Like other people who grow too rich and comfortable, the citizens of Tarentum loved mirth and mockery; their Greek theatre was remarkable for irreverent farce, for parodies of the great drama of Athens.

And here is testimony to the fact: all manner of comic masks, of grotesque visages; mouths distorted into impossible grins, eyes leering and goggling, noses extravagant.

I sketched a caricature of Medusa, the anguished features and snaky locks travestied with satiric grimness.
You remember a story which illustrates this scoffing habit: how the Roman Ambassador, whose Greek left something to be desired, excited the uproarious derision of the assembled Tarentines--with results that were no laughing matter.
I used the opportunity of my conversation with the Director of the Museum to ask his aid in discovering the river Galaesus.

Who could find himself at Taranto without turning in thought to the Galaesus, and wishing to walk along its banks?
Unhappily, one cannot be quite sure of its position.

A stream there is, flowing into the Little Sea, which by some is called Galeso; but the country-folk commonly give it the name of Gialtrezze.