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of mine. He reads it through. The Galley-slave is quite
enchanted. It is folded, and addressed, and given to him,
and he pays the fee. The Secretary falls back indolently in
his chair, and takes a book. The Galley-slave gathers up an
empty sack. The Sentinel throws away a handful of nut-
shells, shoulders his musket, and away they go together.

Why do the beggars rap their chins constantly, with
their right hands, when you look at them? Everything is
done in pantomime in Naples, and that is the conventional
sign for hunger. A man who is quarrelling with another,
yonder, lays the palm of his right hand on the back of his
left, and shakes the two thumbs - expressive of a donkey's
ears - whereat his adversary is goaded to desperation. Two
people bargaining for fish, the buyer empties an imagin-
ary waistcoat pocket when he is told the price, and walks
away without a word: having thoroughly conveyed to the
seller that he considers it too dear. Two people in carriages,
meeting, one touches his lips, twice or thrice, holds up the
five fingers of his right hand, and gives a horizontal cut in
the air with the palm. The other nods briskly and goes his
way. He has been invited to a friendly dinner at half-past
five 0' clock, and will certainly come.

All over Italy, a peculiar shake of the right hand from
the wrist, with the fore-finger stretched out, expresses a
negative - the only negative beggars will ever understand.
But, in Naples, those five fingers are a copious language.

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