Women Went About In The Rain Protected By A
Shawl-Like Garment Of Very Picturesque Colouring; It Had Broad
Yellow Stripes On A Red Ground, The Tones Subdued To A Warm
Richness.
The animal population was not without its importance.
Turn where I
would I encountered lean, black pigs, snorting, frisking,
scampering, and squealing as if the bad weather were a delight to
them. Gaunt, low-spirited dogs prowled about in search of food, and
always ran away at my approach. In one precipitous by-way, where the
air was insupportably foul, I came upon an odd little scene: a pig
and a cat, quite alone, were playing together, and enjoying
themselves with remarkable spirit. The pig lay down in the running
mud, and pussy, having leapt on to him, began to scratch his back,
bite his ears, stroke his sides. Suddenly, porker was uppermost and
the cat, pretending to struggle for life, under his forefeet. It was
the only amusing incident I met with at Squillace, and the sole
instance of anything like cheerful vitality.
Above the habitations stand those prominent ruins which had held my
eye during our long ascent. These are the rugged walls and windows
of a monastery, not old enough to possess much interest, and, on the
crowning height, the heavy remnants of a Norman castle, with one
fine doorway still intact. Bitterly I deplored the gloomy sky which
spoiled what would else have been a magnificent view from this point
of vantage - a view wide-spreading in all directions, with Sila
northwards, Aspromonte to the south, and between them a long horizon
of the sea.
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