In Some Parts Of The Adriatic And
Archipelago, These Substances Are Gathered By Divers, Who Can
Remain Five Minutes Below Water.
But I will not detain you one
minute longer; though I must observe, that there is plenty of
fine samphire growing along all these rocks, neglected and
unknown.
- Adieu.
LETTER XIX
NICE, October 10, 1764.
DEAR SIR, - Before I tell you the price of provisions at Nice, it
will be necessary to say something of the money. The gold coin of
Sardinia consists of the doppia di savoia, value twenty-four
livres Piedmontese, about the size of a loui'dore; and the mezzo
doppia, or piece of twelve livres. In silver, there is the scudo
of six livres, the mezzo scudo of three; and the quarto, or pezza
di trenta soldi: but all these are very scarce. We seldom see any
gold and silver coin, but the loui'dore, and the six, and three-livre
Pieces of France; a sure sign that the French suffer by
their contraband commerce with the Nissards. The coin chiefly
used at market is a piece of copper silvered, that passes for
seven sols and a half; another of the same sort, valued two sols
and a half. They have on one side the impression of the king's
head; and on the other, the arms of Savoy, with a ducal crown,
inscribed with his name and titles. There are of genuine copper,
pieces of one sol, stamped on one side with a cross fleuree; and
on the reverse, with the king's cypher and crown, inscribed as
the others: finally, there is another small copper piece, called
piccalon, the sixth part of a sol, with a plain cross, and on the
reverse, a slip-knot surmounted with a crown; the legend as
above. The impression and legend on the gold and silver coins,
are the same as those on the pieces of seven sols and a half. The
livre of Piedmont consists of twenty sols, and is very near of
the same value as an English shilling: ten sols, therefore, are
equal to six-pence sterling. Butcher's meat in general sells at
Nice for three sols a pound; and veal is something dearer: but
then there are but twelve ounces in the pound, which being
allowed for, sixteen ounces, come for something less than twopence
halfpenny English. Fish commonly sells for four sols the
twelve ounces, or five for the English pound; and these five are
equivalent to three-pence of our money: but sometimes we are
obliged to pay five, and even six sols for the Piedmontese pound
of fish. A turkey that would sell for five or six shillings at
the London market, costs me but three at Nice. I can buy a good
capon for thirty sols, or eighteen-pence; and the same price I
pay for a brace of partridges, or a good hare. I can have a
woodcock for twenty-four sols; but the pigeons are dearer than in
London. Rabbits are very rare; and there is scarce a goose to be
seen in the whole county of Nice. Wild-ducks and teal are
sometimes to be had in the winter; and now I am speaking of sea-fowl,
it may not be amiss to tell you what I know of the halcyon,
or king's-fisher. It is a bird, though very rare in this country
about the size of a pigeon; the body brown, and the belly white:
by a wonderful instinct it makes its nest upon the surface of the
sea, and lays its eggs in the month of November, when the
Mediterranean is always calm and smooth as a mill-pond. The
people about here call them martinets, because they begin to
hatch about Martinmass. Their nests are sometimes seen floating
near the shore, and generally become the prize of the boys, who
are very alert in catching them.
You know all sea-birds are allowed by the church of Rome to be
eaten on meagre days, as a kind of fish; and the monks especially
do not fail to make use of this permission. Sea turtle, or
tortoises, are often found at sea by the mariners, in these
latitudes: but they are not the green sort, so much in request
among the aldermen of London. All the Mediterranean turtle are of
the kind called loggerhead, which in the West-Indies are eaten by
none but hungry seamen, negroes, and the lowest class of people.
One of these, weighing about two hundred pounds, was lately
brought on shore by the fishermen of Nice, who found it floating
asleep on the surface of the sea. The whole town was alarmed at
sight of such a monster, the nature of which they could not
comprehend. However, the monks, called minims, of St. Francesco
di Paolo, guided by a sure instinct, marked it as their prey, and
surrounded it accordingly. The friars of other convents, not
quite so hungry, crowding down to the beach, declared it should
not be eaten; dropped some hints about the possibility of its
being something praeternatural and diabolical, and even proposed
exorcisms and aspersions with holy water. The populace were
divided according to their attachment to this, or that convent: a
mighty clamour arose; and the police, in order to remove the
cause of their contention, ordered the tortoise to be recommitted
to the waves; a sentence which the Franciscans saw executed, not
without sighs and lamentation. The land-turtle, or terrapin, is
much better known at Nice, as being a native of this country; yet
the best are brought from the island of Sardinia. The soup or
bouillon of this animal is always prescribed here as a great
restorative to consumptive patients. The bread of Nice is very
indifferent, and I am persuaded very unwholesome. The flour is
generally musty, and not quite free of sand. This is either owing
to the particles of the mill-stone rubbed off in grinding, or to
what adheres to the corn itself, in being threshed upon the
common ground; for there are no threshing-floors in this country.
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