e marionettes has strengthened and perfected. But
as to predicting his future, which is what he wanted me to do, I suppose
that only an expert, and perhaps not even an expert, can tell from
hearing a singer in a small room how he will sound on the stage; and the
voice is not everything, there is the appearance and the question of how
his personality will affect the public, and the further question of how
he will stand the life and amalgamate with his fellows. So, like a good
Sicilian, I told him that there never was such a magnificent voice, that
I had never heard anyone sing so well and that I was sure he would
eclipse all previous tenors, which made everything quite satisfactory.

The next day we had our private performance, and it began with Guido
Santo and Argantino at the dreadful enchanted grotto of the great
magician Malagigi. I was glad to see Argantino; it was nearly as good as
seeing Malagigi in his habit as he lived because, although the son only
had one diabolical book, yet in his personal appearance he strikingly
resembled the father, being indeed the same marionette and distinguished
chiefly by his wings, which he inherited from his mother Sabina who was a
witch. Argantino always wore his wings even when he used to wear armour,
and on his shield he bore the portrait of a devil so that everyone should
know at a glance the kind of man he was. After the angel tells him he is
to do the magic for the Christians he appears clothed as a pilgrim with
wings, and in this way, although it is the same marionette and both
Malagigi and Argantino are magicians, confusion is avoided--at least the
buffo said that was the intention.

There was another thing I should have been sorry to miss. I had hitherto
supposed the dictionaries to be right in defining a miracle as an event
contrary to the established course of nature, but the buffo took me
behind the scenes to study the miracle by which the tomb opened. There
were three or four strings so arranged that if anyone pulled them the
tomb could not remain closed. The buffo pulled them and the tomb opened.
Nothing less contrary to the ordinary course of nature could be imagined.
It would be interesting to know whether other miracles would similarly
falsify their definition if one could have a buffo to take one behind and
disclose the secret of how they are performed.

The second scene was a Ballo Fantastico, which was given to take the
taste of the tomb and the skeleto