Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/486

 lazy, the Sicilians use a knife with very little provocation. In Sicily, you hear a great deal of the vendetta, wherein a man will knife another man who is a second cousin to an enemy This morning we passed the Azore islands, where Columbus stopped on his famous voyage. Usually the "Canada" passes between the islands, and quite close to shore, but owing to rain and mist we passed on the longer and safer course.

—It turned out just as the barber predicted: Behind the Azores we encountered rough seas, and the big ship "Canada" has been jumping today like a greyhound. The wind is blowing heavily, and there is an occasional shower of rain. After every shower, there is a rainbow; one of them made a bow over the stern of the ship, and followed us for fifteen minutes. We were late for breakfast this morning, but the steward said we were the first ones in, and no others came while we were there. We have suffered no inconvenience from the rough weather, except that we became tired of bracing ourselves. The sailors dislike rough weather; they do not become seasick, but rough weather at sea is disagreeable, as it is on land, and results in gloomy thoughts and bad tempers. Rough weather rolls you about in your bed at night, and the most experienced sailor cannot sleep as well as he can when the weather is good I have frequently mentioned the barber. On every ship, the barber-shop is headquarters for news. In the days before newspapers, people went to the barber-shops