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Sila. It was in this vicinity that the brigands seized, some years ago, an Austrian general, who was second in command, and carried him off to their fastnesses. The Austrians were then in possession of the kingdom, and set no bounds to their wrath, when a large ransom was demanded for his release. The commander-in-chief answered that he had been sent to keep the country in order, and he would take care to prove that he was not unfit for the task. He threatened the whole province with utter extirpation if they treated their prisoner with cruelty, and immediately despatched a strong body of troops to recapture his friend. They found it, however, a difficult task to obey their orders, and it was after all only by a compromise that they succeeded. They could never have accomplished their purpose except by a military occupation of every village in the province, so that they might starve them, and it was only by a threat of this kind that the general was at last given up. It was agreed on the part of the Austrians that the brigands should be left unmolested. The general stated that he had not been treated with any intentional cruelty, but he had frequently been compelled to march with a stiletto at his throat, under a menace of his life if he should attempt to break away or to utter a sound, as they glided past the Austrian soldiers.

At last we reached the small village of San Fili, and I saw at once that I had got among a race of men different from any which I had hitherto met in Italy. They were small and well built, with a dark expression of countenance by no means pleasing. Their hair was coarse and black, often frizzed like that of negroes, though generally perfectly straight. They were evidently of a wild and lawless character, and I found afterwards that they were believed to be principally supported by the pillage of the neighbouring country. The men were dressed in blue jackets and breeches, while their conical-shaped hat was tastefully adorned with ribands of various colours. The women had all strongly-marked features, very unprepossessing in appearance. In their costume there was nothing to attract the attention except a piece of triangular pasteboard, which was placed in front to support the breast, called pettiglia, and a leathern apron (faldale), beautifully ornamented with various devices; but what struck me forcibly was the surprising regularity and dazzling whiteness of their teeth.

At the village of San Fili the soldiers intended to remain till the heat had abated; I felt, however, unwilling to lose the remainder of the day, and started at once for Cosenza. After descending about six miles, we reached the great public road leading to Naples, and then proceeded up a beautiful valley, through which flowed the river Crati, the ancient Crathis. It was well cultivated; indeed, I may say, the only extensive piece of country in a state of cultivation since I left Naples. The produce is chiefly wheat and maize, but fruit trees also abounded: pears, apples, orange and citron trees, alternated with each other. It might evidently be made to be a land flowing with milk and honey; but when I tell you that no one dare issue forth except in arms and in company, you will agree with me that your Welsh mountains and my Highland glens, with all their barrenness, are preferable places of abode.

Cosenza is situated at the top of this valley, where the hills rise to a considerable height on both sides, and, consequently, at this period of the year, a residence in it is not particularly pleasant from the stifling heat.

The Prince of Satriano had been kind enough to furnish me with a letter to Cavalière di Caria, the royal governor of the province, and, as it might be of importance in any future emergency that it should be known that I was travelling with the express permission of the chief magistrate of the district, I proceeded to the palace of his excelleney, by whom I was received with more attention than I had any right to expect, or even than I could have wished. I could have had no difficulty in finding accommodation sufficiently good for my purpose in Cosenza, but his excellency pressed me so kindly, and with such hearty good will, that I have accepted his hospitality, and am now lodged in the house of the highest functionary of the province. He is a gentleman of great talents, and possesses much information on a variety of subjects.

I had not yet determined in what direction I should proceed from Cosenza; some facts, however, communicated to me by my host have deterred me from putting one part of my plan in execution. There is a village called Acri in the mountains of La Sila, about twenty miles north-east of Cosenza, which I had some idea of visiting, as it is the site of an ancient town, though of no great note, and I thought I should there see a true specimen of the real Calabrese mountaineer. On mentioning my intention to his excellency, I saw that it did not meet with his approval, and he was good enough to state the following reasons, why he thought it adyisable that I should not visit that part of his province.

