nd
"ciao." It is used with two meanings, both of which, however, are
deducible from the word slave. In its first and more common use it is
simply a salute, either on greeting or taking leave, and means, "I am
your very obedient servant." Thus, if one has been talking to a small
child, its mother will tell it to say "chow" before it goes away, and
will then nod her head and say "chow" herself. The other use is a kind
of pious expletive, intending "I must endure it," "I am the slave of a
higher power." It was in this sense I first heard it at Rossura. A
woman was washing at a fountain while I was eating my lunch. She said
she had lost her daughter in Paris a few weeks earlier. "She was a
beautiful woman," said the bereaved mother, "but--chow. She had great
talents--chow. I had her educated by the nuns of Bellinzona--chow. Her
knowledge of geography was consummate--chow, chow," &c. Here "chow"
means "pazienza," "I have done and said all that I can, and must now bear
it as best I may."

I tried to comfort her, but could do nothing, till at last it occurred to
me to say "chow" too. I did so, and was astonished at the soothing
effect it had upon her. How subtle are the laws that govern consolation!
I suppose they must ultimately be connected with reproduction--the
consoling idea being a kind of small cross which _re-generates_ or _re-
creates_ the sufferer. It is important, therefore, that the new ideas
with which the old are to be crossed should differ from these last
sufficiently to divert the attention, and yet not so much as to cause a
painful shock.

There should be a little shock, or there will be no variation in the new
ideas that are generated, but they will resemble those that preceded
them, and grief will be continued; there must not be too great a shock or
there will be no illusion--no confusion and fusion between the new set of
ideas and the old, and in consequence there will be no result at all, or,
if any, an increase in mental discord. We know very little, however,
upon this subject, and are continually shown to be at fault by finding an
unexpectedly small cross produce a wide diversion of the mental images,
while in other cases a wide one will produce hardly any result. Sometimes
again, a cross which we should have said was much too wide will have an
excellent effect. I did not anticipate, for example, that my saying
"chow" would have done much for the poor woman who had lost her daughter: