shepherd not at hand, would tear in pieces whoever might
venture to approach the hut: but with one of the _pecoraj_ for a
Teucer, nothing is to be feared. The _capanne_ are of various sizes.
One I entered not far from Veii was thirty or forty feet in diameter
and fully as high, propped in the centre by two rough masts, between
which a hole was left in the roof for the escape of smoke. Within the
door lay a large pile of lambs, there might be a hundred, killed that
morning and already flayed, and a number of shepherds were busied
in operating on the carcases of others: all of which were to be
dispatched forthwith to the Roman market. Though a fierce May sun
blazed without, a huge fire roared in the middle of the hut: but this
was for the sake of the _ricotta_, which was being made in another
part of the _capanna_. Here stood a huge cauldron, full of boiling
ewes' milk. In a warm state this curd is a delicious jelly and has
often tempted me to enter a _capanna_ in quest of it, to the amazement
of the _pecoraj_, to whom it is _vilior alga_. Lord of the cauldron,
stood a man dispensing ladlefuls of the rich simmering mess to his
fellows, as they brought their bowls for their morning allowance:
and he varied his occupation by pouring the same into certain small
baskets, the serous part running off through the wicker and the
residue caking as it cooled. On the same board stood the cheeses,
previously made from the cream. In this hut lived twenty-five men,
their nether limbs clad in goat skins, with the hair outwards,
realizing the satyrs of ancient fable: but they had no nymphs to
tease, nor shepherdesses to woo, and never

'sat all day
Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love
To amorous Phillida.'

They were a band of celibates without the vows. In such huts they
dwell all the year round, flaying lambs or shearing sheep, living
on bread, _ricotta_ and water, very rarely tasting meat or wine and
sleeping on shelves ranged round the hut, like berths in a ship's
cabin. Thus are the dreams of Arcadia dispelled by realities."]

[Footnote 151: In modern Italy the shepherds do not take their women
with them to the _saltus_, but, as Dennis says, lead there the life of
"celibates, without the vows."]

[Footnote 152: In the Venitian provinces of Italy today the women are
still seen at work in the harvest and rice fields with their babes in
their bosoms: but the most amazing modern spectacle of this kind
is that o