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and the gentleman provided himself with a glass decanter from the toilet-table and commenced a Scorpion-chasse. He nabbed so many beforemorning that when day broke the landlady, who had vowed her apartments to be a faultless paragon of comfort, was presented by her sleepless lodger with a pint-bottle nearly full of live Scorpions.

The only remedy for the sting of these creatures is ammonia applied externally on the instant. From all I can learn the poison of the old ones is very virulent with a child it might probably be fatal by inducing fever.

The truth is, however, they rarely harm any one, owing to their not being molested. The people of the island will sometimes pronounce all the tribes harınless: but this is a specimen of " favete linguis" in the Irish style. I observe they take special care not to meddle with them, save as we say "with a pair of tongs." From a viper they will run away. Scorpions if found within doors die the death; hornets they hold it "unlucky" to touch. We have had one very large viper killed in the courtyard, and I have despatched half a dozen scorpions, one a Nestor, in our rooins. The hornets are enormous: I have counted on the vine in the balcony above a

score of these within a quarter of an hour, but they never come in at the windows, though always set open.

Your scorpion is an ugly beast: he has eight legs, showing his close affinity with the spider, and runs very fast, backwards and sideways as well as forwards. Their greatest pleasure is to get between your sheets, or lie curled on a pillow. The people of this house vow they have wings, but that is a mistake.

The sandfly by the bye is something worse than a mosquitoe, as he burrows under the skin.

The origin of the people in this isle is no doubt Greek and modern travellers aver that the Greeks are rogues. It may be So, but I vow they do not stand first on the list. Clearly the Neapolitans lead, and nine-tenths of the roguery here is imported from Parthenope. The Ischiote, however, is a lover of fun, and delights to join in a practical joke at the expense of Neapolitan greediness and extortion. A friend has furnished me with the following anecdote for the truth of which he vouches. It may serve to help gentlemen who are embarrassed in a similar way; so I quote it out of pure benevolence. A visitor here from the mainland

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put up at the house of a Neapolitan, who engaged to find him in board and lodging for a certain sum he was so unguarded as to pledge himself to a stay of two months. No sooner was the agreement signed than he found he had fallen into bad hands. Without infringing the letter of their compact, his landlord managed to break it in spirit every day. The guest was an invalid, and wholesome diet was indispensable: but he could obtain no butter but what was rancid, no meat but what smelt above ground. Complaints were idle, for the only reply was, "If you object to your fare pay me my two months' rent and go."

In this dilemma between regard for his health and a due care for his purse, he applied to a friend for counsel; and returned to his "appartamento,' resolved to all appearance to fight it out.

Next day, he had a large table laid out in the best room, and plentifully spread with "macaroni" and pitchers of wine. "I am of a hospitable turn," said he to the host; "a party of my friends will arrive to-day, and we shall commence a series of entertainments which I propose to prolong while under your roof." roof." At the appointed hour came a troop of donkey-men and brick-makers, with a

pair of fiddlers: a tremendous onslaught on the viands was followed up with stoups of liquor; and then the music opened, and dancing commenced, the landlord looking on without a remedy.

After witnessing the overthrow of table and chairs amid a performance worthy of Comus's rabble rout, and remembering his tenant's parting speech in the morning, the Neapolitan gave in; and the invalid received "carte blanche" to cancel his agreement and retreat to other quarters.

Knowing of what the Ischiotes are capable, I would have given a good deal to see the party when the fun was at its height. I can just fancy the nods and becks which they would throw at the sulky Neapolitan.

Donkey-riding here is delightful. You start about past 5 in the evening, and may be out till near 8, when the dew becomes heavy. The number of paths up the mountain is considerable, and some of these yield very pretty excursions. If you take the coast-road you get the sea-breeze and meet the people in groups, dressed in their bright costume whenever it is a festa.

The prospect is from many points magnificent: one of the sweetest views is from a knoll behind

the Lago d'Ischia; but from Vico, from Mount Tabor, from the Rotaro, above all from the Epomeo's summit, the tourist will be delighted and the artist astonished, whether he looks landsward toward Vesuvius, or seaward beyond Ventotene. We had heard of sunsets in the sea, but I had no idea what they were like till we saw some here: a segment of 50 degrees over the horizon lit up with orange and gold, while the huge disk glowing like a carbuncle plunges into the wave!

CAPRI.

End of July.

WE shall leave this island to-day; after having fought three nights with the mosquitoes, who are many and determined, without the protection of a gauze-net, the people here not having one. These insects have a singular sort of discernment: they always attack a stranger or new-comer, while the Aborigines are rarely troubled by them.

We have seen no scenery equal to this in Italy,

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