Scirocco

“ About the slopes of Monte Salaro the Scirocco hangs in heavy clouds, and an irresistible drowsiness settles down upon the Piazza. Capri enters into its summer torpor.
When it awakes the sun has subdued his fire, and the table stands ready spread for the lords of creation to seat themselves and feast, and for the dogs to gather up the fragments that remain. From the pergola over their heads hang grapes in heavy clusters, and amidst the shade of the orange-groves peep out juicy figs and red-cheeked peaches. ”

“ Venice, indeed, at times falls under the phantom spell. In those mornings of late autumn when the duel between the sun and the scirocco seems as if it could not end till day is done and night calls up her reinforcements of mist, Venice is herself the ghost, her goblet brimming with a liquor that seems the drink of death, a perilous, grey, steely vapour. One only of her islands looms out of the enfolding, foggy blanket: it is San Michele, the island of the dead. ”

“ Like all natives he detested scirocco, and looked jaded and washed-out.
“Black Mass, for instance,” said Colin to Mr. Cecil.
Nino, at Colin’s elbow, clicked his tongue against his teeth. Colin turned round.
“Oh, don’t hang about, Nino,” he said. “Go to bed: you look cross and tired. You can leave the things here till the morning. Good night.”
Nino had no answer for him, but sullenly withdrew.
“Your servant doesn’t seem to like the subject,” remarked Mr. Cecil. “He looked as stuffy as a thundercloud when you mentioned the Black Mass.” ”

“ Cecil, you’re the most wonderful person,” he said. “You know everything. Take some whisky: what’s that damned boy of mine done with it? Ah, there it is.”
Colin got up to fetch the bottle. As he rose the catch of the shutters gave way under the press of the wind; they swung wide, and with a triumphant whoop the scirocco burst into the room, like some vivid invisible presence. Colin laughed aloud with exultation, and ran to the window, where he wrestled with the shutters. ”

“ Trieste is a polyglot settlement of Austrians, Italians, Slavs, Jews, and Greeks, of whom the two latter monopolize the commerce. It is a City dear and unhealthy to live in, over-ventilated and ill-drained. It might advantageously be called the City of Three Winds. One of these, the Bora, blows the people almost into the sea with its fury, rising suddenly, like a cyclone, and sweeping all before it; the second is named the Scirocco, which blows the drainage back into the town; and the third is the Contraste, formed by the two first-named winds blowing at once against each other. ”

“ He took breakfast very hurriedly, and ordered the coachman to bring round the carriage to go to the hospital at one o'clock. The day was getting more and more unpleasant, from the scirocco's damp, ill-smelling breath. He went out quickly, as he was rather late, and on the stairs, half in shadow, he met Bianca Maria going down also, with Margherita, her maid.
'Then, she is not ill,' thought the doctor.
But with the sharp eyes of an observing man, who finds out the truth from the slightest symptoms, he saw the girl was walking undecidedly ”

“ The Scarecrow clapped his stuffed hands in glee as he saw his friend drawn from the water into the air; but the next moment the straw man was himself in the air, his stuffed legs kicking wildly; for the crows had flown straight up through the trees. On one end of the line dangled the Tin Woodman, hung by the neck, and on the other dangled the Scarecrow, hung by the waist and clinging fast to the spare anchor of the boat, which he had seized hoping to save himself.
"Hi, there—be careful!" shouted the Scarecrow to the crows. "Don't take us so high. Land us on the river bank." ”

“ Era scritto in tiempo del scirrocco!" (Fie! it was written in time of the sirocco.)
"No, Signor Canonico, you mistake," observed Captain Pepe, who could not resist giving us the vulgar Italian joke. "The letter, I have no doubt, was indicted at the trenches yonder, and may be right after all. You know that a pig and an Englishman are the only animals insensible to the effects of the scirrocco."
"Excellent," roared the hunchback, his hump heaving with laughter. ”

“ And so one after the other all the winds entered, and the last to enter was Sirocco, for you must know that Sirocco is the youngest of Borea's sons. Scarcely had they entered when they began to say: "What smell of human flesh is here? Here, Christians, Christians!" "Oh, bad luck to you! what fools you are! Where is there any smell of human flesh here? Who do you think would risk their lives by coming here?" But her sons would not be convinced, especially that obstinate Sirocco. Lionbruno commended his soul to God, for he saw death at his heels. ”

“ Sciron is the chief of all the robbers. Do you see yonder castle among the mountains? That is where he lives, and thence he issues forth, when he wants food for his gluttony, to plunder and lay waste all the country round. And he is as cruel and savage as he is greedy. Not content with carrying off our cattle and our stores of corn and wine, he seizes men and women, and makes them wait upon him while he feasts; and when the feast is over, he amuses himself by throwing them from a high rock into the sea. ”

“ If a few hours after sunset to-night I don't make you find your beauty, you may call me an ass." They started. They ran like the wind. Every little while Sirocco called out: "Lionbruno!" and he, who was ahead, answered at once: "Oh! don't think I am going to lag behind!" and with these questions and answers they finally reached the palace of the fairy Colina about two hours after sunset. "Here we are," said Sirocco. "Here is your fair one's balcony! ”

“ And Scipio gave a great shriek.
A gasp went among the Indians; red fire was blowing from the jaws of Horacles. It ceased, and after it came slowly, horribly, a long red tongue, and riding on the tongue’s end glittered a row of teeth. There was a crash upon the floor. It was High Bear’s crock. The old chief was gone. Out of the door he flew, his blanket over his face, and up on his horse he sprang,{66} wildly beating the animal. Squaws and bucks flapped after him like poultry, rushing over the ground, leaping on their ponies, melting away into the dusk. ”

“ Sirocco, now and again, blows furiously at his back, but never splits the sheeting. Rain often soaks it, never rots it. There is no help for him. He stands a mock to the pious, a shame and incubus to the emancipated ”

“ Now Sciron was son-in-law to Cychreus, father-in-law to Æacus, and grandfather to Peleus and Telamon, who were both of them sons of Endeis, the daughter of Sciron and Chariclo; it was not probable, therefore, that the best of men should make these alliances with one who was worst, giving and receiving mutually what was of greatest value and most dear to them. Theseus, by their account, did not slay Sciron in his first journey to Athens, but afterwards, when he took Eleusis, a city of the Megarians, having circumvented Diodes, the governor. ”

“ Pidgen paused again.
"It's like a man with a golden helmet. He's got legs, he's coming to us."
They walked on again. Then Hugh cried, "Why, it's only an old Scarecrow. We might have guessed."
The sun, at that instant, sank behind the hills and the world was grey.
The Scarecrow, perched on the high ridge, waved its tattered sleeves in the air. It was an old tin can that had caught the light; the can hanging over the stake that supported it in drunken fashion seemed to wink at them. The shadows came streaming up from the sea and the dark woods below in the hollow drew closer to them. ”

“ SCIURUS LAUTENSIS sp. nov.
1895. Sciurus notatus Thomas and Hartert, Novitates Zoologicæ, II, p. 491. December, 1895 (part, specimens from Pulo Laut) .
Type.—Adult female (skin and skull) No. 104683 U. S. National Museum. Collected on Pulo Laut, North Natuna Islands, August 6, 1900. Original number 612.
Characters.—Size slightly less than that of Sciurus rubidiventris and color conspicuously pallid. Upper parts as in S. lutescens; lower parts nearly as in S. seraiæ but rather less dull; pale side stripe much less yellow than belly. Skull as in Sciurus rubidiventris. ”

“ If the death was caused by violence, the scirrata makes a halt when it arrives in sight of the village; and then it is that the Corsican women tear their hair and scratch their faces till the blood flows—just as do their sisters in Dalmatia and Montenegro. ”

“ No one likes to get musty, you know, and even good straw may be spoiled by age."
"It was water that spoiled you, the last time," remarked Button-Bright, "which proves that too much bathing is as bad as too little. But, after all, Scarecrow, water is not as dangerous for you as fire."
"All things are good in moderation," declared the Scarecrow. "But now, let us hurry on, or we shall not reach Glinda's palace by nightfall." ”

“ It is, however, an entirely African genus, and is to be distinguished from the Asiatic Rodents by a series of scales at the root of the tail, imbricated, keeled, and forming possibly a "climbing organ." This character serves also to distinguish the present genus from Sciuropterus. The cartilage, moreover, which supports the patagium springs from the elbow. There are four molars in each half of each jaw. The eyes and ears are large. There are five fingers and toes, but the thumb is small, though provided with a nail. The sternum has seven joints, and nine ribs reach it. The clavicle is strong. ”

