A YOUNG MARRIED COUPLE OF IGI/ESIAS 



The Sardinians have a high regard for womankind. They are a vigorous, hospitable, 

 grave, and decorous mountain race, suspicious of all innovations. The silver buttons and 

 voluminous trousers of the bridegroom are typical. 



truncated cones about 30 feet in diameter 

 at the base and built of large rough blocks 

 of stone about 2 feet high and of varying 

 lengths. These towers are the "nuraghi" 

 belonging to the Bronze Age and show 

 that the island must have been well popu- 

 lated in the centuries antedating the 

 Christian era. The entrance to the "nu- 

 raghi" usually faced the south and served 

 to light the circular room within, as did 



also a door opening to a spiral staircase 

 built in the walls and leading to a cham- 

 ber above the ground floor. Few of the 

 "nuraghi" have the roofing preserved en- 

 tirely, so that we no longer see them in 

 their full height or original cone shape. 

 Some have two or three chambers on the 

 ground floor with niches in the walls, 

 probably for household gods. 



These towers were undoubtedlv forti- 



109 



