Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/878

796 on men and horses, who had traveled, or rather wandered, a vagabond, in Spain and Africa with women whom he left suddenly, wore his whole history written on his skin. One design referred to the ship L'Espérance (No. 1), which was wrecked on the coast of Ireland, and on which he had gone as a sailor. A horse's head (No. 2) represented an animal which he had killed with a knife, from simple caprice, when twelve years old. A helmet (No. 7) indicated a policeman he had tried to kill. A headless woman with a heart on her neck indicated his mistress, who was frivolous (No. 8). The portrait of a brigand referred to a robber chief whom he took for his model (No. 9). A lute (No. 3) recalled a friend, a skillful player of the guitar, with whom he traveled over half of Europe. The star, the evil influence under which he was born (No. 4). The royal crown, "a political souvenir," he said, but rather, we say, his new trade of a spy—that is, the destruction of the kingdom (No. 5).

A French deserter who desired to avenge himself against his chief drew a poniard on his breast (Fig. 2, No. 1), to signify vengeance, and also a serpent. He further drew the ship on which he wished to escape, the epaulets which had been taken away from him, a dancing girl who had been his mistress, and then the sad inscriptions which were truly appropriate to his unhappy life.

Dr. Spoto sent me a study of the tattooing of a criminal who had been under his care. He wore all his sad adventures painted on his arm (see Archivio di Psichiatria, June, 1889). He had one hundred and five signs on his body, ten of which represented mistresses, nine hearts, eight flowers or leaves, five animals, twenty-eight names, surnames, or descriptions, and thirty-one poniards or warriors (Fig. 3). On his arm he had a figure of a lady winged and crowned; winged, he said, "because I made her take flight" (he had run away with her); crowned, because she had substituted for the crown of virginity the royal crown in becoming his mistress. She held in her hand a heart and an arrow, signifying her parents, to whom her flight had caused great grief. Beneath her were two branches, which signified that she kept herself always fresh. Two other of his loves explained their sad adventures by holding crumpled roses in their hands. In his hand he had an eagle, representing the ship on which he sailed, and beneath it a heart with three points, referring to the sufferings of Christ, whose birthplace he had visited at Bethlehem. A heart on his arm represented a mistress with whom he lived several years. It was pierced with an arrow, because he had abandoned the woman with two little children, who were represented by two bleeding hearts. Two hearts pierced with swords, on his forearm, represented two mistresses who would not yield to his desires