I Could Not But Approach The Man And Exchange Words With
Him; His Rude But Gentle Face, His Gnarled Hands,
His rough and
scanty vesture, moved me to a deep respect, and when his speech fell
upon my ear, it
Was as though I listened to one of the ancestors of
our kind. Stopping in his work, he answered my inquiries with
careful civility; certain phrases escaped me, but on the whole he
made himself quite intelligible, and was glad, I could see, when my
words proved that I understood him. I drew apart, and watched him
again. Never have I seen man so utterly patient, so primaevally
deliberate. The donkey's method of ploughing was to pull for one
minute, and then rest for two; it excited in the ploughman not the
least surprise or resentment. Though he held a long stick in his
hand, he never made use of it; at each stoppage he contemplated the
ass, and then gave utterance to a long "Ah-h-h!" in a note of the
most affectionate remonstrance. They were not driver and beast, but
comrades in labour. It reposed the mind to look upon them.
Walking onward in the same direction, one approaches a great wall,
with gateway sentry-guarded; it is the new Arsenal, the pride of
Taranto, and the source of its prosperity. On special as well as on
general grounds, I have a grudge against this mass of ugly masonry.
I had learnt from Lenormant that at a certain spot, Fontanella, by
the shore of the Little Sea, were observable great ancient heaps of
murex shells - the murex precious for its purple, that of Tarentum
yielding in glory only to the purple of Tyre. I hoped to see these
shells, perhaps to carry one away. But Fontanella had vanished,
swallowed up, with all remnants of antiquity, by the graceless
Arsenal. It matters to no one save the few fantastics who hold a
memory of the ancient world dearer than any mechanic triumph of
to-day. If only one could believe that the Arsenal signified
substantial good to Italy! Too plainly it means nothing but the
exhaustion of her people in the service of a base ideal.
The confines of this new town being so vague, much trouble is given
to that noble institution, the dazio. Scattered far and wide in a
dusty wilderness, stand the little huts of the officers, vigilant on
every road or by-way to wring the wretched soldi from toilsome
hands. As became their service, I found these gentry anything but
amiable; they had commonly an air of ennui, and regarded a
stranger with surly suspicion.
When I was back again among the high new houses, my eye, wandering
in search of any smallest point of interest, fell on a fresh-painted
inscription: -
"ALLA MAGNA GRAECIA. STABILIMENTO
IDROELETTROPATICO."
was well meant. At the sign of "Magna Graecia" one is willing to
accept "hydroelectropathic" as a late echo of Hellenic speech.
CHAPTER V
DULCE GALAESI FLUMEN
Taranto has a very interesting Museum.
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