Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/319

Rh placed their little ones in other women's arms, and went in for a dance for a moment; then resumed their infants, kissed them, and looked on; whilst the others danced. The tambourine, like the castanets, went from hand to hand. They who beat the former, also, sometimes sang a monotonous, unmelodious, but rhythmical song. At length the dancers amounted to above a dozen young women, who evidently were all dancing for their own heart's joy and pleasure, whilst elder and younger sailors stood smoking at some distance, without in the slightest degree disturbing the girls, whose dance—a kind of tarantella—they seemed to watch with pleasure, but as an everyday affair.

Very few persons, comparatively speaking, seemed to pay Vesuvius a certain fearful attention. Whilst the twilight increased and the lava-streams glowed more brightly and the flames tinged the clouds of smoke crimson, the carriages rolled on uninterruptedly and the girls danced. From the lofty fortress of St. Elmo, cannons thundered in honor of the name-day of the King and his patron-saint, San Ferdinando; they were answered from the fortress L'Uovo (the egg), on the shore, people began to light lamps for the illumination, and I went home to my tea.

After tea I went with young Mrs. M., and my countryman Mr. S., to the Chiaja Santa Lucia, in order thence to see Vesuvius and the royal illumination. We saw, now and then, flames ascend from the highest crater and red hot stones hurled up. We could distinguish quite plainly small, blue, moving lights in the neighborhood of the Hermitage. These were the torches which lighted such persons as visited