harged with silex and animal
impurities, which finds lodgment in the eyes. The ordinary people have
no predilection for the use of water wherewith to cleanse their hands
and faces, consequently such matter accumulates in these delicate
organs, first irritating, then poisoning them. Ulceration follows, and
insects--especially flies, which are a great pest in Malta--carry the
virus from one person to another, creating, in warm weather, an epidemic
of sore eyes. Children are most frequently the sufferers; and this
disease, commencing with them when they are of tender age, is liable to
become chronic.

Nine tenths of the inhabitants of the group are professed Roman
Catholics. One meets a priest or cowled monk at every turn in the public
streets, as well as upon the roads inland. They usually wear a
characteristic black robe, together with an impossible hat, very broad
of brim and turned up at the sides. There are said to be about two
thousand priests in these islands, whose physical appearance certainly
indicates free and generous diet, not to say luxurious living. The
reader may imagine what a strong contrast they furnish to the hungry,
begging masses of the town whom they pass by with the most utter
indifference. One is fain to ask, Does it ever strike the people, who
are taxed so heavily to support these "walking delegates" of the church
in idleness, that there must be something radically wrong in a system
which fattens a priest by starving a laborer? The conduct of church
affairs should be just as amenable to consistency and sound common
sense as any of the affairs of life. The Maltese, unfortunately, have a
paucity of reason and a plethora of priests.

Flowers are abundant in Valletta, and, as already intimated, are
marvelously cheap and beautiful, thus arguing a certain degree of public
taste and refinement in the community, which makes it profitable to
raise them. "That man cannot be mean and deceitful," said a shrewd,
cultured woman, and a good judge of human nature, "he is so fond and
careful of flowers." Seeing a bouquet prettily backed with maidenhair
fern, we asked if it was cultivated here, and were told that the plant
grew wild in some of the caves of Comino, near at hand. In the environs
of the capital there is a hamlet named Casal Attard, that is, "the
village of roses;" there is also a Casal Luca, "the village of poplars;"
and still another, Casal Zebbug, signifying, "the village of olives;" a
simple but