through their siphons, or 

 to slam to the door against prying eyes; butchers are 

 hanging up prime joints on yet unheated hooks ; and 

 flies, not warmed into activity, forbear awhile to commit 

 depredations on fish, flesh, and fruit. The sellers are all 

 at their posts, and the stream of buyers begins to pour 

 in. Lemonade booths are serving out stores ; aguavitari, 

 tinkling a little beU, walk about with an inferior spirit 

 to refresh the sailors as they come in from the night's 

 fishing; hotel and convent cooks, in paper caps and 

 white aprons, mix with the Phrygian bonnets of the laz- 

 zaroni and the cowls of mendicant friars, who, each 

 with a picture of St. Anthony, St. Christopher, St. Peter, 

 or some other piscatory saint, for the credulous to kiss 

 and pay a grain for the privilege, soon levy a sufficient 



