I heard one boy
shout out to another, "Non c' e pericolo," in answer to something
the other had said. This is exactly the "no fear" of America and
the colonies. Near the school there is a field on the slope of the
hill which commands a view over the plain. A woman was mowing
there, and, by way of making myself agreeable, I remarked that the
view was fine. "Yes, it is," she answered; "you can see all the
trains."
The baskets with which the people carry things in this
neighbourhood are of a different construction from any I have seen
elsewhere. They are made to fit all round the head like something
between a saddle and a helmet, and at the same time to rest upon
the shoulders--the head being, as it were, ensaddled by the basket,
and the weight being supported by the shoulders as well as by the
head. Why is it that such contrivances as this should prevail in
one valley and not in another? If, one is tempted to argue, the
plan is a convenient one, why does it not spread further? If
inconvenient, why has it spread so far? If it is good in the
valley of the Stura, why is it not also good in the contiguous
valley of the Dora? There must be places where people using
helmet-made baskets live next door to people who use baskets that
are borne entirely by back and shoulders. Why do not the people in
one or other of these houses adopt their neighbour's basket? Not
because people are not amenable to conviction, for within a certain
radius from the source of the invention they are convinced to a
man.
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