To the man who had brought me I gave 50 c., and so innocent and good
are these people that he said _'Pourquoi?'_ or words like it, and I
said it was necessary.
Then I said to the molinar, _'Quanta?'_ and he,
holding up a tall finger, said '_Una Lira'._ The young man leapt on to
his stilts, the molinar stooped down and I got upon his shoulders, and
we all attempted the many streams of the river Parma, in which I think
I should by myself have drowned.
I say advisedly - 'I should have been drowned.' These upper rivers of
the hills run high and low according to storms and to the melting of
the snows. The river of Parma (for this torrent at last fed Parma)
was higher than the rest.
Even the molinar, the god of that valley, had to pick his way
carefully, and the young man on stilts had to go before, much higher
than mortal men, and up above the water. I could see him as he went,
and I could see that, to tell the truth, there was a ford - a rare
thing in upper waters, because in the torrent-sources of rivers either
the upper waters run over changeless rocks or else over gravel and
sand. Now if they run over rocks they have their isolated shallow
places, which any man may find, and their deep - evident by the still
and mysterious surface, where fish go round and round in the hollows;
but no true ford continuous from side to side. So it is in Scotland.
And if they run over gravel and sand, then with every storm or 'spate'
they shift and change. But here by some accident there ran - perhaps a
shelf or rock, perhaps a ruin of a Roman bridge - something at least
that was deep enough and solid enough to be a true ford - and that we
followed.
The molinar - even the molinar - was careful of his way. Twice he
waited, waist high, while the man on stilts before us suddenly lost
ground and plunged to his feet. Once, crossing a small branch (for the
river here, like all these rivers, runs in many arms over the dry
gravel), it seemed there was no foothold and we had to cast up and
down. Whenever we found dry land, I came off the molinar's back to
rest him, and when he took the water again I mounted again. So we
passed the many streams, and stood at last on the Tizzanian side. Then
I gave a lira to the molinar, and to his companion on stilts 50 c.,
who said, 'What is this for?' and I said, 'You also helped.'
The molinar then, with gesticulations and expression of the eyes, gave
me to understand that for this 50 c. the stilt-man would take me up to
Tizzano on the high ridge and show me the path up the ridge; so the
stilt-man turned to me and said, _'Andiamo' _which means _'Allons'.
_But when the Italians say _'Andiamo' _they are less harsh than the
northern French who say _'Allans'; _for the northern French have three
troubles in the blood.
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