is performed to the music of the true Pan's
pipes, and appears to resemble exactly the
Greek dances described by the Roving
Englishman. All hands take hands or waists,
and in a circle execute their favourite step.
The ancient English privilege of benefit
of clergy, might safely be extended to the
Sarde population, as reading and writing are
acquirements solely confined to the priests,
the lawyers, who swarm and thrive, and the
doctors; but the want of the knives and
forks of education is the less to be regretted,
as there are no books published in the island,
and only one newspaper—a small official
gazette. Ecclesiastics abound in the
proportion of one to every eighty-four
inhabitants, including monks and wandering
friars. Nevertheless, there are many rural
districts where the services of the church
are not performed more than once a-year.
By way of supplement, convents employ
eremiti, a sort of ecclesiastical commercial
gents, who carry from farm to farm relics
and doll figures of the Madonna, which the
innocent country people, kneeling, kiss; and
then repay the traveller with gifts of cheeses
and other comestibles. By this means, many
Sarde convents keep their larders very
comfortably stocked. We meet in Mr. Tyndale's
Travels with some amusing instances of
hospitality and ignorance. But the ignorance
may be matched in peasants' colleges in any
county of England. For instance:

Arrived at Budduso, a village of twenty-
three thousand inhabitants, after threading
his way between two rows of hovels, made of
mud or granite, forming a street about eight
feet wide, the traveller arrived at a dead
wall, where his cavallante, or horse provider
and guide, exclaimed "Eccola, signore, La
Osteria." The Sarde osteria, like an Eastern
caravanserai, is a place where you may have
house-room, finding, as a general rule, your
own food and bedding. At Budduso there
was a sort of bed in a corner of a room, with
a window with a shutter––glass is unknown
out of the seaport towns. But the room and
the bed belonged to a signore, a lodger, who,
however, after giving a supper, insisted on
the traveller taking possession of room and
bed. He had very much the appearance of
the outlaws who so much abound in Sardinia
––"an athletic form, courteous hauteur, a
cut-throat stare," which last, however, passed
away when he learned that "I was not a
Piedmontese." In the course of a pleasant
evening chat, "he asked where France and
England were; thought the latter adjoined
Piedmont; doubted if it were as large as
Sardinia; but on inquiry who was our king
in England, and being told we had no king but
a queen, gave a most incredulous stare, burst
into a fit of laughing, said, 'Come, caveliere,
una femina! una femina può governare?
Come si fa? E vero? per Dio!"' (What, sir!
a woman? a woman able to govern? How
is it done ? Is it really so? By Heaven!) The
padrone of this ostoria refused pay for his
trouble in buying food. The furniture of the
room consisted of heaps of barley bread, a
primitively shaped stool, a table, a bed, and a
large box. On another occasion the traveller
having, according to the custom of the country
sent up his guide to a priest's house to ask
the favour of a night's lodging, received for
answer that the padre did not choose to
admit him. While inquiring into the
particulars of so unusual an answer, the priest
peeping out of his glassless windows,
perceived that the stranger was neither a Sarde
nor Piedmontese, and descending hastily,
overtook him, and asked in a most courteous
manner, if it was he who was inquiring for a
night's lodging. To which the Englishman
answered hastily that he was; but was:
going to seek a more hospitable house. The
priest, with great emotion, began a series of
apologies, seized the bridle of the travel
horse, led him back to his door, and almost,
pulled him off the saddle into his house.

It seemed that the guide was not a
perfectly respectable character, and there had
been some cases of vendetta in the
neighbourhood. A comfortable supper and an
agreeable night of conversation followed, constantly
interrupted by apologies on the part of the
priest for his rudeness. He was not aware that
England was an island, and wished to know
whether Britannia was a king or a town.
He had heard of tea, but had never tasted
it, and our traveller fortunately having a
little with him, a brew was effected, of which
the priest drank seven or eight cups, to the
infinite terror of his servant, who fancied
that her master was being poisoned. All the
while the good priest could not believe that
ships were sent all the way to China to fetch
dried leaves. Of Sarde simplicity, the following
is not a bad specimen. Arriving at a,
friend's house, my host sent for a few friends
to see a curiosity in island natural history—
a live Englishman. I retired to my room,
and sent my servant for a large tub and
some jugs of water, much needed after a long
ride in the sun. While in the midst of the
operation the door opened, and my host
entered, with four visitors in his rear, who.
nothing daunted at my nudity, were formally
presented to me; and so, wrapping myself up
in my dressing-gown, I had to receive and
exchange compliments. They inquired what
I was about, presuming that I was going to
bed for half-an-hour, and, according to their
custom, without any clothes. But on replying
that I was only taking a cold bath, there
was a general outcry of surprise at my
venturing to wash in cold water at that
time of the evening. "Not necessary, and
very dangerous. Do all your countrymen
do such things? Are they very dirty in
England? And on my reappearance
downstairs the ladies took up the examination,
and in perfect innocent simplicity asked the
oddest questions."