The vicinity of Acri has long been harassed by a band of brigands, who have lately become more audacious and have committed more atrocities than usual. The band is said to consist at present of twelve, but I believe it might count many more if you added all the peasants who act as spies without taking an active part in their proceedings. A few weeks ago they entered the house of a respectable landed proprietor, and demanded payment of a large sum of money, which the gentleman had not in his possession, though he promised to procure it if they accompanied him to the house of a friend. To this they assented. As soon as they had left the house, the young son of the gentleman rushed out and began to call for assistance. The brigands, without one moment's delay, shot the father, and, rushing back, seized the young man and carried him off to their fastnesses. They demanded a large sum of money as a ransom, and allowed the friends twenty days to procure it. Whether they were unable to collect it, or whether they made no sufficient exertions, I am not able to say, but at the end of that period the young man was cruelly butchered. I saw his excellency deeply felt, as he might well do, the horrible tragedy, and he said that he was exerting the whole power of government to bring such a band of monsters to justice. It is nearly impossible to do so without a much larger force than he has at his command, as the country is mountainous and covered with wood. Besides, the peasants are obliged, from fear, to furnish them with provisions, and, unless every village was occupied with a sufficient force, there seems little chance of their being got hold of. You will not be surprised to hear that I thought such dangers far more than counterbalanced any pleasure I could possibly derive from a visit to Acri. I am sorry that my project of visiting the dense forests of La Sila has thus been nipped in the bud, and that I must be satisfied with the Pisgah view which I am here able to obtain. It is a high table-land, forty miles long, and from

sixteen to twenty miles broad, extending through the greatest part of Calabria Citra, and even into the more southern province called Calabria Ultra II. Its highest peaks are clothed with magnificent firs (Pinus sylvestris), and the lower ones with oak, beeches, and elms, affording excellent pasturage in summer for large herds of cattle. The most prominent peaks which were pointed out to me are Monte Sila, 4632 feet, and Monte Aspromonte, in Calabria Ultra, which I afterwards saw in the distance, 4110 feet, above the sea level. The forests of Sila furnished timber for the navies of antiquity (Strabo, vi. p. 261), and the Neapolitan government still make use of them for the same purpose, though it is said that they are becoming much less productive from the wastefulness and improvidence with which they are managed. Corigliano is the principal depôt for the timber felled in the province, and also for the manna trade and liquorice factories.

Giving up my intention of visiting the table-land of La Sila, I have determined to advance southwards, though I fear, from the ominous looks of his excellency when I inquired if I could proceed to the south with safety, that there is no part of his province much more free from brigands than another. Towards evening, I strolled through the capital of Hither Calabria, and found more appearance of wealth and comfort than anything I had yet observed since I had left Naples. Not a single beggar annoyed me, though there were many poor people around. The streets are narrow, as all Italian towns are, to protect them from the direct rays of the sun, though it must cause the interior of their houses to be stifling from want of ventilation. It is intersected by the river Busento, over which are two good bridges. The Tribunale, or palace of justice, is a building of considerable pretensions; and an old castle, now used as a barrack, stands on a very commanding position. I sauntered through the castle by permission of the commanding officer, finding, however, nothing worthy of remark, except that I observed that the descendants of the ancient Romans, who are now its inmates, are equally lovers of poetry as in former times. I saw a well-known line of Dante scribbled on the wall (Inferno, v. 103)—

Amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona,

Love, who insists that love shall mutual be,

reminding us of Byron's lines (Don Juan, ii. 172),

All who joy would win

Must share it; happiness was born a twin.

The Italians of all classes are highly poetical; many of them are really born poets, and, while they speak, you can distinguish etiam disjecti membra poetæ, "the scattered poet's limbs." Even the woman who hushes her baby to sleep cannot do so without singing and improvising some little song, which she draws forth from her own bright imagination -so instinctive in them is the love and power of poetry. The smith hums an air to the sound of his hammer; the muleteer even, as I have often heard, sings some melody to suit the slow trot of his animal. In Naples I have often stood listening to the stories of Tasso being recited by a humble reader to the ragged lazzaroni, and I believe the gondoliers of Venice answer each other as they pass in words of poetry improvised at

the moment. The same love of the poets was felt by the ancients, as amidst many proofs of their amorous propensities, which are found scratched on the walls of the buildings at Pompeii, we have several passages from ancient poets in various parts of the town.

Thus, we have the two lines of Ovid (Amor. I. viii. 77):

Surda sit oranti tua janua, laxa ferenti:

Audiat exclusi verba receptus amans.

"Let your door be shut to mere prayers, but open to the liberal giver; let the lover within listen to the entreaties of him who is shut out.

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I was curious to see the burial-place of Alaric, the celebrated King of the Goths, who died here A.D. 410; and as he was afraid, from the cruelties he had committed on the inhabitants, that his dead body would be abused, he gave directions that the river Busento should be diverted from its course at its confluence with the Crati, and his body having been there buried, the river was again allowed to flow in its old channel. The peasants have an idea that large treasures were buried with the body, and I believe that various unsuccessful attempts have been made to recover them. I visited the spot where the two rivers met, a picturesque burying-ground, but I did not see any reason to suppose that the river Busento had ever been diverted from its present course.

