After much strain of courtesy, I clapped to my luggage, locked it up, and with a resolute face cried "Avanti!" And there was an end of it.

In this case, as so often, I have no doubt that simple curiosity went for much in the man's pertinacious questioning.

Of course the whole _dazio_ business is ludicrous and contemptible; I scarce know a baser spectacle than that of uniformed officials groping in the poor little bundles of starved peasant women, mauling a handful of onions, or prodding with long irons a cartload of straw.

Did any one ever compare the expenses with the results?
A glance shows the situation of Cosenza.

The town is built on a steep hillside, above the point where two rivers, flowing from the valleys on either side, mingle their waters under one name, that of the Crati.