XVI 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



and to this day, his soul is remembered in the 

 prayers of the citizens. 



At Venice, the kind Jesuit Fathers gave us a 

 letter of introduction to those of Loretto. Pigeons 

 in the city of Venice are remarkably numerous. 

 They retire to roost, and also make their nests in 

 the facades of the churches, and behind the orna- 

 mental statues of the saints, and in the holes of the 

 walls, where scaffolding is used. These pigeons 

 are uncommonly tame, and I question if they have 

 any owners. Cats and dogs being scarce in Venice, 

 may be one cause of a plentitude of pigeons. 



I am very averse to Italian cooking in general. 

 We had a dish one day, which by its appearance 

 and the sliminess of its sauce, I took to be a 

 compound of cat and snail. When I shrugged up 

 my shoulders at it, and refused to take it on my 

 plate, as the waiter presented it to me, I could 

 perceive by the expression of his face, that the 

 scoundrel pitied my want of taste. 



At the town of Monsilice, there was nothing 

 in the way of Natural History ; saving, that, 

 in passing along the street, there was a goodly 

 matron sitting on a stool, and with her thumb 

 nails impaling poachers in the head of a fine 

 young woman, probably her own daughter. On 

 our way to this town, I observed a fair sprinkling 

 of carrion crows, but nothing more. 



