.

{77b} A peculiarly Florentine word. _Renajo_, sand-pit, a place so
called near the Arno in Florence (Barretti's Dictionary). I can see
several of these _renaioli_ with their boats from the window at work
before me as I write. _Vide_ "The Spirit of the Arno."

{82} "Echoes of Old Florence," by Temple Leader.

{83} Like Proteus, the evasive slippery nature of water and the light
which plays on it accounts for this.

{92} "Well, yes, I think you might;
A cart of hay went through this afternoon."

I believe this is by Peter Pindar. The Italian proverb probably
suggested it.

{94} _Rizzar l'uovo di Pippo su un piano_. "To do a difficult thing, or
achieve it by tact and skill." This hints at the egg of Columbus. But
Columbus set the egg upright by breaking its end, which was not a fair
game. Any egg can be set on end on a marble table (I have done it), by
patient balancing, without breaking.

{96} "Florentine Life during the Renaissance," by Walter B. Scaife.
Baltimore, 1893.

{98} The diavolino of Gian di Bologna is of bronze, but popular
tradition makes light of accuracy.

{103} This is supposed to be addressed to another, not to the fairy.

{108} _Ucellato_, caught like a bird, or, as they say on the
Mississippi, "sniped."

{126} The reader may observe that these popular names of Oratorio and
Orto are most likely to have given the prefix _Or'_.

{150} _Ha tanta lingua che spazzarebbe un forno_, _o un cesso_. Said of
virulent gossips.

{152} _Mago_, which, like _magus_, implies more dignity than magician or
sorcerer.

{153} "The Mugnone, whose course has been shifted to the west, formerly
flowed into the Arno, through the heart of the city."--_Murray's Handbook
for Travellers in Central Italy_.

{155} _L'anguilla si rizzo in piedi_--"The eel rose upon her feet."
This will remind the reader of some of the difficulties experienced by
Gothic artists in depicting Eve and the Serpent.

{156} There is much confusion here. It appears that the fairy made the
fountain now in the Signoria, and that Biancone saw this in a vision.

{158} This refers to the satyrs who are among the bronze figures below
Neptune.

{161a} I here omit a long, detailed, and wearisome account of the
research, which, however, indicates the accuracy with which the tradition
had been preserved, and the full belief in it of the narrator.

{161b} A kind of cruel pillory.

{162} In allusion to seeing it fro