h _Paduli_ with a deep coating of grey ashes, a young
peasant girl was heard deploring the loss of her carefully tended gourds
and melons; "_Oh come volimme fa? Addio, pummarole! addio, cucuzzielle!_"
whereupon an older woman, witnessing these useless tears, upbraided her
with the words: "Do not complain, child, lest worse befall you!" And
indeed the whole population of the _Paduli_, instead of lamenting over
their scorched and spoiled crops, were jubilant at the thought that the
havoc done was only partial, not irrevocable;--a few months of incessant
labour, said they, would bring back the holdings to their former state of
perfection. Yet a general opinion prevails among foreigners that the
Neapolitans are lazy, thriftless and helpless! They indeed rely to a
certain extent upon St Januarius to protect their crops from the efforts
of Nature, over which, they argue, the Saint is more likely to possess
control than his human applicants, but when once the fatal shower of ashes
has fallen, they do not expect "San Gennaro" to set their injured acres to
rights again, but with a rare patience turn to the task themselves. A more
industrious, and at the same time a more capable and practical race of
agriculturists than the tillers of the slopes of Vesuvius, it would be
hard to match. And thus in the sunshine of the south, yet ever under the
shadow of death and destruction, dwell many thousands of human beings, as
unconcerned as though Vesuvius were miles and miles away. Not unconscious,
but fully conscious of their doom, the victims of the Mountain toil and
moil upon the fertile farms (in many cases risen phoenix-like from their
own ashes) that grow the early beans and tomatoes, the egg-plants and the
white fennel roots (_finocchi_) that well-fed travellers devour in the
hotels of Naples. Or else they tend the vines that yield the generous
_Lagrima Christi_, of which imprudent and heated visitors drink long
draughts unmixed with water, and then complain of ensuing languor and
pains beneath their waistcoats. Luscious, yet seductive wine! Counsellor
of moderation after a first experience of excess! Essence of Vesuvius,
whose strange name so puzzled the poet Chiabrera!

"Chi fu de' contadini il si indiscreto,
Ch' a sbigottir la gente
Diede nome dolente
Al vin' che sovra gli altri il cuor fa lieto?
Lagrima dunque appellerassi un riso
Parte di nobilissima vendemmia?"

("Who was the jesting countryman, I cry,
That g