" While I was copying the fresco
outside the chapel at Doera, some charming people came round me. I
said the fresco was very beautiful. "Son persuaso," said the
spokesman solemnly. Then he said there were some more pictures
inside and we had better see them; so the keys were brought. We
said that they too were very beautiful. "Siam persuasi," was the
reply in chorus. Then they said that perhaps we should like to buy
them and take them away with us. This was a more serious matter,
so we explained that they were very beautiful, but that these
things had a charm upon the spot which they would lose if removed
elsewhere. The nice people at once replied, "Siam persuasi," and
so they left us. It was like a fragment from one of Messrs.
Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas.
For the rest, Mesocco is beautifully situated and surrounded by
waterfalls. There is a man there who takes the cows and goats out
in the morning for their several owners in the village, and brings
them home in the evening. He announces his departure and his
return by blowing a twisted shell, like those that Tritons blow on
fountains or in pictures; it yields a softer sound than a horn;
when his shell is heard people go to the cow-house and let the cows
out; they need not drive them to join the others, they need only
open the door; and so in the evening, they only want the sound of
the shell to tell them that they must open the stable-door, for the
cows or goats when turned from the rest of the mob make straight to
their own abode.
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