portunity of verifying, for
we noticed that a very slight motion of the boat makes them sick), and
so ignorant "that it would require 2,000 years of teaching to civilise
them!" The captain himself belonged to one of the outlying islands,
where his wife and family lived and where he spent two nights in each
week; and he took a gloomy view of the prospects of the "Dalmati," as
the Italian-speaking Dalmatians call themselves. He said when he was a
boy the language used in the schools generally was Italian, then it was
changed to German for a time, but Croat is now universal, so that in
twenty years Italian will no longer be understood along the eastern
littoral; which will be bad for the culture of the country, almost the
whole of which is Italian, and has been so for centuries.

Our priest left us at a little convent with a chapel and two houses
standing close to the water's edge; and at Novaglia we took on board a
party of emigrants, some of whom were quite boys, while one was
grey-headed. Most of them wore the picturesque costume of the Morlacchi;
but the next day we saw them again, clad in the characterless, sack-like
slop-suit which seems to be thought a mark of civilisation, having lost
much of their individuality without gaining anything in exchange. A
number of friends lingered on the shore to see them off; but there was
no such singing as we heard next day at Loparo beyond Arbe, the
birthplace of the founder of the Republic of S. Marino, where some
twenty or more were waiting for us on a barge in the pretty bay, singing
a farewell song which wailed over the water as we approached. As they
boarded the steamboat they kissed their friends on both cheeks, and
crowded to the side as we got under way again, repeating their
melancholy song and waving adieus; while all along the tops of the hills
which flank both sides of the harbour figures silhouetted against the
sky, waved in response, and stood watching the boat as long as we could
distinguish them.

[Illustration: ARBE FROM THE SHORE]

When we reached Arbe, cresting its rocky point with a picturesque
confusion of walls, campanili, and house-roofs that seemed to grow out
of the rocks, so well do they harmonise with them, the afternoon was
sunny and delightful, though the roads showed signs of the rain which
had recently fallen. At sunset we climbed again to the public garden
and enjoyed the well-remembered view of towers and walls grey against
the glowing sky, the