Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/344

354 more agreeable by his superior tone of conversation and his gentlemanly manners, and little Psyché still gayer, Mr. S. better in health and state of mind, but our villa acquired, also, new life from the wandering troubadours, who came in the evening with their guitar or mandolin, and sung Neapolitan songs, or played to the boys who danced the tarantella. These natural singers have neither pure nor beautiful voices; but they are often strong, and always full of expression; and they sang the fascinating Neapolitan folk-song, Santa Lucia, with a passion which made the heart beat, spite of the false notes of the song. It was sung with greater beauty and purity by Psyché. The bright side of the natural and popular life of Naples is expressed in the words and the music of this song.

We have a superabundance of cherries and figs, and they could scarcely be more beautiful, even in Paradise. I begin to think that Crescens was not wrong when he called the island un vero paradiso. To its enjoyments must now be added that of bathing. We take our pleasure of this kind in a sort of arbor, or grotto, opening to the sea. The Princess Elsa dances there like a most lovely naiad. Her head, bound with a white handkerchief, had, then, a striking resemblance to that of Beatrice Cenci, in the portrait by Leonardi da Vinci.

Amongst our excursions, at this time, must be mentioned that to the island Procida, the chief town of which, Maria Catholica, is one of the filthiest little towns we have yet seen in Italy, and where we were pursued by youth as by a swarm of flies, occasionally chased away by the police, but always to return