most
distracting variety of costumes. Both men and girls from the country
wear little red caps. The men have great light-coloured woollen coats
which they throw over their shoulders without putting their arms in,
light shirts, sometimes with an embroidered jacket, trousers with
embroidery round the pocket-holes (which are in front of the thigh) and
a split at the lower part of the side which is buttoned up. They
sometimes have a sash round the waist with a knife. The women wear
leggings woven roughly in patterns like the wrong side of a tapestry
curtain, and shoes somewhat the shape of gondolas, thick skirts with
patterned aprons, and small waistcoat-like jackets. Their hair is
plaited round the head. The dress of the townspeople is less individual;
the head is covered with a white or coloured kerchief, the dress is
frequently black, and the modern blouse is sometimes seen. It is
interesting to watch the boatloads of country-folk arriving either by
the Porta Terra Ferma, close to which are steps and a small harbour, or
on the quay by the Porta Marina. Lambs and kids are brought alive and
killed and skinned on the quay, the women holding pots or jugs to catch
the blood, which they seem to think valuable. The wall of the quay was
being rebuilt when we were there the second time, and a diver was
working at it. It looked odd to see the stones and buckets of cement
lowered into the water with ropes.

[Illustration: MORLACCA GIRL, ZARA]

There are two antique columns still erect: one, fluted, is in the Piazza
S. Simeone, set up in 1729, and the other is in the Piazza dell' Erbe;
it was used as a pillory, and the chains with the iron collars still
hang to it, having, by centuries of friction, cut deep-curved grooves in
the marble with swinging to and fro. This column also has sockets for
the insertion of flagstaffs, and attached to it is a much-worn piece of
eighth-century sculpture, with the motif of an ornamented cross beneath
an arch fastened with clamps. The chroniclers of the seventeenth century
record that near this place several drums of columns projected from the
earth, and that two entire pillars were erect and united by a piece of
the architrave. One was moved to S. Simeone, near to which Mr. T.G.
Jackson saw in 1884 the base of a Roman arch excavated beneath the level
of the piazza. Other similar fragments have been used in the foundations
of S. Donato.

[Illustration: GOING TO MARKET, ZARA]

In the year 380 a