The Soil Is Bare And Lumpy As A
Ploughed Field, And All The Leafage That Hangs Low Is Thick With A
Clayey Dust.
One cannot rest or loiter or drowse; no spot in all the
groves where by any possibility one could sit down.
After rambling
as long as I chose, I found that a view of the orchard from outside
was more striking than the picture amid the trees themselves. Senza
nulla toccare, I went my way.
CHAPTER VIII
FACES BY THE WAY
The wind could not roar itself out. Through the night it kept
awaking me, and on the morrow I found a sea foamier than ever;
impossible to reach the Colonna by boat, and almost so, I was
assured, to make the journey by land in such weather as this.
Perforce I waited.
A cloudless sky; broad sunshine, warm as in an English summer; but
the roaring tramontana was disagreeably chill. No weather could be
more perilous to health. The people of Cotrone, those few of them
who did not stay at home or shelter in the porticoes, went about
heavily cloaked, and I wondered at their ability to wear such
garments under so hot a sun. Theoretically aware of the danger I was
running, but, in fact, thinking little about it, I braved the wind
and the sunshine all day long; my sketch-book gained by it, and my
store of memories. First of all, I looked into the Cathedral, an
ugly edifice, as uninteresting within as without. Like all the
churches in Calabria, it is white-washed from door to altar, pillars
no less than walls - a cold and depressing interior. I could see no
picture of the least merit; one, a figure of Christ with hideous
wounds, was well-nigh as repulsive as painting could be. This vile
realism seems to indicate Spanish influence. There is a miniature
copy in bronze of the statue of the chief Apostle in St. Peter's at
Rome, and beneath it an inscription making known to the faithful
that, by order of Leo XIII. in 1896, an Indulgence of three hundred
days is granted to whosoever kisses the bronze toe and says a
prayer. Familiar enough this unpretentious announcement, yet it
never fails of its little shock to the heretic mind. Whilst I was
standing near, a peasant went through the mystic rite; to judge from
his poor malaria-stricken countenance, he prayed very earnestly, and
I hope his Indulgence benefited him. Probably he repeated a mere
formula learnt by heart. I wished he could have prayed spontaneously
for three hundred days of wholesome and sufficient food, and for as
many years of honest, capable government in his heavy-burdened
country.
When travelling, I always visit the burial-ground; I like to see how
a people commemorates its dead, for tombstones have much
significance. The cemetery of Cotrone lies by the sea-shore, at some
distance beyond the port, far away from habitations; a bare hillside
looks down upon its graves, and the road which goes by is that
leading to Cape Colonna.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 30 of 78
Words from 15151 to 15664
of 40398
