that such is the case. In the young and the old, in the children even,
the same thing is observable; and the exceeding difficulty of teaching
it may be accepted, I think, as a guarantee that it has not been taught
in the case of creatures so unteachable as these half-wild sons and
daughters of Nature.

Now, if these people, who for generations past have exercised the
profession of artists' models in Rome, do really belong to a race apart
from the inhabitants of the district around Rome, as I think cannot be
doubted by any one who has carefully observed them, the question
suggests itself, Who and what are they, and whence do they come?
Fortunately, we are not unprovided with an answer, and the answer is
rather a curious one. If the excursionist from Rome to Tivoli will
extend his ramble a little way among the Sabine Mountains which lie
behind it, up the valley through which the Teverone--the _praeceps Anio_
of Horace--runs down into the Campagna, he will see on his right hand,
when he has left Tivoli about ten miles behind him, a most romantically
situated little town on the summit of a conically shaped mountain. The
name of it is Saracinesco, and its story is as curious as its situation.
It is said--and the tradition has every appearance of truth--that the
town was founded by a body of Saracens after their defeat by Berengarius
in the ninth century. The spot is just such as might have been selected
for such a purpose. It is difficult of access to an extraordinary
degree, and it is said to be no less than two thousand five hundred feet
above the stream which flows at the base of the rocky hill on which it
is built. Tradition, however, is not the only testimony to the truth of
this account of the origin of the strangely placed little town, for in
many cases the inhabitants have preserved their old Arabic names. It is
from this strange eyrie of Saracinesco that our picturesque and handsome
friends of the Piazzi di Spagna descend to seek a living at Rome from
the profession which they have followed for generations of artists'
models. And this is the explanation of the singular sameness of
beautiful feature, the utterly un-Roman type, the sharply-cut features,
and the admirable grace of movement and of attitude which characterize
these denizens of the steps--if of the steppes no longer.

What a life they lead! From early morn to dewy eve there they lounge, in
every sort of restful attitude, basking in the sun, with nothing