I was rather curious to see how
she would behave."
"Santo Dio! And do you expect me to pay four francs a day for having
my bones broken in this fashion?"
"What would you, sir? She is still young - barely four years old. Only
wait! Wait till she is ten or twelve."
To do him justice, however, he tried to make amends in other ways. And
he certainly knew the tracks. But he was a returned emigrant, and when
an Italian has once crossed the ocean he is useless for my purposes, he
has lost his savour - the virtue has gone out of him. True Italians will
soon be rare as the dodo in these parts. These americani cast off
their ancient animistic traits and patriarchal disposition with the ease
of a serpent; a new creature emerges, of a wholly different
character - sophisticated, extortionate at times, often practical and in
so far useful; scorner of every tradition, infernally wideawake and
curiously deficient in what the Germans call "Gemuet" (one of those
words which we sadly need in our own language). Instead of being regaled
with tales of Saint Venus and fairies and the Evil Eye, I learnt a good
deal about the price of food in the Brazilian highlands.
The only piece of local information I was able to draw from him
concerned a mysterious plant in the forest that "shines by night." I
dare say he meant the dictamnus fraxinella, which is sometimes luminous.
