ST. TROPHIME, ARLES.
By Joseph Pennell.
CHAPTER X
ARLES
A few more turns of the kaleidoscope of life, and we find ourselves sitting in a Roman amphitheatre among a crowd of spectators.
That odious descendant of the Roman games, the bullfight, does, at certain times, carry on in a far milder form the ancient tale of agony in this very arena, but the present performance given by a troup of Laplanders is of quite another character.
The people of Arles had come in considerable crowds to see them, but what interested us was the spectators, not the Laplanders. It was Sunday, and many of the women had on their famous costume: a black skirt, white muslin or tarlatan fichu, a picturesque white cap with a band of embossed black velvet round it, which hangs gracefully at one side. The Arlésiennes are beautiful, and carry themselves perfectly.
A picturesque costume is popularly said to "make people look handsome;" as if the dress created a beauty that was not really there!