he management of the
gondola, but less frequently, so that the reader will hardly care for
their interpretation; except only the "sciar," which is the order to the
opposite gondolier to stop the boat as suddenly as possible by slipping
his oar in front of the forcola. The _cry_ is never heard except when
the boatmen have got into some unexpected position, involving a risk of
collision; but the action is seen constantly, when the gondola is rowed
by two or more men (for if performed by the single gondolier it only
swings the boat's head sharp round to the right), in bringing up at a
landing-place, especially when there is any intent of display, the boat
being first urged to its full speed and then stopped with as much foam
about the oar-blades as possible, the effect being much like that of
stopping a horse at speed by pulling him on his haunches.

2. OUR LADY OF SALVATION.

"Santa Maria della Salute," Our Lady of Health, or of Safety, would be a
more literal translation, yet not perhaps fully expressing the force of
the Italian word in this case. The church was built between 1630 and
1680, in acknowledgment of the cessation of the plague;--of course to
the Virgin, to whom the modern Italian has recourse in all his principal
distresses, and who receives his gratitude for all principal
deliverances.

The hasty traveller is usually enthusiastic in his admiration of this
building; but there is a notable lesson to be derived from it, which is
not often read. On the opposite side of the broad canal of the Giudecca
is a small church, celebrated among Renaissance architects as of
Palladian design, but which would hardly attract the notice of the
general observer, unless on account of the pictures by John Bellini
which it contains, in order to see which the traveller may perhaps
remember having been taken across the Giudecca to the Church of the
"Redentore." But he ought carefully to compare these two buildings with
each other, the one built "to the Virgin," the other "to the Redeemer"
(also a votive offering after the cessation of the plague of 1576); the
one, the most conspicuous church in Venice, its dome, the principal one
by which she is first discerned, rising out of the distant sea: the
other, small and contemptible, on a suburban island, and only becoming
an object of interest because it contains three small pictures! For in
the relative magnitude and conspicuousness of these two buildings, we
have an accurate index