a custom positively ugly, which may become a mummy or a
shaven head, but not for those who have ringlets to show. Some with
better taste had discarded the napkin, and wore a smart cap. On the
persons of not a few of the females was displayed a considerable amount
of value, in the shape of gold chains, rings, and jewellery. This is an
indication, not of wealth, but of poverty and stagnant trade. It was a
custom much in use among oriental ladies before banks were established.

The plains eastward of Verona on the right were amazingly rich, and the
uplands and heights on the left were crowned with fine castles and
beautiful little temples. Yet the beauty and richness of the region
could not soothe Dante for his lost Florence. For here was his "Patmos,"
if we may venture on imagery borrowed from the history of a greater
seer; and here the visions of the Purgatorio had passed before his eye.
After a few hours' riding, the fine hills of the Tyrolese Alps came
quite up to us, disclosing, as they filed past, a continuous succession
of charming views. When the twilight began to gather, and they stood in
their rich drapery of purple shadows, their beauty became a thing
indescribable. We saw Vicenza, where, of all the spots in Italy, the
Reformation found the largest number of adherents, and where Palladio
arose in the sixteenth century, to arrest for a while, by his genius,
the decay of the architectural arts in Italy. We saw, too, the gray
Padua looking at us through the sombre shadows of its own and the day's
decline. We continued our course over the flat but rich country beyond;
and as night fell we reached the edge of the Lagunes.

I looked out into the watery waste with the aid of the faint light, but
I could see no city, and nothing whereon a city could stand. All was
sea; and it seemed idle to seek a city, or any habitation of man, in the
midst of these waters. But the engine with its great red eye could see
farther into the dark; and it dashed fearlessly forward, and entered on
the long bridge which I saw stretching on and away over the flood, till
its farther end, like that of the bridge which Mirza saw in vision, was
lost in a cloud. I could see, as we rode on, on the bosom of the flood
beneath us, twinkling lights, which were probably lighthouses, and black
dots, which we took for boats. After a five miles' run through scenery
of this novel character, the train stopped, and we found that we had
arrived, not in a cloud