wd collected
about a man mounted upon a chair or stool. Fixed to a stand at his side
or on the back of his chair is a glass bottle, in which are two or three
hollow manikins of glass, so arranged as to rise and sink by pressure of
the confined air. The neck of the bottle is cased in a tin box which
surmounts it and has a movable cover. This personage is a charlatan,
with an apparatus for divining lucky numbers for the lottery. The "soft
bastard Latin" runs off his tongue in an uninterrupted stream of talk,
while he offers on a waiter to the bystanders a number of little folded
papers containing a _pianeta_, or augury, on which are printed a
fortune and a _terno_. "Who will buy a _pianeta_," he cries, "with the
numbers sure to bring him a prize? He shall have his fortune told him
who buys. Who does not need counsel must surely be wise. Here's Master
Tommetto, who never tells lies. And here is his brother, still smaller
in size. And Madama Medea Plutonia to advise. They'll write you a
fortune and bring you a prize for a single _baiocco_. No creature so
wise as not to need counsel. A fool I despise, who keeps his _baiocco_
and loses his prize. Who knows what a fortune he'll get till he tries?
Time's going, Signori,--who buys? who buys?" And so on by the yard.
Meantime the crowd about him gape, stare, wonder, and finally put their
hands to their pockets, out with their _baiocchi_, and buy their papers.
Each then makes a mark on his paper to verify it, and returns it to the
charlatan. After several are thus collected, he opens the cover of the
tin box, deposits them therein with a certain ceremony, and commences an
exhortatory discourse to the manikins in the bottle,--two of whom,
Maestro Tommetto and his brother, are made to resemble little black
imps, while Madama Medea Plutonia is dressed _alla Francese_. "_Fa una
reverenza, Maestro Tommetto!_" "Make a bow, Master Tommetto!" he now
begins. The puppet bows. "_Ancora!_" "Again!" Again he bows. "_Lesto,
Signore, un piccolo giretto!_" "Quick, Sir, a little turn!" And round
whirls the puppet. "Now, up, up, to make a registry on the ticket! and
do it conscientiously, Master Tommetto!" And up the imp goes, and
disappears through the neck of the bottle. Then comes a burst of
admiration at his cleverness from the charlatan. Then, turning to the
brother imp, he goes through the same _role_ with him. "And now, Madama
Medea, make a reverence, and follow your husband! Quick, quick, a li