“ The Scarecrow's new house was shaped like an immense ear of corn. The rows of kernels were made of solid gold, and the green upon which the ear stood upright was a mass of sparkling emeralds. Upon the very top of the structure was perched a figure representing the Scarecrow himself, and upon his extended arms, as well as upon his head, were several crows carved out of ebony and having ruby eyes. You may imagine how big this ear of corn was when I tell you that a single gold kernel formed a window, swinging outward upon hinges, while a row of four kernels opened to make the front entrance. ”

“ This year something far more terrible happened. Of all her four children, Siccatee loved best of all little Graycoat, who was certainly a very beautiful baby squirrel. He was so soft and fluffy; had such a beautiful, silvery gray tail; such pretty, delicate feet and limbs, and neat, small head, with bright little eyes that were never still for a single moment. ”

“ That is what Slicko thought as she lay there, her leg in the trap, hurting her very much. All animals, when they are caught in a trap, at once begin to think of how they can get out. Some think one way, and some another, but they all think, or else how could some of them get out the way they do? Of course I don’t mean to say that animals think just the way we do, any more than they talk the way we do. But they talk and think in a language of their own.
Slicko was not a very old squirrel, and this was the first time she had ever been in a trap. ”

“ But the walls and roof of the cavern were merely a setting for a more wonderful scene. In the center was a bubbling caldron of water, for here the river rose again, splashing and dashing till its spray rose high in the air, where it took the ruby color of the jewels and seemed like a seething mass of flame. And while they gazed into the tumbling, tossing water, the body of the Scarecrow suddenly rose in the center, struggling and kicking, and the next instant wholly disappeared from view. ”

“ The Scilla præcox, or sibirica, thrives on the mountains of North Italy, where masses of it may be seen growing close to the snow, and in this country it withstands wind and rain which would be the ruin of many another flower. ”

“ Sciuridae.—The Squirrels, genus Sciurus, are world-wide in range, the Australian region and the island of Madagascar being alone excepted.
The eyes and the ears are large; the tail is of course long and bushy. The fore-feet have an inconspicuous thumb; the hind-feet have four toes. The soles of the fore-feet are naked or furry, those of the hind-feet are hairy. There are twelve or thirteen dorsal vertebrae, and in correspondence seven or six lumbars. The caudal vertebrae may be as many as twenty-five. In the skull the frontals are broad, and there are long postorbital processes. ”

“ Sciron, a celebrated robber in Attica, who threw his victims over the cliffs into the sea; he was slain by Theseus, Hip. 1023, 1225. Scorpion, one of the zodiacal constellations, Thy. 859. Scylla, one of the two shipwrecking monsters in the Sicilian Strait, H. Fur. 376; H. Oet. 235; Med. ”

“ Sciron rushed at him; but Theseus received him at the point of his sword, and the two fought furiously, while the robbers looked on, enjoying the game. Sciron was twice the size and weight of Theseus; but Theseus was the best swordsman in all Greece, and presently had him down.
“There,” said he, pricking Sciron’s throat with his sword, “you have had a lesson in manners. You shall wash my feet and wait on me before you go over the cliff after your victims. For I am not going away to leave a brigand like you alive behind me.” ”

“ Their deep, expressive eyes, and finely chiseled faces, full of Greek lines, amply confirm the historians’ story of their descent. Indeed, a majority of the Syracusans are of the classic Greek type, with little or nothing about them to suggest the later influence of alien races.
Perhaps an hundred yards inside the mouth of the stream, beside a bridge, always stands a bevy of laundresses, stout-hearted, thick-thighed women with massive shoulders and muscular waists, their skirts carefully tucked up above their knees. ”

“ At least an elephant looks as though it had two [56] tails, no matter what Mappo says,” went on Slicko. “I wonder if I shall ever meet Tum Tum, and tell him I am not a rat or a mouse? What a funny thing it would be if I did.”
Slicko sat on the edge of the nest for some time, and then she began to feel hungry.
“I wish I had some of those peanuts I heard them talking about in the circus,” said Slicko in a whisper. “I know they must be good, from what that city-park squirrel said. And I wonder what pink lemonade and ice cream cones are? I don’t believe they are good to eat.” ”