Women and Child, Stagno.
The peasants in the Piazza were highly picturesque; the men, like the inhabitants of the lower Narenta, strongly resembling the Turks in their attire, except for a yellow sash round their waist, a Dalmatian peaked fez on their head, and an ear-ring—a plain golden circle—in one ear. The women, with their kerchiefs crossed about their bosom, showed more Sclavonic characteristics in their dress, but their straw hats with long streamers gave them a certain Swiss air.
While sketching the little group above, in the Piazza, I was somewhat surprised to hear the inspiriting tune of ‘Men of Harlech’ proceeding from a neighbouring house; but the mystery was cleared up by our shortly receiving a message to the effect that ‘the daughter of the Judge of Stagno’ wished to secure an interview with the Englishmen; and then it was that we found that this amiable young lady, having lived some years in Wales, and looking back with a tender regret to her sojourn in our island, had resorted to the innocent device of playing the national melodies of the Principality in order to attract our attention.... But alas! the boat is starting for Ragusa—the parting has taken place,—we have left our romantic damsel to sigh once more for English society, and stagnate at Stagno.
Our boat—a Trabaccolo, I believe it is called—is equipped with an expansive lateen sail, and as a propitious breeze, the Maestro, has sprung up, we soon leave Stagno, its olives and oleanders and pretty flowering shrubs, its siren music and bright eyes, far in our wake, and scud along between rocky islands to our right, and the bare Karst mountains of the mainland to our left. The desolate, monotonous hills, perpetually repeating themselves, were hardly relieved by a stunted tree—it was the same scenery so well described by Ovid in his Pontic exile:
Rara, nec hæc felix, in apertis eminet arvis
Arbor, et in terra est altera forma maris!
At one point, indeed, the village of Canosa, there was an oasis of green in the desert landscape; this was the gigantic group of plane trees, which are said to rank among the finest in the world. But we are nearing Ragusa, and after passing a line of jagged scoglie which start up from the deep like the teeth of a gigantic antediluvian, the sea, hitherto hardly recovered from its frenzy of yestereen, becomes tranquil once more, and we glide into the harbour of Gravosa, the port of modern Ragusa, for depth and capacity reckoned the finest in Dalmatia.
CHAPTER IX.
RAGUSA AND EPIDAURUS.
Marvels of the Valle d’Ombla—Port of Gravosa—Rocky Coves and Gardens of Ragusa—Ragusa Vecchia; Remains of Epidaurus—Monument of a Roman Ensign—Mithraic Rock-sculpture—Plan of Canali and the Roman Aqueduct—Antique Gems: the Lapidary Art in Ancient Illyria—Epidauritan Cult of Cadmus and Æsculapius—Phœnician Traces on this Coast—Syrian Types among modern Peasants—Grotta d’Escolapio and Vasca della Ninfa—Cavern, and Legend of St. Hilarion and the Dragon—Mediæval Sculpture in Ragusa Vecchia—The Founding of Ragusa—The Roman City on the Rock, and the Sclavonic Colony in the Wood—Orlando saves the City from the Saracens, and St. Blasius from the Venetians—Ragusa as a City of Refuge—Visit of Cœur-de-Lion—Government of the Republic—Sober Genius of Ragusans—Early Laws against Slavery—Hereditary Diplomatists—Extraordinary Bloom of Ragusan Commerce—The ‘Argosies’—Commercial and other Relations with England—Literature of Ragusa; she creates a Sclavonic Drama—Poets and Mathematicians: Gondola and Ghetaldi—The great Earthquake—End of the Republic—A Walk in Ragusa—Porta Pille—Stradone—Torre del Orologio—Zecca and Dogana—Ancient Coinage of Ragusa—Palazzo Rettorale—A Mediæval Æsculapius—Monuments to Ragusan Peabody and Regulus—The Cross of Stephen Uroš—Silver Palissy-ware by a Ragusan Master—Cappella delle Reliquie—Discovery of St. Luke’s Arm!—The Narrow Streets of Ragusa: Case Signorili, and Hanging Gardens—A Bird’s-eye View of the City—The Herzegovinian Refugees—A jewelled Ceinture from Nevešinje—The Fugitives taken!—Turkish Influence on Ragusan Costume—Contrast between Ragusan Peasants and ‘Morlacchi’—Refinement of the Citizens—Blending of Italian and Sclave—The Natural Seaport of Bosnia—A Vision of Gold and Sapphire—On the Margin of the Hellenic World.