h his
arms outstretched; and "La Rota," in which the players run in a circle,
one behind the other, seeking to escape, by dodging, the blows from a
stout stick, aimed at them by one of their companions.

_Intelligence_ is feeble in some and exaggerated in others. Prudence and
forethought are generally lacking. A very common characteristic is
recklessness, which leads criminals to run the risk of arrest for the
sake of being witty, or to leave some blood-stained weapon on the very
spot where they have committed a crime, notwithstanding the fact that
they have taken a hundred precautions to avoid detection. This same
recklessness prompts them, when the danger is scarcely past, to make
verses or pictures of their exploits or to tattoo them upon their
persons, heedless of consequences.

Zino relates the story of a Sicilian schoolboy, who illustrated his
criminal relations with his schoolfellows by a series of sketches in his
album. A certain Cavaglia, called "Fusil" robbed and murdered an
accomplice and hid the body in a cupboard. He was arrested and in prison
decided to commit suicide a hundred days after the date of his crime,
but before doing so, he adorned his water-jug with an account of his
misdeed, partly in pictures and partly in writing, as though he desired
to raise a monument to himself (see Fig. 9). The clearest and strangest
instance of this recklessness was furnished by a photograph discovered
by the police, in which, at the risk of arrest and detection, three
criminals had had themselves photographed in the very act of committing
a murder.

INTELLECTUAL MANIFESTATIONS

_Slang._ This is a peculiar jargon used by criminals when speaking among
themselves. The syntax and grammatical construction of the language
remain unchanged, but the meanings of words are altered, many being
formed in the same way as in primitive languages; _i.e._, an object
frequently receives the name of one of its attributes. Thus a kid is
called "jumper," death "the lean or cruel one," the soul "the false or
shameful one," the body "the veil," the hour "the swift one," the moon
"the spy," a purse "the saint," alms "the rogue," a sermon "the tedious
one," etc. Many words are formed as among savages, by onomatopoeia, as
"tuff" (pistol), "tic" (watch), "guanguana" (sweetheart), "fric frac"
(lottery).

=FIG. 9
WATER-JUGS
(see page 42)=

The necessity of eluding police investigations is the reason usually
given for the ori