haired and blue-eyed men by this name in the place
than any one, having the popular idea of what an Italian looks like,
would believe could be found in a town of the same size in America.
Trying to account for the Norse look of many of the Segnians, and the
Oriental look of many others, Caper climbed up to the top of the
mountain above the town, and seating himself in the shadow of the old
Cyclopean wall, looked down the mountain side to the broad valley below
him.

'As all roads lead to Rome,'soliloquized he, 'it's no wonder that those
two famous old ways down there in the valley, the Via Trajana and the
Via Latina, should have once been passed over by white-haired, blue-eyed
Goths, and, seeing the old town perched up here, they should have
climbed up, having strong legs. Once here, they put all the men to the
sword, made love to the girls, plundered all that was plunderable; drank
up all the liquor, Sambuca, Rosoglio, 'Rhum di Giamaica,' and Acqua
viva, they could put their paws on; then, having a call further on, left
the girls, small babes, and other _impedimenta_ (baggage!), rushing onto
Rome to settle accounts with their bankers there, like hon-o-rable men.
_So_ you find many flaxen-haired, sky-eyed people up here, and they are
rough and bold and independent.

Years and years after them, clambering over the mountains from the
seacoast, came the Saracens--oh, you were the boys!--and they, being a
refined and elegantly educated circle, compared with the Goths, of
course did the same amount of slaughtering and love-making, only more
refinedly and elegantly; cutting off heads instead of knocking them in;
and with the gold spoons and other instruments that they found in the
church, instead of making sword hilts and helmets, they at once worked
them into graceful, crescent-shaped earrings, and curious rings, chains,
and brooches, giving them to the girls and winning their hearts in the
old-fashioned style. The girls, for their part, declared to each other
that when these odious Moors went away, they would give all the earrings
and brooches back to the church. But they forgot to; which accounts for
their wearing them, or those of similar pattern, to this day.

The gentle Saracens, moreover, wishing to introduce their own school of
music, taught the girls to sing; proof of which is the horrible songs
the contadini still have, resembling in no wise pious Christian hymns,
but rather a cross between a growl to Odin and a y