us and the region surrounding it. As usual, I wished to
commence my researches at once; but already in Palermo I had felt an
unceasing pain in my side, so that my last walks there had been
attended with considerable difficulty.

Here I became really ill, and was unable to quit my room. I had a
boil on my back, which required the care of the surgeon, and kept me
in my room for a fortnight, until the fever had abated.

If this misfortune had happened to me in the East, or even while I
was in quarantine at Malta, who knows whether I should not have been
looked upon as having a "plague-boil," and shut up for forty days?

During my imprisonment here, my only relaxation during the hours
when I was free from fever and it did not rain, was to sit on the
balcony, contemplating the beautiful prospect, and looking on the
bustling, lively populace. The Neapolitans appeared to me very ill-
behaved, boisterous, and quarrelsome, and seemed to entertain a
great horror of work. The latter circumstance seems natural enough,
for they require little for their daily support, and we hardly find
that the common people any where work more than is necessary to
shield them from immediate want; this is particularly the case in
Italy, where the heat is oppressive during the day, and the
temperature of the evening so agreeable, every one wishes to enjoy
himself rather than to work.

I sometimes saw men employ themselves for half a day together in
pushing bullets with a little stick through a ring fastened to the
ground: this is one of the most popular games. The women are
always sitting or standing in front of the houses, chattering or
quarrelling; and the children lie about in the streets all day long.
The veriest trifle suffices to breed a quarrel among old or young,
and then they kick one another with their feet--a very graceful
practice for women or girls! Even with their knives they are ready
on all occasions.

For making observations on the Neapolitans no better post can be
chosen than a lodging in the quarter St. Lucia. The fishermen,
lazzaroni, and sailors live in the little side lanes, and spend the
greater part of the day in the large street of St. Lucia, the chief
resort both for pedestrians and people on horse-back and in
carriages. In and about the harbour we find numerous vendors of
oysters and crabs, which they bring fresh from the sea. The
lazzaroni no longer go about half naked, and the common people are
dressed in