110 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



discord of an Italian or Sicilian market at the market- 

 hour. ' None but itself can he its parallel/ and yet the 

 whole is effected by some score only of human tongues 

 let loose at -will. Everybody there either is^ or seems to 

 he, in a passion, each trying to outscream, outroar, out- 

 beUow, and outblaspheme his neighbour, till the com- 

 biaed uproar fills the whole area, and rises high above 

 it. The men are all Stentors ; the women perfect Mse- 

 nads ; the children a set of howling imps, whom nothing 

 short of Thuggism could pacify : it is no unfrequent 

 spectacle in this frantic neighbourhood to see some baby 

 clenching its tiny hands and boneless gums in concen- 

 trated passion, tearing at the rudiments of hair, and 

 screaming with all its puny strength ; or, in yet wilder 

 extravagance, its arms in the air, hurling defiance at its 

 own mother, who, standing at bay with the mien of a 

 Tisiphone, strives to drown her baby's voice in her own 

 frenzied treble, and looks as if she could drown him, too, 

 for a very small consideration. 



The noise arouses every living creature, even to the 

 flies, who are stimulated into consciousness, and begin 

 to buzz fiill half-an-hour sooner than the warmth of the 

 sun would have awakened them ; hungry dogs, fearless 

 of observation, press close on the heels of the bawling, 

 pre-occupied crowd ; sleek cats beyond the reach of dogs 

 come creeping over the fish-stalls, and prescient rats, 

 peeping from obscure holes, can scarce refrain from rush- 

 ing out en masse upon the offal, shortly to be left at 

 their disposal. 



Every market, to be enjoyed, shotdd be visited by sun- 

 rise, ere its stores have been diminished by purchasers, 

 and while yet God's daily bounty to mankind is in its 

 prime and freshness. Compare Covent Garden Market, 

 for instance, at five o'clock on a July morning, redolent 

 with moss-roses and strawberries, and Covent Garden 

 on the same day at noon, when the fruit is fermenting. 



