MALTA AND SICILY. 
75 
very convenient for the passenger, who holds 
his mouth over them, and thus slakes his 
i 
thirst without any occasion for a drinking- 
vessel. But I believe that this apparently 
simple operation requires some practice, for 
in attempting to perform it I did not suc¬ 
ceed very well. At the comers of some 
of the streets are images of saints, with 
lighted lamps before them. The business 
of cleaning the town is performed by con¬ 
victs, some drawing a cart, and a party of 
five or six sweeping and shovelling, attended 
by two soldiers with bayonets in their hands. 
These poor convict scavengers are all in 
chains, which make a melancholy clanking 
noise, and those who are condemned for life 
have irons on both their legs. 
The houses in Valetta are built in quite a 
foreign style, having flat roofs, which answer 
the purpose of courts or gardens for drying 