Gibbon (vol. iii. p. 452) says of the burial of Alaric :

"The ferocious character of the barbarians was displayed in the funeral of a hero, whose valour and fortune they celebrated with mournful applause. By the labour of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the course of the Busentinas, a small river that washes the walls of Consentia. The royal sepulchre, adorned with the splendid toils and trophies of Rome, was constructed in the vacant bed; the waters were then restored to their natural channel, and the secret spot where the remains of Alaric had been deposited was for ever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had been employed to execute the work."

It must have been a work of great labour to divert the river in such a way as to accomplish the object they had in view, and it is scarcely possible that, if they had cut another channel, some appearance in the form of the ground should not have been left. This, however, is not the case, so far as I can judge. At this period of the year there is a considerable stream of water, and in the winter season it evidently runs with great force. Orosius, a contemporary of Alaric, records his death, but says nothing of the barbarous transaction to which Gibbon alludes. It is to Jornandes, who lived one hundred and forty years after, to whom we are indebted for this account, and it may, therefore, be altogether a myth.

I am sorry to say that I find it impossible to understand the language of the Calabrese peasant, and my Italian is equally unintelligible to him. The Calabrese dialect is peculiar; I am not, however, sufficiently versed in it to decide whether it may not be the pronunciation rather than the roots of the language, in which it differs from the pure Italian. Several books have been published in it, and I believe that there used to be a society to promote the cultivation of Calabrese literature; but the political troubles have put an end to every association that had the slightest tendency to enlighten the community. Tasso has been translated into Calabrese by Carlo Cosentino, and you may be pleased to see a stanza of

G

that divine poet in the dialect of Calabria. The title of the work is "La Gerusalemme Liberata." Transportata in lingua Calabrese da Carlo Cusentino d'Aprigliano. Cosenza: 1737.

Musa che me fai cera de Santanu

Te staii pregannu, cu Carru Cusentinu
Chi scinni ppe dunareme la manu :
E chi derizze l'acqua allu multannu
En mi nvusgliu cantarede supranu
Ma vascin, calavrise, stritiu e finu
Dame assistenza e m'aje ppor scusatu
Si vaju exiennu de lu si mminatu.

It may be interesting to you, who are acquainted with the Italian language, to have the words of Tasso before you, and I therefore give it, with Rose's translation:

O Musa tu, che di caduchi allori
Non circondi la fronte in Elicona,
Ma su nel Cielo infra i beati cori
Hai di stelle immortali aurea corona;
Tu spira al petto mio celesti ardori,
Tu rischiara il mio canto, e tu perdona
Se intesso fregi al ver, s'adorno in parte
D'altri diletti che de' tuoi le carte.

O heavenly Muse, that not with fading bays
Deckest thy brow by th' Heliconian spring,
But sittest, crown'd with stars' immortal rays,
In heaven, where legions of bright angels sing;
Inspire life in my wit, my thoughts upraise,
My verse ennoble, and forgive the thing
If fiction's light I mix with truth divine,

And fill these lines with other's praise than thine.

I have been anxious to get acquainted with what is being done in regard to the education of the country, but it is not easy to do so. The authorities are not willing to say much on the subject; they maintain that the law is perfectly sufficient for the purpose, if it could be carried out, which it seems difficult to do. It appears that every parish is obliged to support a schoolmaster; but as they generally took part in the late unsuccessful insurrection, few of them have been allowed to retain their situations. An order has been lately issued, forbidding the election of any one except a priest, and it is said that many parishes have, on this account, refused to proceed to an election. While I was residing at Sorento, last year, I visited one of these schools, and found that the branches of education taught in the higher-class academy by four masters were grammar, arithmetic, algebra, and navigation; but the small number of hours devoted to study precluded the possibility of any progress being made in what they professed to teach. I hear that in Murat's time the attendance at the primary schools alone amounted to 120,000 children; at present, I cannot hear that these primary schools can be said to be in existence at all. Every difficulty is thrown in their way, and the government seems well satisfied that ignorance should be the predominating feature of their people. I inquired whether private individuals were permitted to open schools on their own account; few of such are to be found, and where they are allowed, as in Naples, they are

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